When I first started using Plex I too thought that I needed and wanted a folder view. In fact I went back and forth from using Plex to using RoksBox to using Chaneru on me Roku and back and forth several times before I stumbled upon the fact that for me the standard Plex view was superior if I could use filters and genera correctly.
The thing that helped me to use the genera tags better was changing the order of the agents for movies placing The Movie Database first inside the settings for Freebase and making sure that The Movie Database was first everywhere I could make it so. Freebase and others do good stuff but genera tags seem so much better with TMDB. That way most of the “junk” genera tags disappeared making genera filters much more usable.
I still have some of my movie database in folders but I abandoned the genera folders some time ago. The main client I use is Roku and the one lack not is that the new Roku client and every other client that conforms to Plex’s new interface idea is that it is impossible to browse for multiple genera at the same time. That is, without using smart playlists (Play lists have other extreme limitations) I cannot browse for, as example, all movies that are either science fiction, horror or fantasy.
I think that I can now find a given movie even more quickly than I ever could using any program/client combo I have tried with a fully functioning folder view. The Roku client, at least the version for Plex pass users offers a “By Folder” view but I almost never use it as I am now well adjusted to the new Plex view.
When I first started using Plex I thought I could not even use it well without using a folder view but now I often forget why I even thought that a folder view was needed.
One example of where a simple folder view fails is the “Alien” movie series. Do Alien and Aliens really belong in science fiction, horror, action, adventure or simply drama. Other movie that really need to be in multiple folders for a folder view to work are Predator, The Mummy, Raiders of the Lost Ark, National Treasure and many many others. Yes, you can use hyperlinks to have movies that belong in multiple folders show up in all the correct folders but that is simply a clumsy workaround.
I think that most people are, like I was, set in their ways and see change as equal to unusable.
The only thing wrong with change, much of the time, is change itself. (acknowledgment to Winston Churchill for the paraphrasing)
I do not want to minimize the desire for folder views that many have but I just wanted to point out that there are many that did feel that way but do not really feel the same now.
