Not to mention it’s just bad design and poorly placed. The carousel absolutely needs to go. Please bring back the hamburger menu!
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Are you referring to the “Browse Libraries” smaller hub that shows up as the second hub under “Continue Watching”?
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I’m 90% sure we’re all talking about this one:
Edit: If the poster sizes were reduced by about 5-10% and that carousel was gone, you could fit nearly 4 rows of content on the screen. Right now the carousel and lower nav bar eat up way too much space.
Additionally, removing the nav bar and just putting back the hamburger menu next to the Plex logo in the upper left would absolutely fix everything from a UI/UX standpoint. Better yet, make the Plex logo a hamburger menu like the account photo button on the upper right.
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That is what I thought, just wanted to confirm.
I am going to check on current intent so this isn’t much of an update - but what I do know is that the impetus here was to provide people that hadn’t learned the long press trick or who hadn’t memorized the new navigation pattern a quick and easy way to see and access their libraries. It gets REALLY hard to design something that works well for everyone, and this is a great example of that concept. We were responding to feedback in the new experience that it was hard to find/access libraries, so we added something to the homescreen to help facilitate that. Then everyone started using the new experience more and getting used to it and the shortcuts available there, now people aren’t liking that that hub is “stuck” for them on the homescreen. There is a LOT of eyeballs here now looking at things like the homescreen and what is on it and where those things are positioned (both internal and external). I will check to see if there are any immediate changes planned around this hub.
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Yep, that’s exactly the one.
I get that and it’s useful for those people. I would argue that some intro ‘tour’ screens that explained the changes would have been equally useful, but that ship has sailed. Would be really good to have some options to better adjust the home screen to individual needs/desires within the wider general approach Plex is going with.
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Plex has always favored the “figure it out” crowd to a fault. Welcome tour screens would have saved many people years of frustration but as was already said by @Krazeh, that ship has sailed. Now for the new experience they absolutely could make welcome tours really at any point now, especially if they are trying to adopt a wider audience. I have a few apps that seem to do one with every single update. A “what’s new” overlay followed by intros to new/changed features.
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I tend to agree and do find most of the old Plex apps to be self-intuitive. I also think Plex is a two sided beast. On one side you have the server/admin tech side and most of us “admins” are already technical in some way due to our jobs or just being enthusiasts. On the other side you have the “users.” A lot of which are the not-very-tech savvy friends and family members that struggle beyond the basics.
Bridging this gap is not an easy task by far and for the most part they have done a great job but hidden long presses aren’t something the “average” user would think to look for, especially if they are very young or very old.
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I think that’s why the hamburger menu made so much sense. Both technical users and non technical knew that pressing that button would display more info since most apps do.
Long-pressing menu items is extremely counter-intuitive, especially when you don’t even know what you can and can’t long-press.
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Perhaps a good compromise would be to flip the behaviour of the ‘Libraries’ button. A short press would then bring up the list of libraries (which is the intuitive outcome of pressing the button) and a long press would jump you to the last used library. A bit of logic should also probably be added so where a user only has 1 library both short and long press takes them to that library.
Then maybe on some distant future day a toggle could be added to let people choose which way round the behaviour is.
Having said that, I wouldn’t miss just getting rid of the ‘jump to last library’ functionality. Most of the time I don’t even remember which library I was looking at last. However, appreciate that other users may find it more useful.
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Honestly? The hamburger menu is where it’s at. Large numbers of libraries just make sense to display vertically, and the swipe is just a faster, more convenient, and more easily discoverable than a long press.
The library carousel just isn’t it, either.
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Full transparency here: I am moving on to JellyFin. The new Android app is horrible. And Plex does not care on bit about us.
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Sorry to see you go, but I hope you find something there that works for you. We will keep working to improve things and hopefully you can find a more positive experience here int he future!
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Forcing a Beta application onto users is not an improvement but the exact opposite. I have been in app development for over 25 years and we have never forced a Beta app on any of our customers.
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Once you roll back, is there any way to get the old Android app to recognize what you’ve already downloaded? Or is redownloading everything the only option?
