Features, settings & updates

[RokuMary-F · Accepted solution]

Hi @RoahCoo,

Thanks for the inquiry.

Adding a micro SD card allows you to expand the amount of internal memory available for installing channels and games from the Roku Channel Store. The micro SD card is not used for the storage of personal media such as photos, videos, or music.

For full information on this, you can take a look at this link: How to increase player memory with a micro SD card | Official Roku Support

Hope you'll find this info useful. Let us know in case you've still got any questions.

Best regards,
Mary

[Arthur66]

I have always used a LAN over wireless. However, the SD card is still needed if you have very many channels "saved" in you menu. The existing memory is simply VERY small. 

[Dilbertic]

We have 2 Roku TV's and it never complains about the app's we have installed which by the way is not to many of them. The Ultra just bites for storage, I have the SD card in it and it was still complaining about running out of space, so needless to say for the money get a TV version, not the streaming box...

[Istvan]

There are so many SD card options today and many don't work with the ROKU ULTRA. I reached out to ROKU support today.

They told me I need for the ROKU ULTRA MICRO SD card 2GB Class 10 or better. Any model works XC or HC . It should be formatted FAT32 before installing it. 

I tried to use today a 64GB Micro SD XC Class 10, but it did not work. Maybe because it is too large. I will try to format it first to FAT32 and reinstall it to see. Other than that I will order from Amazon the ROKU support recommended one. Amazon still sells 2GB SD cards.

[DBDukes]

@Istvan 

I hadn't noticed that Roku stopped selling them. However, since the Roku Ultra model 4800, released in 2020, no current models support them. The last to support the microSD card was the Roku Ultra model 4670 released in 2019. Actually putting 4GB storage on the device was long overdue, and dropped all need for it.

[Istvan]

Quick update on my earlier post. I reformatted first the SDXC Class 10 64GB micro SD card in my laptop to FAT32. Than I unplugged the ROKU ULTRA installed the SD card into the ROKU. I turned it on. When I clicked on an app the first time, it asked me that it needs to format it. I select yes and continue. The ROKU reformatted the SD card. Now all my apps load much faster. It seems that the trick was to get my SD card to work, is to format it first in my laptop and then once in the Roku device.

I hope this helps all of you who was trying to figure this out.

[EdS]

I just purchased a 3 pack of 32GB PNY micro SDHC cards.  I tried all three in my roku 4660 and the roku does not recognize any of the SDHC cards.  Thus, the formatting process is never initiated.  Looking in the roku setup with the sdhc card installed indicates that the card is not installed.  I verified that the card was locked into place properly.  I verified that the cards work on at least a basic level by plugging them into my computer card reader.  All three were recognized and could be seen in file manager.  Further, I verified that they were formatted with FAT32 which I thought was what is needed.  I've seen several posts talking about roku supporting up to 32GB cards which should mean they support SDHC.  As I understand, micro SDHC cards max out at 32GB.  I assumed from such posts that roku supported SDHC and not just SD.  I wonder what the real answer is.  Maybe roku only supports micro SD which max out a 2GB as I understand.  I don't want to keep buying more cards until I find one that works.  It seems like there must be an answer to what is compatible with roku.  I wouldn't even be going down this path but my devices keep prodding me to install a micro sd card to improve channel loading.   So my question is what micro SD cards work with which roku device.  I have several roku boxes to take care of .

[DBDukes]

---

@EdS wrote:

...Maybe roku only supports micro SD which max out a 2GB as I understand. ...

---

This is correct.

If you can format a larger card to be recognized, as some have been able to do, Roku will utilize up to 2 GB storage, and no more than that. If you got an 8 GB card to work, you have 2 GB usable and 6 GB wasted. If you get a 16 GB card to work, you have 2 GB usable and 14 GB wasted. And so on.

Keep in mind, this is only for onboard app storage. It doesn't increase the device memory at all. It's storage only. Roku will mange on-board storage, and if you load an app that brings your on-board total to over 2 GB, it removes the older (as in longest time since it was opened) apps from the device. The apps remain active on your account.

Meaning if you loaded apps, and, say, Netflix was removed to make room for other apps, you could still run Netflix, but you'd have to wait for it to download. And the Roku would remove enough apps to make room for Netflix. And so on.

[EdS]

Hmmm.  Interesting.  When the previous poster got the card to work by formatting with FAT32 I assumed micro SDHC was supported and size wouldn't matter.  Does the card have to be formatted to a 2GB size?   If truly there is no advantage to having more than 2GB, it is a waste of a 32GB card anyway so I can repurpose these to bigger things.  I think I will look for some 2GB micro SD cards.  

[Smike]

Okay, after reading this entire thread and other info thoroughly, I purchased 2 of these SanDisk 32GB Micro SD cards for $10 each from Amazon, and straight out of the package I carefully clicked one into my Roku Ultra 4660X (labeled as SKU# 4661R on the box), and the second card into my dad's identical Roku Ultra, and both Rokus formatted them correctly within a few minutes, and both cards work very well.

Note that the cards must be installed upside-down into the Roku.  The decorated top of the card should be facing down, while the metal contacts should be facing up towards the HDMI port, and towards the top of the Roku. To be clear, I started with the power and all other cables unplugged, I correctly inserted the cards, fresh and new from their package, and fully clicked them into place, then attached the HDMI cables, and finally plugged the Rokus back in.

I specifically avoided the cheap PNY cards after reading this thread.  Micro SD cards are finicky little bastards, and having had lots of experience with them, I don't think fooling around with quality is a good idea.

I do think that you should limit the size of the card you purchase to 32GB, as I've read several credible reports that 32GB is the max size that Rokus handle by default.  Still, that's vastly more space than a Roku will ever use for app storage anyway, so that's plenty fine.

However, there's a lot of talk in this thread about a theoretical and practical 2GB limit, and sadly Roku's official help info and comments have done nothing to correct this fallacy.  The fact is, both of my Roku Ultra 4660Xs actually display the full 31.4 GB of usable space on each card, and correctly calculate the percentage of storage used.

Further, I personally tested the notion that the Roku improperly utilizes this space, maxing-out its usable space at 2GB.  This may have been true at one time, or with some models, but as of now, with this series of Roku Ultra, this is not correct.  On the first day, I got one card to utilize nearly 3GBs of space.  I further checked every application, and none required reloading.  The Roku was properly loading each app onto the card.  Rewriting was never done, and was totally unnecessary given the relatively massive amount of free space available.

Bottom line, if you have a Roku Ultra in the 4660 series or later, and it can use a Micro SD card, just get the card I linked above, and it should work well, and fully.  There are plenty of other worse cards available, but none better at 32GB and anywhere near $10.  Samsung makes a solid 32GB card as well, but it's much slower.  I wouldn't bother with any other card.

I hope this has been helpful, and that I've finally and fully answered all of the questions posed by and within this thread.