Forum Discussion

SgdLA's avatar
SgdLA
Reel Rookie
3 years ago
Solved

Max supported USB drive version/size for Ultra 2018

Totally WRONG.  My 1T flash drive is not recognized by my Roku Ultra and Roku doesnt seem to even know the answer.  I have several smaller flash drives that work.
tv & player wifi
  • RokuTakashi's avatar
    RokuTakashi
    3 years ago

    Hey SgdLA

    Thanks for posting!

    We understand that your Roku Ultra doesn't recognize your flash drive, and we'd love to help you. Commonly, Roku devices may fail to recognize or detect USB drives because it requires more power than the Roku device can provide. This message might appear on the Home screen: "This USB device requires more power. Use power adaptor if available. For more help visit go.roku.com/USB". Also, if the USB drive has indicator LEDs, they may also turn red or flash to indicate insufficient power. For more info, check these articles for troubleshooting steps: 

    Why does my Roku streaming device not recognize my external USB drive? 

    How to use Roku Media Player to play your videos, music and photos

    If the issue persists, please don't hesitate to let us know!

    Sending you the best,
    Kash

  • RokuJohnB's avatar
    RokuJohnB
    2 years ago

    Hi TYLERC161,

    Welcome to the Roku Community, and thanks for keeping us posted!

    We will be more than happy to assist you further with this inquiry. You're probably safe with a drive up to 2TB, but power may become an issue if you're trying to power the drive from the USB port. USB drives can be formatted with different file systems. Roku devices support USB drives that are formatted with the FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, EXT2, EXT3, exFAT, and HFS+ file systems.

    If you don’t know which file system is used, insert the USB drive into an available USB port on your computer. When the drive appears on the desktop, right-click on the icon with your mouse and select Properties on your PC, or Get info on your Mac. 

    You may also check out this support article here.

    Kind regards,                                                                                                                                      John

TYLERC161's avatar
TYLERC161
Channel Surfer
2 years ago

I wont lie, I work for Apple support. One of the only few remaining support lines available. WHILE, certain advisors will turn this kinda question away, and while we use 'articles' to email to someone for help; people like me know their **bleep** because we've been developers before... SOMETIMES there just isn't the answer you're looking for, but this is where a REAL tech'y comes in to understand the REAL "tech'y" on this stuff. It's SUCH a simple questio: HOW MANY GB OF USB CAN I USE PLUGGED IN

 

WHY is it so hard to just get a simple answer? This support of Roku and TLC blows my mind how unhelpful they are, and I'm a new customer WELL versed (obviously) at this point

 

Like, I literally read the manual too, and the manual states SO MUCH more information that wasn't provided by support. Like: what formats, mkv, avi, mov etc etc.. (which I already knew) and in fact the manual even goes on to say usb 3.0 (which is a no brainer post A/D 2015)... blows my friggin mind the ignorance... like.. *blep* lemme work for you and show how much more there is to offer than the people you pay $5/hr overseas is worth. jfc

 

Not that I expect more from Samsung, Toshiba, Roku, or anyone else. but fuuuuuuuuu: imagine if Apple Support gave as many f's as everyone else do. The word would end because people call apple with Facebook issues all heckin day. Goshdarnit this amount of support here is so freckin weak; I'm literally 3 hours deep into my own question and no single thought from support is worth an heck. 

/rant

RokuJohnB's avatar
RokuJohnB
Community Moderator
2 years ago

Hi TYLERC161,

Welcome to the Roku Community, and thanks for keeping us posted!

We will be more than happy to assist you further with this inquiry. You're probably safe with a drive up to 2TB, but power may become an issue if you're trying to power the drive from the USB port. USB drives can be formatted with different file systems. Roku devices support USB drives that are formatted with the FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, EXT2, EXT3, exFAT, and HFS+ file systems.

If you don’t know which file system is used, insert the USB drive into an available USB port on your computer. When the drive appears on the desktop, right-click on the icon with your mouse and select Properties on your PC, or Get info on your Mac. 

You may also check out this support article here.

Kind regards,                                                                                                                                      John

  • TYLERC161's avatar
    TYLERC161
    Channel Surfer
    2 years ago

    Thank you for an answer, John

     

    I understand that power delivery may be an issue, particularly with drives over 1tb. 

     

    Lets assume though that I have a powered device, running on it's own power, and I plug it into the TV..

     

    This is the answer we're looking for.

     

     

     

     

    --At this point, I'm just going to go ahead and try some drives and test them to see what the TV can ACTUALLY handle, and will post them to my YouTube @OfficialTyCat - that way, everyone else asking the same question will get the answer they want... ESPECIALLY since this post is coming up in the top 10 SEO (search engine optimization)  of Google.  

     

  • TYLERC161's avatar
    TYLERC161
    Channel Surfer
    2 years ago

    Thanks for the suggestion. I appreciate the reply, honestly.

     

    I'm in the QA realm and ultimately was even wanting to test a NAS that could act as USB as well. I know users like me are an edge case scenario; so that's especially why I appreciate the hasteful reply. 

    Cheers

  • Zorman's avatar
    Zorman
    Newbie
    2 years ago

    I have been running a 4tb wd 3.0 with mp4 movies on it. I just tried the wd black P10 5tb with around 70 mp4 files and it ran great. It was snappy and remembered where i left off on the movie. Hope that helps.