Channels & viewing

[PKinVA]

Thank you so much for your response!  I contacted Amazon last night regarding this problem.  They had me unplug the tv for several minutes and then plug it back in. It seems like this may have solved the problem!   They seem to think it may be a cache problem.  Hope this helps others as well.

[Portalogem]

I'm glad I was able to help. In the future, with every Roku OS update, you may want to unplug your TV and plug it back in so that you don't run into this cache problem again. Since I run everything off of battery backup so that I don't have to worry about a power outage when my Roku is updating, I turn everything off at night or when I'm out so that a potential power outage doesn't drain my battery; basically, I unplug my TV and my Roku. So after turning your TV off for the night, you may want to unplug it or have it on a powerstrip so you can easily switch off the strip and then just switch it on first thing in the morning to allow your Roku TV to boot. Therefore you shouldn't run into this cache issue anymore when a channel updates in the future.

When you do this, make sure the Roku isn't in screensaver mode because you don't want to unplug it when it's potentially updating, so tap the home screen button on the remote first before turning the TV off. You don't want your Roku to be in any channel before you unplug it, so make certain it's on the home screen before turning the TV off. 

[ActtBadd]

Amazon Prime Video is the only app that I constantly have this issue with on my TCL Roku TV. Only other app that gives me issues is ShowTime because it keeps signing me out and I have to reconnect device weekly. So why is this cache issue only a problem for Amazon Prime?

[Portalogem]

Unfortunately, @ActtBadd, the new Amazon Prime Video channel update could continue to conflict with your TV until Amazon fully resolves this issue with it. And every time Amazon creates a patch to fix a Roku, which isn't shown as an update anywhere, this too can cause another issue with your TV. People have asked me what I mean by update because they don't see that their Roku has updated.

I didn't use one of my Roku devices for a long while, yet once it was booted, all the channels had been updated. I looked to see if my Roku showed that an update had recently happened, and there was no indicator it had been updated. I tried to manually update, but since all the channels were already up to date, they didn't update again. So Roku and its various channels must download updates and patches without our knowledge until something goes wrong. This can happen either when the Roku restarts, boots up, or when it's on the screensaver. This is why I never unplug a Roku device when it's on the screensaver and always make sure it's on the home screen first, so I don't mess it up in the event it's installing an update. 

Unfortunately, Roku will have these issues from time to time with various channels that have problematic updates. And it's not just Roku this happens to because I've heard that someone who has a Fire TV stick also had a similar issue after Disney Plus had updated, which crashed the device during a movie/show and sent people back to the home screen, which has now been resolved on all devices. That wasn't a cache issue but an update issue since no one could do anything to resolve it till Disney patched their channel. This is what had happened at first, according to the OP, since everything was tried and nothing worked. But now it appears patches have rolled out since I haven't had any of these issues. You'll know it's a cache issue when clearing the cache, restarting, or unplugging the device fixes your Roku. After Amazon finishes patching its channel, once all issues are resolved, your TV should no longer have any of these channel crashing problems. If you continue to have these issues because clearing the cache, restarting the Roku, or unplugging the Roku isn't working for you, you can contact Amazon, especially if you're paying for their Prime service/channel, and hopefully, they'll help you resolve it, much like they did with PKinVA's TV. 

I also have Showtime, but I use the Showtime Anytime channel since I get it through Hulu as they currently have a discount deal for a few months. To keep this on topic, I've also subscribed to Showtime through Amazon channels in the past since I got that 99-cent student deal for a year and also used Showtime Anytime with them when I had issues. Since this post is about Amazon, I'm guessing that you, ActtBadd, used to watch Showtime through the Prime Video channel, but with the crashing issues, you're using Showtime Anytime. 

