I recently bought a used Roku Streaming Stick+ from ebay. Everything is exceptional and just what I needed since Sony decided to abandon its TV store from 5-year ago Smart TVs (was delighted when I found out Plex/Netflix etc would be unsupported on my TV..).
Anyhow the issue is with the Roku remote. I specifically bought the Streaming Stick+ for the remote and to avoid the hussle of juggling between 2. The only problem is that the remote seems to work fine but when it wants to.. For example the TV opens fine. However if a long time has passed since I last switched it on, the remote does nothing on the Roku app. To overcome this issue, I go to the back of the TV and point the controller directly to the Roku device. After that it seems to be in sync again, and controller gets usable (until a long time passes again).
Pressing the sync button near the batteries, seems to do nothing at all (even after pressing it for 3 seconds and the green light goes blinking). If I use my phone app, it works just fine.
Can someone tell me if I am doing anything wrong and/or how to fix it? It gets really annoying. It seems to me that my controller is not broken, since it works sometimes...
If your stick is buried behind the TV you may want to try an HDMI extension cable to get it away from any interference the TV is generating. You can pick one up cheap or try to get one from Roku: https://my.roku.com/HDMI