Forum Discussion

tortuga2315's avatar
tortuga2315
Channel Surfer
2 months ago

Roku iOS App Freezes and Fails to Reconnect to Soundbar After Locking or Switching Apps

I'm having recurring issues with the Roku app on my iPhone. Initially, everything works fine—I can connect to my Roku soundbar and use headphone mode to listen via Bluetooth headphones while watching TV.

The problem starts when I switch apps, lock my phone, or let the screen time out. When I return to the Roku app, it freezes and becomes unresponsive. It also seems to lose connection to the soundbar. The only way to fix it is to force-close and relaunch the app, which sometimes restores the connection—but after a week or two, even that becomes unreliable.

Eventually, the app won’t reconnect at all unless I uninstall and reinstall it. I’ve tried turning off background app refresh in the iPhone settings, which seems to help temporarily, but the issue always returns.

Is this a known bug, or is there a fix for this? I'd really appreciate any insight or suggestions.

mobile app

2 Replies

  • jontalk's avatar
    jontalk
    Roku Guru
    2 months ago

    Out of curiosity, have you tried using a network app like WiFi Analyzer? I use it on my Android phone though if its not available for the iPhone am sure there's something similar. I mention this since the issue could be channel congestion which is the most common problem for connectivity. Once installed, open and view how many others use the same channel/band. Log into the router and check to see if channel selection is set to 'auto' and if it is, disable and choose one with less congestion. Not sure that will solve it, but its worth a try 🙂

  • SCaption's avatar
    SCaption
    Newbie
    2 months ago

    Known bug in wontfix status (perhaps given it may be adblocker-induced, and a biz must generate revenue and not only at a singular point of sale)

     

     

    Ye olden thread by r0kumonkey from ‎10-21-2024 goes into it, titled as follows

     

    Roku iPhone app freezing if I navigate away and return or if I lock my screen and return