Issue Tracking Board

[Portalogem]

If you can successfully follow the steps below, you will not have to factory reset your Roku device. If your Roku device doesn't show the intrusive update screen, and you don't know how to manually update your Roku device, you'll find that information at the bottom of this post.

Intro:

This is an updated post after having visited with my parents who had different Roku devices than me. I decided to delete everything in this post that no longer applied to my prior situation as I had solved this issue on my device (Roku Express Plus 3910RW) and two of my parents' devices (Roku Express 3900) that were affected by this. The two that were of the same model (Roku Express 3900) weren't affected since they had auto-updated and restarted themselves a week prior after having been left on for months. So it's possible that if you leave your Roku alone when you see that update screen and just let it then automatically update, your Roku device may update the OS without any issues.

I don't know if the solution below works for all Roku device models, but this is how I solved this issue on the devices listed above. 

The issue:

When I turned my Roku Express Plus on today, the Roku told me I had to update. After tapping the remote to allow it to update, the device then errored out and showed that blank wallpaper screen. When I turned on my parents' Roku Express devices and went to manually update them, the Roku OS update errored out and showed the same blank wallpaper screen. 

The workaround (and I apologize if anyone already posted this in this thread):

A) Clear the cache
If you find that your device isn't responding to your Roku remote control (with removable batteries) when attempting to follow the steps below, then remove and re-insert the batteries. You may need to slow down when tapping the remote buttons to get these steps to work.

After the update has errored out and the Roku device is showing a blank wallpaper screen that has no channels or menu on it:

1) Press "Home" button on remote 5x (the top right button)

2) Press "Up" button on remote 1x ("^")

3) Press "Rewind" button twice "<<"

4) Press "Fast Forward" button twice ">>"

Wait a moment (be patient) and the Roku will eventually restart. On my Roku Express Plus, the device loaded to the home screen and it didn't ask me to update. Yet it did show that update screen on my parents' Roku Express devices, and I wasn't able to return to the home screen.  

However, after following step A), when I clicked update on my parents' Roku Express devices because it gave me no choice, the device updated to the most recent OS. The device restarted and updated a second time and again there was no issue. After restarting and showing the home screen, I was then able to manually update the channel apps. So clearing the cache (by following the above steps) worked for these devices. No more action was needed. 

However, with my Express Plus, I tried to manually update it again and my Roku errored out. I restarted the Roku, there was no intrusive update screen, and I tried to manually update again with the same error. Step A) didn't work for this Roku device as it kept going to that blank wallpaper screen no matter how many times I repeated these steps. 

But then I found @coryleif's post and I just wanted to say thank you, thank you, thank you for posting this. My parents' Roku Express devices were able to update fine without following these next steps, and it may not be necessary to follow these steps for your devices, but after clearing the cache, if a device keeps erroring out after attempting to update it, by following what @coryleif did, I was then able to update the OS on my Roku Express Plus without any issues:

B) Using the Secret Menu to force the Roku to perform a small update before doing the OS update

Again, these steps are not necessary if your Roku device is able to perform an OS update after following A) Clear the cache. I recommend doing A) first to potentially avoid the same issue from occurring. If your other Roku device(s) has yet to update to the newest OS and you haven't seen this 004 error on that device, then do not use this secret menu to force an OS update (if that's even possible) since I don't know if following the steps above will fix this issue with your Roku device model.

On my Roku Express Plus, I went to that secret menu by following the steps posted:

1) pressed home button 5x
2) pressed fast forward 3x ">>"
3) pressed rewind 2x "<<"

4) I selected "Update software" in that menu, it appeared to do some type of update, and the update option then grayed out. 

5) I pressed "Cancel" and everything went blank. I waited and the Roku restarted.

6) After loading to the home screen, I went into the manual update screen from the settings menu and I was then able to update to the newest OS without any issues. 

7) I manually updated again and the Roku updated the channel apps. 

--------------------------------------

How to manually update the Roku:
It appears that Roku has paused the newest OS update due to this error 004 issue (as I haven't been able to manually update to the newest OS on two of my three supported Roku devices), so until this is resolved, your Roku device might not update to the newest OS and instead only update the channel apps and perform other updates.

1) Go to Settings/System/Software update and either tap okay or scroll right
On this screen, you can see if you're on the current OS or still on the prior OS.

2) Select "Check Now"

If the Roku asks you if you want to perform the OS update -- agree to that. Hopefully your OS updates, but if it errors out and goes to that dreaded blank wallpaper screen then repeat the first four steps under "A) Clearing the cache"

--------------------------------------

I hope either step A) or both steps A) and B) works for all of you as it had for me.

[dcross1]

there is an error in the roku software update. that is why there is an error code 004. it is not due to network issues. I have had my network provider check out my equipment, internal cabling, external cabling - no issues found. I did a factory reset. that was a real pain to setup everything again. That worked for a total of turning on the set 2 times. after that, the update message reappeared along with the failure to update and error code 004. Roku used to be a great way to get new channels. Now it's just a piece of junk. and the service that provided is a joke. 

[Portalogem]

@dcross1 (and everyone else still having this issue):

So you're saying that this happened after doing a factory reset, and that you still ran into this issue with your Roku TV? That's concerning. After having resolved this for myself and my parents (who are in a different location), I also know this isn't a network issue, so I'm going to repost my workaround solution without everything else that I posted above while also showing you how to do a manual update to see if this helps to resolve this. I was only able to test this with aging Roku Express devices, so I don't know if this will work for your Roku TV. If it doesn't, perhaps someone else in this thread can provide more info on how to resolve this issue with Roku TVs. Hopefully, Roku will be able to soon resolve this. If this works for you, let us know. 

