Forum Discussion

bond606's avatar
bond606
Newbie
3 years ago
Solved

YouTube app slowly becoming unusable

Does the YouTube app on anyone else's Roku only halfway work anymore? I'm not talking YouTube TV, just baseline YouTube. There are SO many videos that just don't work. They either refuse to play anyt...
app playback
  • Steve_K1's avatar
    Steve_K1
    3 years ago

    I made two changes at about the same time - yes, terrible for pinning down which fixed the problem - but one of them seems to have worked.

    1) Bought a new router. Old one was about 10 years old. Rock solid, but I can see not as good. Newspaper pages, for example, load much faster on my laptop now.

    2) Bought a new Roku, upgrading from Roku 3 to Roku Express 4K+.

    It's been weeks now without YouTube hanging up. Life is good.

Ams705's avatar
Ams705
Newbie
3 years ago

Yes, it's the same for me for awhile now. YouTube works well on other streaming devices just not on Roku. 

  • RokuMary-F's avatar
    RokuMary-F
    Community Moderator
    3 years ago

    Hi Ams705,

    Welcome to the Roku Community!

    Thanks for letting us know about the behavior you are seeing with the Youtube channel and we appreciate your patience about this issue. 

    We would like to know how to identify and resolve any playback issues but we need more details.

    Here are a few questions here to better understand what you're experiencing:

    • When did this issue first start occurring?
    • What kind of issue are you experiencing?
    • Are you being prompted with an error message?
    • Does the issue only occur on a specific channel or all channels on your Roku device?
    • What troubleshooting steps have you taken so far to try to resolve the issue?

    We look forward to hearing from you and looking closely into this issue. Thank you!


    Best regards,
    Mary

    • Dj1269's avatar
      Dj1269
      Newbie
      3 years ago

      Could it be just Comcast users? I have long thought it might be my provider. Anoyone else using Comcast having this issue?

      • atc98092's avatar
        atc98092
        Community Streaming Expert
        3 years ago

        Comcast is my Internet provider, and I have no issues watching YouTube on any device. 

        But YouTube is one of the first apps/channels that starts giving problems with older devices. Google programs the channel to use as much processing power is available on newer devices, so older devices are the first that can't keep up. YouTube was the first channel on my old Roku 2 XS that became usable, about 3 years after I got it. That was about 4 years after the 2 XS was released. YouTube is actually doing better than that now, with the channel generally still working adequately on Roku devices released in 2015. But it still seems to be the first one to give problems on older devices. 

    • jontalk's avatar
      jontalk
      Roku Guru
      3 years ago

      RokuMary-FWhile am not experiencing this exact problem, I think it important to state that the YT app has had exiting issues with OS12 from the start. I can't imagine how any problems would be tied to the ISP which in this case is Comcast. That said, dependent upon the length of time content is viewed, periodically the the screen goes black when exit is pressed causing the user to press the Home button. I've mentioned this numerous times in the past, but the problem still remains. I use a high speed wired connection and never know when it will happen. Its my opinion that the app loses the handshake with YT servers when a user watches the channel for more than 15 minutes. Regardless it needs to be reported to Google.