No episode grouping in downloads! Why!?!?

Plex Players Mobile Devices
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Server Version#:
Player Version#:2025.18.0

Thanks to chat gpt helping write this….frustrating change to plex!

:lady_beetle: Bug Report: Downloads No Longer Group Episodes by Show/Season

Description
In the latest Plex app (mobile iOS/Android), downloaded TV episodes are displayed as individual items rather than being grouped by show or season. This breaks basic functionality that users widely relied on—making it extremely tedious to manage downloads (e.g., deleting or playing multiple episodes)oliviertravers.com+13forums.plex.tv+13forums.plex.tv+13.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. On a mobile device with the current Plex mobile app, download an entire season (or multiple episodes) of any TV show.
  2. Navigate to the Downloads tab.
  3. You’ll see each episode listed separately, unsorted by season or show grouping.

Expected Behavior
The downloads should appear grouped by Show → Season → Episodes, allowing users to expand/collapse seasons and manage them as a cohesive set, similar to how they appear in the main library.

Actual Behavior
All episodes appear as a flat list, sorted alphabetically by title. There is no grouping by show or season, and no bulk actions for a season-level deletion or playback reddit.com+3forums.plex.tv+3support.plex.tv+3.

Impact

  • Makes deleting watched episodes extremely tedious (one-by-one), even for full seasons
  • Breaks user workflows, especially during travel or offline viewing with multiple episodes
  • Affects usability for families, commuters, and anyone consuming content offline

Additional User Feedback
From Reddit:

“The downloads list is just not usable for a 5‑year‑old when you have 100+ episodes.”
“Having to manually delete 96 episodes one by one…” github.com+3reddit.com+3forums.plex.tv+3

Forum post:

“Downloaded TV show seasons no longer being grouped by season… going to be extremely tedious to delete them one by one.” forums.plex.tv

Affected Versions & Platforms

  • Plex Mobile UI (iOS & Android), latest release as of June 2025
  • Downloads tab only—TV show downloads are affected; movies remain unaffected

Suggested Fix
Restore grouping logic in the Downloads tab so users can manage downloaded content by season or show, not just as individual files. A toggle to enable “Group downloads by show/season” would be ideal.

4 Likes
2

They rewrote how downloads works and this hadn’t been added yet. They’ve said they are working on improving it, so just be patient.

3

Just to clarify, Plex haven’t at all confirmed that a reasonable design for download management is underway. It would be great to see this is specifically in the backlog with a Must or Should prioritisation (MoSCoW). This isn’t a new feature, but a total regression of a key area of functionality.

My key use case for Plex is downloads, it is why I got a Plex Pass many many years ago, or sync as it was originally called. This has always been a problematic area for Plex, the last versions before the New Experience were getting close to working well (with the exception of background downloading and slow speeds).

I would also add that the server view should have an indication if the show has been downloaded also.

4

Be patient? With what exactly? They destroyed one of my biggest reasons to use plex in one fell swoop. And for no real reason as far as I can tell. As awesome is plex is, and I was an extremely early adopter, the evolution of the project has left a lot to be desired.

5

Plex has always released apps early. Too early in some opinions. There are always complaints in the beginning but eventually the app catches up or close and add new features. Then somehow becomes the perfect client when the next version comes out and the complaints switch to that version.

1 Like
6

I need this feature to work properly for my travel and for kids on a secured android tablet. Offline downloads and parental controls on a child’s tablet were the primary reasons I gifted a Lifetime Plex Pass to my godson.

7

+1 to request that restoring this functionality be prioritized!

8

Please recreate this feature please

9

Piling on here. I use Plex for tablets that my kids use when travelling, this issue gets even worse on kids TV shows that are 10-15 minutes long and have 50+ episodes in a season. It makes the downloads section of the app almost unusable

10

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