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I do believe a redownload is the only option. If your phone is rooted then you may be able to copy them over but I suspect there’s also database issues that would need fixing so redownload is going to be faster anyway.
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I also have one foot out the door with Jellyfin installed in parallel alongside Plex as I bring library parity to it and slowly migrate users over.
I know Plex’s original user base is now a minority, and frankly, it shows in how Plex is treating us and severely downgrading the app experience for such an extended period of time.
I’m not even asking for the prior app to be up as a temporary solution - I think it should be the only solution until the replacement app gets fully baked and provides a hamburger menu again.
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I agree, the new app has definitely been a downgrade, and now I can’t even download my media through the app in my Samsung tablet- something I used to do quite regularly. The problem is not the files nor lack of storage. I’ve tried restarting the app but the problem persisted. It was only after reinstalling that the bug disappeared.
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Thanks so much for this discussion. As an old Plex (and Plex Pass) user I am sorry to see how far from the typical user this app has fallen. I typically use Plex to stream my audio library, but really missed the way my android phone no longer works (my Linux box has not changed much and is used daily…hope they don’t do something similar and take away the usefulness).
Been waiting but will join the crowd installing the apk per the great suggestion found on this thread. Also miss hearing any updates on returning the full functionality previously announed.
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So here I am. Using plex for 7 years or more. And first I get pushed a garbage app update that breaks everything, but while trying to find a solution I get told I now have to pay to watch my own library outside my local network. This does not work when I am using a VPN and proxy due to the nature of my server and general security needs on my network. I have 2 routers and one modem to keep things separate and secure. Now, I can’t watch without plex pass on my tablet 6m away from the server. Due to plex working pretty well all that time before the update, I even spent extra time and money to fix and upgrade my server to accommodate a larger library. So now I have to pay to watch my library using my hardware inside my own home because they decided that fixing the few issues was just not enough. They wanted more. And money too. So now that I am 10000km. Away I am just waiting for my computer parts to arrive so I can leave plex behind and never ever recommend or talk about it again. The app has just gotten so bad that even with plex pass I have more issues outside my home than I have had since 2019 until the “Update of pebcak.” This is the biggest software suicide I have seen in many years. Everyone is getting screwed when it comes to users. And honestly, the best time with plex was 2021. Only issue i had then was an occasional error connecting and a refresh of the homepage on both android and browser fixed it. I think the only reason the number of users isn’t falling faster is the lack of ability to set up a new decent software. Most people just don’t have the skills to set up something above “mildly complicated.” I think that plex is about to hit the grave considering how many issues are still unresolved. It is amazing how long it takes to fix the smallest issue by plex. I wouldn’t hire the devs to make me a sandwich just to be safe they don’t burn down my house whole making it. It should be released as Plex 2 (alpha version) instead of forced update to the app. And even alpha versions seem more stable in most other software i have tried. The responses from plex and ofc other users that have no clue that people have lives, I am assuming I will get ■■■■ on for posting what I experienced since the “Update of pebcak” summarised into a long rant with my thoughts about how deeply it tastes like plex ■■■■ in my mouth and wants me to pay for the extra flavor of feces. I wouldn’t mind paying for plex if it just worked. But to pay for getting more problems each update is a waste of money and serves no other purpose than to keep the train crashing at this point. Looking forward to seeing if it gets fixed or it dies. And I’m starting to hope it dies. Thanks for coming to my Ted rant. You can all tell me how ■■■■ I am now while I ignore you and save my money for working software or a simpler solution. Good luck.
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Q
Completely agree. I’ve completely stopped upgrading plex on my phone and informed my family on how to stop upgrading from working. The moment the old client stops working completely I’m removing plex. I’ve already set up Jellyfin and have informed the family of using Jellyfin in case plex will no longer be used due to bad UX experience. Which I had to do because its draining to explain them how plex works and how to get to the thing they want to watch.
I would’ve fired the dev team if this is the result of at least a year of development (would be my guestimate). And the responses are just hilarious so far.
We’ll see where this ends but I have no faith at this moment.
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