Plex, show your customers some respect

Why wouldn’t you care? This is your first comment on this subject that I’ve seen you make publicly in the past two years. Seriously, you should be ashamed.

Whilst Windows Phone may be dead, there are plenty of Windows touch devices out there which are not Windows Phone. The UWP app, if updated, would work well on those devices. Media player does not work well on those devices. That should be reason enough to continue to develop the UWP app.

Over a year ago, one of your employees @BigWheel said that there was plenty of work being done on the UWP app. As this appears not to be true, perhaps you, @elan or @BigWheel can explain why that statement was made.

Your handling of this whole situation leaves a lot to be desired. If you really do care, perhaps you should produce a blog post saying that the UWP app is officially done, and remove it from the app store.

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This was my response to @BigWheel in July 2017. Needless to say, he or she didn’t respond.

So much this @foxprorawks Yes, WIndows phone is dead, the surface line is anything but dead and the UWP app used to work like a charm on mine. I moved to Emby mainly because of the utter lack of communication and false promises in this thread and Emby have NO issues maintaining their UWP app and their version of PMP.
You can’t claim you’re listening to your users when releasing the UNO interface and at the same time ignore a part of your user base for 2 freaking years.

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You can expect @elan to lock this thread now, without responding. That’s the style of Plex.

But, rest assured, they DO CARE!

Schrödinger’s Plex.

No offense. But the app in the windows store is about heaven and the earth is cleaner than the currently proposed solution on W10. It is modern, intuitive and looks professional. Unfortunately, buffering movies leaves much to be roared. I understand that the W10 app has been officially killed?

But I would ask what app you mean by currently proposed? If you are looking at PMP then its far from proposed. Its actually both existing and at the same time a dead duck. That UI is totally abandoned in favor of UNO. It hasn’t actually been released on PMP yet. So far only Roku and Apple TV as far as I’m aware. But its actually extremely usable.

And interestingly, the gui from the UWP app is not that different from uno with the side bar…

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I am talking about the plex version of the Windows Store, for me it is much nicer than the one proposed by Plex.
The version that gives Plex is no different from the browser version.

Well again…

That suggests that you are talking about Plex Media Player. That has two different views the one that loads by default does look like the browser. However it also has a TV mode that looks nothing liked the web browser.
Assuming that’s the app you mean, it isn’t “proposed”, its existed for at least two years on the vast majority of clients.

But again that UI is soon to be abandoned in favour of UNO. That’s currently only available on the Roku and Apple TV. But will be the UI for every client eventually.

Even if PLEX has no intention of continuing UWP developmen it would be nice if they open-sourced the source code for the UWP app so the community could have the opportunity of forking and maintaining a 3rd party version.

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Well, the thread is still open but no new updates. Ah well 2 weeks is nothing given how long we didn’t hear anything…

Elan said 2 weeks ago they’re not updating it and are working on adding missing features like sync to PMP, not sure what more you want to hear about.

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@elan

Seriously dude… one of your oldest users…
Bought a new surface pro 6 (finally no apple left in my life)
Switch on plex, sync media for epic travel.
Can’t do… It’s not mobile enough. Seriously.

I now bring an extra Samsung Note 9, to watch content… why would i want it on my big screen.

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So reading through all this I am in the same position as some other users, I have a Surface Pro 3, bought the UWP app from the Windows store only to find out it’s stuttering all over the place and basically unusable. The now being pushed Windows PMP is a joke running on the Surface, no touch or mouse support so unusable as well. So the Plex slogan should be ‘Use Plex on any device except when you own a Microsoft Surface or any other Windows platform relying on touch as a interface’.

Back to the UWP app, you really should pull it from the App Store, in most cases it doesn’t work anyway and there is no support available (besides acknowledging existing bugs).
Another option is to make it a free app with a disclaimer at the top explaining there are known issues with this app, no support available and use it at your own risk.

Really disappointing…

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Your response here is not great, elan.

Yes, we can obviously tell the UWP app is dead. It hasnt been updated in over 2 years, and you guys have been drip feeding us promises or just not communicating at all. So yes, we obviously know its dead.

But to tell us to read the writing on the wall? Give me a break. While most of the other apps are free with a plex pass subscription, this one never was. So we essentially paid an extra 5 dollars for an app that never quite worked right at even doing its basic core functions, and then was just abandoned. Did we get our money back, no. And it has taken 2 years to even get an apology and just to be told that it should have been obvious that it was dead.

So thank for the apology, but at this point, it doesnt mean a whole lot especially after starting the post telling us that the writing was on the wall and we should have just figured it out.

And yes, you recognize that the PMP app is missing some major features that the windows app had and you would like to remedy it… So… you want to add in these core features, but are promising absolutely nothing except acknowledging that the current program you are promoting is lacking. Are there any actual plans to implement syncing? How about making a touch interface that works for those who use their devices in that way?

Personally I have moved on from this app a long time ago, but you should be aware that this whole UWP app fiasco has definitely soured me on your platform and I do not think I am alone. I appreciate that we have finally gotten a response, but it almost feels a bit like we are being blamed for not realizing it was dead way sooner.

Edit: Removed the part about the UWP app still being for sale. Its still available in the store it seems, but it appears to be free (with potentially in app purchases). This was not how I remembered it being, as I am pretty sure I had to pay up front for the app when I purchased it.

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It’s only free when you play local media, when streaming from your Plex Media server is only plays for 1 minute with a watermark showing.

Any news about updates on the Windows Store app? It’s annoying. It works very bad, it has a lot of bugs and can’t show groups, no music plays…

Have you tried the Plex Media Player for Windows instead? It was last updated August 6th so might have current code to fix the problems you are experiencing.

https://www.plex.tv/media-server-downloads/#plex-app

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I know it, but it is the web player embedded in an application. i’m looking for a better experience in my Surface, like Android & iOS tablet apps. And download is important for me… Windows Store app could be a very good app with some investment from the Plex team… We are talking about 850 million of Windows 10 potential users…
Thank you for your help :slight_smile: