First rule of consulting: set a per-hour rate AND a minimum number of hours.
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An issue with the newest update to the most recent release. A few things got nicer, but about two days ago this problem came up with my Roku’s. When browsing program seasons / episodes there is now a 5 to 10 second delay beofre the selected episode displays the correct episode title. Pretty awkward and annoying. It doesnt happen with other players or my PC. Just on the Rokus.
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I’m happy with it so Thank you Plex for taking the time to listen to your customers. They’re looking for feedback so my only feedback would be maybe to have more of a customizable home screen and the white text with black background can look a little more refined in the navigation area. Other than that, I’m happy with this update in Plex preview and believe this is a great compromise!
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Not for nothing, but are you all ears? You heard the feedback (and took it to heart) but told the community to get over it, it’s not coming back…
So it doesn’t sound like you’re open to legitimate criticism.
I’m an AllTrails subscriber, and they made a change with their new subscription tier this year that made a lot of people really upset by removing features. You know what they just did? Gave us back the features we asked for that they previously took away.
That’s how you respond to legitimate customer criticism, admit it was a mistake, and make it right by the customer. Not by doubling down on something that has clearly upset a lot of longtime users.
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To be fair… in other threads, @Chattykinson has taken the specific examples and notes and reported them up the chain. So have a few other devs\employees. There’s a lot of emotion in this thread but not much specifics.
I am not defending anything but have dealt with similar situations in other environments and “it sucks” and telling people they should be fired is just not constructive and won’t get results.
I bet in that AllTrails feedback people provided specific use cases that could impact profit or user retention and not just “hey, change it back, we don’t like it”.
Make an effort to be specific and not just say what doesn’t work - but WHY it doesn’t work for you or how you’d like to see it better (outside of “put it back”). Plex did put back photos and music after pushback so sometimes they will listen. They did change the menu around some because people pointed out where the horizontal wasn’t working.
Never gonna get everything we want… and not everyone wants the same things, but can sometimes push things if presented well is all I’m saying.
And if it still doesn’t work… we can go to a different product. 
Edit: and Plex reps the last few months have been more present\engaged here than they have been previously so I think that’s a positive direction.
Edit2: It’s hard not to make it personal because we invest so much into our Plex environments it feels personal to us - I certainly feel that way since it’s a big part of my entertainment setup - so it makes sense to react emotionally but it’ll really help if some of the “emotional charge” can be removed when presenting a case for changes. At least, that’s what has helped me so I try to take a breather before jumping in or replying.
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I would say I’m open to hearing nearly anything, within reason. But, listening to feedback and criticism, which we do, will not always result in the ideal outcome for the person who provided that information. We are working to improve upon bridging the gap though, specifically between us and the Forums, which will ideally aid in other areas too.
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I’ve taken some time with the New New Experience, and while it is a step better, it still feels like a step backwards.
My feedback remains the same. In software built in a world where not one single servers content is the same, a fully customizable left hand list will always be superior to a horizontally grouped layout.
I don’t think click counts matter when a user gets to put them in the order they want. We had full control over our click count for things we wanted to get to, and if we didn’t like it we could fix it to our preference.
So, while you think you might be providing organizational justice, it’s never going to feel right to an end user if they don’t have full control over it… especially when we once did.
Sure… it’s better than it was, but you had to go partially vertical to get there. Keep going.
