Give us the classic UI back. Everyone I know hates this new look. This is type of crap that sends users to Jellyfin.
11 Likes
Please bake in a way to choose the UI we want to use!
Keep the new one(as default if you have to) but for the love of all of the people that have supported the platform, give us the classic UI as a choice!!!
10 Likes
That simply wonât happen as they would need to develop it from scratch for the new codebase.
1 Like
Theyâre going to either lose subscribers, or lose some development time. One of those will have a longer lasting financial impact.
10 Likes
They have stopped listening. We have not seen a reply from @McWanke in a day, and then it was skirting the major issues for some minor quirk of the ânew experienceâ.
4 Likes
Yep. âWe heard you, but weâre not changing a damn thing. Despite what you tell us, we know whatâs best you.â
I think Plex just hit the proverbial iceberg if they donât offer an option to roll this atrocity back.
3 Likes
Keep in mind that this is the weekend. Iâm not expecting any news until Monday afternoon, at the earliest. Though we may like to believe that everyone at Plex is working 24x7 on this, thatâs not likely the case.
In any company, itâs very rarely the decision maker who has to clean up their own mess. Itâs very likely that McWanke is not a high-ranking, decision-making employee, but rather someone near the bottom of the totem pole who was given the dubious job of dealing with a mob of angry people. Not a job I would want. They are likely told what they can and canât tell us, which would explain why actual communication has been sparse. If thatâs the case, I hope they spent their weekend imbibing a few beers and are trying to relax until 9am Monday morning when they have to, once again, deal with angry people again.
That said, we do want communication and action from Plex on Monday. I would either like to hear that a decision has been made to roll-back the app, or, at the very least, told why Plex has decided not to listen to its customer base. I think we all deserve to know the whys - Why did this happen the way it did, why Plex is responding the way it is, and why they insist on ignoring their customer base. My personal guess is that itâs about money - it always is.
4 Likes
To be fair every single time Plex updates a UI they always receive pushback from a number of very vocal users. The very same UI people want back now is the same UI everyone hated 5 years ago in 2020. Updated UX Design for Roku Version 6.6.8 is a step backwards - #5 by JuiceWSA
So if they listen to users all the time they risk never evolving and growing as a company. Some users want Plex to look the way it did in 2015, some want it to look like it did in 2020, and some people donât mind the new UI in 2025 they just want it to work without crashing and bugs.
And I canât help but think this move is to compete wit streamers like Netflix. The new Netflix UI people are also really mad about and seems to be very similar to the new Plex UI âThe new UI is borderline unusableâ: Netflix subscribers are still complaining about the app re-design, and Iâm 100% with them | TechRadar
Bring back UI skins for all the Plex apps IMO. Plex will solve the vast majority of complaints allowing more user customization. Forcing everyone to use 1 UI doesnât seem to be the way forward. Everyone wants something that feels familiar, not everyone wants to change UIâs every 5 years or so.
6 Likes
The worst part is that interface is STILL better than the new one.
2 Likes
Yeah, Iâve been around software for a few decades now, professionally about 30 years. This feels like a bit more than your typical pushback. This seems like an overwhelming negative response â enough that it should at least having them consider a rollback and re-attack. Their very direct and clear response declaring that they arenât considering that could be a fatal blow in the long run. Iâm not talking about the bugs; those happen with every major release. But them digging in their heels on an obvious faux pas is throwing gasoline on the fire.
IMHO, the correct message should have been short and sweet: âWe have read each and every message, and we value the overwhelming feedback weâve received. We will use this to make us better. Please allow us this week to regroup and determine how we can solve these issues in the both the short- and long-term.â
The worst is theyâve got poor @McWanke here on the front lines (they called themselves a ârepresentativeâ) taking all the heat. Itâs just a terrible look.
13 Likes
With this update being pushed unwillingly on users and the lackluster response given from Plex, I will be migrating away from Plex completely. What a way to destroy a userbase!
7 Likes
Dropping in to say that, like most people, I think the main issue here is that the top navigation is extremely clunky and frustrating for anyone who has more than two or three libraries to look through. As others have noted, a rollback isnât feasible due to this being a full rebuild, but please look into either allowing a left-column layout/skin or providing some other way to customize so that lists of libraries are easily accessible and not buried in a side-scrolling menu.
