Forum Discussion

LindaD1953's avatar
LindaD1953
Newbie
15 hours ago

Background play stopped working on YouTube TV

Hi, I use Roku to access my YouTube tv  today the background play stopped working on me one of my TVs. It’s still working on the other.

I have tried unplugging Roku device, router & tv.
I have updated Roku,b& you tube tv app.
I have removed YouTube tv app & reinstalled it.
I have cleared cache on Roku.

Nothing has fixed it.
At one point today, I was watching one channel, but the closed captioning was showing what the golf channel was saying. I turned it off & back on & it went away.

But after that, the background play, which shows the channel being watched, while I open the guide, and allows me to go back to it, disappeared. Now I just have a black background.

Please help me fix this. I am 72 years old, and cannot buy a new Roku app. I have the express version now. 

Thank you.

app feature
app playback

2 Replies

  • RokuRiamie-D's avatar
    RokuRiamie-D
    Community Moderator
    8 hours ago

    Hi LindaD1953​

    We appreciate the troubleshooting steps you took to fix your issue with YouTube TV and would like to take a closer look at it.

    Could you please send us a short video showing the issue occurring?

    We will wait for your reply.

    Roku Community Team

  • chahalmehak's avatar
    chahalmehak
    Newbie
    8 hours ago

    Hi there,

    Thanks for sharing all the steps you’ve already tried—that rules out a lot. Since background play worked before and suddenly stopped, it’s most likely tied to either a recent Roku OS or YouTube TV app update rather than your device being broken.

    A few things you can still try:

    • Check for updates again (Settings > System > System update > Check now), since Roku sometimes pushes quick patches.
    • Go to Settings > System > Power > System restart (instead of just unplugging). This clears things more cleanly.
    • In YouTube TV, open the Settings inside the app and check if there are any playback/background options that may have reset after the glitch.
    • If you have another Roku (like you mentioned), compare the software version on both devices (Settings > System > About) to see if the one that lost background play is on a slightly different version.

    Since you also saw captions showing from the wrong channel earlier, that suggests a temporary app bug rather than hardware failure. If the above doesn’t fix it, it may resolve with the next update from Roku or YouTube TV.

    For now, if background play is important, you can still use your other Roku where it’s working normally.

    You definitely don’t need to buy a new Roku—this looks like a software issue, not your hardware.