Features, settings & updates

[jasonhavens]

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@Smike wrote:

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.

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Thank you all for the helpful information in this thread and especially to you, @Smike, for your final post above.  I followed your approach, including the SanDisk micro SD units (as I historically prefer SanDisk anyway).  My 2019 Roku model 4661 series required two attempts in order to recognize the inserted micro SD and format it; however, it worked flawlessly on the second attempt.  Now it appears that all channels, which formerly were consuming most of the available memory, now are stored on the micro SD card (1.7 GB or 5% of the available space).  This should permanently prevent my Roku from offloading channels as needed.  Thank you again.

[EdS]

I decided to try Sandisk in my 4660x as per the success stories above.  For immediate gratification I went to Best Buy and bought a 32GB sandisk ultra plus micro sdhc UHS-1 card.  My 4660x still does not recognize that a micro sd card is installed.  Maybe it was a mistake to try a card that was not the exact one used in the previous success stories even though it is sandisk.  This card was preformatted as FAT32 and is recognized by my computer card reader as were the PNY cards I wrote about previously.  

My procedure is to disconnect power, hdmi, and ethernet from the roku box, install the sdhc card, plug the cables in and wait for something to show up on my tv to indicate that roku is or wants to format the micro sd.  Upon seeing that the roku is fully powered up and booted with no indications of card recognition, I go into settings --> about and the last item says "no micro sd card installed".

I'm going to try the sandisk in a different roku box this weekend to see if that makes a difference.

[renojim]

@EdS, have you tried inserting the card after the Roku is fully booted and sitting at the Home Screen?

[makaiguy]

32 GB is probably significant overkill.  Everything I've read says the Roku will only use 2 GB of the card to store channel info, but I haven't seen anything in a long time on this, so possibly it has expanded since then.

Some people have reported success by  formatting the card in their computer, if it has a card reader that can handle SD cards.   After formatting, see if the Roku will detect and reformat the card successfully.

Windows instructions, don't know what would differ on other systems:

Do a slow (i.e. not "fast") format of the card via your computer. Select FAT32 and select it to use the default allocation size.

Also, see if this old post helps: https://community.roku.com/t5/Remotes-Accessories/Added-SD-Card-Remote-no-longer-works/m-p/646676#M1...

[EdS]

No, I have not tried inserting the card while the roku box is powered up.  Does micro SD support live insertion?  I never really considered that possibility.

[EdS]

Thank you for the reply.  Yes, I understand 32GB is overkill.  My understanding is that unless you go down to 2GB to get a micro SD card as opposed to an SDHC card which go up to 32GB the formatting will be the same (FAT32).  The 2GB cards aren't much use to me other than for the roku box and from what I could find are actually more expensive these days.  I can repurpose some number of the 32GB sdhc cards so when they aren't working in the roku I do have some use for them at least.

I have not tried formatting the card on the computer because it already shows up as being formatted using FAT32.  I guess trying to reformat the card is a good next step.  I thought the previous poster got the 32GB card to work out of the box (no reformatting) so I was encouraged.

I tried my sandisk micro sdhc cards in a second roku box this weekend.  It is a roku 4 (4400X).  Results were the same in that unit as my roku ultra; the sdhc card was not recognized as being present.

[EdS]

I just tried reformatting both the sandisk and pny 32GB micro SD cards on my computer.  I selected FAT32.  Both cards were empty so I did a quick reformat.  Both cards formatted successfully.  I tried each in my roku ultra and neither card is recognized.  This is frustrating!

[EdS]

I tried doing a full format (as opposed to a quick format) on the sandisk sdhc card per your suggestion.  Same result.  Card is not recognized as installed. 

I've worked with a number of micro sdhc cards and sdhc cards in various devices from camcorders to raspberry pi's and never encountered a problem.  My impression is that roku is broke on this issue.  I can't explain why some people seem to be able to get it to work but there also seems to be a number of us that can't.  Is there someone from roku out there that can help with this issue?  For the time invested in this I think I could have bought a new roku box which I'm not inclined to do if I can't get this to work.

[Arthur66]

Look around and find some OLD 2GB or 4GB cards.

It's not the type, or the format or file type.

The system DOES NOT RECOGNIZE cards with large memories.

I wasted money and time,  then I dug up some old 4GB cards. These worked perfectly.

SAVE YOUR MONEY, old 4GB cards are everywhere & cheap.

[Michelle3]

@Arthur66  2 GB cards appear to be the only perfect solution on Roku Ultra devices.  My only Roku device as of currently is an Express+ 3910 (with analog outputs), plus I’d rather use a larger GB card for a console like my Nintendo Wii-U. (this forum is not a discussion forum for helping Nintendo users by the way, so I do apologize if you get confused)

~ Jordan