If a library view is switched to browse and then the user returns to the “Home” view, returning to “Libraries” will still show the last view. However, when a new library is selected, the “Recommended” tab is auto-selected, regardless of what was viewed last.
We don’t use “Recommended” anything and yet, PLEX forces that tab open every time we switch to a given library. It is irritating enough that both my wife and I gave up on testing and have gone back to the old player as a result.
We would like the ability to set the default tab to our preference or, at a minimum, remember the last selection as is possible in the standard apps.
PROTIP: Disable automatic app updates on your AppleTV and/or devices that you can handle managing manual updates. It is too late for our phones but at least I can keep our TV experience functional.
Someday maybe we’ll upgrde but for now this new version is a hot mess and we will avoid at all costs.
So just to understand what you’re saying - we would be able to select either “Recommended” or “Browse” as the default? Not the same as Remember Selected (actually better I think).
Yeah I know is not the same. The issue with the remember selected tab is was weird in a number of ways and not always reliable due to the way it was stored in memory in various apps/devices. sometimes just rebooting a device it would not remember.
The reason it is not all tabs is because they are not always present where browse/recommend are.
There is discussion for similar setting for sectionslike Live TV but i don’t think anything definitive has landed there yet
In the interim, as a workaround, I’ve created smart collections which “contain” my entire libraries (one for movies, one for TV, etc.) and made them visible on my home screens. That provides one-tap access to the entire library from the home screen.
In addition, I’ve set the various “Recently Added,” “Recently Released,” and other hubs to not be visible on the home screen so that only my custom smart collection hubs are present. It makes for a fairly convenient browsing experience.
We are also adding a row to home screen of libraries. I know designs for TV have been made but not sure about mobile yet, only because i have not seen mobile designs
@BigWheel Appreciated, but “coming soon” is not soon enough. I have locked all of our non-phone versions in amber and will not upgrade until the apps that should have been left in Beta finally make it to a usable state. This specific change has singlehandedly ruined the user experience for us but it is only one of many. Prior to the new app release, we had a few features we would have liked to see but were otherwise very happy and looked forward to incremental improvements. With the new rollout it feels like we’re partying like it’s 2012 and anxiously anticipating basic functions to work smoothly.
That seems like a good solution really; it would be more reliable. I second @Lazarus_Long in suggesting a formal blog post of “coming soon” features\fixes could be very beneficial.
I did similar and made the Home and library Recommended screens much more useful for me. I think a lot of folks just don’t realize they can customize it.
One example was replacing the built in Recently Released row with a smart collection that did the same thing but only included unwatched titles. That way once I watched it, it disappeared from that row. I called it “Recently Released Unwatched” - super clever name, right?
Tried doing the same for TV shows but I couldn’t get it to work quite right - I think there’s some special sauce in the built in row for Recently Released for TV I just can’t replicate with a smart collection.
Creating some randomized smart collections specifically for custom Home\Recommend rows really helps reduce decision fatigue too. I have a couple that help bubble up different options to browse without having to browse hundreds of titles in the library. My “Nostalgia Action Flicks” row is very popular for rewatches.
Agreed. I use smart collections extensively (and did before the new app updates) to put useful hubs on the home screen. I rarely need to browse my library from the Library view.
I do something similar with movies and TV shows. I have smart collections which present “Random Unwatched Movies” and “Random TV With Unwatched Episodes.” It keeps things interesting to your point:
But the collections with everything in the library (cleverly named “All Movies” and “All TV Shows”) have really helped making the new app easier to use.
We also use the Cast discovery feature to browse based on actor a lot too - after seeing one of their movies pop up in those random rows - which is why I wish they’d update Discover to work with Editions.
I do a variation of your “Random Unwatched Movies” that’s “Random Not Watched Recently” and includes titles not watched in over 3 years as well as unwatched titles (and excludes holiday movies). I don’t have a whole lot of unwatched other than recent additions so that helps avoid some overlap from my “recently released unwatched” row.
I use the “not watched in X time” for a few of the rows to keep stuff I watched recently from popping up in them. This is one reason moving to a new platform would create friction because that watch history would reset; I’d get over it but it’s a nice to have. So I’m hoping Plex gets some of these gaffs sorted in the New Experience, particularly before they release it to TV based devices. Seeing that the selected tab function will get addressed, eventually, is good to hear.
Sorry @obumbratum_1 about a little topic hijack but maybe these customizations will help with your library Recommended and Home hubs\rows too and reduce the annoyances with the remember selected tab not working for now.
@Insomnic_1 No problem. We’ll see what the future holds but for now, on all the devices that matter we are simply not upgrading. No thanks. Not gonna do it. Taking the NopeTrain to Nopeville.
Doing this workaround or that workaround is still having to exert effort and re-figure things out for myself and my family, which is craptacular and definitely not the Linux Way, which is my way: do one job, do it well, and make continual incremental improvements…much more the Microsoft Way: Making giant, sweeping, disruptive changes that force your userbase to lose massive amounts of productivity while they re-learn how to do what was previously well-known and working-well. Not that PLEX ever made any promises along these lines but count me out.
If these issues haven’t been ironed out by the time forced OS updates on our clients wind up foisting whatever the current version of PLEX is upon us, then I will revisit this thread and cobble something together.
I am super irritated that I’m even on the forums today, having to un-■■■■ a change I didn’t need and wasn’t asked for.
@BigWheel Do you have visibility to the roadmap as to when this will be implemented? Are we talking weeks, months, or it is simply a bullet item on a list with no definitive date?
We would be entirely happy if every library was set to “Browse” every time we returned. That is 90% of our use case with the other 10% on “Categories”.
