Products · Product
Plex
Raised as a usability problem by 138 people on Hacker News over 17 years (2010–2026), in 77 threads.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Updates add ads and streaming content, burying the user's own media behind menusUnreviewed
20102026- Each update adds ads and other streaming content, burying the user's own media behind menus2026-09-09
- Streaming buttons and recommendations are crammed everywhere, cluttering the media server interface2026-07-21
- Streaming services added without choice, hard to hide; full-screen ad shown instead of media2026-07-21
Hard to get Plex to work with an existing media libraryUnreviewed
20102026- Plex clients on Apple TV are painfully slow, requiring long waits and repeated browsing2026-08-25
- Plex's interface is cluttered with streaming content that must be disabled2026-07-21
- Music can no longer be cast from the Plex phone app, forcing workarounds2026-05-10
Subtitles get harder to make work with each version, forcing workaroundsUnreviewed
20102026- SRT subtitles fail with a vague "failed to load" message and no explanation2025-09-09
- Playback state won't clear, subtitles randomly fail to show, and skip times can't be configured2022-11-13
- Subtitles are out of sync in the native app and downmixed audio is barely usable even with boost option2022-11-13
Movies freeze and transcoding stops every 20 minutes, forcing a restartUnreviewed
20102026- Resume restarts videos from the beginning and Back takes over thirty seconds to respond2022-11-13
- Movies freeze and transcoding stops every 20 minutes, forcing a restart2019-08-23
- Seeking to the middle of a movie lags and fast-forward sometimes freezes2014-12-29
Selecting an episode shows its summary instead of playing itUnreviewed
20102026- Selecting an episode shows its summary instead of playing it, and back navigation is inconsistent2026-10-19
- Subtitle menu shows previous episode's selection, so user must reset to none first2026-05-20
- Can't easily find option to see all episodes instead of next episode2015-10-22
Local streaming requires cloud login, failing when internet is downUnreviewed
20102026- Plex server keeps going down, forcing manual restarts and debugging from a laptop2026-02-15
- Plex stopped working after relay change; can't get it working over Tailscale2022-10-27
- Plex refuses to stream locally without logging into its cloud, failing when internet is down2022-04-05
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Pressing pause can freeze playback completely2026-10-22
- Two ads play over each other, then the player freezes until the app is quit2026-10-22
- Unusable on a TV, keyboard input makes it hard to use2026-10-22
- Newer Plex app redesign is considered worse to use than the old version2026-10-21
- New Apple TV app UI/UX is very bad to use2026-10-21
- Redesigned app is buggy with terrible UX, making watching video significantly worse2026-10-21
- New player is frustrating to use and a big step back in UI/UX2026-10-21
- UI is terribly slow to interact with on all devices2026-10-20
- File names and thumbnails overlap, making the interface impossible to navigate2026-10-20
- Selecting an episode shows its summary instead of playing it, and back navigation is inconsistent2026-10-19
- The current Plex app is completely unusable on Fire Stick, forcing a sideloaded older version2026-10-19
- Latest UI updates are so slow to interact with that it is unusable2026-10-19
- New Plex app interface is a big step backwards2026-10-13
- Each update adds ads and other streaming content, burying the user's own media behind menus2026-09-09
- Recommended ads keep reappearing and must be turned off repeatedly2026-09-08
- Plex clients on Apple TV are painfully slow, requiring long waits and repeated browsing2026-08-25
- Plex was hard to use and ugly in the 2010s2026-07-24
- Lyrics must be re-enabled through the menu for every track, and the setting is not remembered2026-07-24
- Streaming services added without choice, hard to hide; full-screen ad shown instead of media2026-07-21
- Plex's interface is cluttered with streaming content that must be disabled2026-07-21
- Streaming buttons and recommendations are crammed everywhere, cluttering the media server interface2026-07-21
- Plex keeps changing its UI in ways the commenter finds worse2026-06-13
- Downloading content to phone or iPad for offline use is poor2026-05-20
- Invitees sign up with the wrong email, so the invite fails and people give up2026-05-20
- Subtitle menu shows previous episode's selection, so user must reset to none first2026-05-20
- Interface is a bit odd and takes time to learn; other content clutters the view2026-05-19
- User disliked Plex's interface and how it worked2026-05-19
- Clumsy to download and watch YouTube videos, too many button presses2026-05-19
- Plex's Roku app has a terrible UI that users are forced into2026-05-19
- Music can no longer be cast from the Plex phone app, forcing workarounds2026-05-10
- Plex split into separate apps forces swiping through many icons to find things2026-05-10
- Plex playback is buggy and slow with buffering2026-04-14
- Plex server keeps going down, forcing manual restarts and debugging from a laptop2026-02-15
- Usability gets worse with every update2026-01-06
- Media that used to be in one app now needs several separate apps2026-01-06
- Self-hosted content hidden behind paid services; changing the layout back is hard2026-01-06
- Content not belonging to the user is shown front and center, forcing navigation to a side menu for own media2025-12-30
- Remote access is overly complex and clunky to set up or use2025-09-10
- Files must be renamed with IMDb tags to match the correct movie or show2025-09-09
- SRT subtitles fail with a vague "failed to load" message and no explanation2025-09-09
- Remote access fails silently with no debugging info or way to see why2025-09-09
- Hard to find a high quality rip of wanted movies, so not worth the effort2025-08-15
- Hard to turn off default features just to reach own files2025-08-01
- Some files won't play by default on PS4, user must manually force re-encoding2025-07-23
- Unwanted free movies with lewd posters on home page, hard to remove2025-04-17
- Became increasingly annoying to use, prompting a switch to Jellyfin2025-03-23
- Plex has become more annoying to use over time2025-03-23
- App refuses 4K playback, falsely reporting connection too slow despite fast network2025-03-20
- Music artwork is per album, making songs hard for kids to find2025-03-20
- Audio regularly goes out of sync on various clients, and settings fixes didn't help2025-02-16