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I also liked the previous interface better and thought it was one of Plex’ best advantages over Emby and Jellyfin. But it seems the new UI is here to stay, so here’s my thoughts/requests:
-I do think library navigation is better, mainly because getting to collections is easier (I would hate to accidently hit ‘scan’)
-Emby has a ‘date added’ timestamp for movie files; I would really like it if Plex could one-up that with ‘date added’ AND ‘last watched’ timestamps; I would think this could go under File Info or just at the bottom of the right-side ‘more’ popout window
-I’ve had alot of problems with backgrounds in the new UI; I wish the movie background view on the homepage stayed the same when clicking into the movie itself
-under ‘Continue Watching’ on the homepage, it shows an amber rectangle beside the movie category with remaining time left; when clicking into the movie, that disappears because the info goes into the ‘resume’ button…I wish it did not disappear and stayed there
-recently watched movies have a black ‘watched’ rectangle beside the movie category, but when clicking into the movie, that disappears in favor of the white ‘check circle’ beside ‘add to watchlist’; I wish it did not disappear and stayed there
-I occasionally have to change the audio track on a movie; that setting is really buried and I wish it was less clicks, something like Emby and Jellyfin do
-lastly, I agree with the previous post about customization; the more UI options you can give users, the happier we will be
Thanks support and devs for continuing to work on this.
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Almost all streamers have moved to the horizontal menu (except Hulu), so I see why Plex wants to move to what’s now a ‘Modern’ UI.
Better to give comments on the UI as it stands (as many here are doing), and not asking for a return, or an option to retiurn, to the Old UI. Even if Emby or Jellyfin use a sidebar now, that’s no guarantee they wort’t also change with an update.
Better to get used to the new UI than wishing for the old UI.
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I think this is the primary mistake Plex is making. All of the major streaming platforms have prescribed content that they control.
Every single one of us offers completely different libraries and every user has a different way they want to look at it. The best way to cater to that is more customization, not less.
The old menu system was far better at addressing this than the new one. If you prefer that, you absolutely should be vocal about it. Keep asking for it until you get it. We’re halfway there.
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This was an argument I made in another area as well. The left hand navigation - even though it might’ve had its quirks - put OUR content directly at the top level. The new menu puts our content a level below with their services now part of the top level. That’s why I think, in part, it feels like local media access is degraded, particularly for people who leveraged that left hand navigation.
I leveraged the Home Screen so it didn’t feel as impactful to me. That might explain some of the differences in experiences.
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Of course.
And then there is:
“The stuff you, as a developer and UI/UX designer, know will be there and can control” (horizontal) and
“The stuff you, as a developer and UI/UX designer don’t have any control about” (vertical).
Like your “horizontal shopping list” 
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But I think halfway is as far as this is going to get at least based on the above: While we won’t be returning to the old sidebar layout, we have taken that feedback to heart. This new design represents what we believe is the best of both worlds
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While the age-old adage of “the customer is always right” has gotten way too out of hand at a retailer level, I don’t agree with the assessment that Plex has done by sundowning services and features that made the value of their SAAS product superior. They must have had to let go of the Dev team who made those features work in order to move into a newer direction because shutting down Watch Together and removing Music and Photo libraries was a HUGE mistake on their part.
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But they featured a SPECIFIC employee during Pro Week ‘22 or ‘23 whose entire job it was to collect all of this information to best determine the ideal outcome. You mean to tell me that their job was basically useless given how much we already told them the first couple of times that HORIZONTAL menus were not the way to go, in 2016 AND 2019? They had all of that critique before moving forward with ANY of this NEW EXPERIENCE 2024/2025
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Emby has not officially announced anything, but many ex-Plex’rs like me have been giving feedback that if they add-on a UI tweak setting that switches from HORIZONTAL menu’s on Roku to VERTICAL LEFT MENU, that that’d be the nail in the coffin
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Do you mind clarifying this just a little bit? Just so I make sure I understand what you’re saying.
Other suggestions you listed out, I have logged them for further investigation! No promises, but it’s not going unnoticed from you. (And honestly, for you any anyone else who sees this, I thrive on screenshots and visual aids when you’re suggesting something/or trying to explain what you’re pointing to. Thaaaaanks!)
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Can we have the “scan” be optional? It’s going to be pressed by accident by someone in an inopportune moment.
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We’ll take a closer look at improving how that scenario is handled. Just a heads up, it’s only available to the server admin.
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With the latest update to Plex Preview, I had to go back through and refavorite my libraries again to get them back on the Home Screen. I think that’s the third time I’ve had to do that.
