What do you mean, the playback device ALWAYS decodes the video stream. Media playback is impossible without that.
2 Likes
Your update killed my ability to play next.
2 Likes
Cannot scroll OTA or Plex channel guide in Live TV on my Pixel 7.
2 Likes
I can’t fond the link now, but i just updated my NAS to the latest firmware and in the change logs it mentioned that since more devices are compatible with video transcoding certain types of files, in order to put less strain of the NAS the end device will be responsible for the transcoding of the video file where as in the past you had to have a NAS that had that ability . particularly dix12 capability. I’m surmising t6hat this switch is what it leading to people reporting that their devices are chewing through more battery fro their video playback then what they have previously experienced. that it isn’t the App updates but the recent server updated.
That shouldn’t really change anything on the device. Decoding always happens on the device regardless. In the case of a transcode the process would’ve been decode on server → encode on server → send to device → decode on device. Without a transcode it’s just send to device → decode.
The strain on the receiving device might be lower if the transcode previously lowered the quality of the video stream, perhaps. I find it more likely that the new app is not optimized properly.
Been almost a month since I looked at the new app experience (android 2025.15.0). To developments credit a couple of the issues have been fixed, however most have not and the app is still significantly behind its predecessor in almost every aspect.
What is abundantly clear is the lack of any real design changes to fix how clunky things are. Also, the performance is just awful, especially on my tablet, previous app is fine.
Looking in from the outside it certainly appears management are moving forward regardless and hoping to weather the storm.
5 Likes
I tried the beta and when I did realized that it was lacking in loading the Live TV user guide and providing a good Live TV experience. This was a comment made by multiple testers and expected it to be corrected before launch. Never make assumptions. Not only is it clunky, but you prioritize the full guide over the user’s favorites. Do you really think that is what your paying users want? Com’on, man. Why have favorites if you consciously hide them. This needs to be addressed immediately, or allow us to revert back to prior version.
3 Likes
the live tv and on demand buttons can be turned off on the server side. go to online media sources and set those settings to disabled, by default they are set to disabled for managed users but that still leaves them enabled for the main user, setting to disabled will make it disabled for all
In order of importance for me.
Dubble tap to skip 10s is removed? Most used thing for me, please add back! Also add it to windows app where it was allways missing. Or make skip button time customicable, 30s is too much.
Please change possition on subtitles when using zoom.
Where is the downloads, can not see any download section?
Unable to reorder/customice startpage? Only able to change order on library page?
3 Likes
Since the latest update to the Plex iOS app, several critical issues have made it nearly unusable:
Downloads Broken: Nothing new will download — every attempt immediately fails with a “Download Failed” error. This was working before the update.
No Episode Grouping: I have a large library (e.g., 132 episodes of a show), and now all episodes are flattened into a single list with no season or group navigation. This makes it extremely difficult to browse or find anything.
Playback Resets After Pause: If I pause an episode, lock the screen, and return after a few minutes, Plex completely loses my place and restarts the episode from the beginning. This is a major issue for longer content or when multitasking.
Playback Timeline Bug: While watching any episode or movie, the timeline always shows 0:00 — both at the start and end. There’s no time remaining, no end-time reference, and no way to scrub through the episode. This makes navigation during playback practically impossible.
Missing Continue Watching: It took a lot of trial and error to restore the “Continue Watching” row on the home screen. This should not have been hidden or made difficult to recover.
Please fix these issues or provide a way to roll back to the previous version. The current experience is a major downgrade from the functionality the app had just a few days ago — especially for Lifetime Plex Pass users who rely on this app for offline and on-the-go viewing.
3 Likes
Sadly due to changes in the app preventing me from being able to start a movie or show and lock my phone allowing me to listen to the content without it playing the video and the removal of music and photos to separate apps will now start me looking for alternate media hosting options. I was happy with plex. I did not like some of the changes but the ease of accessing my media how and when I wanted was key. Now that it is no longer a feature of their platform it is time for me to go. I did buy the lifetime subscription so they already have my money and this will just be a drop in the bucket compared to what their investors are having them do to make more money.
2 Likes
The Board of Directors are why we have this mess of an app and push to use more of their provided content. They want more money. Nothing will get rolled back. It will just continue to devolve into an ad laden mess. Its sad since it was such a good product for so long.
5 Likes
Downloads Management Functionality Severely Degraded.
