Remotes & Accessories

[atc98092]

"NikiB" wrote:
We just upgraded from the Roku stick to the Roku box. This Roku gives us the capability to watch with headphones. The batteries in the remote keep dying, huge problem. When we listen with headphones and then remove the headphones, the Roku will not give sound through our stereo unless we reset it. These are both huge problems. I have tried everything troubleshooting suggested, using the turn off headphones on remote and powering off the roku box. The roku will not power off and the button on the remote does not deactivate the headphones. I'm at a loss. Any help would be appreciated.

As far as the battery life, make sure you unplug the headphones when you aren't using them. As long as they are plugged in, the audio amplifier in the remote is powered up and it will drain your batteries quickly. 

[ratt57]

The Roku remote is the only electronic appliance I own that will drain its batteries if the headset remains plugged in.  If I fall asleep watching t.v. three nights in a row I need a whole new set of batteries.  I wish they'd fix this issue.

[atc98092]

"ratt57" wrote:
The Roku remote is the only electronic appliance I own that will drain its batteries if the headset remains plugged in.  If I fall asleep watching t.v. three nights in a row I need a whole new set of batteries.  I wish they'd fix this issue.

What's to fix? If the headphone jack has something plugged in, that turns on the internal audio amplifier, and that takes power. The audio amp remained powered as long as something is plugged in, and the Wi-Fi direct radio also has to remain in active mode. That all takes power. It doesn't matter if something is actually streaming. Any other battery powered device that is left on constantly will drain the batteries in short time, so this is nothing special with Roku. 
.
What I would like to see is rechargeable batteries and a docking station for the remote when not in use that charges them. But that would drive the price up, so I wouldn't expect it with all players, but an optional extra. 

[jlsoaz]

I'm having AA battery issues out of nowhere.  I don't remember having had them previously.  I have two newer-seeming remotes that use AAs and one older-one that uses AAAs.  The older one seems to function ok (though it has to be kind of close.  The two newer ones function a time or two and then punk out.  Maybe it has to do with the remote "tying" to the Roku unit and not with the batteries?

[bburzycki]

I have seen strange remote issues across multiple system updates with both the Roku 4 and now the Ultra that I replaced my Roku 4 with to try to get rid of the issues. So its either a hardware issue or hopefully a firmware issue.

I have seen it not switch back when the headphones are removed thus not unmuting my TV - This would require a reboot on the roku box to reset it.

I installed my Roku Ultra two days ago - Tested it that night - Ran headphones for about 10 min - Unplugged them and set the remote aside till today where I picke dup the remote and plugged the headphones in to be greeted by strange noise on the line. Then a battery dead icon on the screen. Batteries are dead - Replaced them and all is working again with no noise. Batteries are new and good till 2025.

So the issues still persist.

[jlsoaz]

"jlsoaz" wrote:
I'm having AA battery issues out of nowhere.  I don't remember having had them previously.  I have two newer-seeming remotes that use AAs and one older-one that uses AAAs.  The older one seems to function ok (though it has to be kind of close.  The two newer ones function a time or two and then punk out.  Maybe it has to do with the remote "tying" to the Roku unit and not with the batteries?

Coming back to my post from last month, in my case, the problem may have been that I was not "pairing" my enhanced remotes properly.  However, this does not seem to have fully solved things.  In the last few minutes I have twice gone through the pairing process only (within minutes) to have the remote stop communicating with the Roku.

[bburzycki]

After another night and another set of dead batteries I have to say that the issue is real

[jlsoaz]

"bburzycki" wrote:
After another night and another set of dead batteries I have to say that the issue is real

does anyone know if Roku people have made any comments on this issue or issues?  Is there an acknowledgment that some customers are seeing it?

One additional thing I noticed - After experiencing these issues and trying to get simple pairing to solve things, I noticed on the next day, after pressing a few buttons and not seeing the TV respond at all, that if I removed the battery cover, there was a light coming on and off (the same one that indicates some pairing activity?) and so it made me question if there is battery-draining activity going on whether the remote is able to get the Roku to do anything or not.

[drphibes13]

I just recently purchased a Roku streaming stick+ and in the short time I've had it I'm having to change batteries about every 4 days. It is very frustrating (and expensive) to have to keep changing batteries that often. I really hope this does get addressed very soon!

[DBDukes]

"bburzycki" wrote:
After another night and another set of dead batteries I have to say that the issue is real

Which would happen if the jack is still connected. Are you unplugging the headphones when you're done listening? If not, that's why they're dying. If you are unplugging, based on what you said earlier, it could be that the jack is defective; that is, not physically disconnecting the bypass and causing the extra drain by re-routing should over WiFi. If that's the case, replace the device.

My Ultra doesn't exhibit this behavior, so I'm thinking it's not software, but hardware. If it was software, I'd suspect we'd all have the issue.