In agreement with everyone else. This new GUI is crap. Why mess with something that was darn near perfect? Why? Why? Plex telling Cracker Barrel, “hold my beer.”
16 Likes
Got my update last night. Comically bad. Just wanted to point out in case it helps anyone else - I was using the “moonlight” theme (I think it’s called moonlight… it’s one of the plex pass themes…) and it’s buggy as hell. You literally cannot tell what is currently selected in the UI. I switched to the dark theme and it became much more usable. You know, relatively speaking… I could at least tell what was currently selected. It’s still a horrible horrible design.
9 Likes
Like a lot of other users, I keep hearing about Jellyfin. Never really felt the need to check it, as Plex wasn’t broken… Until now.
14 Likes
Yep. Bunch or morons at plex! Not only is the new UI total trash, it keeps crashing every time I try to see my libraries. I use it on several different Roku devices and everyone of them does the same thing. Do these people even test anything before the roll it out. Whoever is in charge of this should be fired!
14 Likes
I wanted to share my experience with the new version of the app. Unfortunately, it has been very frustrating. The interface feels messy and difficult to navigate, and the app frequently stops responding to the Roku remote after just a few clicks, making it essentially unusable until the device is rebooted.
It’s hard to understand why such a problematic update was released without more thorough testing or user feedback. As a Plex Pass subscriber, I would expect at least the option to use a legacy layout, especially when the new design removes many of the navigation options that made the app convenient.
Can you share if there are plans to address these issues? Will there be fixes for the Roku responsiveness and improvements to navigation soon? It would also be helpful to know how Plex gathers user feedback before rolling out updates, as the current release feels untested on newer Roku models.
11 Likes
Last night all of my Roku devices updated to this. I know change can be difficult, but this is beyond difficult. It reminds me of when Windows 8 came out and was unusable. All we wanted to do was watch the shows we were already watching. Instead? try to find the library, offered all of these online streaming options. Get ADS when i have the plexpass because it sees that “oh this show is available streaming, so we’ll use that one”… I didn’t ASK you to use that one. Bar to find the library at the top? Okay, I can live with that. Select the library… can’t just get to the full library easily like it used to be. Finding watched vs unwatched? Have fun.
There is no getting used to this and on all of my roku devices it is a horrible experience. I looked at trying to modify it with settings, etc. Nope. Want subtitles only for that episode? not as easy to do.
I’m going to try Jellyfin this weekend as I have the knowledge to run it and make it work for external streaming. Plex…. did you ever think of having us in the forums review and test for you? This is bad UI…. really really bad
14 Likes
Despite being a 12 year Plex user (!), I ain’t the most tech person around. I got Jellyfin up and running fairly quickly, but like Plex, it’ll take a few more days/weeks of fine tuning and tweeking.
Last night in frustration, I put two folders of film and TV on Jellyfin and it seemed to work pretty good! Now I’ll slowly start shoveling the rest of the collection over… (Plus! They have a great online community with no stupid overlords running the show into the ground like they do at Plex!)
11 Likes
Tagging into with the rest. I’ve been a plex user for over 13 years, Plex Pass lifetime for almost the same amount of time. 90% of what I consume media wise comes through my personal libraries on plex. This new Roku UI is absolute garbage, while I can still technically play me media, finding my media is 100x harder. I don’t want the stupid discovery or recomended from Plex service junk on my home screen. I want my recently added or aired media instead. If this is the way the UI is going for all apps, I may have to seriously consider alternatives which is a HUGE shame.
10 Likes
I have gotten messages from almost everyone using my server asking me how to put it back. My poor grandmother cannot even figure out how to use the thing. 
10 Likes
Agreed.
I will try Jellyfin!
7 Likes
Jumping in…. this is terribly un-intuitive, pretty ugly and wastes screen space while cramming in lists of libraries in an ugly menu.
As others have said, older/elderly folks are not doing well with this. The previous “big” update was tough enough on mine, and that was relatively minor in comparison.
Would love to be able to roll back or turn it off… or even have 2 versions of the Plex app… maybe a “Classic” version that you can just leave “as is”.
9 Likes
I absolutely agree. WTH is Plex thinking? At the very least give us the ability to opt for the original experience I paid for all these years, otherwise I will be forced to explore other options.
9 Likes
Agreed. This is one of the worst UI updates I’ve ever seen! Totally counterintuitive, laggy and the Roku remote suddenly stops working after a few clicks. The design team responsible for this travesty should be shown the door. Why on God’s green earth did Plex decide to move away from an extremely well thought out user interface?!
This UI update is an abomination straight from the bowels of hell!
9 Likes
At the very least:
- Allow the ordering of Libraries (as was possible before.
- Allow the removal of specific Libraries… YES I see that they are selectable, BUT THEY STILL SHOW UP REGARDLESS SO IT DOES NOT WORK (Roku Ultra).
- Allow a “Top Library Menu or Left Library Menu” option.
- The Top Library Menu is far too small. Scrolling around is silly and I have a hard time reading it in 4K anyway. So maybe you have a scaling issue too?
Overall a massive step back for the App.
11 Likes
Agree, PLEX REVERT BACK NOW and allow only those Users that want the new UI. OPTIONS, OPTIONS, OPTIONS
Plex, you made a change to your UI and ROKU cannot navigate around the screen. Why did you change the UI without informing your users? Why did you not provide a fall back option if your 3rd party partners could not support your change.
FIXED NEEDED:
-
Provide option for menu list on side as previous. Many do not like the horizontal list at top. Takes up too much screen. You should ALWAYS provide an option for legacy features and you failed.
-
Provide option to deep hide some libraries that are not easily viewable. Now all libraries are easily accessed at the top of the screen when previously you had to scroll down the veridical list, then click on server and then click some more to get to hidden libraries. Either find a way to hide them more or best case add for 4 digit passcode on user selected libraries so if accessed. .
Next time, do your due diligence. What a colossal failure.
7 Likes
100% agree the new UI is a dumpster fire. If they don’t revert back, I’ll likely be moving on to Jellyfin. This seems like change for the sake of change, as it does nothing but hamper the end user experience. I can only imaging the engineers at Plex being given this assignment, wanting to tell management how bad it is, but if it’s like any other corporate culture, all you can do is shake your head and lie about how great it is. This is a HUGE misstep for the platform.
8 Likes
Im with everyone here. This new UI is a joke. Whoever designed it needs to be fired. Not to mention the actual functionality of its broken. Remote control failes.
You have 48hrs, after which I’m switching to jellyfin.
7 Likes
This update sucks in every way possible. Can’t remove the stupid live TV, on demand and discovery. Takes easy not button presses to get where you need to go. Horrible.
5 Likes
The new Plex client is a complete mess: slow loading, missing decoders, missing some subtitle font files, and poor localization progress. The search function is also broken—I can’t find the movies I want in Chinese most of the time and can only search in English. The old app never had these problems.
5 Likes
i was panicking late last night trying to normalize my son’s profile before he woke at the crack of dawn to find plex unusable. i still haven’t found a way to show the many playlists i created and shared with his profile
5 Likes
