Get Active Sessions

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This API command will return information about all the active play sessions happening on the server at the moment. A lot of information is returned by this command, but the content returned is dependent on the type of media and how the media is being played.

If you are looking at providing information to display about what is currently being played, such as displaying the posters of the media, then this command is the one you should use.

URL

GET http://{ip_address}:32400/status/sessions?X-Plex-Token={plex_token}

Parameters

NameDescription
ip_addressThe IP address of the Plex Media server.
plex_tokenThe Plex token.

Return Status

HTTP CodeDescription
200Success - The request was successful.
401Unauthorized - The Plex token provided was not valid.

Response

XML string value that lists all media being played from the Plex server. An example of the XML returned from the request is shown below for a video being transcoded:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<MediaContainer size="1">
    <Video addedAt="1667839612" art="/library/metadata/286254/art/1667839616" createdAtAccuracy="epoch,local" createdAtTZOffset="0" duration="734166" guid="com.plexapp.agents.none://dcb84084c59465d53f8698a7c75a343a00d1b00f?lang=xn" key="/library/metadata/286254" librarySectionID="14" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/14" librarySectionTitle="Other videos" originallyAvailableAt="2022-11-07" ratingKey="286254" sessionKey="2" skipCount="4" subtype="clip" thumb="/library/metadata/286254/thumb/1667839616" title="tos-1720x720-cfg01" type="movie" updatedAt="1667839616" viewOffset="0" year="2022">
        <Media id="350106" videoProfile="main" audioChannels="2" audioCodec="aac" container="mp4" duration="734166" height="720" optimizedForStreaming="1" protocol="dash" videoCodec="h264" videoFrameRate="24p" videoResolution="720p" width="1720" selected="1">
            <Part id="350466" videoProfile="main" container="mp4" duration="734166" height="720" optimizedForStreaming="1" protocol="dash" width="1720" decision="transcode" selected="1">
                <Stream bitrate="2147483647" codec="h264" default="1" displayTitle="720p (HEVC Main)" extendedDisplayTitle="720p (HEVC Main)" frameRate="24" height="720" id="273542" language="English" languageCode="eng" languageTag="en" streamType="1" width="1720" decision="transcode" location="segments-video" />
                <Stream bitrate="256" bitrateMode="cbr" channels="2" codec="aac" default="1" displayTitle="English (AC3 5.1)" extendedDisplayTitle="English (AC3 5.1)" id="273543" language="English" languageCode="eng" languageTag="en" selected="1" streamType="2" decision="transcode" location="segments-audio" />
            </Part>
        </Media>
        <User id="1" thumb="https://plex.tv/users/64045869dc35e78e/avatar?c=1661361687" title="APlexUser" />
        <Player address="127.0.0.1" device="Windows" machineIdentifier="k5y3j33nmvjvd0uhvnd9zi2x" model="bundled" platform="Firefox" platformVersion="108.0" product="Plex Web" profile="Firefox" state="playing" title="Firefox" version="4.87.2" local="1" relayed="0" secure="1" userID="1" />
        <Session id="rxiscwekkvkpukgi3pm9nklp" bandwidth="10000000" location="lan" />
        <TranscodeSession key="/transcode/sessions/rl42k5xbxdly8rld3itfqq4f" throttled="0" complete="0" progress="5.3000001907348633" size="-22" speed="6.9000000953674316" error="0" duration="734167" remaining="93" context="streaming" sourceVideoCodec="hevc" sourceAudioCodec="ac3" videoDecision="transcode" audioDecision="transcode" protocol="dash" container="mp4" videoCodec="h264" audioCodec="aac" audioChannels="2" transcodeHwRequested="1" transcodeHwEncoding="mf" transcodeHwEncodingTitle="Windows (Media Foundation)" timeStamp="1671053495.3404744" maxOffsetAvailable="39.018666666666668" minOffsetAvailable="0" />
    </Video>
</MediaContainer>

