Channels & viewing

[atc98092]

The 3920 has 1 GB of operational memory, which is the same as all current model Roku players, other than the Ultra which has 2 GB and the non-4K Express models with 512 MB. That really isn't a factor. Channel storage memory is different. Most players only have 256 MB (1080p Express) or 512 MB (everything else except the Ultra 4800 and 4K Express models, which have 4 GB).

Channel storage has nothing to do with operational use, other than if you have a lot of channels it will "unload" the least used channels to keep the most used ones in memory. If you go to use one of the lesser used channels, it has to reload the channel and unload something else to make room. This causes a slight delay in starting a channel, but has no effect on performance once the channel is loaded.

[mounthood]

THANKS AGAIN! WOW!

I Went to Roku's default theme and presto! Now I have YouTube!  
AMAZING. 
THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Teri 

Parkdale, Oregon 

[StreamerUser]

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@mounthood wrote:

THANKS AGAIN! WOW!

I Went to Roku's default theme and presto! Now I have YouTube!  
AMAZING. 
THANK YOU SO MUCH!

---

Good feedback, and you're welcome.

Restoring the default theme doesnt work with all models or all configurations (hence the list), but it does for some.  If it happens again (very possible), try the same resolution, or try the list again.

[AnaMaria]

I had the exact same problem even after checking my network connection until I unplugged everything for 5 minutes then plugged it back in and turned it all back on.  It worked.

[StreamerUser]

@AnaMaria 
Also good feedback, and one of the workarounds/solutions of the revised "apps wont load/crash to Home" list.

[lriera23]

The buffering on YouTubeTV was making me crazy trying to watch a sports event. I tried everything - see previous post somewhere on this forum. The moderator told me to call Google. Well, that's pretty much impossible by phone, email, or smoke signal.

But I did finally find to solution. My internet modem was failing. The signal from YouTube would experience a 1-2 second gap in the data stream that caused the buffering. New modem installed and no more problems.

If you think this is your problem, call your provider and ask to see the data transmission logs. That will show you if this is also your problem.

Hope this helps.

[JHKW]

Last night I discovered my Roku Express+ would not connect to YouTube TV. It would load from 0% then punt to a screen that said ' can't run channel because it couldn't be reinstalled from the network'. I also found that YouTube channel did the same thing. At first I thought it might be related to the Roku/YouTube TV kerfuffle, then I noticed my Spotify app was likewise n/a. FWIW, YouTube TV and Spotify are my 2 most used channels, and these 3 are at the top of my list.

First I made certain the device and all apps were up to date (they were). Then I went through all the suggested steps, such as rebooting, unplugging, all order variations re removing the app/rebooting/reinstalling, etc. All to no avail. (I intentionally didn't remove YouTube TV app, for I know once it's gone, it's gone.) Before I hit the hay, I checked my Roku Ultra on a different TV and found that unit and the same 3 apps were working just fine, so clearly this was somehow related to the Roku Express+ unit.

This morning, after seeing this post plus some others, I took another stab at fooling around with the Roku Express+ unit. What caught my attention was other users who'd mentioned using the Aquatic Life screensaver as I do. Eventually, I changed my theme pack back to the default. Voila -- suddenly all 3 apps worked perfectly again. That absolutely worked.

At this point, I wanted to see which element of the theme (screensaver, background, etc.) was the culprit. After a number of experiments, I determined that Aquatic Life was definitely the culprit for me. Regardless of the background I picked, whenever I set the screensaver to Aquatic Life, it hosed up my 3 apps every single time. As much as I liked the look of Aquatic Life, I've now chosen a different screensaver.

Also... another quirk related to that specific screensaver... I have that one and a few others grouped in 'My Screensavers'. (A different one is selected.) What's interesting is that, unlike the others I've added to My Screensavers, there is no 'Remove' option for my Aquatic Life screensaver. You simply cannot remove it or delete it from this section.

And what's even odder is this... If I scroll down the list of choices, I find another Aquatic Life available for adding. While it portrays the very same version number, it has a different count for Ratings (old copy shows 35K, new copy shows 68K), so it seems to be a mirror copy yet somehow distinct. I was actually able to add that one to My Screensavers. That is, at one point in my testing, I had 2 separate copies of Aquatic Life showing in My Screensavers. Both reported the same version number, yet the number of ratings was different. And both seemed to operate fine once previewed or selected. Yet only the second copy has a Remove option. The fact that I cannot Remove my copy of Aquatic Life which I'd manually added many months ago tells me that there is something about this particular screensaver that isn't working properly in the background with my Roku Express+. I'm guessing some sort of background conflict is clogging up the cache and hosing up my 3 most used apps on that specific device. I still use Aquatic Life as the screensaver for the other Roku Ultra, and so far I've not had any issues with that unit. But if this happens again, it looks like my first step would be to revert to the default theme pack and bail out on every again using Aquatic Life on that device, as well.

I don't know if I've stumbled on something useful or not, but here's hoping the Roku techs go take a look at this aspect. If someone can give me a workaround way to remove Aquatic Life from My Screensavers, that would be awesome.

(Note: I suspect a hard reset of the Express+ would fix that, but it also would delete my YouTube TV app for good. I know I can still get to YTTV via the YouTube app, but I'd rather not risk losing the YTTV app on my device just to tidy up the My Screensavers listing.)

[atc98092]

A hard reset of one device linked to your account should not remove any existing channels from your account, so after resetting your Premiere all your existing channels should again be installed once you link it again. I can understand your hesitance, and I would likely have the same. But in theory it is still on your account and would be added to any new Roku device registered to the same user account. Only actively removing the channel from one device would remove it from the account itself. 

[StreamerUser]

@JHKW 

Good feedback about the theme/screensaver defaults working for you - these two fixes work especially well for older/lower memory models.

The Aquatic Life screensaver is a common culprit, though others can cause it too.

FYI, there are 2 (two) versions of Aquatic Life - if you look closely one is version 13.0.90000011 (cant be removed) and the other is 3.0.90000011 (found via search, installs as an app, can be removed).

A Factory Reset will not delete the YTTV app, as apps are account associated not device associated (only manually removing it removes it).

[JHKW]

Hey Dan I appreciate this helpful clarification. You're right, my bad. I wrongly inferred the channels are hosted on each local device vs linked to an account in the cloud.

To your point, I recall when I got my 2nd Roku, I understandably had to fool with things like customizing the 2nd device's display settings and whatnot and maybe rearranging my channel order to mimic familiarity of device #1. But I don't recall having to go build a channel list from the get-go - it seems they were there. Anyway your explanation makes good sense. (Now that the recent hiccup is resolved, hopefully I'll never have an issue so serious that I must resort to a device reset thereby testing this theory IRL! )

Many thanks!