communication about issues

General Discussions
1

Hi,

Using Plex for more than a year and really satisfied. However, after/with the 1.0 release things went bad. First PMS on Synology is broken and resulted in me going back to one of the 0.9 series. Secondly since the last update Plex player on Android TV (Sony specifically) is broken as well, resulting in consistent crashes during start up rendering Plex useless in my situation.

Both issues have been known for a couple of weeks, where the Synology issue is now overdue for more than 1 month.

The only way to get support from Plex is via the forums, and I have to say recently I’m really disappointed about the communication from within Plex. Both issues are (at least from my perspective) really serious issues, but up until now the communication from Plex about the status of the issue is rather… minimal or even absent.

The only way a can inform myself about a status on a specific issue is by asking in the forum, hoping for an answer. Recently I even got b* at by a simple statement “if there’s nothing to report there’s nothing to report”. And that to me sounds a little bit too easy. I’m a paying customer and I do realise software can contain bugs that can take a lot of time in figuring out. But I do want to be able to monitor status and/or progress so I’ve got an idea where things are going.

So maybe it would be a good idea for the Plex team to evaluate the support process.

Or are my expectations just simply too much? Would love to hear from you guys!

2

Yes, this comes up (more and more lately) on a regular basis.
Unfortunately, it has always been Plex’s stance to not talk roadmap/timelines etc. And for good reason. I want to say there was one time they did and when they missed they were completely hammered becasue of it.
I believe Plex is working on better communication in the forums (I think I read that) and the upcoming Plex Pass Roundtable may have some questions asked about this.
This is not to say that Plex is changing it’s support model.
And, as far as being a “paying” customer, understand what you are paying for. You are paying for early access to features (can be broken things), certain perks like free client apps, and access to the Plex Pass only forums where you should get a little quicker answer to things (yes, I know). But Plex is free and you don’t have to pay for it (not trying to get into a big discussion about this, just stating some facts).

So, to answer your last question - no, not really. But the reality is it may not change any time soon.

(Just my opinion, not a paid spokesperson …)

3

I think they (Plex) maybe looking into ways of improving customer communication. (But don’t quote me on that, that’s just what I feel from spending too much time in these forums)

But I would have to agree that the current v1 release is pretty disappointing.

One fairly simple suggestion I can make is for Plex to create sticky posts in the relevant forums of known issues.
If they are working on fixing something, then it’s a known issue, so just let us know the issues they are working on.

Take for example the problems with metadata in version 1, there are so many posts all asking the same or similar questions.
And people (me included) trying all sorts of things to try and resolve the issues, which are ultimately a waste of time as these are issues that can probably only be solved by Plex software or infrastructure updates.

Some of the other issues may require third party updates as well (WD, Synology and Nvidia spring to mind)

If there was a sticky post to notify people of known issues then we could at least just sit back and wait for the resolutions, rather than re-installing PMS, collecting log files, doing ‘the plex dance’ or rebuilding libraries.

4

@blim5001 said:
One fairly simple suggestion I can make is for Plex to create sticky posts in the relevant forums of known issues.
If they are working on fixing something, then it’s a known issue, so just let us know the issues they are working on.

If there was a sticky post to notify people of known issues then we could at least just sit back and wait for the resolutions, rather than re-installing PMS, collecting log files, doing ‘the plex dance’ or rebuilding libraries.

This ^^^^^. Perhaps even a whole sub forum for it.
And to add on, with that last sentence, if it is already been reported but not verified because of the need for more data/logs/etc. have a sticky for that and ask for logs. Plenty of us would help by recreating it and giving logs to help pinpoint the issue and get a faster resolution (even if I currently don’t use a certain feature client - I have most clients and am not averse to setting one up that I am not currently using to help).

Prime example - this issue: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/228872/plex-agents-issue#latest
Known issue but someone else posted YAFT (yet another forum topic) about it.
I had one also that is a known issue and posted about it. Even the Ninja did not know about it.
It may help with the forums getting hit with multiple threads about known issues (maybe not, but it is worth a shot).

5

To all reading this thread:

I’m chatting, at this instant, with the other Ninja who covers Synology with me. The purpose of this post is not a defensive one. Please don’t read it that way… This a constructive effort.

We are discussing the creation of an “Known Synology Issues” thread in the Synology forum.

This is specific to issues for Synology PMS servers only. Any other posts will be moved to avoid confusion and dilution of efforts.

There will be two posts.

  1. The list of known open issues which have a GHI or are in the process (pending user input) of creating a GHI.   The GHI is what goes to the developers.
  2. The list of closed & resolved issues along with the version of PMS it is resolved in.

As new issues are fully clarified in individual threads,  they will be added to the “Open” list when the GHI is written. If warranted, we can reference the originating thread.

When issues are resolved, either with information or fixes,  issues will be moved to “Closed”.  If a change/fix is involved, and we know when, we will put the PMS version.

We cannot report “Progress” because we most times do not know ourselves.   We are volunteers, not employees.  Please work with us on this.

There are things we don’t know  (which is a lot) and some things we can’t tell you.  Please work with us on this as well.

If we do this, We do ask for your help in return.

A. When a PMS version comes out,  as you or other users confirm it resolves their issue,  TELL US in a new “FYI: thread”.   We’ll see it.  We’ll thank and close the thread.  That’s all that’s needed.  We’ll update the issue thread

B. If the issue is not resolved, please create a thread specific to the problem not resolved: “PMS: version - function/feature did not fix as hoped” . (or similar words… Please keep the prefix for our use)

C.  If nobody tells us things get fixed, then it was a total waste of our time trying to help everyone and will be discontinued & deleted.   Please help us help you.

We invite everyone’s feedback.

I ask the OP for his understanding as I hijack his thread temporarily to focus this to a sharper point. :smiley:

C.

6

Thanks @ChuckPa, seems like a plan, will be happy to participate where I can.

7

Same for me.

8

Here is the thread: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/228915/known-and-resolved-issues-synology-servers-only

Now, what is known (help me be accurate please) ?

9

Thanks @ChuckPa , really appreciated.

10

The thread looks closed but is only closed to comments.

As we pull things in, we’ll update it. The more participation we get, the better. It would be nice if this makes its way to a bigger, better method of communication. For now, this is all on my shoulders as Ninja.