Horrible user experience decisions in iPadOS / iOS
- Lost ability to initiate/change Downloads as Show level
- Lost ‘Download Latest x Unwatched Episodes’ on Shows means users are:
- wasting storage
- must manage downloads by season or by individual episode
- Lost ability to remove Downloads by Show.
- I can appreciate the attempt at providing episode-level download information and management, but NOT at the expense of being able to one-swipe delete entire show downloads.
- Removed ability to select specific resolutions for Downloads. (not sure if this is a bad thing yet - still confused, trying to figure this one out. Maybe an improvement - reduction of options is often good for these functions.)
You made me Open Jellyfin for the first time in 4 years - shocked that was my reaction when I clicked it to compare. SUPER sad I lost this workflow efficiency.
User Workflow Context:
I had 15+ shows set to download the latest unwatched episode or latest x unwatched. When a new episode pops in to the Library, it downloaded automatically and was just there. Now I have to click to download each individual one as they come? No thanks.
*Disclaimer: I haven’t played with Season level yet to see if I add the season, then delete all episodes, then see what happens when new episode is added. It had better pick it up, but does NOT make up for the loss of ‘Download Unwatched’ automation. What about re-watching old stuff by marking entire show ‘Unwatched’?!
1 Like
Not my first rodeo of plex breaking the functionality of the iPad app, but this one is an absolute disaster. Most of the functionality of downloaded content onto the app is gone. I read the post that told me I had to redownload my media to get the meta data back and it transcoded everything to the point where every piece of media takes 3x as much space as it did before the update. I can’t fit everything on my iPad I had on there before. I tried watching a show and I couldn’t scrub through it with the bar to get to the point I was at after it crashed half way through, only thing that seems to work is to jump forward 30 secs button for that. I can’t believe shows can’t be separated by show and each episode is displayed separately. Whoever’s idea this was needs to be fired. I’m off to try jellyfin
5 Likes
Agree @cinemec! Super frustrated on these changes around Downloads mgmt.
We had nearly identical feedback at the same time. (my post immediately above yours)
2 Likes
Another issue to log besides the numerous others. Every time I attempt to watch a movie Plex force closes. I can watch TV shows. But watching a movie on my phone closes the app completely. So if this isn’t fixed, I literally cannot use plex and will need to find an alternative.
1 Like
How do you rollback to the old version? Honest question here, I’m a Chromecast user and holy crap the new update is pissing me off.
4 Likes
If you are on Android:
Grab the old APK (Plex: Stream Movies & TV 10.26.0.2578 APK Download by Plex, Inc. - APKMirror).
Then uninstall the app from your phone, install the APK file you downloaded using APKMirror Installer and then make sure you go into the Google play app and disable automatic updates for the Plex app.
Sorry I dont know the process for apple.
3 Likes
So I may be in the minority here but the new app seems to have a better UI design, and works reasonably well on the handful of videos I tested (via iOS on iPhone). TV shows and Movies start almost instantly for me and while some lag loading TV show metadata, everything seems to be pretty stable as far as playback on iOS. I can only imagine the snappiness of the app will improve over time.
And for me Downloads actually work! I was able to download a TV show episode with no issue and really fast speeds. The previous app was a nightmare for downloads, they would take forever and hang and all kind of weird stuff last I tried.
I also like the direction of dedicated apps for each media type. I already use PlexAmp for music anyway on iOS as it is far superior (and imo the best music app period for self hosted libraries). I use Prologue for AudioBooks. And I don’t use live TV or Photos, or have any online media sources enabled for my library. So for my use cases this app seems to be an improvement!
Edit: Since Direct Play of TrueHD audio codecs is still not happening yet, a setting that would auto select AC3 5.1 audio if available on the file would be nice. So a setting you could enable, that made sure to select only “Direct Play” capable audio formats when available in a file. So instead of defaulting to TrueHD, default to the direct play compatible audio track. Would be useful for iOS! Just a suggestion.
1 Like
@MrFancyPants1999 I don’t think you’re in the minority – I suspect many of us are distracted by the significant loss or change of some functionality we’ve relied upon for a long time.
I do agree with you that some aspects of the new UI design are (likely) better. Personally, I need more time to work through my current frustrations to try to look for the positives. Anecdotally, I think the loading of videos has been smoother.
I just can’t get past how many functions Plex Devs decided to remove. Usually bad form to eliminate significant features with a UI refresh unless there’s clear evidence of low usage - even then, communicate what’s being removed or at least try to explain how newer features are the ‘better’ approach. Some type of comms!
