Why is Plex getting worse?

I just started re-using Plex after about two years away, and I am astounded as how much worse it has gotten, instead of better.

You killed Watch Later? That was perhaps the most useful feature, as it gave me a way to “save” YouTube videos for later. And now we have “Web Shows” but I can’t add my own choices via URLs or RSS feeds? That reeks of Business Decisions Which Are Good For Company But Bad For Users.

Also: who thought that adding support for trailers before the movies was such a good idea that it ought to be turned on by default and hard to undo? Again, it smells like someone got paid to sell this feature to users. (Does no one remember how much we hated previews before movies on DVD and Blu-Ray? But you decided to replicate that? The whole reason I rip my collection is so that I can avoid that nonsense.)

Then I turned off the “feature” but apparently it has already infected my collection, so I have to go and do a metadata refresh? That’s the dumbest thing yet. Turning the feature on/off ought to be an easy switch, not buried 3 layers deep in settings and then still linger around after it is turned off.

And then, as if that wasn’t enough, when I came here to post this, I see that plugin support has been deprecated as well.

What the hell is going on at Plex? I never thought I’d regret buying a lifetime Plex pass, but I also never expected things to get worse instead of better over time. I guess it’s time to see what alternatives have cropped up over the past few years.

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The reasons for discontinuing Watch Later and plug-ins are discussed in this announcement, and the blog post that is mentioned there.

As for trailers, there are feature requests dating back several years asking for trailer support. I don’t disagree that it should not be on by default, but turning trailers on/off is a simple switch, accessible when you edit your Movie Library.


Each client app also has a switch to enable/disable Trailers. The server-side Library setting above and the client-side option must both be enabled in order for trailers to play.

The settings that you find in Server Settings regarding Trailers only control which trailers are shown.

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