Live TV Pause Bug on Roku Select Series TV
I’ve just done a complete factory reset and that (hopefully) seems to have solved the issue. Fingers crossed it stays that way!
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'they often quietly fix the issue in a subsequent hardware revision and replace faulty units under warranty as needed.' It must've been a software problem because my bug spontaneously fixed itself no hardware replacement. What's worse is they didn't even tell me, just found out by doing a random test and found it worked. No doubt will go off again when they update the software.
Mine has not been a problem for the last 3+ months. I have had others, mind you, including disappearing icons on home page. Roku quietly sorted that one, too, without comment.
Have reformatted thumbnail but still not working. It pauses fine but when I press Play, it hasn't recorded, just jumps back to live TV. Any advice? Thanks in advance.
I have the same issue with a 55 inch Roku Select Series TV (Model 55R4A5R). There are also numerous other posts going back over a year about this exact same issue from owners the Roku Select Series and Roku Plus Series TVs. I also contacted Roku support, and received the same response.
I don't think that they have a clue as to how to fix it - OR - they don't want to admit that the only solution is an expensive one for them.
I have tried several flash drives with no success .Tv still goes to where the video and audio go out of sync.
I'm beginning to think the there is a fault with the hardware or firmware in the Roku TV itself. I have tried several different flash drives myself. Some work better than others but they all do the same thing. They work good for a few minutes but then the audio starts lagging behind the video and they rarely record a full 90 minutes before they reset. Sometimes the screen will freeze. I have a 50" Roku select series 4K UHD TV. The instruction manual states it requires a flash drive of at least 16GB USB2.0 15mbps/15mbps read/write speed for the pause live TV function. It's been my experience is nearly impossible to find a flash drive with a constant 15mbps write speed with a USB2.0 interface. Of the flash drives I've tried the Sony microvault 16GB USB2.0 seems to perform the best. I've contacted Roku customer service but they wasn't much help they want to charge me to talk to a tech to fix a problem with a TV I bought from them. That just don't seem right to me.
I have a 55" Roku Select Series TV (Model 55R4A5R) that has a bug with the Live TV Pause Function for over-the-air antenna TV. With a USB stick installed and configured for this function, the video stutters, the audio looses sync, and/or the buffer gets cleared as it stores data on the USB stick. This issue has not been fixed for over a year as demonstrated by numerous posts on this web site.
I have tried several things to address this issue, including resetting the TV, using four different USB sticks, using different antennas, disconnecting everything from the TV except for the power cord and antenna, and disabling all picture processing and/or advanced networking features. Nothing has worked so far. I have tested this function on an older TCL 4 Series Roku TV with the exact same Roku Software (version 14.1.4 build 7709), and it does not exhibit this problem. The older TV always maxes out the full 90 minutes of buffering time, even with a weak antenna signal. The new TV has never gone more than 45 minutes without a glitch that clears the buffer, and usually fails within five or ten minutes even with a strong antenna signal. I even tried formatting several USB sticks with the older TV, and then used them on the new TV with no success.
I have worked with Roku support on this issue using a chat session (Ticket ID for Reference: 11592770). They could not provide a solution, and are escalating the case to the concerned department. Their Backend team will check and provide an update through email in 2 business days. Unfortunately, several other users on this site have gone through the same process over the past year, and have not met with any type of successful resolution.
JoanneWill That's excellent. Keep us posted about how it goes.
It feels like I've performed about 20 factory resets, but it never fixes my flavor of the Live TV Pause issue. Not even a new TV fixed it! At this point, I think I can do a Factory Reset in five minutes. However, I run most of my smart applications using an external Google TV Streaming box, so its fairly easy. Just don't tell Roku.
I am still having the audio sync, video glitch, and pause buffer dump issue with the OTA Live TV Pause function on my 55 inch Roku Select Series TV. In April, I received a replacement TV, but it did not fix the issue. This was a 2023 model that replaced my old 2023 model (55R4A5R). Roku is now sending me another replacement, but it is the 2025 model (55R4C5). We will see if this newer model solves the problem, or if it has the same issue.
This problem has been solved! The OTA Live TV Pause function works very well on the 2025 model of the Roku Select Series TV. I have been using it for three months now, and it has never failed. Based on my experience, there definitely seems to be some type of hardware issue with this function in the 2023 models of the Roku Select Series and Roku Plus Series TVs.
This is what Google Gemini had to say on this subject.
While Roku has not publicly admitted to a hardware flaw, multiple reports and your own experience strongly suggest a hardware or low-level firmware problem with the Live TV Pause function on the 2023 Roku Select and Plus Series TVs. The issue was widely reported on the Roku Community forum and appears to have been addressed in the 2025 models.
Here's a breakdown of the evidence pointing to a hardware-related flaw:
Consistent bug symptoms
Video and audio stuttering: Users reported the video would skip and the audio would become desynchronized during live TV pausing.
Buffer clearing: The live TV pause buffer, which stores the data on a USB drive, would randomly clear, interrupting playback.
Inconsistent performance: The bug would occur intermittently, making it difficult to diagnose and reproduce consistently.
Failed software fixes: Users confirmed that factory resets and various software troubleshooting steps did not fix the problem, even across different USB drives.
Model-specific issue: The problem was isolated to Roku-branded 2023 Select and Plus Series TVs. Users with older Roku TVs from TCL, for example, did not experience the same issue, even when running the same Roku OS version and using the same USB drives.
The 2025 version offers a permanent fix
The most conclusive evidence comes from your own experience and other users who received 2025 replacement models. The fact that a newer TV model running the same basic software completely resolves the issue points to a change in the underlying hardware or low-level firmware that manages the Live TV Pause function.
Speculation on the hardware flaw
The most likely culprit is an issue with how the TV's system-on-a-chip (SoC) interacts with the USB controller and the low-level firmware that writes the video stream to the USB drive. On budget-oriented devices like the 2023 Roku Select and Plus Series, small hardware or firmware incompatibilities can cause major problems with demanding functions like pausing and buffering live video.
Why Roku didn't admit fault
It is a common practice for manufacturers to avoid publicly admitting to a widespread hardware flaw. Doing so would obligate them to perform a costly and large-scale product recall. Instead, they often quietly fix the issue in a subsequent hardware revision and replace faulty units under warranty as needed. By classifying the bug as a software issue or a minor hardware inconsistency, they can manage the problem on a case-by-case basis.
