Channels & viewing

[Frankiefigs]

I have done all of the above mentioned tips.  I have 2 different roku tvs and only one of them is doing this.  It crashes within a few seconds of starting any show/movie.  I kept the other TV running without issues while this one kept crashing.  I don't think this is an app issue.  Both my tvs are TCL roku tvs.  Please help.

[Dw6]

Did you try unplugging tv from wall socket and waiting 10 seconds or so and then plug back in? It works for me but may have to repeat every couple weeks depending on how much you watch prime.

[RokuNimfa-C]

Hi @Frankiefigs, 

Thanks for reaching out to the Roku Community.

Does the issue only occur on this specific channel or all channels on your Roku device? Could you tell us how are you powering the affected Roku device? Is it connected to the USB port of the TV or to a wall outlet? Can you also provide the troubleshooting steps have you already taken to try to resolve the issue?

Keep us posted on what you find out.


Regards,
Nimfa

[Portalogem]

@Frankiefigs,

I would first recommend restarting the TV (versus unplugging it) to see if that fixes the issue, but it sounds like you have already tried that.

If you have the same TV twice, is what you're saying (the same model and year), and one is glitching on just that one channel and no other channels, it sounds to me like one of the TV's had a bad Amazon Prime channel update while the other TV didn't. It's not the TV else every channel would be crashing -- not just one. 

If this just happened, then patience may be the best thing since a future update may be all that's needed to patch this problem you're having with this one TV. If you tried everything else on this thread, an immediate solution, until Amazon gets around to providing an update for their channel on that TV, is plugging a *Roku device or non-Roku device into that TV and watching Amazon Prime Video from that device until Amazon resolves this glitch that seems to be affecting many various Roku TVs. (*As far as I'm aware, since I haven't watched Amazon Prime Video in a while, I haven't yet had this issue with any of my Roku devices as it seems just to be occurring with Roku TV's, so in theory, plugging a Roku device into the TV and using that should be a temporary workaround till this issue is resolved.)

If your issue isn't resolved in a few days, I'd tell you to hard reset the TV if all the channels were crashing, but if it's just that one, I'd think that would be overkill. But if you tried everything on this thread, perhaps that may work, but then again, it might not. Personally, I would call Amazon before hard resetting the TV since you are paying for their service (and tell them that it's working fine on the other TV), but if they couldn't help you patch this and you already tried to hard reset with no results, then unfortunately, it may just be a waiting game.

I don't know if this was already mentioned on this thread, but you can try this (as well as everything else mentioned in this thread) after a few days because this might not work until an update (or potential patch) is eventually rolled out:

Scroll to the Amazon Prime Video channel on the home screen.
Click the "star" key on the remote, scroll to "Check for updates," and press "Ok."
Then hope for the best. 

This glitch has been going on for quite some time with Amazon and Roku Smart TVs. To give you an example of how long it could potentially take to resolve this Roku issue with Amazon -- it took Hulu more than 6 months to finally fix their glitch that was crashing all my Roku devices and bringing them back to the home screen. That's a long time, but the issue did finally get resolved. This issue is a little different since the crash only occurred with Hulu when pressing the back key on the remote while watching a movie or show; however, hopefully, your issue will eventually be resolved with Amazon Prime and your TV, just as it was resolved with Hulu and my Roku devices. Sorry I couldn't be any more helpful than this. 

And for everyone else who's reading this thread and having this problem:

By this time, Amazon is probably aware of this issue with various Roku TVs and should be working on a future update that will eventually fix this for everyone affected. Until that time happens, call Amazon and let them know that this issue is affecting your smart TV because they may be able to patch your specific TV. If I find that my Roku devices become affected by this glitch, I'll call Amazon and let them know. 

[Msw93060]

My prime keeps stopping and going back to home screen when I watch content on freevee each time it goes to a commercial. 

[RokuKariza-D]

Hello @Msw93060 

Thanks for the post.

Does the issue only occur on Amazon Prime Video or across other channels installed on your Roku device?

If you haven't tried yet, you can remove the affected channel and then re-install it. To ensure the process is successful, restart your device before adding the channel back in. We would recommend doing this from the Settings menu by navigating to Settings > System > Power (If you do not see a Power submenu, skip to the next step.) > System restart.

For detailed instructions, refer to this Support link: How do I resolve channel playback issues?

Let us know how it goes!

All the best,
Kariza

[Msw93060]

it only happens on prime video and strangly only during early morning hours, after midnight. And only when I watch freevee movies. And only when a commercial is beginning. After i resume movie it goes back several minutes. Anyways I will try what you suggested. Thanks 

[Portalogem]

@Msw93060

If you're still having this crashing issue with the Prime Video channel when watching the freevee content, try out the freevee channel. Perhaps that will resolve your issue since you no longer have to rely on the problematic Amazon Prime Video channel to watch your freevee content. Another option -- if both channels are having this same issue and you want to watch a movie or show during those times when it's crashing after the commercial -- if you have a computer/tablet/smartphone -- you can wirelessly connect those devices to show the Amazon Prime Video channel or the freevee channel on your Roku until Amazon resolves this. You could also try using a different Roku or non-Roku device if you have one, as that may function as a temporary workaround until you're able to get an update that resolves this glitch.

Unfortunately, these glitches happen from time to time on various channels due to faulty updates and eventually resolve themselves when the channel provider sends an update that fixes this. This happens on all streaming devices from time to time, so it's not just a Roku problem. This is why our suggestions work for some but fail to work for others since these suggestions are various ways to refresh the Roku's cache, which only proves useful once the channel operator fixes the glitch and sends an update.

This is why I recommend having redundant streaming devices, so if one stops working right, you can switch to a different one until the glitch is resolved. Unfortunately, my redundant streaming device, which was my blu-ray player, is no longer adequate since it's quite old, so I'll soon be investing in another redundant streamer which will probably be a Fire TV stick. And if my Roku gives me the same amount of grief going forward as it had in the past, then that will become my redundant streaming device. 

[Frankiefigs]

Thank you for you help.  I ended up having to call Amazon directly as I repeated all the steps above mentioned and it was still not working.  They had me uninstall and reinstall and sign out and sign back in and in the end, unplug my tv for about 15 minutes and reset my licenses.  That finally worked.  After reinstalling the last time having unplugged my tv after uninstalling the app it stopped crashing.  I don't know if the license thing or the unplugging thing did it.  But it's working.

thanks!

[Portalogem]

If you still have that Amazon phone number @Frankiefigs, it would probably be most helpful if you could post it in this thread, so others could skip trying to navigate Amazon's website to track this down because it may have been Amazon that provided an update to your Roku while they were helping you. There is no way to know, but in either case, it wouldn't hurt for people to have it if nothing we all posted helps someone in the future because Amazon itself needs to provide a patch.

I also believe that if Amazon receives calls from people who are having this issue, the more likely they'll be aware of this and provide a universal update for everyone if they're not already planning to do that by this point or have already done this.

Probably the best thing to do for people having this crashing issue is to repeat the steps posted in this thread, which you summed up in your post, and if that doesn't work, then to call Amazon as after you called them, it seemed to have finally solved this.

By the way, I'm curious as to what you meant by resetting your licenses as I'm unfamiliar with how to do that unless that happens when following one of the above steps -- like this is no different than resetting the cache which (as far as I know) happens when restarting (or unplugging) the Roku TV/device. When I Googled this, I read that resetting licenses meant hard resetting the Roku, which for me was a major pain since I have 208 Roku channels that randomly re-arrange themselves after doing that; hard resetting the device never solved any of my issues.