For comparison, the XML below is for a music track being direct played to a client:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<MediaContainer size="1">
    <Track addedAt="1668524601" art="/library/metadata/286414/art/1670411477" duration="248066" grandparentArt="/library/metadata/286414/art/1670411477" grandparentGuid="plex://artist/5d07bbfc403c6402904a5ed1" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/286414" grandparentRatingKey="286414" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/286414/thumb/1670411477" grandparentTitle="U2" guid="plex://track/5d07cdb1403c640290f49f0a" index="1" key="/library/metadata/286463" lastViewedAt="1668540997" librarySectionID="8" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/8" librarySectionTitle="Music" parentGuid="plex://album/5d07c170403c6402908451be" parentIndex="1" parentKey="/library/metadata/286462" parentRatingKey="286462" parentStudio="Island" parentThumb="/library/metadata/286462/thumb/1670411478" parentTitle="All That You Can’t Leave Behind" parentYear="2000" ratingCount="1138898" ratingKey="286463" sessionKey="3" thumb="/library/metadata/286462/thumb/1670411478" title="Beautiful Day" type="track" updatedAt="1670411478" viewCount="2" viewOffset="0">
        <Media audioChannels="2" audioCodec="flac" bitrate="920" container="flac" duration="248066" id="350307" selected="1">
            <Part container="flac" duration="248066" file="I:\Music\U2\All That You Can't Leave Behind\01 Beautiful Day.flac" hasThumbnail="1" id="350700" key="/library/parts/350700/1558059964/file.flac" size="28656120" decision="directplay" selected="1">
                <Stream albumGain="-9.50" albumPeak="1.000000" albumRange="8.879813" audioChannelLayout="stereo" bitDepth="16" bitrate="920" channels="2" codec="flac" displayTitle="FLAC (Stereo)" extendedDisplayTitle="FLAC (Stereo)" gain="-9.50" id="273905" index="0" loudness="-9.23" lra="9.68" peak="1.000000" samplingRate="44100" selected="1" streamType="2" location="direct" />
            </Part>
        </Media>
        <Mood filter="mood=32718" id="32718" tag="Lively" />
        <Mood filter="mood=32079" id="32079" tag="Energetic" />
        <Mood filter="mood=2362" id="2362" tag="Confident" />
        <Mood filter="mood=2619" id="2619" tag="Exuberant" />
        <Mood filter="mood=32078" id="32078" tag="Passionate" />
        <User id="1" thumb="https://plex.tv/users/64045869dc35e78e/avatar?c=1661361687" title="APlexUser" />
        <Player address="127.0.0.1" device="Windows" machineIdentifier="k5y3j33nmvjvd0uhvnd9zi2x" model="bundled" platform="Firefox" platformVersion="108.0" product="Plex Web" profile="Firefox" state="playing" title="Firefox" version="4.87.2" local="1" relayed="0" secure="1" userID="1" />
        <Session id="rxiscwekkvkpukgi3pm9nklp" bandwidth="990" location="lan" />
    </Track>
</MediaContainer>

Remarks

The XML returned provides a list of the active play sessions currently on the Plex server. The root is the MediaContainer element. This element contains one attribute that provide a count of the number of items being played from the server.

MediaContainer Attributes for Plex Devices
AttributeDescription
sizeThe number of media items being played from the Plex server.

Within the MediaContainer there different elements dependent on the type of media being played. There are also elements that indicate the user playing the media and their player. Information about the play session is also provided along with information related to the media, such as the transcode data.

The XML returned will be unique to the play sessions, so it would be difficult to provide a complete listing of all possible XML elements and attributes. Some common elements include the following:

Play Session Elements
ElementDescription
VideoComplete information on the video being played, including metadata information, the video specifications, and the video and audio streams.
TrackComplete information on the music track being played, which also include the audio stream information.
UserInformation about the user playing the media item.
PlayerInformation about the client playing the media item.
SessionPrefix for the media tag.
TranscodeSessionIf the media item is being transcoded, information about the transcoding, including the transcoding formats is returned.
MoodThis one is displayed for music tracks, and could be related to the type of music. There are multiple Mood elements returned.

If there are no active play sessions, only the MediaContainer element is returned with the size attribute equal to zero.

Examples

curl -X GET http://{ip_address}:32400/status/sessions?X-Plex-Token={plex_token}
import requests
plex_url = http://{ip_address}:32400/status/sessions?X-Plex-Token={plex_token}
response = requests.get(plex_url)
print(response.text)
$response = Invoke-RestMethod 'http://{ip_address}:32400/status/sessions?X-Plex-Token={plex_token}' -Method 'GET'
Write-Output $response
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