I am experiencing the same issue with autoplay no longer working on our Fire TV devices that others have noted. Every television in our household uses a Fire TV Stick running Plex, and auto play for the next episode is completely broken across my entire environment (yes, its turned on in settings)
I have already tried the usual troubleshooting steps: uninstalling and reinstalling the application, clearing the cache, clearing app data, and checking the relevant settings. None of those steps resolved the issue. Needless to say, the Mrs. is not particularly happy about having to manually start every episode, but I digress.
While I am not a fan of the new interface, my primary concern is not simply that it looks different. Users can adapt to a redesigned interface. It is much harder to accept an update that removes useful controls, introduces playback problems, and breaks functionality that previously worked reliably. An optional transition period would have given users time to adjust while allowing Plex to gather feedback before making the new experience mandatory. I understand that maintaining two separate interfaces indefinitely may not be practical from a support perspective but, before replacing an established application, there should at least be reasonable feature parity, adequate testing, and confidence that essential playback functions still work as intended.
In addition to broken autoplay, I have noticed other features previously available appear to be missing or significantly reduced:
- I can no longer find the audio-delay or audio-sync adjustment used to correct situations where audio and video are slightly out of sync.
- The player’s advanced settings appear to have been substantially stripped down. On our devices, the advanced section seems to offer little beyond an IPv6 toggle and a cache-reset option.
- As seen in other posts users are reporting problems with playlists, playback performance, refresh-rate switching, audio compatibility (I’ve seen this one where sound no longer works for previously working TV series), Live TV, and features that were available.
Some of those issues may have different underlying causes, but they collectively suggest that this is more than a disagreement over menu placement or visual design.
I have used Plex for well over a decade and have been a Lifetime Plex Pass holder for the majority of that time. I originally joined to dump TiVo and build my own DVR as that feature became available. What attracted me to Plex was its flexibility, control over personal media, and the ability to create a dependable viewing experience for my household (MythTV+Kodi had too many unplanned outages for the fam).
That is why these changes feel increasingly disconnected from Plex’s own stated values, specifically “Put yourself on the customer’s couch” and “Approach problems with curiosity, creativity, and flexibility.” From where I am sitting, that couch now comes with broken features, fewer playback controls, and family members asking why something that used to work no longer does.
I have seen Plex’s announcement that left-side navigation is returning:
I appreciate that Plex is responding to feedback about navigation. However, the announcement appears to describe changes within the new application rather than a restoration of the previous, fully functional experience. It also does not clearly explain whether autoplay, missing playback controls, reduced advanced settings, and other reported Fire TV regressions are being addressed.
A few questions to note:
- Is broken episode and playlist autoplay on Fire TV a recognized issue, and is a fix being actively developed?
- Will audio-sync adjustment and other previously available advanced playback settings be restored?
- Are the broader playback, compatibility, and Live TV issues being tracked and prioritized alongside the navigation changes?
- Can Plex provide a clearer timeline or public status updates for restoring feature parity and stability on Fire TV (and other clients if applicable)?
Moving the navigation back to the left is a welcome acknowledgment that users were heard, but it will not solve the underlying problem if the application remains less functional and less reliable than the version it replaced.
I want to be clear that I and other users who have supported Plex over the years are not asking the product to stop evolving. I think everyone is aware that it is a small team that cranks out a lot of work for a huge, very demanding community of users. I think all we are asking that evolution not come at the expense of the core features and a dependable experience that made us choose Plex in the first place.