After a certain amount of time, right in the middle of a movie, Showtime Anytime logs me out and asks me to verify the channel, which never works, so I then have to re-activate the channel on my Roku. It did this when I subscribed both to Hulu and Amazon channels. It does this because I could have canceled my subscription to Showtime through either of them, and my billing cycle could have ended at any time during the month. Since Showtime Anytime wouldn't know that since they're a separate channel from Amazon and Hulu, Showtime Anytime logs everyone off after a certain time duration to make sure they are still subscribers to Amazon channels or Hulu, so I don't continue to get free service for the rest of the month after my billing cycle and subscription ends near the beginning of the month. I never had that issue when I had the Showtime channel when subscribing to Showtime.com directly, which could resolve this for you unless you like Showtime through Amazon channels and don't wish to change over since then you wouldn't have all the live channels you get through Amazon channels. Showtime.com only has their East and West live feeds, much like Showtime Anytime. I felt like I was losing money by paying the same because I didn't have all the live feeds that both Amazon channels and Hulu have.

To solve this, which isn't all that great of a solution, but at least your movie/show isn't interrupted: at the end of the duration (you said this happens weekly -- I don't watch Showtime all that much to know when it logs me out), log yourself out of all devices on your Showtime Anytime App and then log back in and reactivate the Showtime Anytime channel on the Roku before the week is done. If you want, set a reminder on your watch, phone, tablet, or computer to remind you to do this. I try to remember to log myself out and then back in before I watch Showtime Anytime if I hadn't been on that channel for a while to avoid this issue. I know I don't do this with my phone every week because I download movies and shows off of Showtime, and they remain on my phone for a while until it's logged out. I try to remember to log out before downloading anything new to prevent this, but that doesn't always work. Unfortunately, this auto-logging out the user isn't a glitch, so this issue with Showtime Anytime will never be resolved. People don't like it, but that's how it is until the programmers at Showtime figure out a better way to know you're a current subscriber to their channel. All they know is that you logged in through your Amazon Prime credentials and created a profile with them, but once you've logged in, Showtime Anytime no longer is able to have a current update of those credentials until you re-log in again to show your current Amazon Prime account's credentials to Showtime. The only way for you to do that is if they had logged you out. 

And you can read my non-pretty workarounds (if you haven't already done so) in the post above, but I thought of something that I didn't mention in that post that could be problematic. I'm not sure how different a Roku stick's remote control is to a Roku TV's remote control because if one tries to plug in a Roku device into a Roku TV because Amazon works on all my Roku devices and so this may sound like a temporary practical workaround -- the remote might conflict by trying to use both your TV and Roku device at the same time. To resolve this, you could use your phone or tablet as your Roku remote since that is Roku-specific. But the other non-pretty workarounds may instead work for you in a pinch, so you can at least watch the premium channel you're paying for until the issue is fixed on your TV. Glancing back at the OP's post, at that time, this person's Roku Express was crashing with Amazon, and nothing could be done to fix it, but I was able to use my older Roku Express plus and press play, and it didn't crash. Perhaps it's because I have a different Roku express than CSB2 has, but I think Amazon has been patching the devices, and perhaps your TV model is still having issues because it's one of the last models to be fully patched.

[Portalogem]

@ActtBadd wrote here:

Thanks for the reply. Workaround I've found for Prime is to fast forward during a show and then rewind back to point I want to start watching. That seems to help the crashing. I've put in tickets with Showtime about their app being the only one to require constant activation on my Roku TV. I know it's not on Roku but the developers of the app.  Just frustrating when the 10+ other apps I use on Roku do not have these issues. And even though I have access to premium content via FuboTV (used to have Spectrum), I still use the individual apps just out of habit and to make sure I don't miss any app exclusive content.

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I posted this in the first extra reply post, so scroll up and you'll find this post. If they don't let me delete extra posts, then I'm going to recycle them if I can.

