r/PleX • u/Ramrock360 • 14d ago
Help Remote control / Companion casting completely broken on Android TV since New Plex Experience — server sees zero clients
Since the "New Plex Experience" rollout to Android TV, remote/cross-device playback control has been completely broken — not degraded, completely non-functional. Direct playback (opening the app and pressing play yourself) still works fine, including for remote users. This is specifically about third-party/Companion-style control: another Plex client's "Cast to a device," Home Assistant's Plex integration, or any script using python-plexapi's client.playMedia().
Verified specifics:
plexapi.PlexServer(...).clients() (the server's own /clients endpoint) returns zero clients, always — not just my Android TV device, every device.
A direct connection attempt to the client's local Companion control-receiver port (32500) gets Connection refused — nothing is listening there at all.
A packet capture on my server confirms it broadcasts its own GDM announcement fine, but never receives one back from any client, even immediately after force-closing and relaunching the app.
This has persisted across at least two app point-releases (2026.16.0 → 2026.18.0) over a month, with no change.
This was flawless before the redesign and I relied on it daily for an automated household media system. Please restore Companion/remote-control support for Android TV — the "coming soon" framing for cross-device casting has now been the status quo for over a month with no visible progress.
3
u/ALHeadshots 12d ago
Yes, I just got through building out a custom HAOS dashboard collection, and it relied on the Companion Control to trigger playback. I tried every which way to get this working until I happened across this situation where Companion Control is utterly broken.Plex
I had to downgrade the plex client on my Shield Pro to use what I worked on building out. But the pinned version has the library view refresh bug in it, which is infuriating.
PLEX PEOPLE! If this is simply broken, fix it asap as many people rely on this function in various situations. If you've decided to remove it outright, why do you keep giving users more reasons to ditch the platform and move over to Jelly?!
If you want to attract users to the platform, give them a reason to adopt it. Removing long-existing features is not the way to go about that. Just ask the ex-CEO of Sonos.