The functionality I mention below is available as of version 2025.13.0 of the apps.
This is no longer the case, at least in the latest release. During video playback, tap the screen and select the vertical ellipsis menu (low-right). The tap Playback Options; there’ll be a setting for “Lock to landscape.” If you uncheck it, you’ll be able to rotate to portrait. This setting is persistent. For subsequent video playback, you can start in portrait view (and rotate to change views.
Accessing any (favorited) library is exactly two taps/actions: One long-press on the “Libraries” nav bar and then a tap to select the desired library. That’s similar to the flow for the previous app where you had to tap the hamburger menu at the top-left and then select the library. Though, it does take a little longer now owing to the long-press.
This is sometimes true. An example being the “Lock to landscape” mentioned above or the “Display Mode” setting located in the same playback options menu. However, some of these settings are persistent and need only be configured once, and they’re consistent with how the old (Android) app presented them. I’d rather see at least some of these types of settings in the main settings for the app.
Plex addressed this in the announcement post, in the “What’s coming soon” section. It’s in the bullet-point with the plan to add functionality to scan libraries (that’s already been added).
I’m not sure if you mean refreshing metadata or scanning a libraries for new content. As far as I know the former is still not available but the latter is available as of v2025.13.0. To do so, long-press a library and select “Scan Library Files.”
In my opinion you absolutely should have a second media server set up. Jellyfin is ok, that’s what I use myself. My use case for a second media server is having it as a backup for Internet outages.
But I wouldn’t recommend it as your pathway to a better client experience (which you absolutely will not have, at leas in my experience). If you use primarily Apple devices Infuse arguably offers the best experience with Jellyfin. The second best client would likely be their web app.
I also wouldn’t recommend Jellyfin for folks who take advantage of Plex’s more-or-less turnkey secure remote access feature. With Jellyfin you’ll have to handle that yourself. It’s not overly complex for somewhat technically-inclined users, but it is something to consider when making the choice.
Back to the new Plex app, I don’t point out any of the above to suggest that it’s a great experience yet. Only that they’re chipping away at the missing features and making it more usable, if a bit more slowly than many of us would like. I’m also not trying to sway your opinion of it. My own opinion is that it was released into the wild too soon and that much of the pushback was warranted.
I think in the final analysis it will likely turn out that the new apps were released about a month early. We’ve likely got two more releases coming before we hit the one month mark, so we’ll see.