I'm confused @ActtBadd, is Prime crashing while you were watching a show or when you begin the show? I thought it crashed when you started to play the movie/show, so I just clicked play, saw a little of the Amazon trailer that runs before the movie, and then I exited the movie because I'm going to watch that later. If it's during the movie/show and not right at the beginning, this could be affecting my Roku players as well, so thanks for the workaround. The problem, though was I was planning to watch the download of that movie from Prime on my laptop while doing laundry later this week since I don't have internet access when doing that, so I still won't know if I have the glitch. I just hope the movie doesn't expire tomorrow and I get to watch it. How far do you get in a movie/show before it crashes? Because I could test to see if that happens to me. As you've probably figured out, I just don't watch Prime all that often, which isn't good because I'm paying for it.

I just saw a forum where people were having issues with Netflix a couple of weeks ago, so a lot of this is going on. Like you, I subscribe to a lot of channels too, so if a glitch happens like this, I just watch a different channel until it's resolved. Like I didn't even know about the Netflix issue a couple of weeks back because I was watching a lot of Hulu and HBOmax. But then I heard HBOmax is glitching too, and that did freeze my Roku after I recently finished a movie, so that could be a part of what people were talking about. But now I'm probably not going to watch HBOmax till the end of the month, so that will probably resolve itself by then since I usually switch to Showtime since they expire some movies I want to see during the beginning of the month.

And regarding Showtime, was I right that you subscribe through Amazon channels and you're watching through Showtime Anytime? Or are you subscribed through Paramount Plus and getting Showtime that way as an add-on? It shouldn't be happening if you're subscribed directly through Showtime.com because then you're paying them directly. But yeah, these logouts are especially annoying when I download movies on my phone in the event the internet goes out, and then Showtime Anytime logs me out, and they all get deleted. 

I used to have Spectrum too, but I never watched it because I prefer on-demand commercial-free movies and shows. I can still watch the networks and other various channels if I need to, but I never do. 

[Portalogem]

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@ActtBadd wrote here::

Showtime is part of an add-on bundle on FuboTV. Only premium I pay for directly is HBO Max (yearly rate). My issue with Prime is trying to watch a show, it runs for about a minute then crashes to Roku home screen. I've learned that it happen most often when I try to watch from the continue watching list. For instance, I watched the first Terminal list episode and then I let the 2nd begin and exited out so I could come back and watch later. 3 attempts to watch from the continue watching menu and it crashed. Uninstalled app, TV off/on, reinstalled app and same issue a 4th time. Finally on the 5th attempt I fast forwarded about 20 minutes into the show and then reversed to the beginning and the show played fine. Only have this issue with Prime. First noticed it with the Boys a few weeks ago. Just assumed it was a temp glitch. Happened with about 3 episodes of the Boys.

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@ActtBadd, I turned on the movie "All The Old Knives," and it played for 30 minutes without problems with my Roku Ultra (2018). I then stopped the movie, went to the home screen, resumed from the continue watching on Amazon for a minute, and it started playing fine. I restarted the movie to the beginning and played it again for a minute without any issues. Perhaps it's different with shows, but I'm not so sure it would make a difference on my Roku device. Everything in the Amazon channel looks different, so they definitely updated it within the last four weeks.

I think you need to contact Amazon and let them know you've been having these issues for about a month which is way too long, and that you tried everything else. That nothing works to resolve it, such as having removed all peripheral devices off your TV, having the TV unplugged for several minutes (or even a half hour just to be sure), logging out of the Prime Video channel, uninstalling that channel, clearing the cache (see my post above on how to do that), reinstalling, and logging back into Prime Video Channels. They may want you to hard reset your TV. That's always the keyword everyone seems to like to fall back on, and you shouldn't really have to do that if it's just this one channel, and that might not accomplish anything but more work for you. Hopefully, you'll have the same outcome as PKinVA did after that user contacted Amazon because they may have personally patched PKinVA's TV -- no way to know if they did.

