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GGH
Reel Rookie

Roku Guest Mode - detailed documentation, reverting to saved logins, etc

Hello all,

I've recently purchased a Roku Express 4k for a guest suite (sometimes occupied by family, sometimes outside guests).  The guest mode looks wonderful, but putting into practice seems to have some hitches.  A lot of the links on the Roku website to guest mode documentation appear broken, making it difficult to see if this has already been addressed.

What I'd like:  Netflix login (ours) saved in the non-guest mode.  If guests want to use their own accounts (or we prefer to distance ourselves), then we can enable guest mode.  When they leave, however, and we disable guest mode, I'd like our usual netflix subscription to be re-activated without having to re-enter our credentials.  I'm not sure if this is common for external subscriptions, rather than subscriptions managed in Roku.

If I subscribe to a service in Roku, does it automatically re-enable upon exiting guest mode?

 

Secondly, I see a lot of questions on this forum without much in the way of answers - is it possible to have a more detailed guest documentation page answering some of it.  Examples could be how to choose which channels/apps are automatically available in guest mode, how to remove channels from the guest mode, and my above question about reactivating externally-managed subscriptions.

 

Thanks!

6 REPLIES 6
StreamerUser
Roku Guru

Re: Roku Guest Mode - detailed documentation, reverting to saved logins, etc

When I go to support.roku.com and search for "guest mode", the first two results are:

How do I set up Guest Mode on my Roku® streaming device?

https://support.roku.com/article/360015612834

How do I stream my content on a Roku® streaming device in Guest Mode?

https://support.roku.com/article/360015611254

To answer your "what i'd like":

Note: When you enter Guest Mode on your Roku device, you will automatically be signed out of your subscription channels like Netflix, and any game data stored on your device will be removed. To view content on your subscription channels after your guests leave town, you must exit Guest Mode and sign in to your subscriptions channels again.

Also, since its the weekend, new posts often go unresponded to for longer periods (after all, this is mostly a user to user community support forum, with a few Roku employees that monitor and assist).

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GGH
Reel Rookie

Re: Roku Guest Mode - detailed documentation, reverting to saved logins, etc

Hi, and thanks for that reply.  That's too bad that currently you need to re-log-in after guest mode is disabled - it would be nice to have it all set up again without having to communicate login details.

 

If those links you posted work for you, it looks like there may be a problem with your regionalization redirects.  They redirect to an en-ca folder where the article I'm looking is not valid.  I found this with a number of support articles and assumed it was old links, but it seems it may be regionalization configuration issues with the site.  Hopefully this can get fixed!

 

ie, one redirects to:

https://support.roku.com/en-ca/article/360015612834

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MilesT
Roku Guru

Re: Roku Guest Mode - detailed documentation, reverting to saved logins, etc

the regional redirects break a lot of content on this website (UK too). Sometimes you can hack the URL to get the link to work.

For your use case, I would suggest having 2 cheap Roku devices. One with your service details which you can offer but ask guests to not change (and put PIN mode on to prevent paid for addition of channels), and a guest one that you put into guest mode when guests arrive and take out of guest mode when they leave.

Not a Roku employee
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StreamerUser
Roku Guru

Re: Roku Guest Mode - detailed documentation, reverting to saved logins, etc

@GGH 

Its not my content - I don't work for Roku, I'm a user just like you.

Unfortunately broken/missing URLs are common, especially when accessing the US content from elsewhere.  Then theres the content issue itself, where the actual help/support content is different or presented very differently, though describing the same exact functionality (though of course there are product/service/support differences between the different countries/regions as well)

Switching roku.com's country/region setting (at the very bottom of the page) is actually a common fix for account-related app availability/install issues.

Without a doubt the website could use a lot of cleanup, and the mis/configuration of its country/region setting causes unnecessary issues too (they should display the current country/region at the top of every page, with a flag for easy distinguishing like many sites do, not a tiny nearly hidden setting at the very bottom).

Regardless, the Guest functionality doesnt work as you wish it did/want it to, so you should suggest otherwise:

https://community.roku.com/t5/Suggest-a-Feature/bd-p/Wishlist

You could also request better country/regional support as well.

RokuDanny-R
Retired Moderator

Re: Roku Guest Mode - detailed documentation, reverting to saved logins, etc

@GGH

Thanks for the post.

The links that @StreamerUser provided are working properly, but if you are in a different region (outside of the US), they may not work for you.


Thanks,
Danny

Danny R.
Roku Community Moderator
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GGH
Reel Rookie

Re: Roku Guest Mode - detailed documentation, reverting to saved logins, etc

Hi @RokuDanny-R , I'm confirming that these links do not work in Canada.  Can you please have your website localization fixed?

Thanks

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