The new way of handling downloads is really crappy, i cannot see my last episodes that i have watched in my series, is it supposed to be like this? Do I have to keep track of each episode myself now? The download sync is basically 90% of my usage, so with the latest update it becomes totally worthless.
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I just installed the new version of Plex and I’m also having a problem with downloads.
Before, they were automatically synchronized, and now I have to do it season by season, manualy.
Additionally, it’s transcoding the series even though I told it to use the original quality.
Is there any development planned to fix this soon?
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It is basically bare minimum functionality right now… please please finish the Downloads feature so it can actually be useful. Not worth the headache right now. Overall new app experience is so much worse than the previous version you are dumping…
It needs to be able to dynamically update with a numeric episode cap.
“Download next (5,10, etc) UNwatched episodes” and sync next time you are near the server, etc.
5 Likes
I agree, I mostly use my iPhone Plex on the plane as I travel often for work. The new download version is not practical. Not only do we have to select episode by episode instead of the x last unplayed episode which was a great feature. Also, there’s no grouping of the episode in nor any metadata stored with download. Instead of seeing 5-10 different episode, I have to scroll through hundreds of episode to find what I’m looking for. This is really inconvenient. Please bring back the classic features.
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I am having the same experience on my iPhone and iPad. Please fix the downloads feature.
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The UI on the downloads page is a big downgrade, I really hope this is temporary. It’s just a list of the downloaded files ungrouped by show or season and with no graphics or artwork, almost unusable. Is this the way it’s going to look or just a placeholder? Downloads are a key feature of Plex Premium and this devalues that significantly. Anyway, love you guys!
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I use downloads all the time on my ipad and have downgraded for now until this is fixed. So many features missing in downloads right now. Was hoping we might get a new beta release this week that addressed some of those but so far nothing. Hopefully we get something soon.
1 Like
Same here. The offline content experience in the “newly reimagined and redesigned Plex app” is pretty bad. You can’t even browse the offline content by TV show or season, it’s just a list of all downloaded episodes. For folks like me that like to keep entire TV shows offline for my kid, this is pretty bad.
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Mine auto-updated unbeknownst to me and I discovered it had done so and logged me out after I was already on a plane and tried to open Plex to watch a downloaded movie. I can no longer figure out how to play downloaded content without being able to log in online. The download feature is completely useless if I can’t log in and play content without internet access.
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I was on a plane today and realized what causes the crashes… stupides thing, every time the network change, Cell data, switching to no data or airplane mode, the connecting to airplane network, every time the wifi disconnected and reconnected, the app would crash and restart the episode I was watching.
As long as the network is stable or full airplane mode, it was working fine.
This is still the worst update I’ve seen in the last 10 years.
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THIS APP SUCKS - WTF ARE YOU DOING?
ROLL IT BACK!!!
I’m just going to go through the browser
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This is actually crazy. I’m traveling for the first time since updating to the new Plex app and it’s hot trash. The download functionality and interface is so impractical. There’s no order or reason to how things are downloading. Please revert back.
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Chiming in so this topic doesn’t close.
Android user and the new Plex app handles downloads terribly.
We use Plex on our tablet for popping shows on for our kids while on long drives. The old app, while convoluted, you could navigate to your library of downloaded movies as well as your library of downloaded TV shows.
This was especially useful as we could go to our library of downloaded shows, hit shuffle, and it would shuffle through various shows for the kiddos one after the other.
This is completely gone in the new version. It’s convoluted just to get to your downloads media, and once you’re there it is all just throw at the wall and mixed together (shows, movies, etc). Also there’s no way to play them continuously or mix them. You have to click each show (or movie) individually to play it and then once it’s done it goes back to the main screen and you have to select again.
When they like to watch bluey which are 6 minute episodes this is unreadable for a 2 hour trip. Please please PLEASE fix this functionality. Thank you.
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Same complaint for me as well. Downloads are nigh unusable still for TV shows.
This “new” app didn’t even come close to hitting the level of minimum viable product it’s so drastically far behind the capabilities of the retired app version. This release was so wildly unready and underdeveloped that it boggles the mind that any intelligent decisions are being made by Plex management anymore.
4 Likes
New user here and this app is utter trash with Downloads. Waste of money and water of time.
Long time user also dumbfounded on this new update. It is unbelievable how much worse the app is. I was able to downgrade on android but on ios I’m stuck with useless downloads.
Also feel the need to jump in and state as a long time user this is rubbish!!
who did your UAT? hope they got fired…
Thank you so much for that! It was driving me crazy while abroad with spotty connectivity.
I thought the Plex team was over breaking the downloads functionality every couple years, but it doesn’t look like it.
As an early Plex pass adopter, I’ve never been so disappointed by the product.
Plex Pass owner since 2021. Using my own client to access content. Cannot get anything to download at all. As with others, this is a problem I’m only recently encountering because I normally just stream to my devices, but we’re traveling for the first time in a while and we cannot get anything to download. It fails with no explanation as to why. I can still stream things - just can’t download them. Which doesn’t help at all when I’m on a plane…
Keeping this thread alive. I’ve never seen an app have a “working” function that broke so hard as Plex downloads on iOS. The original app worked. It may not have been pretty or stylish, but it worked. Now you can’t auto delete, the sort is jacked up, and if you used to travel with Chromecast — good luck, you can’t play downloaded content, and can’t change video resolutions. It force streams original bitrates. I have some Blu-ray 4K backups, and as a road warrior, tried to watch one - not a chance. Hotel WiFi choked (expectantly). In the old app you could transcode this down to 720p on a Chromecast stream and enjoy a classic on the hotel TV, not anymore.
If you travel for work, it might be time to setup a new service for yourself. Plex does not care anymore.