1) Turn on your TV. 

Now you need to A) Clear the Cache

With your remote:

1) Press "Home" button on remote 5x 

2) Press "Up" button on remote 1x ("^")

3) Press "Rewind" button twice "<<"

4) Press "Fast Forward" button twice ">>"

Then wait, you'll need to be patient since this takes a moment, and your Roku OS should then restart. If after a few minutes, it doesn't restart, then try this combination again since the remote might not have given the TV the inputs. To make the remote more responsive, it may help to remove the batteries and re-insert them. If you still aren't able to do this then what may also work is to turn off the TV and unplug it for a few minutes, but I don't know if unplugging clears the cache. 

Once the OS has restarted, if the update screen shows up again, then allow the update to happen and hopefully there aren't any errors.

Your Roku product may need to restart and ask you to do another OS update, so just continue to update if it's not showing errors.

If, however, you see your home screen then perform these steps:

B) Manually updating the Roku:

1) Go to Settings/System/Software update and either tap okay or scroll right

2) Select "Check Now"

The Roku will ask you if you want to perform the OS update -- agree to that. Hopefully your OS updates, but if it errors out and goes to that dreaded blank wallpaper screen then repeat the first four steps under "A) Clearing the cache" (or if you can't do that then turn off the TV and unplug it). 

If the Roku shows the update screen then proceed, but if it fails, or after a restart you're on the home screen, then you'll need to force an update before you can update the OS.

To do this you need to go to 

C) The Secret Menu

Be careful with this menu because there is an option on there to factory reset and you don't want to do that again. You only need to use this menu if your Roku continues to error out after performing an update after trying A) and B).

1) press the home button 5x
2) press the fast forward button 3x ">>"
3) press the rewind button 2x "<<" 

4) Once in the secret menu, scroll down to "Update software"

5) The Roku will appear to update and then the "Update software" button will gray out

6) Scroll down to "Cancel" -- everything may go blank. Just be patient as the OS should then restart. (This happened to me, but it might not happen to you.)

If you see the update screen then proceed.

If, instead, you're back at the home screen, then repeat B) and proceed to update that way.

If you're still not able to update, then try again because it might work the second time. 

Hopefully, this works for you and anyone else still having this issue.

[Timothy6]

My Roku keeps telling me error004 model 3930 Roku express  ser # x00400v2ptg2(s00920a2ptg2)  software version 14.1.4  gc version 13th.8.10   current issue g2-154-020

[Timothy6]

Roku player keeps locking up and giving me a 004 error code

[Timothy6]

It keeps asking me to do an update and when I say do it, it locks up until the next day

[Timothy6]

So what do I do. And before you ask my signal strength is STRONG.

[prisher]

I’m responding to another post that gave great detailed instructions for other ways that may be needed to fix your Roku and do your update. 🙂 

To fix my Roku:: pretty simple!!! 

Press:

Home Button - 5x

Up Button - 1x 

Rewind Button  - 2X

Fast Forward Button -  2x 

The screen will go to the blank screen after the first time and then you do same step again.

Roku will restart and go to the home page. 🙂 

[Portalogem]

If clearing the cache (the remote control codes you posted @prisher) corrects this error, please post what Roku device and model you are using, so that others know if this workaround will work on their (similar) devices. I'm hopeful this works on all Roku devices, but there's no way to know until people start posting what Roku devices they used to resolve this.

I figured out that the two Roku Express devices I was able to resolve by just clearing the cache were the Express 3900 models. The other two Roku Express 3900 models that were left on for months auto-updated to OS 14.5 and restarted themselves without any issues. 

This wasn't enough with my Express Plus 3910(RW) as no matter what I did, I couldn't get past the update error, and my device kept crashing. For some reason, after I cleared the cache, that by forcing an update from that secret screen, and then selecting "cancel" did something to allow my Roku Express Plus 3910 to finally update to OS 14.5. So if anyone found that they needed to do this to force an update so that their Roku device (hopefully) then updated to OS 14.5, then please post that you had to access the secret screen after clearing the cache and what device you're using.

To find that code: if you can't find my post, you'll need to find the poster I got this information from by going to page 4 of this thread and looking for the 7th post which is @coryleif who posted the remote control codes needed to access that screen. Also if this helps you, give that poster a bunch of kudos for helping all of us. I just can't thank that poster enough for getting my Roku Express Plus working again.

Update: I just realized that my post is easy to find since it's on the top of page 10 on this thread. 

If anyone is not having this issue because their other Roku devices are staying on OS 14.1 like my Roku Ultra and Roku 3, I would advise them not to attempt to use the secret menu to force any updates as I'm leaving my devices alone until this is cleared up. I found that doing manual updates from the settings menu continues to update my channel apps without yet having that OS update screen pop up. You don't have to perform manual updates since Roku will automatically update your device at least once a day when it either is in standby mode with the screensaver on or when it restarts.

However, if error 004 ends up occurring on my other devices, I'll attempt to use these workarounds to see if I can get past this error on them and I'll post to this thread about that if or when that happens.

Update: So far my other Roku devices haven't updated to OS 14.5 (as of 4/21/25), so I'm thinking that Roku has put a pause on this OS update until this issue is resolved.