I really, really hope this is genuine, but to everyone here - I hate to break it to you but this slow ui experience has simply been the reality of plex for desktop ever since the new app launched.
I believe this thread is one of the first to discuss the issue (back when downloads were completely broken as well - thankfully that part got fixed)
According to this reddit post, this is likely due to not using hardware acceleration on the ui processes
https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/fg02t5/windows_app_extremely_laggy_in_the_ui/
Amidst all the new features, other bug fixes and improvements, this slow/unresponsive UI performance has never been addressed and has persisted over the years.
Many have likely not noticed it much up until now as the slowdown has only been more severe on higher resolution displays and these are not as common. As a user with a 4K monitor I just had to accept that the UX will always be garbage while trying to navigate the library or edit items.
There is also a MUCH more irritating issue while trying to watch content, where the top and bottom bars with playback controls get “stuck” on the screen and become unresponsive while the video keeps playing. I have found this most commonly occurs when switching from windowed to full screen after just starting playback.
While the UI is “hung”, you can’t do anything to control playback, so if you try to pause or rewind those commands will buffer until the ui decides it’s time to un-stick. This can take anywhere from a few seconds to upwards of ten.
This brings us to today, where this new ui update has taken things to a whole new level, exacerbating the problem to the point where it is becoming apparent to users with more mainstream display resolutions. The lag is now noticeable even on my old 1280x1024 secondary monitor.
And mind you, that thread I linked is mostly users on laptops with integrated graphics, I primarily use a desktop with a 9700k and 2080ti - if I’m having a hard time then I shudder to imagine the experience of this new update on a mobile device.
And I will do everything in my power to make sure that STAYS in my imagination - as I happen to have a surface go tablet (crappy Pentium dual core, but a real nice high resolution 1800 x 1200 display) that already is unusably bad when it comes to this lag issue. I am 100% certain it would be crippled by this update so I will be doing everything in my power to ensure it doesn’t update until this issue is addressed.
TLDR: The plex app ui has always been laggy, but this was mostly only apparent on high res displays and low end hardware (not an excuse). This issue has now been made SIGNIFICANTLY WORSE by the most recent ui update, and is apparent on all screen resolutions.
The underlying issue has never been addressed since the app launched, and has to do with the engine that runs the ui not using hardware aceleration (or doing so very poorly/being generally unoptimized) disclaimer: I don’t know for sure, but this is what I gathered from online.
This issue will never be truly fixed unless the Plex team puts in the time to properly fix the issue - and I really hope they do.
Apologies if this was too much of a rant - but I’ve been living with this UX for two years, hoping for a fix in every update. I got the new UI redesign today, thinking to myself “Hey maybe with this they finally fixed the lag as well” only to realize it was made EVEN worse.
