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rogalskij
Streaming Star

Roku Ultra 4800X doesn't work with USB 3.0 hard drives

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Hello Roku Community,

I have purchased the new Roku Ultra 4800X. 

This Roku Ultra doesn't seem to work with my existing Western Digital USB 3.0 Hard drives that I use for video. The hard drives work in ALL my previous Roku Ultra's. Some details about the hard drive and observations are below. Any assistance is appreciated.

Manufacturer is Western Digital and it is USB 3.0

Hard Drive does NOT have external power

The hard drive spins up, but never shows on the Roku.

The hard drive is formatted NTFS.

Roku does work with a standard flash drive

Is there something else I can try to get this to work? I don't have a powered USB hub unfortunately. 2 hard drives don't work on it, even though the power output of the new Roku Ultra is much higher than previous years models.

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RokuDanny-R
Retired Moderator

Re: Roku Ultra 4800X doesn't work with USB 3.0 hard drives

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Hi everyone,

Thanks for your patience regarding this issue.

Please be aware that we believe we have identified the issue and expect this issue to be resolved in a future update.


Thanks,
Danny

Danny R.
Roku Community Moderator

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76 REPLIES 76
rjmacias
Reel Rookie

Re: Roku Ultra 4800X doesn't work with USB 3.0 hard drives

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I'm having the same issue. I bought a second Roku 4800x which arrived today and having the same problem.  All three of my NTFS drives worked without issues on the last Roku Ultra. Flash drives with FAT32 work fine on the new Roku (2020) Ultra 4800X. I think there's an issue with recognizing NTFS drives on the 4800X. Software upgrade needed?

rogalskij
Streaming Star

Re: Roku Ultra 4800X doesn't work with USB 3.0 hard drives

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Interesting that others are experiencing the same problem. I did some testing today with mine.  I found that NTFS flash drives all work for me.  Additionally a smaller 2TB portable hard drive worked just fine for me.  I am wondering if the issue is with drives 4TB or larger as that is what my Western Digital drive is. Additionally the flash drives and smaller 2TB drive didn't show the name of the drive on the Roku like they normally do.  Certainly feels like a software issue to me, what version are you on?  Mine is 9.4.1 I just checked.

PS - doubting it is power based since the drive itself actually spins up where with older Roku's the drives didn't have enough power to actually spin up.

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rogalskij
Streaming Star

Re: Roku Ultra 4800X doesn't work with USB 3.0 hard drives

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Posting this reference information I found about various Roku's USB output power.  As you can see the 4800 should have way more than enough for USB 3.0 drives, and even possibly 3.1 drives.  

Approximate current available on USB port

 Roku Ultra
 (model 4800)
 1700mA 
 Roku Ultra
 (models 4670, 4660, and 4661) 
 1100mA 
 Roku Ultra
 (model 4640)
 500mA 
 Roku 4  900mA 
 Roku 3  650mA 
 Roku 2 XS  650mA 
 4K TV (TCL)  1500mA 
 4K TV (non-TCL)  1100mA 
 TV (TCL)  1000mA 
 TV (non-TCL)  720mA 
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RokuDanny-R
Retired Moderator

Re: Roku Ultra 4800X doesn't work with USB 3.0 hard drives

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@rogalskij @rjmacias 

Thanks for the posts and bringing this to our attention.

We would like to investigate this issue further. Can you please provide me with the exact make and model of the USB hard drive that you are using?

Once we have that information we will be able to pass it along to the appropriate team to investigate further.


Thanks,
Danny

Danny R.
Roku Community Moderator
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rogalskij
Streaming Star

Re: Roku Ultra 4800X doesn't work with USB 3.0 hard drives

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Hello Danny, absolutely yes.  The make and model information is below.  Thank you for looking into this for me:

Make - Western Digital

Model - WD 4TB Elements Portable External Hard Drive, USB 3.0 - WDBU6Y0040BBK-WESN

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rjmacias
Reel Rookie

Re: Roku Ultra 4800X doesn't work with USB 3.0 hard drives

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Hi danny,

I am specifically referring to Fantom Drives G-Force 3 USB 3.0/eSATA, 4TB.

Thanks,
Robert

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RokuDanny-R
Retired Moderator

Re: Roku Ultra 4800X doesn't work with USB 3.0 hard drives

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Hi everyone,

Thanks for your patience regarding this issue.

Please be aware that we believe we have identified the issue and expect this issue to be resolved in a future update.


Thanks,
Danny

Danny R.
Roku Community Moderator
rogalskij
Streaming Star

Re: Roku Ultra 4800X doesn't work with USB 3.0 hard drives

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Great news!  We appreciate the diligence of the Roku support and dev teams in finding/fixing this issue.  Is there a rough ETA on when a patch might be available? 

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rogalskij
Streaming Star

Re: Roku Ultra 4800X doesn't work with USB 3.0 hard drives

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Good morning everyone, wanted to let the community know that I updated my 4800X Ultra last night to the latest minor patch.  After updating BOOM! All my portable hard drives now work perfectly!  If I had to speculate, I suspect it was 4TB drives and above that had the issue, but the latest update has certainly fixed both of my 4TB Western Digital drives and they work just like all the others now. 

Anyone else update and test out their malfunctioning drives?  Thank you for the quick response, investigation and mitigation of the issue Roku support/devs!

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