[Solved] Back button on Roku not working
Hey everyone,
We’ve seen reports where the back arrow button on some Roku remotes isn’t working.
Status update 8/28: We believe the issue is now resolved by performing a system restart.
Follow ...
Forum Discussion
Same issue - Roku broke something. To be clear, this is the Back arrow button next to the Home button.
As you said, others are reporting the back button doesn’t even work from the Roku app.
The only workaround I’ve found is toggling on the voice control slider button on the side of the remote (if your remote has one). Toggle it on and see if the back button begins working, then try toggling it off. Play around with it. For me, it fixes the problem temporarily at least. There seems to be some link to voice control.
Roku, please get this fixed.
I can confirm toggling voice search on and off seems to restore functionality at least temporarily.
Confirm that this seems to reenable the back button.
I just tried it too.
The button with the "microphone" logo seems to restore the "back" button for now. I had to press and hold the "microphone" button and then give the voice command "GO BACK". After that the "back" button worked in that specific app. But I had to do that in each of the streaming apps to restore the "back" button issue. Unfortunatelly, this only appers to work temprarily. Each time I sign into a streaming app, I have to use the voice command first to enable the "back" button.
This is frustrating!
Where can I find this option? It feels like I've scoured Roku looking for this toggle option
This toggle option is in the center of my remote control. I don't know how new/old your Roku remote is, it may be placed in a different spot. It's the button that has a microphone logo on it.
Yup! This workaround works but this **bleep** needs fixing.
Thanks!
I had the voice switch in the off position on my remote. Just moved it to the on position and now it works.
Edit: I exited HBO and went back in to a series episode and again, the back button stopped working. On my rechargeable remote I had to again power off and on the voice control slide switch to reactivate the back arrow. Each time I exit the app and return it loses the back arrow function. They need to fix the firmware.
Good catch! Yes that worked for me too with my Ultra restoring the back button. But then it stopped working. Then with my rechargeable remote, even though it's been working fine with the voice switch off, I had to turn it on, and then the back button would work again.
But there is another weird thing going on that never happened before and I feel like it too is related to this firmware upgrade. Specifically there is a series on HBO called Mammals. All of these David Attenborough narrated series have worked find for years. We got to Episode 3 of the series and only that episode, we noticed right away, "Why don't we hear David's narration?" I turned on CC and the words he was saying would appear. What? So I logged in to HBO in Chrome on my laptop, same episode, and now you hear his voice. My work around was mirroring to the TV to watch it. The next episode, his voice is working on the Ultra, and the prior two work. BUT, I also tried the same episode in the HBO app on my SmartTV, which I rarely use, and that episode was silent on there too. I also tried removing the HBO app from the Ultra and replacing it with new, but no change. So it appears that this issue may be particular to HBO and the app itself. And perhaps the difference of approaching it from an app way vs a website way on a laptop.I watch Pluto tv a lot, and use the back arrow button to pull back to the live tv "guide" to change the channel so to speak. This issue first appeared to me last night on my main bedroom Roku device while trying to "back arrow" to the guide to change the channel.
So it is on quite a few apps they need to fix
EDIT Both my Roku's say last updated 6/24/2025, and checked today, but this bug just appeared on 8/27 at least for me
Well it seems like it not just a particular app. More like the button wholesale stopped working everywhere. And somehow tied to the voice search feature. Definitely something buggy in the recent update.
