Critical iOS 26 Issue – Plex Freezes Entire iPhone 17 Pro Max When App Goes to Background

Plex Players Mobile Devices
1

Hi Plex Support,

I’m contacting you again regarding a critical and system-level issue with the Plex iOS app on iOS 26 and 26.1, currently running on an iPhone 17 Pro Max (model: iPhone18,2).

Issue Summary

Whenever I place Plex into the background while watching a movie (e.g., swipe up, lock screen, or switch apps), the entire iPhone freezes at OS level. The screen becomes completely unresponsive, audio continues for around 10 minutes, and the device does not react to any physical buttons or gestures. Eventually the system collapses and the iPhone force-reboots.

Steps Already Taken

I want to highlight that this is not a device-specific or installation issue. I have:

  • Reinstalled the Plex app from scratch

  • Cleared app cache and data

  • Tested on two separate iPhone 17 Pro Max devices (both on iOS 26 and 26.1) – same result

  • Attached the app details from the “About” screen:

    • Client Version: 2025.28.0 (1302)

    • Platform Version: 26.1

This clearly points to a compatibility or app-level issue, not user error or device fault.

Lack of Response

I opened a support ticket over two weeks ago and did not receive any response — not even by email. Considering I am a paying Plex subscriber, this level of support is very disappointing.

Action Needed

Please provide the following:

  1. Confirmation that this issue is known and being investigated

  2. ETA for a fix or patch

  3. A temporary workaround (if any)

In addition, please provide an email address or upload link where I can send you logs or diagnostics. I am more than happy to submit logs if you tell me how/where to upload them.

I really enjoy Plex, but at this stage, this issue is severely impacting usability and is unacceptable for a premium paid service.

I have also submitted a detailed report to Apple, as this appears to be a system-level stability issue triggered by the Plex app.

I would appreciate a timely response.

Kind regards,

XM

2 Likes
2

I’ve tried to reproduce this, but have been unable. Can you provide more detailed steps on how you cause this lockup?

Plex doesn’t offer any direct support, except for when their employees respond in these forums. How did you open a “ticket?” (They do have a dedicated billing support address, but that’s not for technical issues.)

3

Can confirm I am experiencing the same issue on my 17 Pro Max. Although mine freezes for only a few minutes. Happens when I try and switch out of Plex while a video is playing or paused.

1 Like
4

You should be able to reproduce it if you follow the exact steps below. The key point is that this is not just an app crash — it causes a full system-level freeze on iOS, requiring the device to restart.

Steps to Reproduce:

  1. Start playing any movie or TV episode in the Plex app.

  2. Switch the app to Picture-in-Picture mode or swipe up to send the app to the background.

  3. Within 5–20 seconds, the entire system UI freezes:

    • Screen becomes completely unresponsive

    • Audio continues playing for several minutes

    • No buttons or gestures work (Side button, Volume, swipe, etc.)

  5. After approx. 5–10 minutes, iOS force-restarts due to the lockup.

This happens consistently on two separate iPhone 17 Pro Max devices running iOS 26.1 with the latest Plex client installed.

To clarify — this is not a normal Plex crash. It locks the entire operating system, and the device cannot be interacted with until iOS eventually restarts.

I’m happy to provide logs if needed — please let me know where to send or upload them.

.

Just for clarity: I emailed Plex Support and received an auto-reply stating that I would get a response within 24–48 hours. The same automatic message also says that the inbox is not monitored and nobody reads the emails.

To be honest, this is extremely frustrating and confusing. If the email address isn’t monitored, then it shouldn’t promise a 24–48h response time. It gives users the false impression that support will follow up, when in reality no one will ever see it.

5

I’ve tried multiple times to reproduce this issue. I’ve got an iPhone 13 mini running iOS 26.1 with version 2025.28.0 of the Plex app.

  • Start watching an episode of a series served from a local Plex media server.
  • Send the episode to PIP.
  • Wait 30 seconds.
  • Interact with the screen and other apps.

Nothing ever locked up. If I’m missing something, let me know.

