Channel Issues & Questions

[davahad]

I have been experiencing this error intermittently since I got the Roku Ultra Nov 2019.  Never experienced this issue via Youtube App on Tivo and that used to be my goto until I got the Roku.

Used your steps outlined and was able to recreate the problem. Tried the same steps on Tivo YouTube app and cannot recreate.

Great job on figuring this out and hopefully they can fix soon.

[NDinVA]

@CaliDude Great catch on not needing Step 3. I confirmed the same. 

This error may be some background process associated with the sub menu and thumbnail display that runs out of resources after a short time (about 25 seconds for me). Seems it has nothing to do with streaming or a "network error."

I have a sub list of 18, how big is yours? Wondering if the size has relevance.

[CaliDude]

@NDinVA 

I only have 13 subscriptions, all kid oriented.  They are:

1. Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom - Official Channel
2. Peppa Pig - Offical Channel
3. DFBGuide
4. DSNY Newscast - Worldwide Disney News Coverage
5. Super Simple Songs - Kids Songs
6. Allears.net
7. TimTracker
8. Bounce Patrol - Kids Songs
9. Blippi
10. BabyBus - Nursery Rhymes
11. 4K WDW
12. WOW ENGLISH TV
13. Mickey Views

Lately, the error almost always occurs when I try to play a video in the DSNY Newscast subscription, although yesterday it happened in the DFBGuide subscription.  I don't recall ever getting the error in the other 11 subscriptions, but I might have. 

I'm wondering if the error occurs due to a conflict between the coding of the Subscription section of the app and the content (format/resolution/codec/etc) of certain channels that are subscribed to.  I tested a different DSNY Newscast video this morning and received the error again.  I had the "Stats for Nerds" feature active on the video but didn't see any network or buffering issues when the error occurred.

Since this is an error that can be duplicated and seems to be a Google account/YouTube Subscription issue, does anyone know how to report this?

[siphon]

I was able to trigger the "Network Error" message by following @NDinVA 's procedure, on two Google accounts.

I tried it first on the main Google acct we've been using (unsure how many subscriptions it has, but it's a lot.)

More interestingly, I also tried it on a second Google account. I didn't have any subscriptions on this account, so I tried adding some. The upshot is, even with only one subscription, and that subscription to a channel with only a handful of videos, I still got the error. (I also had tried with 2 denser subscriptions.) If there's a minimum number of videos / subscriptions to trigger the error using this procedure, it's a very low one, at least on my Roku.

For me, the one subscription loads so fast I didn't even see the gray thumbnails.  But I still got the error!  In fact, I believe all I was doing was a "lite" version of @NDinVA 's procedure:

1. Go to subscriptions
2. Scroll fast to top (doesn't take long with 1 subscription!)
3. Scroll fast to bottom
4. Wait

Maybe this is an extreme case-- maybe some models require the gray thumbnails, or more subscriptions, to trigger it.

I don't know what's the underlying cause of this error, but I don't think this error is truly "caused" by the user account or by subscriptions per se-- I think the user account & subscriptions just makes the error more likely. The reason I'd guess that, is that it's possible to get the error even without being in a user account at all, without looking at subscriptions, and without being in the middle of scooting around the UI. It's rare, but I've seen it.  I guess that's a fine point, but it might matter.

(Details: I posted a week or two ago about a "Workaround A" and "Workaround B", both of which involved using the Guest account. At the time those were the only two workarounds I'd tried (of many!) that worked well to avoid the Network Error. But I've since seen the error twice doing "Workaround B", by searching for and playing a kinda-long playlist through the Roku remote. So in that case, I wasn't using a user acct or subscriptions, and nevertheless I did occasionally get the Network Error message spontaneously and in the wild.)

[NDinVA]

@CaliDude I found this YT feedback link from earlier posts: https://www.youtube.com/tv/feedback

[NDinVA]

@CaliDude  Understood that the error almost always occurs when you are playing DSNY Newscast subscription. My question would be: have you already triggered the error by navigating through the sub menus differently for DSNY Newscast versus the other channels?

Cheers

[CaliDude]

@NDinVA 

Thanks for the link.  I submitted my information to them today.

Upon further testing, going into a subscription channel isn't necessary to get the error. I can now reproduce the error 100% of the time by doing the following:

1. Launch the YouTube app. Log into a Google account. Press the left arrow button to access the side menu.

2. Press the down arrow button and scroll down to Subscriptions. Immediately press the right arrow button to the first entry which is "All.". Immediately press and hold the down button to scroll down to the bottom of the Suscriptions list. Immediately press and hold the up button to scroll back to the top of the list. The "All" selection should again be highlighted.

3. Do nothing. The error appears in 25-30 seconds.

Do these steps cause the error for you as well?

[NDinVA]

@CaliDude Yes, these exact steps cause an error for me every time. It takes about 25-30 seconds.

No right scrolling into the videos or actual streaming is necessary.

This is a concise set of instructions to recreate the error. Should be easier to diagnose.

I've also posted the instructions and error to the YT link.

[Bluesmanjm]

I’ve found that every time this happens to me my YouTube account is signed into another device like  my laptop, tablet, or phone or something.

[RokuDanny-R]

Hi everyone,

Closing this thread and recreating a new thread for more current examples here: https://community.roku.com/t5/Channel-Issues-Questions/YouTube-Network-Error/td-p/561907

Thanks,
Danny