Releasing the new app was a crazy decision

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431

Yep - if someone is having issues using the Plex client to stream Plex content, they most likely aren’t going to use the forums for assistance - they’re most likely just going to not use it and switch to another streaming service instead.

For the heck of it, I checked to see what Pluto TV had for support and they don’t have any kind of community forums, just a generic support page for general questions, tips/tricks. troubleshooting etc. However, they did at least have a way to contact support directly (something Plex really needs to do!)

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432

Streaming of carefully curated centrally held media is far less likely to have issues than personal collections with all of the millions of permutations of Media types and server types.

This, on top of the points which @Orko and @Lazarus_Long have laid out, would explain why there are very few streaming issues which are brought to the forum. I don’t doubt that those hosting their own media (or streaming from such servers) are in the majority of users compared (rather than the minority) to those who solely stream the Plex offered services.

I have no hard figures, but I’d also be amazed if year on year the number of people hosting their own server(s) isn’t gradually decreasing, both in absolute numbers, but also as a percentage of Plex users over time.

Anyone wanting to watch content starting fresh today would be far more likely to stream (paid or unpaid/add supported).

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433

Hi,

I have been lurking in the forum for a while watching everyone beat up on each other about their own opinions and why their opinion is more important than some other person’s opinion. I wish everyone would be kind to each other and keep on topic by working together to get Plex to improve their code so suit all users. I see no issue with Plex wanting to offer streaming options. I can see that it could bring important income to the company and content to a larger base of users. That said, I think that the users who want to have their own media being properly managed and served should have that access with equal ease. Similarly the ability to hide any features users don’t want to use or see, whether it be streaming options or local media options, this should all be possible and permissible. This was possible in the old UI and I suspect that many users want this back.

@geoffairey, one of the big issues with streaming these days, particularly with subscription services is the massive amount of advertising that is being injected into the streams. Also the costs of streaming are climbing at an unacceptable rate. Yet another issue is the management of streaming services where titles come and go making some programs very hard to find. I suspect that these new streaming realities may be driving more users back to wanting services like Plex so that users can better manage their own curated collections of material. Thus, I suspect that the numbers of users wanting Plex for their own content management may actually be growing and not declining. Similarly I suspect that streaming companies may be seeing declining numbers due to their rising costs, injection of ads into paid subscriptions, removal or swapping of content between different services and their decision to make streaming outside of your primary residence very difficult.

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434

I respect your opinion, we’re both speculating on Plex numbers. But history shows that while some people choose to continue with “old” models of consuming media (e.g. Vinyl, CDs, DVDs) and others retreat to those models after using streaming, increasingly new entrants won’t even see those as options as they grow up with streaming, it’ll be normal. Also at the moment they can do a month on one service, binge everything they want to watch, cancel and then sub to a different service for a month.

On top of this, look at the number of people who increasingly don’t even own a desktop/laptop, rather their computing needs are med by using a phone and/or tablet. Do they buy a computer for hundreds of pounds and then maintain their own server (as many of us do) or simply make it someone else’s problem? I suspect that many don’t want the hassle.

I’d prefer plain old Plex which didn’t include any streaming offerings, but that ship has sailed.

435

Maybe what Plex should have done instead is have a completely separate app for their streaming services…also something they completely seem to forget is that how they got all of their streaming service customers to begin with is piggybacking on top of users that were originally using the app to stream either self-hosted content (or content hosted by another Plex server).

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Hi @geoffairey,

I won’t go into specifics but streaming companies are now moving to make the subscribe, binge , and cancel process much harder. The release of episodes is being spaced out so that users need to maintain subscriptions for longer periods.

I don’t mind what services Plex want to include with their client software. I just ask that they give all users the ability to see or hide any components they choose to see or hide.

For the record, I am another user who wants to see a single Plex client provide full access to all media. That should include music and photographs. I am happy for the separate applications to continue for those who want or need them but I very much value the old integrated experience where I could quickly access any media type I wanted from the one app. I hope that Plex will restore the ability for users to select which services they want to see and those that they do not. All the services should be just as easy to find and navigate. No one service should be given any higher priority or screen space then any other service.

Regards Ian.

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437

I came here to see if things had improved. I never updated from 1.41.5.9522. It’s interesting to see that some things kinda reverted, after new experience released. But if everyone loved the old version, like what I have, it was dumb for them to change lol

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438

1.41.5.9522 is a Plex Media Server version. It has nothing to do with the Plex client apps themselves. You can still use the “legacy” Plex mobile apps with the current server (1.42.1.10060).

439

The playback controls are terrible, why rewind 15 seconds but FF 30 seconds, also if video has less than 30 seconds left you can;t FF to the end unlike with the current app

440

I think you misunderstood what I said. I’m talking about people that pay money for full access for a remote server to access their content.

Those users don’t care about Plex curated content. The free app users will definitely use Plex ad-filled content.

