Cameras & doorbells

[Benaya]

My camera stops working now about 3 times a month for no reason.  I go through all the troubleshooting steps, including removing the camera and base, pairing, etc. and can sometimes get it to start--then in a week or so it happens again>. It's hard for me to have to take an hour dealing with resetting--usually at very inconvenient times.  At times, it will stop and then start again in a period of time, without my doing anything. The last time it happened, I I decided to order a different brand but when this camera began working again, I returned the other because I preferred not changing cameras, but now I regret it because this camera is unreliable, which isn't ok for my needs.  Tonight, it's stopped and then started again by itself about 4 times.  Very frustrating!!  

[mlm44]

The most frustrating thing about Roku Smart Home products (cameras, lights, plugs, etc.) is that sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. It is very unpredictable and unreliable. I'm convinced that at least some of this is being caused at the back end servers. Roku needs to get their act together.

[Benaya]

Thanks--. Have you stuck with Roku or tried any other brands?

[Dfresh567]

@Benaya @mlm44 

Sorry to hear about what you're going through. From what you're describing I can understand feeling frustrated. Going through the initial set up of your camera and feeling confident that ou wont have any issues after is reasonable.

I'll do my best to try to help. Also, I wouldn't jump to this being a Roku back end issue as someone else posted. As there's a lot of information I'm curious about to be able to know what is causing this.

I've been using Roku home and have multiple roku cameras and have luckily never had a single issues so I can attest that the system can work 100% flawlessly for some .

I by no means want to minimize twhat your having to deal with though

The first thing I wanted to ask is what have you tried so far in terms of troubleshooting? This would be super helpful to know so I can give you some recommendations from there.

[mlm44]

I've had multiple Smart Home products since late 2022: cameras, bulbs, plugs. Everything on my end is set up correctly. The problems come and go. It is a back end issue. Roku needs to stop telling customers that they need to troubleshoot endlessly. It really is endlessly. I've sent in countless logs, posted here many times, and sooner or later the issues disappear without any changes on my end. It is either firmware, back end, or both.

I am still researching other brands and have not made any decisions, although I will likely go with a HomeKit enabled solution. I will not be purchasing any more Roku Smart Home products, though. Almost two years of frustration, it's not worth it.

[Dfresh567]

@mlm44 @Benaya 

I'm wondering if there is any other aspect of your Wifi or location that could be playing a part, to an extent of the underlying issue. I say I know what it causing it would be foolish of me cause I don't have enough information to state that as face. Maybe you know him and seen the cameras and every aspect that is needed to be able to say what the cause of the problem is.

What I can say is I have every roku home product hooked up to my smart home app since they've launched the application and I honestly have never had a connectivity issue. I can say that cause thats been my experience

In trying to help individuals I will go on the message boards of a 3 to 4 of the biggest players in this specific market and individuals owner other company products are writing messages that are identical to what I've seen here.

I encourage you to take a look different website forums. A lot of times issue can be troubleshooted. Due to tha all the majority companies in this space developed forums likes these. Put money and resources into trying to help individuals manage this issues.

I wouldn't say home cameras, security systems like we see with Roku having reached maturity in regards to technological developments. I would say the days of ordering a company to come in, install cameras, have a call center and mass produced signs given to a customers given out to be put in your front yard saying...this home is protected by..are over clearly.

Back to changing to another brand. You could but we're still living in 2024 and to some degree the issues we're having given 5 years will be long gone and then they'll be new issues related to the latest technology that is out.

[mlm44]

Whenever I have issues there are always other people posting here with the same issues at the same time. My setup wouldn't cause other people to have the same new problems at the same new time. Also, I follow all of Roku's recommended troubleshooting and it never resolves the issue. NEVER. This has been going on for almost two years. And on top of that, the problems usually go away without any action on my part, either after a firmware update or some hocus pocus on the Roku back end. Therefore, the problems must be at Roku's end. QED. Junk product.

If someone says they have had zero issues with Roku Smart Home pardon me if I am in disbelief.

[Dfresh567]

@mlm44 @Benaya 

I honestly haven't. I have absolutely made some human errors on my end which after a little time I'm always able to figure it out. I'm truly sorry you feel you have junk product. No one enjoys that feeling. I'm not sure I'm able to help you at this point you've seem to given up on Roku which is unfortunate but I can understand the frustration. You're probably right at some point there has been back end mistakes Roku has made. I'm not working there so it's hard to know what they've been but of course they have. I'd similarly be in disbelief if there's a tech company out there that hasn't.

Sometime we learn the most about ourselves and product by trying another. Maybe it's at the point in your specific situation that you test the feeling that Roku is junk and go with another company. To be fair if you went with a top of the line set up that wouldn't give you a apples to apple comparison. But if you got a set up at the same price point and you end up being right, you don't expereicne any issue or problems than I'd be happy for you and you would have a working set up and express a statement that could have merit.

If you still with what you have then you have the community of users to try to help when things go wrong and a team at Roku who is doing there best to improve upon the products they sell.

I wish you all the best and will always be here to try to help or a sound board to vent valid frustrations.

[mlm44]

The point of this forum is to raise issue and seek solutions. Telling us that you have no issues with a product or that we should keep seeking solutions and not give up is not helpful. It's not like folks here haven't given Roku plenty of chances to help. There's a limit at which it becomes clear that the product is not performing as advertised. It's unreasonable to keep asking customers to troubleshoot.

As just one example, I have a Roku smart bulb that was working fine for over a year. Then Roku put out an update and the sleep (dimming) feature stopped working. Nothing I tried would resolve the issue. Then after about three months the dimming feature starting working again on its own. Then after a few weeks it stopped working again. Yesterday I noticed that the dimming feature is working again. This absolutely is a problem on Roku's end or with their products being unreliable (junk).

Any doubters should check out the Wyze forums since the Roku smart home products are close relatives to Wyze. All of the same complaints are being aired over there too.

[Dfresh567]

@mlm44 @Benaya 

The forum is absolutely about helping others find solutions.I feel bad for @benaya because this thread has not moved in a direction to do so. I wanted to go back to understand the scope of our conversation and way down at the bottom I included my original posts. I ended with asking what someone has tried in regards to troubleshooting so I could attempt to lend a helping hand. I'd like to help you with your set up if you're having issues.

But I'm here to help. When I have had issues I've come here to ask for help. @benaya did and I'd still like to try to help. Calling the product junk probably didn't help the person but I can't say for sure. If you want to vent by saying junk you can but I personalty wouldn't say its the best use of the forum. I'm not sure it's raising awareness in a constructive way either. I'm not the forum police though so feel free to do your thing I do need help with my new color Roku bulbs. I got two yesterday if you can believe it. Im not lying and I messed up syncing the 2nd one up. They'll be a question in the lights section of the forum if you have any ideas. No need to call the bulb junk though if you do post. I read you loud an clear on that end.

"I'll do my best to try to help. Also, I wouldn't jump to this being a Roku back end issue as someone else posted. As there's a lot of information I'm curious about to be able to know what is causing this.

I've been using Roku home and have multiple roku cameras and have luckily never had a single issues so I can attest that the system can work 100% flawlessly for some .

I by no means want to minimize what your having to deal with though

The first thing I wanted to ask is what have you tried so far in terms of troubleshooting? This would be super helpful to know so I can give you some recommendations from there."