Im running Plex Media player on the latest version of High Sierra. A few weeks ago after some automatic Plex update , Plex Media Player always has to be launched twice to work fullscreen. At its first launch the dock and menu bar always stay on top . In order to get rid of them I cant just use my mouse and just click on the PMP interface but instead I have to exit PMP and launch it a second time. Only then will PMP either launch without anything in front of it OR only the macs menu bar on top which I can then jget rid of by clicking my mouse once on PMPs interface. Its a very annoying bug. In PMPs settings Ive selected „Always on top“ which doesn’t change anything. Any ideas how to fix this issue ?
Same question
Same issue.
Same issue, same hardware, same OS.
I have had a similar issue with my 4 Mac mini’s they are on 10.10 yosemite. For me, every time I would turn off a tv plex would lose it’s aspect ratio and not recover once the tv was turned on. Either leaving black bars on the sides or top&bottom. I would be forced to quit PMP and reopen it to get it back to normal aspect ratio filling my tv screen.
I use my iPad or my iPhone as my plex remote so what i have done is download an application that let’s me either use them as a mouse and keyboard or I use VNC viewer to remote in.
I created an automator service and set a keyboard shortcut that quits plex and relaunches.
- Launch Automator and select Service
- Change “Service Receives Selected” to “No Input”
- Add the First Service which is “Quit Application” Set PMP as the Application and Deselect “Ask To Save Changes”
- Add Second Service which is “Pause” Set to 1 second
- Add Third Service which is “Launch Application” Set to PMP
- Save and Quit Automator
- Open System Preferences, Select Keyboard, Shortcut’s, Services and Scroll to the Bottom.
- You will see your new service as whatever you named it. Click on Add shortcut and make whatever key command you want for it. I used Command Option P.
- After Setting your shortcut keys quit out of System Preferences and you’re done.
This has made my life a lot easier as I can accomplish the necessary steps to have Plex up and running with a quick keyboard shortcut. I hope that in a new release that this issue is resolved but as I have been enduring with this for months I took it into my own hands to create a solution. Hope this helps someone for the time being.
Same here - and unbelievable that this is not being fixed.
Basically all the same, but I might add, that when Plex runs at fullscreen, it is not a “Plex Media Player” Desktop, no, it is a Desktop # which is covered by Plex. If there are any other apps running, those are “behind” since Plex is always top-most.
the other thing is, if you use multiple displays, Plex in fullscreenmode on one and your focus (activity) is on the other, the menu bar is displayed on the PLEX-Screen. which bothers me a lot (cause I use it via Air-Play on my plasma TV, which runs into danger of burn-in).
Basically, all window-operations are messy with Plex.
Same goes when I change from fullscreen to windowed - the Plex-window does not have any frame which makes it impossible to resize or move around. Close and reopen and you have the frame once - which is also bothersome.
So in general, a very sloppy appearance of Plex-Player.
it’s been fixed recently. see https://github.com/plexinc/plex-media-player/issues/688
And the fixed was merged last week so will be part of future releases.
In the meantime, here are two testbuilds :
I still have that same fullscreen/focus problem with the PMP.
Just updated to mojave and nothing changed. Plex server and media player all updated.
I´m used to connect via remote desktop to stupidly click on the PMP window or often i just ignore it.
I’m still having the same issue as bhaddaway with my Mac Mini.
Everything looks fine with fullscreen enabled, I shut off my receiver/tv and when I turn them back on, PMP is still fullscreen but has black bars on the left and right. I have to close and reopen to get the right aspect ratio back.
I was previously using OpenPHT with no such issues but switched to PMP for Live TV/DVR support.
I also noticed that even with the PMP screensaver enabled it doesn’t keep the OS active and it goes to screensaver as a result.
Any updates on this?
edit: just found the force fullscreen display option and will see if that helps. I had missed that somehow.
edit: changing force fullscreen display to my display did not help. still doesn’t fill the screen after turning the receiver and TV back on.
edit: if I watch the Mac via VNC while turning on the receiver/TV, I can see it lose the proper aspect ratio (black bars on left/right), then it justifies to the left of the screen, then over to the right, then centers itself with the black bars on either side. If I hit the button to take it out of full screen and then again to put it in, it looks fine again.
The Focus / Fullscreen issue is back.
For my issue I have fixed it a couple different ways. Easiest way was to upgrade to High Sierra.
More complicated way which I actually enjoyed more (I’m in IT and like automating fixes) was to edit my automator script.
I have it run an apple script first that simulates mouse movement.
Then I have it quit Plex
Then I have it relaunch Plex.
Again I tied it into a service and assigned a key command to it. If you’re unable to update your OS let me know and I will give you all the scripts/automation tasks I used.
In the same boat here…
I just made the switch from OpenPHT to Plex Media Player UNO… Running PMP and the server on a Mac Mini.
Open PHT retained full-screen layout between shutting off the TV, switching apps or sources, etc…
But Plex Media Player shrinks, gets the black bars on the side.
Sometimes even if I just allow the Mac screensaver to come on (oh how I miss Open PHT’s screensaver with fan-art and photos compared to PMP’s bouncing Plex logo, but that’s another story)… When I click my remote to dismiss the Mac screensaver, I find PMP has shrunk again…
Only way to fix is to restart the program or dig into settings and toggle Full Screen mode off and then back on again.
Other times, the size stays correct but the app loses focus — after coming back from the Mac Screensaver, for instance, the size of PMP might still be correctly full-screen, but the mouse pointer appears over the app, so my remote stops being able to control the app, so I have to go dig out my mouse to refocus on PMP so it can work with the remote again.
But other times, it retains its correct size and focus; I haven’t figured out the pattern yet, but I think it might depend on how long the Mac is in screensaver mode (e.g., PMP seems more likely to either shrink and/or lose focus the longer I let the macOS screensaver run).
I tried switching from “Auto” layout to “TV” but that didn’t help. (Actually, staying on “Auto” seems to keep the shrinking/resizing from happening more than “TV” mode does, but seems to make the loss-of-focus issue more likely, even though I also have PMP set to always stay on top. But this observation might just be a coincidence; I’ll have to test more).
Other than this annoying hiccup (and the lack of Open PHT Type screensavers haha, and some minor fit-and-finish and customization quibbles compared to the great old OpenPHT Black Edition) PMP Uno seems pretty great so far, a nice merging of a lot of my favorite aspects of the old PHT and the modern iOS app. So much better than the old PMP anyway. Looking forward to its future development. Although it sounds like this “PMP shrinks and/or loses focus” issue dates back awhile, so I guess it’s not UNO specific.
I had a similar issue with PHT like 4 years ago but it got fixed long ago. Hopefully it’ll get cleared up here too.
I’ve been having this same issue and also tried all the above fixes - forcing full screen, setting layout to TV instead of auto and nothing seemed to help. Something the helped tip me off to the underlying issue, is viewing the computer with Remote desktop, switching TV inputs, I noticed the remote desktop window itself flickered between resolutions, and while everything else on the desktop resized accordingly and the flicker didn’t affect it, Plex would get stuck in the narrower display.
Solution: I went into Display settings on the mac Mini, the resolution was set to Default for Display. I switched it to scaled and it seems to consistently all be working correctly now.
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