Regaining Control of Your Plex Home Screen
Have you recently found yourself struggling to locate your personal media on the Plex home screen? You’re not alone. After Plex rolled out its redesign, many users, including myself, were left frustrated and confused. As a Plex Pass lifetime member with a large personal media library, I expected to see my content front and center on the home screen. Instead, I was greeted with ad-supported recommendations that seemed to dominate the interface.
The issue arose after my Roku devices were automatically updated to the new version of Plex. Despite my initial reluctance to address the problem, I eventually took the time to find a solution. Fortunately, the fix was relatively straightforward and didn’t require any extensive technical expertise.
Managing Your Plex Home Screen
To regain control of your Plex home screen, you’ll need to access the web interface. This is because the TV and mobile apps don’t offer the necessary management options. Once you’ve opened the app.plex.tv web interface, click the cog icon at the top-right of your screen to access your account settings. From there, scroll to the bottom of the sidebar and select “Libraries.”
Within the Libraries settings, you’ll see the name of your server accompanied by all of its libraries, including Movies, TV Shows, Music, and any custom libraries you’ve created. To manage your home screen preferences, hover over the library you want to modify, and then click the “Manage Recommendations” button that appears.
Customizing Your Home Screen Preferences
After clicking the “Manage Recommendations” button, you’ll be presented with a row of columns labeled “Library Recommended,” “Home,” and “Friends’ Home,” along with a series of checkboxes. The checkboxes in the “Home” column determine what content appears on your home screen. For example, if you want to see recently released movies on your home screen, simply check the “Recently Released” box in the “Home” column.
Once you’ve configured your home screen preferences for the Movies library, you can repeat the process for your other libraries, including TV Shows, Music, and any custom libraries. After saving your changes, you should see your personal media prominently displayed on the Plex TV and mobile app home screens. If the changes don’t take effect immediately, try closing and reopening the apps or restarting the Plex Media Server software on your server.
Removing Ad-Supported Content from the Home Screen
While adding your personal libraries to the home screen will push Plex’s ad-supported content down, it won’t remove it entirely. If you want to eliminate ad-supported movies, shows, and channels from your home screen, you’ll need to disable the “Live TV” and “Movies & Shows” options in the Online Media Sources section of your Plex web app settings.
Keep in mind that disabling these options will also remove the “Movies & Shows” and “Live TV” tabs from the top of your Plex app, making it impossible to access these services. If you occasionally want to watch ad-supported content, you’ll need to tolerate the ad-supported recommendations on your home screen.
While this may not be the ideal solution, it’s currently the only way to remove ad-supported content from the Plex home screen. As a Plex Pass lifetime member, I’ve grown accustomed to the ad-supported recommendations and simply scroll past them to access my personal media.
A Plex Pass subscription offers a range of benefits, including remote streaming, hardware transcoding, offline downloads, and more. With a price of $70 per year, it’s an attractive option for those looking to take their media server to the next level.
Compatibility: Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, iOS, and various other devices
Price per year: $70
A Plex Pass subscription can enhance your media server experience, providing features like remote streaming and offline downloads. While the redesign may have introduced some frustrations, regaining control of your Plex home screen is relatively straightforward. By following these steps, you can customize your home screen preferences and remove ad-supported content, making the most of your Plex experience.
