Plex’s redesigned app finally appeared on Roku TVs and streaming boxes a few months ago, and it didn’t go over well with many people. Thankfully, the app is getting a few more changes to accommodate feedback.
As a quick recap, Plex is currently unifying all its mobile and TV apps under one codebase and a similar design language. The Android, iPhone, and iPad versions rolled out in March, and the update arrived for Roku devices in September. There are always complaints when any popular app gets a redesign, but there were plenty of functional issues as well.
The Plex team said in a forum post last month, “We see a lot of reports of buttons not responding and navigation not seeming to work that are followed up with a message of things working as intended after a restart. This is not normal behavior that we have observed with other releases nor did we see this in the beta and internal testing.”
Today, Plex rolled out a new preview build of the Roku app with a new set of design changes. Switching between libraries and pages is faster and doesn’t require waiting for the contents to finish loading, and all menus should load instantly. Plex says it’s “faster and better performance than any of our previous navigations,” and doesn’t go back to the previous sidebar layout.
The announcement explains, “We know the previous navigation changes sparked some strong opinions, especially among our most passionate personal media users. While we won’t be returning to the old sidebar layout, we have taken that feedback to heart. This new design represents what we believe is the best of both worlds: it keeps the clarity and consistency of the top navigation while restoring the speed and flow Plex users expect. We believe this, paired with initial improvements to favoriting libraries (including confirmation), shipped in our previous preview release, represents an improved experience over previous versions.”
The new update is only in the Plex Preview channel, which is a separate download from the regular Plex app. After you add it to your account, the app should be visible on your Roku home screen. You can also force your Roku device to check for updates from Settings > System > System update.
It’s not clear when the update will roll out to all Plex Roku users, but hopefully it happens in the near future. It’s clear Plex hasn’t handled this migration in the best way possible—all design changes will cause some complaints, but the TV and mobile updates still haven’t added back all the features of the old app. Many of the bugs with the new apps have been fixed already, but there are still some remaining issues, and other TV platforms are still on the old app.
Alternatively, if you’re tired of Plex’s app shenanigans, you could always try out Jellyfin or Kodi as an alternative for hosting your own media library.
Source: Plex Forums