Tracy, Arnold, I have PMed you back regarding your issues with "user roles" not being updated automatically.
>> admin is by default on the free account, so when you disable any
permissions on the free account, you also disable those permissions for
the admin.
This part might be, indeed, very confusing. Let me explain how this works in detail with screen shots.
Site administrator, as any other user at Oxwall, can not exist on the site without a user role. By default site administrator gets default user role, which in standard Oxwall package is called a "Free" user role. This user role is displayed and can be edited only in admin panel>users>user roles.
In the "Permissions" ( admin panel>privacy&permissions>roles) page you can set which actions are available for the "Free" user role:
So now you install "Paid Membership" plugin. You log in as site admin and visit "Subscriptions" page.
Here whatever you have allowed/not allowed in "Permissions" will be displayed.
As you can see from the information given above, the issue with admin features taken away if those features are removed from permissions of certain user role is not tactually connected to Paid Membership plugin as such. This issue is connected more to the way "Permissions" and "User Roles" feature works in Oxwall software.
If in permissions of "Free" user role you remove for example "Add video". Then admin of the site who has this user role, will not be able to add videos.
Solutions is very easy. Create a special user role for the site admin and grant this role ALL permissions. Then assign your admin user this new role. No need to "subscribe" admin using "Paid Membership" plugin.