Server Version#: Version 1.21.3.4021
Player Version#: 8.12.4.22902 (97c4e5ff)
Platform: Shield TV + Android Mobile players
So… what happened to the homescreen?
I have two TV libraries (1080p and 4k) and two movie libraries (same). The homescreen has always showed me a UNIFIED recently added for each. Now, suddenly the libraries are split, and I have two Recently Added TV entries and two Recently Added Movie entries.
That’s bad enough, but on Android TV (Shield) there’s also something wrong with the rearranging function. Once I turn off automatically manage, I can remove things from the homescreen, but I can’t rearrange them properly. If something is too far down the list, it will appear not to move at all. However, one click up is ACTUALLY sending it to the very top of the screen. Similarly, one click down sends it to the very bottom. There’s no indication that this has happened until you actually go back to the homescreen itself.
Problems to fix:
Restore unified recently added entries on Android TV and Android Mobile/Tablet
Oh really? Why hasn’t the functionality changed on web then? Why is rearranging things broken? Why do the separate Recently Added streams for each library not carry their names, so you can easily tell them apart, rather than having two “Recently Added TV” entries?
The homescreen is broken on Android platforms, and they need to fix it.
Damn, that’s disappointing. Thanks for pointing me in the direction of that thread.
I hope we at least get the opportunity to name these things distinctly. The ideal would be to have a choice of separate or unified Recently Added entries for each content thread.
The ordering issue on Android TV is still a clear and obvious bug in my view.
I don’t think the broken home page on Android apps is part of the “plan” Plex has envisioned. It’s a bug they haven’t acknowledged yet.
The home page is customizable on other apps, (Plex Web, the Roku, etc) and you can with a little frustration and determination, manage the home page manually to return to a unified recently added hub for libraries.
With the Android app, you live with a broken On Deck and Continue Watching in manual mode, and broken Recently Added hubs in both modes.
I actually didn’t realize the extent to which the Android TV homescreen is now full-on broken. I don’t have the time to fully document this, but it needs a full review and overhaul at this point. Here are just some of the things I see:
On Deck and Continue Watching don’t work reliably or predictably
In a manually managed homescreen, if I have 1 item in On Deck, and I start watching it, and then stop halfway through, On Deck disappears, but Continue Watching does not appear. Switching back to the Automatically Managed homepage returns Continue Watching to the homescreen. Then switching back to Manually Managed preserves Continue Watching, but if you then watch through whatever’s on there, it disappears and On Deck does not come back.
Separated Libraries are not truly separated
I can’t figure out how to trigger this, but I’m sometimes seeing 4K items in the 1080p recently added entries for movies and TV. They’re also out of order of adding. Like, in what should (I think) be the 4K TV Shows Recently Added, I’ll see all those items at the beginning of the list, but then a bunch of 1080p content if I scroll right. This appears to happen reliably in Automatically Managed, and maybe triggers in Manually Manage if you remove one of the two TV libraries?
Managing Hubs doesn’t work properly
Go to Manually Manage. Remove everything from the homescreen. Then go to one movie library and click the 3 dots and choose Manage hubs. You can then add Recently Added Movies for that library to the homescreen. Then go to another movie library and do the same. The Recently Added Movies entry will have the Home Icon on it already, and going to it will show “REMOVE Recently Added Movies from Home Screen” in the UI. Clicking it, however, say that it’s ADDING it to the homescreen. What it actually does, is nothing at all.
Managing Hubs adds the wrong library.
Removed all hubs. Went to the 4K TV Library and chose to add the Recently Added TV hub. The 1080p Recently Added went to the homescreen instead.
This is not an exhaustive list of the problems. The functionality appears to be so broken across the board that it’s difficult to document it all. I think it would be inaccurate to call any of this “intentional”. I will be rolling back from this absolute trainwreck. The homescreen is riddled with bugs.
Yeah, rolled back to 8.11.0, where everything is moderately sane. Not sure how I’ll find out when all this is fixed.
For the record, though it’s not necessarily my preference I can live with separated Recently Added entries for each library, particularly if they get labelled by their library name (Like Recently Added 4K Movies instead of Recently Added Movies).
But MAN. Things are SUPER BROKEN with the latest releases.
It’s broken on all platforms by design.
It is worse on Android TV. Gong to Manual Home on Android TV is a real mess if you have multiple TV and/or Movie libraries.
At the rate things are moving, check back in a year.
Plex has to acknowledge the problem first.
It’s working that way on Roku so I assume that is the plan for the other platforms.
I know it’s off-topic from the android-mobile and android-tv tags, but my two Rokus have one combined Recently Added hub for multiple libraries, and Continue Watching and On Deck work as expected. I honestly don’t remember if they are on “manual” or “auto” mode, and I don’t plan on touching anything until they stop working that way.
Well that’s some small mercy, I guess. I honestly don’t think I’d mind so much if everything was functional. But, like, nothing works properly on the latest builds.
I mean the changes you are seeing are changes Plex purposely made. So far they’ve not made any comments that would seem like they see the changes as a mistake.
There is definitely something wrong with the way hubs are displayed on Android TV atm. ( Plex for Windows isn’t affected ) So I know its an android problem
Even after a reset and complete app reinstall… Hub show double movies sometimes… or Double TV shows… Continue Watching straight up missing… Sometimes comes back after another Reset. Version 8.12 needs to be recalled or fixed asap.
I have 8.13.0.22986 on my Shield. It’s also a mess.
Trying to Manually manage Home doesn’t work at all. On Deck only displays shows from one TV library, usually not the library that is displayed in Recently Added. You don’t know what is going to show in Recently added. Could be any Movie library but not all.
Maybe that is what they expected. It’s becoming what I expect.
What I find strange is that Plex has been using the excuse that a lot of changes in the past couple of years are to make all clients look and act the same. I use Roku, Android TV, Android and Windows clients, I don’t think they’ve been more different.
Plex has made it pretty clear that it just doesn’t care what users have to say on this issue. And it’s like they’re purposely conflating two issues – changes that they intended to make and the current broken state of home screen customization. I warned them two weeks ago today that the home screen was broken badly in 8.12.3 and that it was going to become a big problem if they didn’t fix it. And now it is one of the most active topics in the forums.
Anyway, I’m just so done with all the incompetence, drama and stupidity. I’ve been using Jellyfin almost exclusively for over a week now. The home screens are not as customizable as in Plex (if Plex currently worked) but the Jellyfin home screen is working in a very sensible way for me that allows to quickly find what I’m looking for.
I’m actually enjoying watching TV in the living room again where I use android. No longer wondering “how’s it not going to work today” as was the case with Plex. My living room was supposed to be a stress free relaxation zone where I sit back and enjoy media with a semi-large screen and great sound system. And Plex turned that into constant troubleshooting sessions, with new problems every week.
So my thought is that if you want to enjoy watching media again, switch to Jellyfin. However, note that I have limited platform needs. Windows server and client and Android mobile/tv clients. The Jellyfin Android clients are still a work in progress but they work and don’t have random new problems every week like Plex does.
I really wish I hadn’t bought the Plex Pass. I honestly did it to support Plex after years of free use as there is very little benifit to users.
I feel like I supported them and they are not returning the same.
It would be really great if @DaveBinM or anyone from Plex could at least acknowledge that this is an issue. Homescreen customization on Android does not work properly at all right now.
Again, this is not about the separation of Recently Added hubs. It’s a functional issue with the entire homescreen not working properly.
