Forum Discussion

zeekstern's avatar
zeekstern
Reel Rookie
2 years ago
Solved

Unable to receive the "Activate" email within 30 minutes

I am helping a friend set up her Roku Express. We get to the point where we are supposed to receive an email and click the link to activate. Out of probably at least 20 attempts yesterday, we finally got 2 emails. This is over several days at different times. When clicking the link we get the message that the link has expired and to request a new one. Of course we do but never get another activate link email. I finally managed to contact Roku Support and with them on the phone we went through the same steps and still can't receive the activate email. The support person gave up and told us to wait 6 hours and try again. There isn't anything wrong with her email account as she is constantly receiving emails from everywhere else. It looks like maybe it is taking longer than 30 min for Roku to send the activate email. We would appreciate any help/suggestions to get this resolved.

TV & Player Setup
  • RokuERey's avatar
    RokuERey
    2 years ago

    Hi zeekstern,

    Welcome to the Roku Community!

    We appreciate you for flagging us about this issue in receiving an activation link. It seems like you've gone through a couple of troubleshooting with our Support team but still no luck. We'd like to have a bit of information here. If you continue to have issues with the activation email, you can get the activation link by scanning a QR code with your phone's camera. To do this, press * on your remote and select Activate with the QR code. Alternatively, select Edit Roku email addressand try activating your Roku device with a different email address.

    Here are a few extra details to take note of.

    If you do not receive an activation email from Roku after completing the activation steps, try the following:

    • Wait a bit longer. In some cases, it can take several minutes before you receive the activation email. Be sure to wait a few minutes before moving forward with troubleshooting steps.
    • Confirm that you entered your email address correctly. Email addresses are not case-sensitive, but extra characters that may have been added by mistake can prevent an activation email from arriving in your inbox.
    • Check your spam folder. Your email may automatically block emails from unrecognized senders and place these messages in a spam or junk folder. You may need to go into your spam folder and accept Roku as a recognized sender to ensure that the activation email, and other Roku emails, appear in your inbox.
    • Activate with a QR code instead. Go back to the activation page and use the Activation with a QR Code option. Scan the QR code with a mobile device using the camera to get the link directly on your phone.

    For more information on how to activate the device, you can check our support page here: How to activate or link your Roku streaming device.

    We hope this helps!

    Thanks,
    Rey

3 Replies

  • RokuERey's avatar
    RokuERey
    Retired Moderator
    2 years ago

    Hi zeekstern,

    Welcome to the Roku Community!

    We appreciate you for flagging us about this issue in receiving an activation link. It seems like you've gone through a couple of troubleshooting with our Support team but still no luck. We'd like to have a bit of information here. If you continue to have issues with the activation email, you can get the activation link by scanning a QR code with your phone's camera. To do this, press * on your remote and select Activate with the QR code. Alternatively, select Edit Roku email addressand try activating your Roku device with a different email address.

    Here are a few extra details to take note of.

    If you do not receive an activation email from Roku after completing the activation steps, try the following:

    • Wait a bit longer. In some cases, it can take several minutes before you receive the activation email. Be sure to wait a few minutes before moving forward with troubleshooting steps.
    • Confirm that you entered your email address correctly. Email addresses are not case-sensitive, but extra characters that may have been added by mistake can prevent an activation email from arriving in your inbox.
    • Check your spam folder. Your email may automatically block emails from unrecognized senders and place these messages in a spam or junk folder. You may need to go into your spam folder and accept Roku as a recognized sender to ensure that the activation email, and other Roku emails, appear in your inbox.
    • Activate with a QR code instead. Go back to the activation page and use the Activation with a QR Code option. Scan the QR code with a mobile device using the camera to get the link directly on your phone.

    For more information on how to activate the device, you can check our support page here: How to activate or link your Roku streaming device.

    We hope this helps!

    Thanks,
    Rey

    • zeekstern's avatar
      zeekstern
      Reel Rookie
      2 years ago


      Thanks for responding Rey. Yesterday we waited at least 15 minutes each time before trying anything else. We also tried the QR code several times with 2 different phones. I should have mentioned it in my original post but I was trying to keep the post short. In fact I read all the Support articles you mentioned and we tried them with no success.
      Spam / Junk folders were also checked each time. The fact that we were able to sign in using the email address and we did receive 2 emails with the Activation link verifies that there is nothing wrong with the email address. When we clicked the link to activate, we immediately received the "Link has expired" or something to that effect. I don't see how creating another email account to use will make any difference.

      I was hoping  that there would be a way that Roku Support could do something on their end to manually do whatever happens when someone clicks the activation link. 

      • RokuERey's avatar
        RokuERey
        Retired Moderator
        2 years ago

        zeekstern,

        We appreciate the additional information provided and the effort you've put into troubleshooting. We will need to escalate this to the appropriate Roku team for further assistance and would appreciate your cooperation.

        Please send us the device's serial number. This can usually be found on the back of it.

        We'll be looking forward to your update.

        Regards,
        Rey