Features, settings & updates

[JCorbin]

Recently purchased a Roku Express 4K. Have it working fine but I notice the blue power light stays on even when I press the power button on the remote to turn the device off. Is this normal?

[ubaggins]

Same question, all i can find is about blinking light. I have 2, both express 4k+.

1 goes off with TV when i hit power button (older TV)

The other stays on always. why?

[AvsGunnar · Accepted solution]

@JCorbin and @ubaggins 

The Power button, as well as the volume and mute buttions, are TV controls.  These have no effect on the Roku device itself.  Only powers on and off the TV, not the Roku.

When you are finished streaming, you need to press the Home button on the Roku remote.  This will return you to the Home Screen (and stops all streaming and data usage).  The device will then enter a sleep mode after some time of inactivity and the light should go off.

The Roku device never really powers off, it just enters a low power/sleep mode.

Then when you go to watch the Roku again, you press the Power Button to turn on the TV, and you press the Home button to "wake up" the Roku.

----

Unless you have Auto-Power Savings enabled (Settings/System/Power/Auto Power Savings/20-min [On] ) or Bandwidth Saver enabled (Settings/Network/Bandwidth Saver [On] ) the device will continue to stream and use data if you just use the Power button to turn off the TV.  There is a possibility the screensaver may kick in after some period of inactivity, but no guarantees, as this is channel/app dependent.

Best practice is to remember to press the Home button on the remote when you are finished streaming.

[jrossitr]

I tried this solution. The light did go off for a while but then it came back on after a short period of time -- 10 - 20 minutes. What is the light for? What is it trying to tell me? How can I make go off and stay off after shutting down the TV from the Home screen?

[renojim · Accepted solution]

@jrossitr, the first Roku devices never turned the light off. Then, after a user suggestion, it was made to go off whenever the screensaver activated. Roku devices never really turn off, so the light isn't all that meaningful for anything. Recently, some models got a new "power saving" feature (that saves very little power and is more trouble than it's worth) and the light will (should) also go off when it goes into power saving mode. The most recent update (11.5) just totally messed up everything and people are finding that their Roku comes out of power saving on its own, the light comes back on, and sometimes even the TV turns on. If the light really bothers you (I honestly have never taken notice of any light on any of my multitude of Roku devices) try disabling "power saving" if your model has that feature under Settings->System->Power (or put a piece of black tape over it 🙂 ).

[jrossitr]

Thanks for the info. I have now disabled the Power saver and am shutting off the TV from the Home screen. The light goes off and stays off! I would consider this issue resolved. Thank you to the experts.

[BigWally]

I followed the instructions to always press the Home button before signing out.  Alas, the light still stayed on.  However, I do think that this is probably the best solution, i.e. always sign out by first pressing the Home button, even if the Roku power light still remains on.