Forum Discussion

bobwhitejonz's avatar
bobwhitejonz
Newbie
5 years ago

Unwanted Channels being added without permission

Roku is adding channels to my home screen I did not add, nor do I want.  This includes premium channels like ESPN+ and shopping only channels like JTV.  Had I known they were going to do this when I purchased my three Roku devices, I would have chosen another device.  Is there any way to get through to someone that this is not only annoying, it is reverse advertising, driving customers away.  I think next time I need to replace one of my devices, I will look elsewhere, unless Roku finds a fix.  It is like getting dangerous spam emails.  I don’t want to be billed for something I didn’t order, and don’t want to get up to the check stand and find a had a case of prune juice in my cart either.  Just make it stop.

  • Tina70's avatar
    Tina70
    Newbie
    5 years ago

    Be careful! Mine has been "hacked" twice and as always, with a "partner" channel. The second time there were numerous premium channels added totaling a reoccurring $127 per month!! I am Canceling! I'd rather pay a little more and have a service where I don't have to worry about getting "hacked"!!  

    • DBDukes's avatar
      DBDukes
      Community Streaming Expert
      5 years ago

      Try going to https://my.roku.com/ and log in (if you aren't already logged in). Scroll down to bottom section titled "My Linked Devices." Those are all of the Roku devices tied to your account. Any app (channel) that is added to one of those devices gets added to all of those devices.

      If you don't recognize one or more devices, we'll need to dig more into that, but if there are mystery Roku devices, that's likely the source of the extra apps issue.

      Assuming you recognize all the devices, the next thing is to determine how many people use your Roku. Anyone using a Roku can add apps to that Roku. They can also subscribe to services. That is, unless you have a PIN set up to prevent that. From that same page (https://my.roku.com) you'll find "PIN Preference" at the top. Go into that and select "Always require a PIN to make purchases and add items from the Channel Store." That stops purchases and new apps unless the user enters the PIN.

      Let us know if either of those situations might explain the issue.

      • Charitysmama's avatar
        Charitysmama
        Streaming Star
        5 years ago

        I live alone and only use the bedroom and kitchen ROKU units.  It is irritating to put a program on "hold" to do something for a couple of minutes and have the unit revert back to the ROKU home page.  I often find the ROKU downloading another channel, not one I want.   Then I have to go in to You Tube "history" to retrieve my program.  I don't know why history isn't one of the selections on the main You Tube page, it happens so much.

    • rawlsrules's avatar
      rawlsrules
      Roku Guru
      4 years ago

      I read your post.

      Are you able to tell me what service you have chosen instead?

      I am not knowledgeable about tech options and would be grateful for any suggestions from anyone — other than roku who continues to deny responsibility for their service and continues to tell me what I see with my own eyes, and have for months, does not happen.

  • renojim's avatar
    renojim
    Community Streaming Expert
    5 years ago

    Roku doesn't add channels (usually) without user intervention.  You should know that any channel added to one Roku device will add that channel to all Roku devices linked to the same account.  Also, channels can get added from Roku screensavers that advertise channels if you press OK or Play to dismiss the screensaver.  Always use the Home button to dismiss the screensaver.  Finally, make sure your Roku is linked to your account.  Check the email address shown under Settings->About.  A lot of people seem to have problems with the simple linking process and contact a scammer that may link a device to pretty much any account.

    • Charitysmama's avatar
      Charitysmama
      Streaming Star
      5 years ago

      I don't know who is responding to this, but they don't know what they are talking about.  I have had several sports channels added, a Spanish channel and a black ppls channel.  I am none of these and i don't want channels that I have to pay for.  They have me up to 79 channels, and I have to delete each, one by one.  I have better things to do.  I tried a factory reset to wipe out all channels and and add in my favs and now it looks like it is adding 103 even though I only picked a couple of subjects when resetting the device.  I am very frustrated at this.  I may have to look for another device if they don't fix this problem.  Well, it just finished and added back in my 79 channels.  So I guess I will just spend a lot of time deleting them.

      • leefi1's avatar
        leefi1
        Binge Watcher
        5 years ago

        This is really annoying, I have complained about it before, to no avail. I am really annoyed with Roku.

    • rawlsrules's avatar
      rawlsrules
      Roku Guru
      4 years ago

      Really?

      Roku adds unwanted channels to one of my devices throughout the day, every day. This occurs from the time I turn it on in the morning until early evening. It does it without any action on my part.

      And, BTW, despite the constant claim that anything that happens on one device automatically happens on any others, that is not the case. Whether it is this imposition of roku adding channels or when I remove a channel I no longer want: happened just yesterday. Removed Netflix from the problem roku; last night Netflix was still on the homepage of my other roku device.

      I do not work in tech so I don't know what is behind this business of insisting that everything works they way it is "supposed" to work. But perhaps that attitude has something to do with so many people having so many problems with roku.

