Roku New Experience Release Update

General Discussions
615

While I’ve read a ton of complaints about this update that I completely agree with (“hot garbage” being the best & shortest)… what I’ve not seen is anyone asking what I consider are the ‘right’ questions. I’ve invested a fair amount of my time tweaking my setup, as I’m sure many of my fellow users have as well. I do not want to jump ship to another platform unless I can confirm a few things first:

  1. Is this the one (and only) new Plex GUI choice going forward across all versions of the Plex app?
  2. Assuming that you will not be supporting legacy versions of the previous GUI (the one that basically every single user preferred) on different devices, when can we expect the other versions of the Plex app to adopt the new GUI recently seen on Rokus? Phones, Consoles, TVs, Web, etc…
  3. What user feedback (if any) was considered when constructing what current users are seeing on Roku?

Thx

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616

The information we have so far:

  1. This is the direction they are going for all apps to unify the codebase.
  2. There is no timeline for rollout to other clients. Plex does not share this information.
  3. Unknown. Much feedback was provided during a “Preview” phase before it was fully rolled out. Plex does not share this information.
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617

Thanks for the update on the community knowledge & expectations AmazingRando24.

I guess nothing was learned from viewing the Sonos debacle as a 3rd party? Maybe it’s just a poor comparison since there is no actual HW that Plex sells attached this GUI disaster. I’ve not been previously tempted by Emby (thanks for mentioning it in a prior post)… but it’s been awhile since I last compared my options. As a reminder to more recent users, Plex has been shedding supported features for over a decade now, and a lack of control of your GUI & libraries seems well within their current business model. Fair warning.

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618

Mobile version of this was rolled out 3/31/2025.

619

Any word on possibly at least fixing some functionality? The delay while trying to browse on either my Express 4k or Ultra is appalling. Several seconds to see the description for each episode. Several seconds to update watched status. It’s just awful and hasn’t really improved since launch.

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620

Yeah I’m gonna drop my Plex pass and switch to Jellyfin in light of this. No reason to completely redo the UI and complete disregard of your customers begging for an option to switch back. Not a good look. Not to mention this was immediately after their price structure change, pushing customers to purchase lifetime plex passes before they no longer exist, then change the entire UI to be some unrecognizable Hulu ripoff is a huge slap in the face. No longer interested in supporting such a tone deaf company and I would urge others to follow suit.

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621

The new UI is terrible! The navigation for the libraries at the top of the screen is atrocious! GO BACK to the old one where we can see them down the left side!!!

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622

I’m officially done with Plex. I’ve been a loyal user since 2016, and it’s been painful watching the platform spiral downward. This disastrous update is the final straw.

The new UI is buggy, confusing, and clearly pushed out despite major warnings from beta testers. Users repeatedly told Plex this update was unwanted and broken, yet they forced it on everyone anyway. Now, instead of owning the mistake or listening to the overwhelming feedback, Plex’s response is essentially “we’re not rolling it back, deal with it.” That’s not how you treat a loyal user base.

So I’ve made the move to Emby, and honestly, it’s been a relief. I wish I’d done it sooner. The transition was quick, I moved 15 libraries and all my playlists in less than a day. The interface is clean, fast, and actually respects user control (even the free version does more than Plex with a Plex Pass does now). Both my Samsung and Roku TVs work perfectly with it.

If you’re as frustrated as I am, stop waiting for Plex to fix what they clearly don’t plan to. Try Emby, it’s everything Plex used to be, before they stopped caring about their users.

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623

Not fond of the new layout but can live with the majority of changes if we can just have an option to still have the left side navigation bar. The new layout is so much less intuitive for many of the people I share my server with.

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624

looking past the feeling I’d rather run a computer with the windows 8 interface over this mess (still have not figured out how to get where I want and I work in IT) I would love to know what kind of system would ask me where I want to play the rest of the video I was just watching off one of my servers from (highlight the episode and enter and then a stupid pop up with 5 places to play it from??? how about the place I was just watching it from sub-genius).

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625

Welp, its been over a month. I still hate it. Not just hate it, but can’t use it. Everything is about 5+ extra clicks and not intuitive at all.
All of my users hate it and complain.
I do not understand why plex would implement this and not listen to feedback at all. I am in the process of shopping other products.

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626

So far Emby is looking like a great alternative. I’ve done a quick migration of my libraries into Emby and Jellyfin and both are quite capable now for my uses however I find myself opening Emby more often. If that continues I’ll likely buy their full version. I had my lifetime Plex pass but that’s now feeling like money wasted considering it’s been spent on a product that forced unwanted downgrades on me.

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627

Hi Plex team / fellow users,

I’ve been using Plex on Roku for a long time, and I really appreciate the platform. However, the new Roku UI is difficult to navigate, less intuitive, and feels like it slows down finding and playing my media.

The old UI worked perfectly for me, with:

Quick and easy navigation of my libraries

Clear thumbnails and metadata display

Consistent performance across Roku devices

I understand that updates are meant to improve the experience, but in this case, it seems to have made it harder to use. I would love an option to revert to the classic Plex UI or at least a toggle between the new and old interface.

