I came here to write something about the new ux. Then I saw that some 460 people had the same idea. I thought about walking away, but this is bad enough I gotta pile on.
Even if I didn’t spend my career designing and developing good UX I’d know why this downgrade was making me miserable.
I get the desire from a codebase support perspective why you’d want to unify the interface across devices. That said, there’s a reason the web moved to responsive design a few years back—there’s a huge difference between a vertical interface and a horizontal one. There is zero sense in introducing horizontal navigation (I mean, seriously, wtf) for libraries at the top of the screen and forcing an extra 2-3 clicks every time I enter the app.
I’ve invested in this ecosystem. I’ve hand-built a cabinet driven by plexamp on a raspberry pi. I started using plex when I still had a mac mini with hard drives hidden behind my rear projection TV. This is by far the least usable it’s ever been.
And on top of it, now I’m getting frame drops on local movies like my TCL/roku isn’t getting a pure 24p stream from my server.
Please just go back to what worked. You can’t pull this one out of the fire.
Is it just me or is plex trying to copy Netflix new ui.. which is also terrible for finding things. It used to be fast and easy enough for my toddler to navigate.. not anymore!!! Trash!
This update is a complete failure - Plex forced subscriptions for people and raised prices and removed features, you removed watch together and took playlists off of the home screen. I’ve been with plex since 2009. Plex used to have people test UI changes. Who in their right mind would OK this. Please give us the option to go back to the old UI.
I would LOVE an option to simply use the old (good) UI. I agree with the mob, this new UI is not as good as PLEX was hoping. Either roll it back, or add the option to use the old UI. Microsoft Teams, outlook, and office have the option. it’s obviously possible. Even Yahoo mail allows their old UI as an option. You’re worse than yahoo!
What an absolute horrible slow pile of burning trash this plex interface update is! That they thought this was ready for public release is so bad! For the love of god put this back in beta and give everyone the old interface back and fix your crap. I have the best roku on the market and it’s a travesty of an experience!
I don’t host my own server, but I access a friend’s server. On my LG TV, I still see continue watching and can easily get to my stuff. On the TCL Roku TV, if I want to watch the next episode, I have to go to bookmarks, select the show, go select the season, scroll to the episode, select the streaming source (the server), and then it jumps back to the episode list and I have to select the episode again. It doesn’t show up in my profile watch history either. Is there any way to more easily access what I’m currently watching? To go right back to where we left off in a show? This update on Roku TVs is really bad.
I am here to also complain about this new UI. I request that they put the previous UI back and leave as it was. It was easy to search and find what I need it or wanted quickly. This new UI needs to go asap.
Plan on trying Jellyfin as well, but Emby setup was trivial, let me configure exactly what I want, feels intuitive, so far plays well, and a non-subscription purchase option is available.
They’re not perfect (yet) but I’m very happy that there seems to be real Plex alternatives. Thanks to everyone suggesting these two alts.
Edit: Jellyfin took a little more work to setup (and it seems slower to scan my libraries) but it works well once scanned and seems acceptable. I’m officially removing Plex from all my devices.
And so continues the ensh*tification of Plex. They’ll alienate the long-time, loyal users and fail to acquire enough new users to sustain the product. As is typical, it’ll just slowly die off and disappear.
I have to pile on. Worst idea ever to put up a top menu and filer on libraries. If looking at the guide, I get it that a left menu may take many clicks to get back to, but in libraries, it is much worse. Can I just get the things I tag on the left, like we used to have?
I have used Plex for 10 years roughly and it’s been great. Not a single complaint. Until now. Since the update, I have not been able to connect my Roku tv to my Plex server for the first time in a decade. I tried Jellyfin first being a free open source software. It just wasn’t as polished as I would like. I am now using Emby. It’s still lacking very slightly but at the same time it exceeds in areas Plex did not. Namely recognizing metadata of some more obscure titles. In the end I am very happy with Emby as a Plex replacement. It seems Plex has started to dig a grave under the circumstances.
Just wanted to add to the 478-and-counting complaints. This new UI is terrible. The home screen is now just ad-supported garbage. NONE of them are anything I would EVER watch, which Plex knows because they have my watch history. Makes it very obvious that they themselves are straight-up ads. The ONLY purpose of Plex is to stream from a home server. They’ve ruined their own app to make a penny. I saw this and immediately installed Jellyfin on my server. Once the Google TV version is switched to the new format (which it will since Plex prioritizes profit over user experience now), Plex will be removed from everything.
New version of Plex Roku app is terrible and difficult to navigate. It goes against all other sidebar streaming app navigation. Need to go back, or old version offered as a classic app to install and let the installed downloads prove which is better.
A new interface. One too many.
First it was on mobile.
Then it hit Roku…
And what’s next — FireTV? Chromecast? The goddamn smart fridge streaming movies?
Slow-ass, broken, messy menus — built for zombies, not for real people.
This isn’t an upgrade.
It’s an insult.
A slap in the face to those of us who spent years building our digital sanctuaries.
I don’t have some cheap-ass hard drive from a corner store.
I have a data center.
Two petabytes.
Yeah — 2,000 terabytes of films, music, series, memories, culture.
Stuff way more valuable than whatever bullshit you dare call “content”.
And now?
Now you expect me to start over from scratch?
Reconfigure Emby? Rebuild all my Jellyfin by hand?
Because some marketing “geniuses” decided it was time for a UX “refresh”?
Plex…
You used to get us.
You were one of us.
But now? You’re just another digital dictator.
You force updates down our throats,
You change the rules mid-game,
And you don’t listen.
You’re deaf to your own damn community.
But let me make this real simple for you: I won’t bend.
And if I — with two petabytes of data — can break free, Anyone can.
All it takes is one word: NO.
No to the absurd.
No to the bullshit.
No to being forgotten.
The auto industry giants crashed because they forgot who was behind the wheel.
You’ll crash too.
Because you forgot who keeps your platform alive:
We are way more than you think.
We are everywhere.
We understand.
And most of all…
