Getting Started - Setup & How-to

[udance4ever]

Hi, we bought a Streaming Stick+ (3810R) in Dec 2019 and 13 months later, it is having severe performance issues.

After deleting apps, testing the device on another TV, changing networks (2.4 and 5 Ghz), changing routers didn’t help.

An app like YouTube used to be snappy and now it doesn’t even load UI elements - notice the rectangular placeholders of the left and absence of thumbnails:

UI load issues

So we resorted to factory resetting the unit and it still exhibits the same issues.

The network has Excellent signal strength from an AX1800 router:Excellent signal strength at 38 Mbps

A speedtest on an iPadPro (2018, no WiFi 6) next to the TV is 387/452 Mbps (Roku only gets 38 Mbps with Excellent signal strength).  ping time is <10ms (8ms) and jitter is less than 1 ms (0.56).

Unfortunately the unit is a month out of warranty.  If the issue persists after a factory reset and lag is across all applications (at the UI level, streams are fine), do we have a defective unit?

What else can we do to get the Roku to perform like it did for the first year?

[renojim]

I don't know if it will help, but try clearing the cache.  Using your Roku remote, press Home 5 times, Up once, Rewind (<<) twice, and FF (>>) twice.  If you do it right your Roku will appear to lock up and then reboot.  Keep us posted.

[udance4ever]

That was one of the things we tried first before a factory reset.

We'll try again & report back.

[udance4ever]

ok we tried the sequence again but it doesn't "lock up" like before the factory reset.

I'm guessing there isn't much of a cache to clear as it's been maybe 4 days since we reset the whole device?

I'm tempted to just get a new stick from our local Best Buy just to see if it exhibits the same behavior.

I'm a bit bummed I didn't purchase the stick under one of my credit cards that would have extended its warranty 12-24 months.  lesson learned.

Like to know if there is anything else we can do because at this point, I'm confused what inside the stick could possibly go bad to cause it to behave like this after a factory reset.

[udance4ever · Accepted solution]

This issue appears to be very YouTube specific so we posted to the YouTube forums:

https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/96704671

As much as I don’t agree with the practice of Google providing next to no support for the YouTube app on the Roku, we just ordered the new Chromecast with Google TV to help make YouTube app support more of a non-issue (We would hope Google provides more regular updates to the YouTube app on Google TV on the Chromecast and realize this is not even guaranteed!)

I realize Roku is not 100% at fault here and just wish Roku and Google had a stronger partnership to get this issue handled efficiently.

We purchased a Roku because we wanted to support Roku as the underdog - we got our stick for just $30 over the holidays end of 2019 - it seemed like a no-brainer.

However, it’s clear as a YouTube household, it doesn’t make any sense when sh*t hits the fan.  Google will always put more resources in support of their own products (and ecosystem).

This doesn’t make for a very easy game to play for folks like Roku!

It’s been a great ride - thanks for sharing what’s possible everyone!