Glad to see a lot of the bugs are being worked on, and adding that Iâm in the minority but I really like the âseasonâ card for TV shows, since it allows a little more nuance in marking things watched/interacting with certain seasons of a show instead of doing wholesale changes to the whole thing (or, even worse, one episode at a time).
7 Likes
I have installed and have been testing both Jellyfin and Emby in parallel to Plex, and though they are fully functional, they both have their own shortcomings in both functionality and interface. As with everything, there are proâs and conâs to each, which have to be weighed against each other. Though theyâre still viable options, IMHO, Plex Media Server is the superior product. I would prefer to stick with Plex, but only if the company listens to us and the client UI is made usable again.
5 Likes
I would argue that a full rollback is quite possible and feasible with practically zero work on Plexâs part. Take the old code, update the version to one later than the most recent ânew codeâ releases, and post on Roku. Clients would automatically download the new (old) code as an app update, bringing us back to where we were before this all started.
6 Likes
I so agree! And it is annoying that Technical Support has not set up any means to contact them so that we can file a complaint! My biggest complaint is moving the library to the top of the screen they way they have. It makes it more difficult to scroll through to find what you want, and I have 41 folders in my library! I want to see the library back on the left side of the screen the way it originally was, where i can see the top folders. What they have done is so absurd! What makes them think we would like this upgrade. All I read are complaints about it! If things do not change, I will be canceling my Plex Pass.
9 Likes
This is one of the worst software rollout Iâve ever seen, âŠ.maybe tied with Sonos. Its obvious no one looked from feedback from stakeholders(your users). Its also obvious you rolled out a major upgrade WITHOUT thorough testing, just making sure what a handful of people decided was working. I dont know if youre using any Scrum or Agile toolsâŠbut you are DEFINITELY not using the process.
My issue, I can access my NAS now. There was no option of parallel use, like most software makers do today. There was no warning of the massive upcoming change. And besides this post there has still been reach out initiatives for all of the obvious issues.
Again one of worst major software upgrades Ive seen.
9 Likes
I am considering looking at other options. I am one of those folks in my 70âs, and find this update hard to navigate. I want the classic back! My biggest issue is how they moved navigation of the library to the top and the format they put it in. I want it back the way it was on the left side of the screen with it easy to scroll through quickly. There was nothing wrong with the way it was. Plenty wrong with the way they set it up in this new format! It sucks! Apparently it was not beta tested before rolling it out! Or are we all now Beta testers?!
7 Likes
This is more significant push back than your standard âI donât like new stuffâ complaining. The new interface takes MORE work to display the same media. Itâs a downgrade with rounded corners on menus and moving those rounded corners to places that look like every other sedan on the road, while deleting the primary functionality . Feels more like an executive level push to make Plex look more like a disney or crayola application so they can market to people that arenât the existing user-base of âtech enthusiastsâ.
7 Likes
I do not like this change. I could get used to it, if I could find some redeeming qualities in it. And I dread having to show my wife how to use it. Good grief, the old UI was easy to use, intuitive, and fast to find a movie. I hope whoever is in charge listens and can swallow their pride and somehow fix this. First time ever commenting on Plex - never had to, as it was easy to setup and use.
6 Likes
It definitely feels like theyâre trying to mimic the interface of other streaming services, however there are some huge differences in functionality between Plex and other streaming platforms:
- Users on Plex are playing their own PMS media. We know what we have and where itâs located. We donât need to âdiscoverâ our own content.
- Although Plex pushes the Discover feature, itâs always seemed silly to me since Plex actually doesnât have the ability to play suggested content within the Plex interface - itâs just a referral to use someone elseâs streaming service, which makes a copycat UI pointless.
- Unlike other streaming services, which are catered to end-users, we are not the exclusive end-users of our PMS content. Plex is designed so that we are the service admins for our own users. Any changes they make, doesnât just affect us, it affects OUR users too.
Itâs a completely different business and use model, so why would they want to copy someone elseâs UI designed for a different audience?
5 Likes
