Arrow keys don't work in Plex Media Player for HTPC

Plex Players Desktop Players
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Server Version#: 1.19.5.3112-b23ab3896
Player Version#: 2.58.0.1076-38e019da

I have a HTPC running the “Plex Media Player (for Windows Home Theater PCs)” and when I press the arrow keys on my remote or standard PC keyboard they do not allow me to navigate within Plex. For example if I have the TV program guide on the screen I want to use up/down/left/right/select to move around but nothing happens. The up and down arrows do work if media is playing, but this adjusts the volume which I don’t want to do. According to the Plex help page on this it should already be configured but it doesn’t work. Any tips on how to troubleshoot this?

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Navigation by keyboard only works in “TV mode”.
pmp_fullscreen

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Sorry for the crappy photo but here is what I’m seeing. https://i.imgur.com/QELYYz7.jpg
I also can’t find any option in the settings to change the layout either.

4

Yes, this is the “desktop” mode.
Click on the Home link, then you should see the icon at the top as shown in my previous picture.

5

So I tried again and clicked on the home tab and the toolbar still did not have that button.

There seems to be a difference between the two versions.

I thought I was using “Plex Media Player” but after checking the version numbers it said I was running version 1.16.0.1364-da192ff7 which matches “Plex for Windows” instead of Plex Media Player which is version 2.58.0.1076-38e019da. I’m not sure how this is possible because I’m running Windows 8.1 and Plex for Windows requires Windows 10.

So I uninstalled everything Plex and started over. This time I was able to get Plex Media Player installed and the UI is different. This one looks different then your screenshot and my picture, but the arrow keys work! However, it’s missing functionally. I can’t use the program guide and watch Live TV channels…its completely missing?

What’s also interesting is now that I’m using Plex Media Player, there is a button in the top that when clicked puts me in Desktop Mode. This looks exactly like the UI I had before, but its still missing features like the Live TV. But, this UI DOES give me the “TV mode” button to showed which goes back to the UI which works with the arrow keys but I still can’t access the program guide.

It boggles my mind why there are two different apps, one of which two different UI’s and none of these three have any of the same features. How could a media player app miss such simple features like being able to use arrow keys to navigate a program guide???

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I also just tried the beta (version 3.x) and its the same issue.

It also gives me a message saying the desktop view is going away and only the TV view will be supported. Yet neither of these support the new Live TV feature that I was able to access in “Plex for Windows” and even Plex in a web browser…

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Soooo…still no solution?

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