Yup, I know it is frustrating specially when they don’t say anything. Well, they responded now, let’s hope they are quicker to update us next time 
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For those with new Shields from Prime Day, it is relatively easy to get your Plex Media Server up and running… But you do have to start over. Since you, like me, have no libraries to start with, no great loss. But you don’t need to go the sideload APK route.
I went to the Settings on the Home screen, and then chose Apps. Scroll though the list and find Plex Media Server, and click on it. One option is to uninstall updates. I did that, it will give you the option to revert to the factory installed version. I did that. Plex Media Server reverts back to 1.11.3.4803 (or at least mine did.) Really old version, but it functions.
This version will allow you to add your libraries. I am doing that right now. After I finish, I assume I can update the app, and then I will have the latest software, but at least now I will have functional libraries. I just can’t add more yet until they fix the software.
The Shield preinstalled version does not work with LiveTV. Then I also have to completely rebuild the recording schedule. Going to hold out for an update.
Really sorry for the frustration with this one! The issue is related to a SMB-related dependency we upgraded. QA does testing with every release, so we’re looking into why this wasn’t caught, as well as either getting a fixed dep or reverting to an older one.
My apologies for the pain.
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Thanks for this explanation !
I hope you’ll find / release the fix really quickly !
Thanks a lot! That was the solution for me. You saved me the trouble of finding out why the apk wouldn’t install.
I won’t even bother updating the app once my libraries are built. I don’t think I need all the bells and whistles of the latest version for now. A stable version that works, that’s all I want.
Maybe I’ll try again in a couple of months.
Thanks for communicating. Much appreciated.
I should add that it only worked for me after I went to settings/applications, forced the closing of Plex Media Server + uninstalled PMS updates (after having also uninstalled the Plex app updates as you recommended.)
Thank you for the update.
Glad that it worked for you. I haven’t had the nerve to update the app after creating the libraries either!
Thanks for the update! Great job bring Grid View to Android!
I wish there was a way to display or alert users when something like this happens. If you tally up all the hours those on here (including myself) spent trying to fix something that can’t be fixed I bet its in the hundreds if not more which only adds to the frustrations.
Errors, bugs, mistakes happen…if it can be clearly communicated the moment Plex knows there’s an issue then it really does help the users be patient and wait. Maybe a status page per device or something…not sure the best way to accomplish this but I feel something could be done.
Thanks for your hard work.
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I, like many other who posted countless problem for plex on Android client and server app believe that there’s significant flaw in the testing process and environment that android app has become like this. Please have more variant in testing because you are supporting range of devices connected both by speedy lane and not so speedy ones. Please just go back to basic and focus on making player that just works that won’t just give cryptic error or cause unnecessary transcoding.
For example:
The error message, ‘device can’t play the media at foo x bar resolution’ is almost always cause unnecessary transcoding and black vertical bars on left and right side. This happens on AndroidTV, but the same device that play this video via Kodi official plex add on or plex for Android forced mobile UI will happily Direct Play the same media without squeezed vertical black bars. This usually happens when playing anamorphic media. This is just a random example.
My point is that plex for Android is really far away from being ideal media player and the developer should really deep dive into the issue and be very careful on developing it.
Almost all transcoding and error playback on AndroidTV will be gone by using Kodi for plex add on assuming that the device has the true capability to play the audio and video codec.
My Android TV client (on the Shield) works great and does not show any of the problems that you state. Seems to be either device or file specific.
Anecdotal experience means less than nothing, unless you mean all of the people who complain about various problem in this forum that use Android are lying.
My shield plays ok for all media but not great. But that’s not the point at all. The point is that when the majority of people complain about a lot of stuff on plex for AndroidTV or mobile, there’s something very wrong that needs to be fixed. Not you, not even plex staff should dismissed the problem just because ‘it looks ok, i have no problem’
Which “majority”? Surely, a number of people seems to be unhappy (which is always the case), but I don’t know how you can estimate that this is the majority of users?
I never said that you or the other people are lying, I just wanted to point out that not all people are affected by whatever major problems you state. I noticed the plethora of comments from your side all over the forum expressing your discontent topped with your somewhat hostile approach towards people that do not share your opinion. I guess you made your point. This thread is about PMS on the Shield, which has nothing to do with your problems I believe, since your are mostly complaining about the Android TV client. Just because elan came by, there is no need to repeat your rants again and again.
You seem to lack the understanding that this is a server side issue. If your Shield TV is working fine as a client, great, but that has nothing to do with this thread at all.
I was not referring to the problem of the server not picking up new files. This is obviously an error and obviously on the server side.
My bad then, didn’t notice another user went off-topic there. Anyway, I can testify that even the client has many issues, and that’s why I use a 3rd party app, but most of the issues are on the server side.
There are some issues that are hard to understand why they still exist like the lack of a correct profile for the client, the incredible slow down caused by enabling debug logging, tv themes not working anymore, etc. But there are other issues with transcoding, conversion queues, sync, etc, that take more time to resolve.
And because of that, it’s hard not to be frustrated when updates come with not fixes for any of those issues and instead brake yet another feature.
I see. As I said, I don’t call anyone a liar if they state their problems. But saying that everything is rubbish is a little bit exaggerated in my opinion.
