Some major usability improvements to the Plex iOS app should make a big difference to users of the popular media-management platform.

The sidebar navigation is now customizable. You can, for example, change the order of your libraries and pin your favorites from all your servers…

You also get much faster access to the rest of your media through the More menu item.

If you like to have different views within different libraries, Plex will now remember these on a library-by-library basis — though you can switch off this behavior in Settings if you find it annoying.

Finally, says the company, it has added the ability to manage users, sharing, and restrictions right from within the iOS app.

There are also some fairly significant bug fixes:

  • Fixed “Play Versions” menu identifying synced media as “Original”
  • Fixed crash when you stop controlling your device with the web app
  • Movies sometimes wouldn’t play from the beginning when cinema trailers are enabled
  • Playback Info screen now indicates when the current video is played from your phone instead of from a server
  • Playback info for videos inside photo libraries was incomplete
  • Search would return no results for synced content when the device is offline
  • Show context menu option to resume audio tracks when library is set to save progress
  • Sometimes the playback info screen wouldn’t show the video resolution with the Enhanced Video Player
  • The albums grid in the artist pre-play could sometimes be tiny in split screen on iPad

Plex has won many fans as a visually beautiful way to manage your media, and make it available for viewing on any device by anyone with whom you choose to share it. It pulls in external data to add things like rich descriptions, artwork, and trailers.

The Plex iOS app is a free download from the App Store, with in-app purchases. Premium features available via a Plex Pass let you watch and record free broadcast TV and more. You can choose between monthly, annual, and lifetime options:

  • $4.99/month
  • $39.99/year
  • $149.99 lifetime

The company has been busy on the update front, with a new desktop app for Mac and Windows launching last week. The headline new feature there was the ability to download content for offline viewing, which is useful if you like to use a MacBook as a personal movie theater on flights, for example.

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