Android App crashing on start-up after phone upgrade

Plex Players
1

Google Pixel 9 , Android version 16: security update Oct5, 2025

Plex App ver: 2025.27.0 from the google playstore

Issue: app will not load/launch. upon clicking app, the loading splash screen will show for maybe 0.5-1 second then app will crash. i have uninstalled, reboot phone, reinstall… same outcome.

i did upgrade from a Pixel5 to a Pixel9 recently and did utilize the android setup by having the phones next to each other to copy over the data/apps.

I am not sure if the android phone upgrade is the underlying cause as to why this isn’t working. If so, it leaves me wondering why an app uninstall and reinstall does not remove the required or legacy files/folder structure before installing new/fresh files/folders that will work. i have read on the Reddit forums that other people are seeing the same situation when upgrading phones and the only thing that will fix is a complete wipe/reset of the entire new phone and start fresh (no copy over from legacy device). this seems counter intuitive with the general workflows of users constantly getting new devices. no user wants to start at square one when they can copy over from the old device and start with the same experience they are used to (apps, location of icons, settings, saved files..etc etc). other android apps seem to work just fine, however Plex is different and will not launch at all. Thus, i would say this is app specific and should sit with Plex to fix/update their install to address this situation.

2

I’m having exactly the same issue! Almost identical circumstances. Just upgraded from Pixel 6 to a Pixel 9. Plex app won’t even get past the splash screen.

I copied over my settings from my last device but having been installing apps from scratch.

Not sure if related, but I’m also having issues with Strava, however that will at least launch and run for 5 to 10 seconds before crashing out.

I wonder if it’s an issue with Android, however my Pixel 6 was also running Android 16, although a slightly older security update and Google Play versions…

Hoping for a fix soon!

3

Instead of uninstalling, can you try wiping data and cache in Settings → Apps → Plex?

I don’t see any wide spread crashes on the Pixel 9 specifically in our crash reporting tools :thinking:

4

I’ve got the same problem, pixel 6a to pixel 7, using the USB setup

I’ve cleared the cache and dats and it still doesn’t work.

It might not be showing in crash logs as it crashes on startup.

5

This thread has a solution. I haven’t tried it yet though

6

@marekszulik tried your suggestion, no change to out come. App still crashes on startup. Splash screen crash after 1 second or less.

I’m seeing more and more similar complaints on this forum. New phone>App crash on start up. Are you ready for the after Christmas complaints when many people get new phones and start yelling???

This is not a Pixel9 specific issue. It’s happening to any new pixel. It’s a “New device set up using copy from old device”. Issue

Make the devs aware please. New installs from the play store should create new folders so that this doesn’t happen. A fresh install should be able to fix this issue if it was dev’d correctly

On install create new folder

Copy any existing saved files you may need there

Delete old/existing folder structure/ files

Install the fresh app..all new files and folders

Move back saved files from step 1

Delete folder from step 1

7

Can someone from plex let me know if this is going to be fixed?

8

for anyone else stumbling on this thread, the fix i linked to above works, and is very easy to implement,