Forum Discussion

baran's avatar
baran
Newbie
6 years ago
Solved

Video & TV Cast -- Message pops up every few minutes

TCL Roku 5103X. Was playing around trying to get mirroring so I could watch Facebook videos on the TV. Installed Chromecast. No luck. Installed Fire TV stick. Still no luck. Also added a casting channel. Now keep getting the following recurring message that pops up every few minutes -- even when the TV is turned off:

"VIDEO & TVCAST

UPGRADE TO PRO TO ENABLE AWESOME FEATURES LIKE REMOTE AND AD-BLOCKER."

I disconnected the Chromecast and Fire TV stick. Removed the one casting channel I'd added. Went to "mirroring" section under Settings and checked "Never Allow." Also unplugged the TV for a few minutes before plugging back in. Nothing worked. Still getting the message every few minutes and the only thing that works to get out of it is to hit the "Home" button. The TV right now is useless and I'm at my wit's end. Can anyone help? 

  • RokuBen's avatar
    RokuBen
    3 years ago

    In Roku OS 11.5, Play on Roku functionality was disabled for non-Roku apps.

12 Replies

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  • twiceover's avatar
    twiceover
    Roku Guru
    6 years ago

    Wow, that's crazy.  A channel shouldn't be providing a popup on the home screen.  I've never seen such a thing and maybe Roku should look into what channel closer.  Was it from the channel store?

    One thing to note, did you restart after uninstalling the channel?  A channel isn't really removed until the restart happens.

    So the TV is off...  It turns itself on to display this message?

    • amadrigal's avatar
      amadrigal
      Reel Rookie
      6 years ago

      I have the same problem.  I'll be watching Netflix and it'll exit the Netflix app, go to a "Play on Roku" screen for like, a second, and go to the ad.

      Here are the pictures of what the screens look like.

      https://imgur.com/a/eBoGzE8

      • trun's avatar
        trun
        Newbie
        5 years ago

        I am having the same issue. It started this week. In my case it is playing some adult content. It is so annoying and I hope my roku is not hacked. It happened twice so far and I turned off power both the times when it happened. Just removed all channels I do not use. I do not have any casting apps on my mobile. My roommate has a roku as well and planning to check with him if he has any casting apps installed. Hope that resolves the issue. 

  • JQC's avatar
    JQC
    Newbie
    5 years ago

    Same keeps happening to me. But it will happen at any time: of I'm watching Netflix, if I'm watching YouTube. Basically any time I'm using the tv. But happens more at night and more on weekends than on weekdays. Seems to happen more when I'm casting YouTube from my phone. Can make the tv virtually unusable for long stretches. 

    Can anyone assist?

  • sddragonfly's avatar
    sddragonfly
    Newbie
    5 years ago

    Any one find an actual solution to this problem?

    Our Roku started this last night and its now unusable because the dang pop-up won't allow me to get far before popping up.

    Did roku get a virus?

    • baran1's avatar
      baran1
      Newbie
      5 years ago

      I deleted all casting apps on cell phone. That seemed to solve the problem. Haven't had any oroblems since then.

      • amadrigal's avatar
        amadrigal
        Reel Rookie
        5 years ago
        baran1 wrote:

        I deleted all casting apps on cell phone. That seemed to solve the problem. Haven't had any oroblems since then.

        yeah, we had to look through everyone’s phones to find the app and in the end we found it on my dads tablet that he rarely uses.

  • 1ReallyTiredDad's avatar
    1ReallyTiredDad
    Newbie
    5 years ago

    I fixed it by accident. I went to settings --> privacy in Roku. There's a checkbox for ad blocker. There was no checkmark. I put the check there and restarted Roku. It didn't fix it. I then took off the check. Nothing. Then Roku restarted by itself and since being back on it's been working. 

    • RokuBen's avatar
      RokuBen
      Community Moderator
      4 years ago

      This is caused by an app running on a phone or tablet on you network called "TV Cast (Roku)" by 2kit Consulting. It uses the external control protocol to launch a channel on your device called "TV Cast (Official)" to push pictures and video to the Roku device, so when this is showing up over Netflix, it's actually forced you away from the Netflix channel to run its own content.

      If you don't have the TV Cast app installed, it instead uses a system feature of Roku called "Play On Roku" that's used by the Roku mobile app to show pictures and video from your phone. That's a bit sketchy. Unfortunately, there's no way to disable use of this without also disabling the ability for the mobile app to connect.

      I suspect the same mechanism may be used by other casting apps, so you'll have to check any devices on your network to remove the bad applications.

      • jeffwhitfield's avatar
        jeffwhitfield
        Channel Surfer
        4 years ago

        Which is exactly why I suggested that Roku change this so that it uses a similar model that Apple uses. A device is connecting to a Roku needs to be authenticated first. There are several ways this can be done that's easy for the user while keeping the Roku secure. Once a device is authenticated, the user could give the app attempting to connect permanent access so that subsequent connections are automatic. Automatic connections without any sort of authentication is just asking for trouble. If Roku doesn't fix this then it's likely more and more people will ditch it over time in favor of other platforms.