Remotes

[Manntastic11]

Dear Roku - my remote is using up batteries every 2 days, is there a fix for this?

Device type: Roku Ultra

Serial number: YP00EC309158

remote model: RC98 running firmware version 2.01.18.120

Thank you 

[RokuArjiemar · Accepted solution]

Hi! @Manntastic11,

A pleasant greeting from the Roku Community!

Thank you for letting us know about the remote battery drain issue you are experiencing. We're pleased to assist.

To update the remote firmware, you must perform a device restart. This can be performed by navigating to Settings > System > System Restart

Your remote will update to the latest firmware version and can be verified by navigating to Settings > Remotes & Devices > Remotes > About.

Once your remote has updated to the latest firmware, please test the remote for the next week and monitor the battery usage. 

If you have any further questions or if this is still an issue, please let us know.

Best wishes,

Arjiemar

[makaiguy]

 I've only seen one external factor suggested that may affect this.

There is some evidence that one cause of battery drain for those with point-anywhere WiFi remotes can be use of a router channel that is crowded by nearby routers using the same channel. This is more likely to be a problem in the more heavily used 2.4 GHz WiFi band where it can also get interference from other sources like BlueTooth and microwave ovens than in the 5 GHz band.

If you have access to your router's setup, try configuring it to use a different WiFi channel to see if this helps the situation. If you are connecting in the crowded 2.4 GHz band, channels 1-11 are supported. Channels 1, 6, and 11 do not overlap each other and so give you the best chance at reducing congestion, so try each in succession, although depending on what channels your neighbors are using, other channels in the 1-11 range may work best. Also, reducing router bandwidth from 40 to 20 kHz may also reduce interference.

Note that optimum channel choice can be a moving target as neighbors bring new routers online in your vicinity, or reconfigure their routers to use different channels. I periodically use a WiFi analyzer app on my smart phone that can show me which available WiFi channels have the least congestion and I change the channel my router uses accordingly. I don't know if that explains my battery longevity (usually 3 months or more with fairly heavy use) but it's probably worth a try to see if it helps.