Many users are asking for the same thing, and supporting this request would improve the Plex experience for Roku users across the board.

Thank you for considering this feedback!

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628

I’ve been using this over a month now, I hated it when it came out but decided to give it a chance.

I still hate it. In fact, I hate it more now that I’ve used it a bunch than I did initially.

It’s truly one of the more awful UI updates I have experienced, as a person who started using computers prior to GUIs and who lives in UIs all day professionally.

I truly don’t understand what this UI was supposed to improve for the user. The only apparent effect is more screen real estate for media backgrounds that you see briefly before watching content. That’s it.

And there’s some caching mechanism that displays the previous show’s background for several moments after you enter a new show/movie. Wild.

Anyway, I see loads of negative feedback on the UI. It’s hard to find someone who likes it. And I also see several mentions that you aren’t considering rolling it back or giving an option to toggle the classic UI.

Disappointing is an understatement, speaking as someone who recently bought a lifetime Plex Pass.

Not a happy customer. :-1:

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629

Many of us don’t think there was any intention to “improve” things for users with this change. Plex doesn’t make any revenue when we watch our personal libraries. Where they do make money is when we watch their material with which they make advertising revenue. Hence, make it more difficult to watch our own stuff and instead push their own ad-supported material. The old line of “follow the money” is the operative explantion here.

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630

Its obvious that Plex doesn’t really care about their customers at this point… I am still seeing unbelievable bugs in the Roku interface that make it almost completely unusable. Requires restarting the Plex App to get it back into a useable state. PS: PLEX, Please take a look at your Collections displays. They are broken when moving back and forth between media and the Collection. This is one of the worst releases of a UI that Ive ever seen and honestly the most UN-intuitive I have EVER SEEN. Why the F*$@ would you guys move from the clean and perfectly functional interface you had prior to this flaming pile of crap? What you had before was honestly amazing…. Youve done yourselves and your customers a major disservice.

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631

This interface is a flaming pile of dog crap… that about sums it up. It is HORRIBLY laggy and takes forever to catch up when browsing. Often, the episode labeling is wrong when scrolling through TV episodes because this app is so freaking slow. It is hot garbage, plain and simple.

Whoever wrote the code for the previous iteration had it right.. it was FAST. this one is not. It is ungodly slow when scrolling through a local server and that is unacceptable.

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632

Noticed this too.. what an idiotic way to do it. Their programmers were apparently looking for the most absolutely inefficient way to access one’s own media, apparently. Ive had an ungodly amount of problems with my users since this update dropped. People cannot use this new UI. Its NOT GOOD. YOU GUYS (PLEX) NEED TO UNDERSTAND THIS IS NOT GOOD!!!

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633

I am now looking into a Class Action Suit against Plex, Inc.

Plex refuses to address the issues it has caused hundreds, if not thousand’s of its (paid Plex Pass) customers with the New Experience Roku App. As of this date, for days now I have not been able to connect the app to my server even though my whole Network is hard wired and on the same IP addresses, subnet and gateways. I have over the last 3 days done everything possible for the Roku App to “Discover” my server including uninstall/reinstall ALL software off all devices, checked and double checked my network settings, Completely erased all traces of Plex off my PC and other devices, removed all Authorized Devices, delete: user, email, tokens, etc. in “Regedit” and even changed passwords. Nothing has worked and Plex refuses to address this issue or any other issues. This is NOT the first Class Action served to Plex, Inc. Several different Class Action suits (one on sharing personal information) have been filed and presented in the past and have been won by consumers/customers.

If Plex, Inc refuses to fix a problem with a product THEY market, create and distribute and, have customers pay for, then they ARE liable if the product does NOT perform as stated which is, to be able to stream media from a (their installed Plex) server to a device including smart phones, tablets and especially Smart TV’s.

I have tried and researched every possible resource on fixing this “Server (name Is Currently Unavailable” even contacting my ISP and AI based search engines, the Plex Forum and Troubleshooting (??) website. Plex as I stated will NOT roll back or offer the previous, “Working Roku App,” will not offer a viable working fix or solution or as of late October even refund any recently purchased “Plex Pass” as far as I am aware of.

This is completely unacceptable, unethical, disgusting and totally repairable. But again we are dealing with a corporation that IS not listening to their customer base at all or standing behind a product they openly claim to be the best option when it comes to streaming media on a server based platform.

If anyone else cares to comment or help push this forward, I gladly welcome any and all discussion and solutions BEFORE I follow through with any actions. I am allowing Plex, Inc to contact me and see if they can resolve this without Litigation or further Lawful consequences.

In closing, I can NOT stream anything to my Smart TV (brand new) through my Roku (updated) Plex App. So, basically I can not watch any media using Plex software, I have researched everything to resolve the issue(s) and find none. Plex refuses to address these complaints, and after hours and days of searching online through various forums (Reddit, Plex, etc.) There ARE NO FIXES AVAILABLE.

I am now looking into installing and using either Emby or Jellyfin to be able to be use as my personal media server to replace a completely broken Plex server system and software.

Thank You All and Best Wishes on Your Use Of Plex.

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634

Threatening to do this is a virtual guarantee that they will stop talking (or won’t ever respond). I would advise against it.

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