      As another poster said, if I had any idea roku was going to start providing poor service and refusing to provide real customer support, I would not have stuck with roku. To think I used to tell people it was the best system for streaming and cutting the cord!

      • Charitysmama's avatar
        Charitysmama
        Streaming Star
        4 years ago

        Someone suggested that I don't have any screen savers, just the "blank" home page and I've done that an it seems to have stopped the problem of downloading unwanted apps.

    • DixD's avatar
      DixD
      Newbie
      4 years ago

      I've had two or more Roku devices, since the earliest iteration. That said, new, unbidden channels began to pop up, on my home screen, in 2008. All three of our devices ARE connected, registered, synched; however, they do not automatically share updates. In the living room, we have sixteen wanted channels, and have just removed sixty-one which had just popped up. In the master, we have twelve--no unwanted pop-ups. And, the unit, in the studio, has never had but four channels. Whomever is moderating, doesn't know the technology. 

      • renojim's avatar
        renojim
        Community Streaming Expert
        4 years ago

        DixD, or maybe you don't.  What you're describing isn't normal.  Check the email address on every one of your Roku devices that's shown under Settings->System->About?  Do they all match?  Are they yours?  Did you call some number and make a payment to activate your Rokus?

  • Charitysmama's avatar
    Charitysmama
    Streaming Star
    3 years ago

    I just found out (10/14/2022) that ROKU now allows some customers to get involved in interactive ads by pressing the OK button when an ad comes up, for instance the ad would go from just a picture to a video.  I suddenly got Spectrum TV added to my Spectrum account and couldn't figure out what happened.  After talking to several ppl at Spectrum, I found out that when I switched TVs in my bedroom and living room (the bedroom T died) and I reset the moved tv in my bedroom, an ad must have popped up which I accidentally clicked on.  I never gave permission to put TV on my Spectrum account and ROKU did it without using my security code.  How do I complain to ROKU about this.  Also, they keep having an ad for deals on ROKU items scroll across the screen and if u click at the wrong time, u go to the add instead of the channel u are trying to reach. I have also complained about the upgrades that took place a couple of weeks ago which I do not like.

    • rawlsrules's avatar
      rawlsrules
      Roku Guru
      3 years ago

      Good luck. If you find a way around this, please, please, please post here and let us know.

       

  • Dondep's avatar
    Dondep
    Newbie
    3 years ago

    The problem is worse since Roku went Orwellian and started censoring content; I leave a video paused, come back a half-hour later and no matter what I do, the Roku tries to open an existing channel (usually the Roku channel or Tubi channel, neither of which I watch nor does my significant other) OR add a channel (Disney, Sling, etc). I figured out that if I merely hit the Play button, it will assume I am clicking on a hyperlinked 'billboard' on the Roku cityscape screensaver that's advertising a show or channel. So I can't hit Play. Even if I hit the Home button, or the Okay button, it still does the same thing. Extremely irritating. I've gone through all the settings (there IS NO 'Parental Controls' option under Settings>System) and googled the issue to try to figure a solution, but even here on this forum I haven't seen one yet that works. Usually I have to keep hitting the Home button several times to get it to stop loading the unwanted channel, or adding the unwanted channel, but there really should be a method for turning that feature off so that it will only take you to where you specifically want to go. If it cannot resume from pause, it should give us the home screen where we can go back to the channel we were watching and resume. One thing that has resulted is I have picked up a Chromecast and I'm using that, but I'd rather have a real solution to this issue so I don't have to leave the Roku platform. 

    • renojim's avatar
      renojim
      Community Streaming Expert
      3 years ago

      Dondep, have you thought about changing to a screensaver that doesn't advertise other channels?  The Home button should be ok, but definitely don't hit Play or OK while the screesaver is active.  The first button pressed is ignored and only serves to dismiss the screensaver (or install an unwanted channel), so there's no reason to Play or OK.  Play isn't going to start your video again when any screensaver is active.

  • Wishspell's avatar
    Wishspell
    Reel Rookie
    3 years ago

    In the past couple of days I noticed that I'm getting strange changes to my channels. I love your reference to prune juice, it makes total sense. All of a sudden on my screen I see a great big picture of John Wayne. No I am not interested in seeing John Wayne and about 90% of the Westerns that showed up on the screen. I was very happy with what I had before.

    I went through my settings and managed to hide a lot of the pages I did not want on my screen but the ones that I liked and wanted there were removed. The homepage is easy enough to get rid of the squares. But when you move to live tv, feature free, etc and all of those are changed, that is a lot I have to figure out.

    BTW, I am a Trekkie, sci fi, horror, vampire, etc well; you get the idea. Try picturing John Wayne in the captain's chair on the Enterprise saying, more power Scotty. One other thing to note, all of my movies have to make sense. I'm not interested in a lot of bells and whistles and you don't know if it's starting or ending. I had everything set up just nice for myself and the Roku kicked out and went back on, and everything changed. This little lady is going to fight back.