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Portalogem
Roku Guru

Re: How to Fix The Screensaver OS 11 Glitch -- 2022 (hope this works for you)

I'm unsure how threads are solved, so for the OP and members of the community that are having this issue, here is a quick link to the solved portion of this thread:

How to Fix The Screensaver OS 11 Glitch -- 2022 (h... - Roku Community

(https://community.roku.com/t5/Roku-Device-Features-Settings-Updates/11-0-0-screen-saver-crashing-mul...)

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My original reply to plugh:

I updated my post to include that if a user is hesitant about hot-plugging the HDMI cord to remove/add the SD card that it can be done after unplugging the Roku -- but it takes longer, and I haven't had any issues doing this. And I also incorporated the steps with clearing the cache and updating the Roku, and for anyone with older Rokus to try to exclude these steps to see if the fix still works and then comment if these steps aren't necessary. I already know with my parents Roku Ultra 2019 that I didn't clear the cache or manually update, and the fix worked. But I don't know if this would also be the case with older Roku models or if I had manually updated the device before removing the SD card, which would stop any automatic updates. 

Oh, that heavy battery-intensive Roku 3 remote is sitting on my bottom shelf as I just use regular Roku remotes. Totally not worth having a Roku 3. I just got it because my cable company gave it to me for free through one of their deals else I probably would have gotten a Roku 2. I was ready to give up on Roku entirely since Roku bricked my ancient Roku device that I was quite happy with, especially since it didn't show ads, but after receiving a free Roku, I was a happy Roku customer again. 

The patch was included with a prior system update because all of my and my parents' Roku devices that didn't have SD card slots were suddenly fixed, but the problem was that the SD-card prevented the patch from working. After removing the SD card, a newer system update wouldn't fix it; I'm guessing it's because Roku already attempted to apply the patch from a prior system update when it was applying the gravity locks or whatever it says when doing a manual system update, so it wouldn't try to re-apply the patch again. But for some reason, after restoring the default theme, the patch was either re-introduced through updating the system, which allowed the patch to re-download, or perhaps by restoring the theme to default, this caused the Roku to reset its ability to apply the one time patch, but this time since there was no SD card, the patch worked. 

It sounds to me like when Netflix updated on your device, the cache on the SD card interfered with the new format, and due to conflicts, it slowed things down. I think I had a similar issue, but it wasn't as severe as what you were going through. Again I don't use my Roku 3 all that much, so I could have had the same issue as you. One thing I like about the Ultra 2018 is that it doesn't glitch nearly as much with the SD card as my Roku 3 did with its slow-down issues and boot issues -- but perhaps Roku fixed the boot issues in newer updates. Since both Roku devices glitch with the SD Card, the differences between Roku devices are moot as a reformat of the SD card fixes both devices the same, and since the glitch is more pronounced with the Roku 2/3, it's easier to tell that it's an SD card issue and not a channel issue. Such as, I noticed the wallpaper flickering on the Roku 3 but not the Ultra, which would just freeze the screen. 

I see what you're saying about the "repaint." I think it was different for my Roku Ultra because it has a  faster processor. Before OS 11, the Amazon Prime Video channel would just go blank when the screensaver was supposed to come on with every Roku. After OS 11 on the Ultra, the Prime Channel screen would show a blank box on the left side, and upon pressing the remote, everything went black, and then the screen would eventually return. On the other channels, the screen would freeze, and when clicking the remote, it would come back. It may have been slower on the Roku 2/3, showing a "repaint" of the screen because with the Ultra the screen would jolt back into place, but unlike the Roku 3, the in-channel screen would then stutter when selecting various movies/shows. I didn't try different screensavers to see how they would behave -- I just used my Roku Clock screensaver, so maybe the different screensavers would have a different effect when the issue would stop the screensaver from activating. After the fix, the Amazon Prime Video channel shows the raining Rokus as the screensaver no matter the selected screensaver. I don't know if that's a glitch with that channel since it's not showing my selected screensaver, I might be annoyed if I paid for a screensaver that I couldn't see on that channel, but I'm just happy that my Roku goes to screensaver.  

The SD card was notorious with boot time issues, such as sometimes my Roku Ultra (after a channel update) will boot for five minutes, and my Roku 3 would just sit there with the animated boot screen for 20 minutes or longer. The Roku 3 would sometimes boot and then restart and repeat, or it would enter the start screen and freeze and then restart and repeat. You might not have these issues since your boot screen isn't the same as the Roku 3 with the animations and the sounds -- you can check out the Roku 3 boot screen on Youtube if you're interested. Upon removing the SD card, all boot issues were resolved. I'm uncertain if that was a boot issue when you were reformating the SD card. It could have been an issue that the Roku was finishing its boot cycle while the home screen appeared -- my Ultra's screen just momentarily freezes until the boot cycle completes, and my Roku 3 is very slow until the cycle completes. It could be because it did a system update while booting, and it's finishing that up because this issue doesn't always happen. Reformating the SD card while it's completing a boot/update cycle could be putting a strain on the Roku. Or perhaps when it's reformating and going to screensaver -- this is strain enough on its resources. When mine was going to screensaver, I would quickly tap the remote button to stop the screensaver, and it took a moment to go back to the format SD card screen. It's probably just system intensive to format an SD card. Well, as long as it didn't cause your Roku to crash, then glitchy screensaver during formating isn't too problematic. Perhaps the best thing to do is to increase the screensaver time to 30 minutes before doing a format if you see this happen again. I could include that in the directions, but I think it's easier just to click on the Roku remote and exit the screensaver when it comes up during formating. We're using the same Roku clock screensaver, so it can't be because of a more memory-intensive screensaver. After I tapped the remote on my Roku 3 and Ultra, the screensaver would fluctuate some before going back to the formating screen, but I didn't think anything of it since I assumed that reformating is just system intensive. The same thing happens to me when I'm manually updating the system, the screensaver comes on, and I tap on the remote to go back to the update screen. 

Unfortunately, due to experience, all the glitches will usually return after a system update or an OS update, or during boot when a system update interferes with the SD Card's cache when trying to install, so boot time could take longer, but an SD card reformat will fix this every time. The glitches may not come back all at once and kind of creep up on you as they did over time. I've tried workarounds such as removing the SD card and putting it back in, but the problems instantly returned, so the only way to fix this is to reformat the SD card. But it's still worth having that SD card because it speeds up the Roku when there are no conflicts. My Roku express plus that I use on my older SD TV (which I had to purchase to replace the slowly bricking Roku 1 (SE)) is very slow sometimes when loading channels because it doesn't have a micro-SD card slot. Sometimes the error is in the channel and not the SD card, so the thing to look for is the screen stuttering (which doesn't occur on the Ultra) or if things go really wonky with all your channels, or if googling the issue provides no results since no one thinks of the SD card. I've just been dealing with these SD card issues for years, and I should have known that this was the culprit and acted on it sooner. In prior years other people posted to check the SD card if an issue appeared, but this was more complex since removing the SD card didn't immediately solve the issue, and nothing would have been solved until Roku did that update that applied the patch for all the other Roku models -- just not models with SD cards in them. Roku might not have applied this patch till sometime in the past two weeks. This issue was so complex and major due to potential screen fade-in that I felt the need to post it once I figured it out and tested this solution on three Roku devices with SD cards.

I tried another potential workaround to avoid removing the HDMI cord: putting the SD card in an external USB writer and inserting that into the Roku USB slot so the card would be easier to remove, but that didn't work. I guess the USB slot is just for sideloading videos, music, and pictures. 

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