After months of backlash, Plex is finally rolling back its controversial big-screen app redesign

Published Aug 18, 2026, 10:06 AM EDT Patrick O'Rourke is XDA's News Editor and Entertainment Segment Lead. Previously, he was Pocket-lint's Editor-in-Chief, the Editor-in-Chief of Canadian tech publication MobileSyrup, and earlier in his career, he worked as the technology editor at the Financial Post and Postmedia. He's based in Toronto. Over the past 15 years, he's written thousands of articles. Patrick has also interviewed dozens of tech industry executives and covered GDC, E3, Gamescom, WWDC, Apple keynotes, Samsung Unpacked events and more. Patrick has a BA in journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University. Sign in to your XDA account Summary Plex has restored the collapsible left-side menu on TV apps after user backlash. The update adds Live TV/DVR reordering, bug fixes, and performance improvements. A preview of the UI update is available on Apple TV, Roku, and Android TV right now. If you're a Plex user on Apple TV, Roku, Android TV, or Fire TV, you'll likely be happy about this news. Plex has finally decided to pull back on its recent overhaul of the TV app for its streaming devices following backlash from the self-hosting app's community. This means the very useful left-hand-side menu is back. Plex announced the return of the collapsible side navigation panel on its forums. Other UI updates are coming, including reordering Live TV and DVR sources, just like you can in regular media libraries. Along with the side menu returning, Plex says its latest update focuses on fixing bugs and improving the streaming app's performance. Additionally, Plex states that it has added more seats to its Apple TV TestFlight for the redesign so that more users can test the revamped UI in preview. You can preview Plex's new UI now The full release is likely just around the corner Credit: Plex / XDA To get your hands on the update, you need to be part of Plex's preview program on Apple TV, Roku, or Android TV (each platform has its own way to join). Plex hasn't announced when Fire TV users will be able to preview the refreshed UI. Over on Plex's subreddit, users seem happy with the update, which is a stark shift from the passionate feedback the platform has been receiving for months about its new UI. If you're not interested in joining Plex's preview program, you likely won't have to wait long for a public release. In other Plex-related news, a few months ago the platform raised the price of its popular lifetime Plex Pass from $250 to $750, prompting an uproar from longtime users.