6

Curious, what email address did you use? As far as I know, there isn’t one for technical support, only billing support.

7

This issue did not exist on my previous device (iPhone 15 Pro Max). It only started happening after upgrading to the iPhone 17 Pro Max. I initially assumed it was a temporary compatibility issue and that an update would fix it within a few days or weeks, but the most recent app update did not improve the situation at all.

Also, if you check the recent App Store reviews and sort them by Most Recent, you’ll see many users reporting the exact same issue and rating the app 1 star because of it. So it’s definitely not an isolated case.

8

I never suggested it was.

9

I would be very tempted to clean install iOS 26

10

done twice, with cleaned cache.

1 Like
11
12

Similar to this report Plex unusable on iPhone 17

We should probably ask those of you experiencing this problem to help Plex solve it by grabbing whatever log file you can from the phone after getting functionality back. Perhaps there’s a common piece of code being executed.

Please also let us know if you have background app refresh enabled for the Plex app, and whether your problem occurs only on your LAN, only when remote streaming, or both.

https://support.plex.tv/articles/201636593-mobile-logs/

@XMSK you probably asked for help from Plex billing support. They likely don’t respond to anything that’s not expressly related to that. This forum is the only avenue for Plex technical support. Their team does read the posts. And thank you for pointing out that the issue has been mentioned in the app store reviews.

(lets hope this is only Electron related, where their patch is being rolled out soon™)

13

I currently have two logs available: one from late October and another after a fresh reinstall of the app. I’m happy to share them — please provide the preferred method or location for uploading/submitting these files, and I will attach them immediately.

14

@XMSK
Zip the log if it’s not already, and drop it here in the compose window of your next reply.
You can do the same with photos (not zipped so we can see them when needed).

15

I’m also having this issue where my phone locks up if I’m playing a movie on plex and try to switch to another app.

I’m on iOS 26.1 with an iPhone 17 max pro.

16

plex-log-2025-11-10T08_51_24.976Z.zip (11.2 KB)

I’m also seeing this fairly consistently on iPhone 17 Pro. Logs attached.

  • iOS: 26.1
  • Client: 2025.28.0 (1302)
  • Server: 1.42.2.10156

Just a guess, but it seems to freeze when trying to transition to PiP. Sequence of events for attached logs:

  • Deleted and reinstalled Plex app
  • Started playing one video
  • Attempted to swipe back to home screen
  • Entire phone froze for several seconds (even power button inactive)
  • Home screen appears, PiP appears very briefly and disappears
  • Re-enter Plex and the video is still showing and playable

I saw this behaviour with iOS 26.0 as well. Desktop players work fine with my server.

17

Hello, I would also like two say that my iphone 17 pro max is experiencing the same issues described above where the phone UI freezes (audio such as calls doesn’t freeze) when exiting the app while watching a TV show. I am on ios 26.1!

18

iOS client version 2025.29.0 which came out today seems to have fixed the swipe-to-home PiP freeze. No mention in the release notes, obviously.

I’ve seen other crashes and freezes still happening which seem more random, which I’ll try and isolate.

1 Like
19

okt 29.

plex-log-2025-11-04T23_00_19.686Z.zip (154.7 KB)

nov 3.

plex-log-2025-11-04T23_09_08.639Z.zip (16.6 KB)

The latest update didn’t fix the issue for me at all. About 2 minutes ago my phone froze again for around 6 minutes — this time not only the screen locked up, but the audio also stopped completely.

Eventually I managed to force the device to reboot by pressing the Volume Up + Side button, and at the same time I connected the phone to CarPlay and restarted the car’s head unit. When the head unit rebooted, it seems to have pushed the system over its memory limit and iOS finally crashed and restarted.

So the problem is still fully present even after the most recent update. the new update have same issue on my side,

20

Can confirm that this happens on the base iPhone 17 on IOS26. Its a fresh phone - not restored from any backup.

This happens when i put the app in the background, or interact with a notification.

Funnily, it did not happen with my iPhone 13 pro that i was using on IOS26, up till a few days ago.