My friend gave me his old Roku (he upgraded to an Ultra); I established a free account but was never asked for payment info--am signed in. Both TV and Roku stick are connected to my network, but I was never asked to enter email. I did the system reset. I have tried the instructions for setup multiple times but I never get a PIN or a link (are they the same thing?). Totally unable to activate--can you help? Thanks.
You're probably doing a short reset which is just a reboot, when you really want to hold that reset button down for 20-30 seconds to do the "factory reset".
It will reboot right away, but keep holding the button down and eventually it will know that you mean it.
In addition to the info provided by @Strega regarding the long press (30+ seconds) of the Reset button on the Streaming Sticks to perform a Factory Reset, you can also navigate to Settings/System/Advanced System Settings/Factory Reset. You will see/be provided a PIN number on screen to confirm that you want to Factory Reset your device. (this PIN number is entirely different from other PIN numbers, this is just an action confirmation code).
You're probably doing a short reset which is just a reboot, when you really want to hold that reset button down for 20-30 seconds to do the "factory reset".
It will reboot right away, but keep holding the button down and eventually it will know that you mean it.
In addition to the info provided by @Strega regarding the long press (30+ seconds) of the Reset button on the Streaming Sticks to perform a Factory Reset, you can also navigate to Settings/System/Advanced System Settings/Factory Reset. You will see/be provided a PIN number on screen to confirm that you want to Factory Reset your device. (this PIN number is entirely different from other PIN numbers, this is just an action confirmation code).
Thanks, guys, it seems to be working! I think you are correct; I was too ignorant to know that I was doing it wrong. This is my first experience with a streaming stick of any kind. Much appreciated!