for my last flight I prepared two ipads with downloads. (The downloads actually worked great)
On the plane, one worked, but on the other one at some point I could not start the plex app anymore. It would just immidiately go to a black screen and stay there forever. I tried restarting the app and the ipad, nothing helped.
When I was back home and had internet again, the app immidiately started normally and all the downloads were still there.
I am now looking at a 14h flight next week with my kids, and I am a little afraid this could happen again. Any advice on how to prevent this or unblock it when it happens ?
This post might give some clarity. You have to download to your device while connected directly to your PMS. You’ll want to make sure that those downloads have completed and can playback before you leave for a trip. You might need to check each one in airplane mode and wifi turned off..
I just ran into this on Android too. Worked fine for my outgoing flight, but my return flight could only ever sit on a blank screen with a loading spinner, after the startup splash screen.
No amount of toggling flight mode or restarting my device could get Plex to just start. Unfortunately my flight didn’t have any internet for 10 hours, so Plex couldn’t do whatever startup task it wants to do even when you’re offline. Specifically, there was wifi, but that wifi had no internet access. Perhaps Plex got into a death spiral because of that, I don’t know.
The moment I landed and turned on my mobile data, it started no issues.
As of January 18th, 2026 this bug is still present in the iPad iOS app. When launching the Plex iOS app while offline or in Airplane mode, Plex hangs on a black screen. You are not able to choose a user and you cannot access your downloaded offline content.
Interestingly, if I connect to WiFi, open the Plex app, progress to the profile selection page, then close the app, turn airplane mode back on, the issue does not occur after immediately reopening the app while offline. Thus it seems like this occurs only when the app is launched while the device is offline and an unknown period of time has passed since the Plex app has last been open with an internet connection.
That’s consistent with what @Jirby described on Android as well where it worked for his outgoing flight but not the return, which, incidentally, was exactly my experience on iPad iOS.
Hopefully this is addressed soon. My children were quite upset that they did not have Daniel Tiger or Ms. Rachel on our 10 hour return flight home.
If a Plex developer would like a video, I made a screen recording and would be happy to share it.
Update 2026-03-28: I know the purpose of this forum is to seek support for Plex but for those needing a workaround now, I’ve found that the VLC iPad app allows you to download content locally and so far, it works flawlessly. You can even sign into your Plex server from within the VLC app to transfer content.
This is still an issue today, 2/4/2026. I open Plex app as usual, go up to profile in upper right, Downloads has a red error symbol next to it and when you try and open your Downloads you get this message:
Uh Oh…
Something’s Not Right
Sorry, that didn’t work. We are actively monitoring for issues. Try restarting the app or come back later.
Then it asks you if you want to download the logs. I reached out to Plex support and was sent here. Seems weird how they do not have an actual support team to help with these issues. It has been going on for over two weeks now and I cannot access my downloads as a Plex Pass member.
Having this same issue too. Exactly the same problems as described above., Being a Plex Pass Member and having a bug this glaring is very upsetting. This should be a simple fix. I ask of any Plex employees to please highlight this and get it fixed as soon as possible.
Exact same issue. iPad running 26.3.1 and Plex 2026.4.1 (1631), but I have been seeing this for months.
Before I leave home I download some content. Some time passes with Plex working normally. At some point I will open Plex and see the splash screen, followed by a black screen rapidly sliding in from the right. The app is completely unresponsive. I am never presented with the Who’s watching? page and cannot view my downloaded content. I have tried force quitting the app, restarting the iPad, turning WiFi off or on, airplane mode off or on, there is no way to fix this other than connecting to the internet.
This is always immediately resolved by connecting to the internet, and it works for some time after that. Normally a few (somewhere around two to four) days, but no exact number as far as I can tell. I think it has been as short as hours. It survives a force quit of the app, so I don’t think it’s because it has been evicted.
It renders offline playback for long journeys pretty much useless, as it’s a gamble whether it works or not. Recently I was at sea for a week with no way to get internet access and it happened on the second day.
I will start to keep a log to see if there is any pattern.