As with Showtime, I'm not familiar with Fubo all that much -- it appears you log into Fubo itself to watch the on-demand and live channels. If I understand this correctly, you're being logged out of Fubo every week, which includes Showtime. I found a post here on Reddit: Fubo TV keeps logging out : fuboTV (reddit.com), and it seems that a lot of people are having this similar issue, and customer service is not that great. So you may want to switch providers if you can't get in touch with them, but except for Philo, which doesn't include Showtime, everything else is around $70 to $80 a month (if you wanted Showtime with those providers like YouTube TV). You may just have to put up with Fubo's logging out issues, and perhaps Fubo's service will improve in the future. On Reddit, people were getting logged out multiple times a week, but that was eight months ago, so maybe it's already improved since then.

So definitely contact Amazon because you're paying for that service, and that's not right that it's been crashing your TV since the update had rolled out. If nothing works, then I found a seven-month-old thread in which the discussion is attaching a Roku device to an older Roku TV, which goes into what I was saying in a post above, but you shouldn't have to do that for one channel, especially if your TV isn't all that old. Solved: Connecting a new Roku device to an older Roku TV - Roku Community Sorry I couldn't be more helpful with your predicament. 

People will probably wonder how I replied to both of your posts before you wrote them. 😄

[ActtBadd]

Thanks for the reply. Workaround I've found for Prime is to fast forward during a show and then rewind back to point I want to start watching. That seems to help the crashing. I've put in tickets with Showtime about their app being the only one to require constant activation on my Roku TV. I know it's not on Roku but the developers of the app.  Just frustrating when the 10+ other apps I use on Roku do not have these issues. And even though I have access to premium content via FuboTV (used to have Spectrum), I still use the individual apps just out of habit and to make sure I don't miss any app exclusive content.

[ActtBadd]

Showtime is part of an add-on bundle on FuboTV. Only premium I pay for directly is HBO Max (yearly rate). My issue with Prime is trying to watch a show, it runs for about a minute then crashes to Roku home screen. I've learned that it happen most often when I try to watch from the continue watching list. For instance, I watched the first Terminal list episode and then I let the 2nd begin and exited out so I could come back and watch later. 3 attempts to watch from the continue watching menu and it crashed. Uninstalled app, TV off/on, reinstalled app and same issue a 4th time. Finally on the 5th attempt I fast forwarded about 20 minutes into the show and then reversed to the beginning and the show played fine. Only have this issue with Prime. First noticed it with the Boys a few weeks ago. Just assumed it was a temp glitch. Happened with about 3 episodes of the Boys.

[ActtBadd]

No issues with FuboTV. I use the Showtime Anytime app and can login with my FuboTV account (login with a TV provider). Been having this issue with Showtime for over a year (even when I used to login with Spectrum account).

The Prime issue has been a few weeks and I also noticed there has been an update recently since things look different. Finished the Boys a few weeks ago and finally got around the Terminal List on Friday and notice even with the new interface, same issues. Been watching Terminal List this weekend and have had to use the workaround at least 4 times when I come back to watch a new episode. I've learned to live with it on Prime. Since my TV is also connected to my PC (I watch in my man cave/home office), I could just watch through the browser if I really needed to.

Thanks for the suggestions though.

[Portalogem]

So I was right the first time that you use Showtime Anytime; I just wasn't right about the provider, but I was trying not to go off-topic in this thread. I've been having issues with them for six or more years. But I'll probably combine Showtime with Paramount Plus soon, and then I shouldn't have that issue anymore. It's just the way Showtime Anytime works, as I described above. There's nothing we can do about it. If you don't mind using your computer, for the time being, the issue will eventually resolve itself with Amazon because when this thread started back in May, which coincided with the OS 11 update, the issue was much worse. If it was because of the OS 11 update, perhaps a hard reset is the only way to fix this if it doesn't resolve itself after a period of time, but that's up to you because that might not work. 

In comparison, the worst issue I had on the Roku was that it took around half a year for Hulu to finally fix their glitch where pressing the back key would crash the channel back to the home screen even when watching a movie or a show, and everything got much worse to the point I couldn't even scroll to "show all" without it crashing, and then they resolved it. This was months after them having giving me the run around when I would call them and call them. So you're not alone, for you have a whole community of people who have suffered or are suffering right along with you. 🙂