Discussions

[jonobrady]

Hello,

My Roku Soundbar (9101X) has been pretty stable since I got it a few years back

It would need a restart every now and again, but otherwise was pretty solid.

On 1/7/25, it mentioned there was a new update available.

I got the thing to do the update and restarted the system.

Since then, the soundbar has become unstable to the point of being irritating. Its not all the time, but definitely more since the update.

It will often buffer unexpectedly, or just freeze.

Sometimes it will jump back to the home menu , even when no remote keys are pressed or just do a  system restart itself. Some times it will happen a few times in a short time.

The software version reports as 14.1

I have done system restarts and reboots, but it still seems to happen.

The home network and router are stable and I have a 1gb connection to the internet with low latency so that doesn't appear to be the issue.

I have 2 other rokus on the same network (not soundbars) and they seem to be working fine

Any tips or advice?

THanks

Im just wondering if I am alone in this or if this has been spotted by other users.

[Legs]

You aren't alone. I don't have as many problems as you have, but I do have a significant amount of buffering since the system was updated to software version 14.1 about a month ago. I have a brand new gateway from xfinity and they tell me the buffering is not coming from their service/equipment.

[jonobrady]

Hey there

Thanks for the reply!

Misery loves company eh?

Its nice to know I am not alone

JB

[jonobrady]

 In case anyone stumbles onto this thread , I did a good bit of "testing" this weekend.

This seems to be only happening on Hulu. I tested on PlutoTV, Youtube, Amazon and Netflix and they all seemed to work ok.

I have reinstalled the hulu app to see if this improves anything and will post back later if this is indeed the case

Updated 2/2/2025

[RokuEmmanuel-D]

Hi Community Users!

Great to see you all here in the Roku Community!

We understand that you're experiencing unexpected behavior with your Roku Soundbar and we would like to know more about your concern. 

To help us investigate further, could you please tell us more about it?

• Is the buffering issues happening on all channels or only on a specific channel?
• Are the apps that keep exiting the home screen happening on all applications or only on specific apps on your home screen?
• What troubleshooting steps you have tried so far?

In the meantime, we would recommend visiting this support article: Issues playing content on your Roku device. If these steps here don't help the problem, please let us know so we can dig deeper into this. 

Best,
The Roku Community Team

[jonobrady]

mmmmm..........thanks for replying- kind of.

I think all of these questions were answered in my post, along with my assurance to update the thread if there is stability after reinstalling Hulu.

[jonobrady · Accepted solution]

Sticking to my promise,

Reinstalling Hulu seemed to do it alright.

I did not have this issue any other service and Hulu seems far more stable now.

AS a person who worked support for a long time, I hate the " do a reboot" or "factory reset" or "reinstall it" as it sounds like an underlying problem but it worked for me.

[RokuHaz-M]

Thanks for the update! @jonobrady

I'm glad that the way you came up with fixes the problem. Thanks for helping us, your fellow Community members, keep the Roku even better! If you need help or have any questions, don't hesitate to give us a shout!

Happy Streaming.

The Roku Community Team