This is my second post about this release, are you listening Plex support?
I have been a loyal Plex user for years, but this latest update on Roku has been nothing short of a nightmare. The new Plex experience feels rushed, untested, and completely detached from what users actually want or need. What is most frustrating is not only the issues themselves, but also Plex’s silence. There have been no meaningful responses on the forums, no visible staff engagement, and still no patch to address the most glaring problems.
The problems are significant. The app often freezes and becomes unresponsive after only a few clicks. Once this happens the only way to restore functionality is to reboot the Roku, which makes the app practically unusable for normal viewing. The new interface is also confusing and messy. Instead of being clean and intuitive it feels all over the place and harder to navigate. On top of that, Plex has removed options and flexibility that users relied on. Paying Plex Pass subscribers, who should have access to more control and features, now actually have less. There is also no option to revert to the old layout. Forcing everyone into a broken interface without offering any fallback is extremely disappointing. The situation raises another concern which is whether this update was ever properly tested on the latest Roku models. Judging by the widespread complaints, it does not seem like it was.
What makes this worse is Plex’s lack of communication. The forums are filled with frustrated users reporting the same problems, yet no one from Plex has stepped in to acknowledge them. There has been no official word, no updates on progress, and no timeline for fixes. It feels like Plex is relying entirely on the community to document and report bugs, while offering no reassurance that the company is listening or actively working on solutions.
As paying subscribers, especially those with Plex Pass, we expect stability, communication, and respect for user feedback. At the very least Plex should publicly acknowledge the issues, release a hotfix for the critical freezing problem, and provide the option to use the previous interface until the new one is ready for prime time. The company also needs to become active on its own forums and communicate with its community rather than leaving customers to troubleshoot on their own.
Until these steps are taken, this new experience will remain one of the worst updates Plex has ever released. It has turned what should be a smooth and enjoyable media platform into a frustrating chore and it is beginning to damage the trust Plex has built with its users over the years.
I wonder if it’s possible to side-load an old version of Plex onto the Roku box? Years ago, I did this with a NowTV box (basically a rebranded Roku box in the UK), but can’t remember how I did it, it was so long ago.
yup.. us iOS and ATV and iPadOS users know your pain.. the new player is utter garbage and performs like crap. i have the latest atv 4k and after the UI update, multi-audio output works whenever it seems it wants to. UI for the player is horrible, can’t see other info besides the item playing.
lets get this thread up to 500 posts to let Plex know how horrible the change is and that we just want back the prev client on all platforms; or make a seperate app and call it Plex Classic.
This update is incredibly bad. At least give us the option to remove the trash cluttering up the home page. I really don’t give a damn about “Popular Shows”. I have a lifetime license because I really liked the simple usable interface. This new interface is awful.
Whoever approved this make over should be let go. What a horrible user experience now. As a lifetime Plex Pass customer, I’ll be looking at moving to a different platform unless they bring back the old interface.
@SuperSecret nice way to take that out of context. That topic is about a particular bug. not about your UI dislikes. I never said we would not respond to UI discussions.
There are already existing topic about that. even a general one from another employee about anything you want to discuss. Roku New Experience Release Update
Sure, it’s out of context, I’ll agree. That doesn’t mean it’s not true. We have collectively been complaining about this UI since it was introduced and y’all still insist on moving forward with this utterly bad design. Aesthetics aside, it’s functionally worse in every way. Y’all know this. Admit it, build the old UI into the new code and move on. After all, the customer is always right. Right?
well.. whats the response then? cuz.. its obvious that the roku update is gonna make plex a headline news item this week in a very not good way… perhaps seeing next month’s active user count on plex going from what it is now and minus 1 million users would elicit a response…
Just bring back the previous app version as a separate Plex Classic app so that all of us that hate the new version can go back to that. This way Plex can keep their terrible new app running that they love so much. But my guess is that isn’t enough, they must force us all to use it.
Because giving us back the old app in any form would be admitting defeat and saying the customer is right. But Plex thinks they are right, bad business approach. Prove me wrong and bring back the old app in a Classic update please!
Make everything take at least as few clicks as it did before (and fix the bugs like locking navigation and failed loads) or allow us to choose between this and the more superior design (the previous design)
How do I find my libraries? Before it was left arrow and select library. Now it’s up arrow>right arrow> down arrow> select library and all it shows is Recently Added. No library at all. How is this an improvement over the other UI?
I’ve seen reports of upscaling issues but I only have a 1080p TV. But agreed…Plex should show the content at the resolution it IS, and let the TV handle the rest. Plex is not going to do a better job than Sony or Samsung.
It’s not Jellyfin that is charging for the subscription. It is the guide service that the DVR uses to schedule recordings and they are not owned by Jellyfin. If you have a lifetime Plex Pass like I do, then you can just let Plex continue to record your shows and watch them with Jellyfin. That is my intention and next week when I have time, I will set up the server on the same machine as Plex and see how well it works monitoring the changes to the Plex folder and libraries to just make it the viewer for now.