441

Coming back months later just shocked it’s still the same. I’ve actively avoided using it on my tablet since this released. What a bad update. A UX disaster.

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442

Does anyone know if it possible to rotate the Plex App on Android? Starting content automatically puts the player in horizontal mode, but as soon as the media ends and you go back to the Plex UI, it flips back to portrait mode. All of my other apps work (and stay) in either mode, but it’s really irritating to be forced to rotate the phone back and forth just to use the app. Thanks.

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443

No, it’s not - unfortunately.

They would have to manage two different views inside the same app - something they obviously avoided when they released this “new experience”.

Since then, when I want to use Plex controls on my phone’s Plex app inside my car - with the navigation app running in the background (landscape, of course), I need to guess which button does what in that portrait mode view of the Plex app… DANGEROUS… I avoid that.

With the classic app, this was not a problem and it was not distracting to the driver or irritating to the co-driver to hit a button to play an episode from the beginning, for example.

This is so NOT smart.

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444

Not sure why they couldn’t. On my iPad Mini they support both a portrait and landscape view (although they don’t on my iPhone).

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Just speculating… for their TV apps, no rotation is needed, for the PC and Mac versions, rotation is (almost) not necessary… it’s the same on Android mobile… personally, I guess that they find it too easy to turn a mobile phone to control it and neglected the use cases in which this is not possible or hard to achieve.

In general, I see it as a regression compared with the product they had before. One of the more severe ones. Missing theme music is another one (different topic).

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446

I agree. Give the ‘social’ users a chance to use some shiny new Plex app. They’ll go back to professional streaming apps like tidal, Spotify etc soon enough but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE!!! -let the people who held your service up for so many years because it was a beautiful home server administrator HAVE THEIR ACCESS BACK!!!

The day PLEX stepped into the same s#*tpile as SONOS will go down in history!!

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447

I think It’s quite obvious that plex was hacked by a long time user who was APPALLED by the rollout of the new app a few months back. Either that or by a former employee who fought the rollout of the new app because they could see how CRAP it is and got fired for their efforts.

I have no doubt that the person who went to the trouble of hacking them was doing it to exact revenge for A BROKEN HEART. I’ll wager it was a long time user who had spent years curating and renaming and moulding their media collection so that it worked seamlessly and beautifully with plex. And this person was settled and content that all their efforts had led to a beautiful partnership that would serve them for many years to come. Then the partner Plex, who they had come to rely upon and love with all their heart WENT OFF AND #%*$ED A CHEAP HOOKER and took photos of the whole sordid scene and then came home and pinned those photos on the fridge over the top of their children’s artwork. Refused to apologise and insisted the photos stayed up on the fridge despite the HEARTBROKEN protests from their partner.

This partner was patient, and politely requested, and then begged and pleaded that things go back to they way they were, but Plex said NO and kept seeing that hooker. And then came home with g€n!+@1 warts and syphilis and gave it to them.

I suspect at some point that loving partner had had enough and decided that Plex no longer loved them and they NO LONGER LOVED PLEX. But that some level of revenge must be exacted to teach their former partner a HARD LESSON in faithfulness. So they carefully collected a specimen gave plex AIDS.

AND THATS WHAT I BELIEVE is the reason for the hack.

Plex don’t have the content to compete with the big streaming services so there won’t be any revenue to steal from Netflix, Disney, etc. and there are plenty of other devices such as Apple TVs that can combine multiple streaming services into a beautiful powerful single search platform.

So now they’ve alienated their loyal users (and make no mistake, it was those users whose recommendations brought in the subscriptions - not some weak and shiny gui) and they’ve turned up a path where they just can’t compete with the big dogs in any way that will bring in meaningful revenue.

plex went from being powerful and appropriate for the needs of their users to nothing but a money-hungry shell of its former self, bent on force feeding users crap for ad revenue while simultaneously pushing its former loyal supporters toward other services. IT CANT END WELL FOR THEM.

I’m also heartbroken, so many years of tweaking and curating and learning, to make a beautiful child and now every time I go to the fridge and open the app, I see the photos of PLEX with that cheap hooker that passed on the herpes.

If I had the brains, time and the wherewithal to exact revenge in that way, I probably would have considered doing the same.

sadly I’m just a low tech user who battled for years and years to finally get a nice server experience only to have it all taken away in a single update.

I’ve got the warts and the syphilis now.

There’s a couple of hookers called Jellyfin and Emby down on the corner…. Might pay them a visit.

448

I moved to Jellyfin and I’m never coming back, it creams Plex in every single aspect, from plugins to performance and everything you can think of, and it’s completely free, no subscriptions to unlock anything

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449

We should not have to leave one app to refresh a library in another app. Have PlexAmp linked in Plex to open vs remove all trace of any Music at all. I was fine with Plex and Plex Amp but they wanted to require we have Photos and Dashboard for basic maintenance too?

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450

Just keep your photos and etc in different apps if you really want dedicated ones? There’s already way better photo apps than plex