Solving playback issues

[JES2user]

We have multiple Roku's (Ultra, Express, Stick and 2 Roku TV's) that connect to our Cisco C7800 router to access an 8TB hard drive that is attached to the router as a DLNA media device.  The router is fine - NOTHING has been changed in the settings.  I can still connect and stream data from the media drive via PCs and mobile devices so the drive IS connected to the router and accessible, but the Roku's have stopped recognizing it entirely.  The Roku's DO recognize the Dell XPS Media server on my desktop PC, so they are still kinda working but not for what I need them to do. 

I've reset the Roku Ultra to factory, deleted and reinstalled Roku Media Player, etc. to no avail.   The 2 Roku's near me are an Ultra 4670X (v12.5.0 build 4178-46) and a onn. Roku TV (v12.5.0 build 4176-AN).  RMP on both is v5.5 build 13.

Any ideas?  This set up has been rock solid for a few years until the past few days.

Thanks

[renojim]

Have you rebooted the router?

[JES2user]

Oh yeah, EVERYTHING was rebooted - multiple times.  Cables were swapped, router settings triple checked (UPnP is ON, Media Server is ENABLED - that kind of thing), etc.  I even went so far as to install a new USB-A to Micro-B cable between the router and the external hard drive.  The Roku Ultra was my test bed and was reset back to factory and the issue remains.

The router appears to be doing its thing as I am still able to connect to the media server via my PC and mobile devices, so the external drive is online and available and the router is allowing access to it.  It's the Roku's that are refusing to connect and is why I am leaning towards this being a Roku software issue.

This set up was rock solid for several years and all of the sudden stopped working.  I've not made any hardware/config changes on my end.

[AvsGunnar]

@JES2user 

Try placing a small flash drive (thumb drive) at router and see if the Roku can detect it (as DLNA).

If so, then the Roku device may just be having an issue with the size of the drive. (users have occasionally reported that larger drives that were once working sometimes stop working.  Then they just start working again in most instances).

If the Roku device cannot detect the smaller drive, then likely a router setting.  Sometimes disabling the UPnP and DLNA server at the router (and then restarting both the router and Roku device), and then re-enabling the UPnP and DLNA (and, again, restarting both the router and the DLNA) seems to do the trick at times.

Very rarely, I have to unplug my drive from one of my routers and reboot it, and then plug it back in and perform another reboot for my Roku devices to see it, even though my laptops can see it without issue. (that router has MediaShare with UPnP).

Otherwise, verify that port 8096 is open on your router and not being blocked by any router firewall setting if you have enabled. (as a test, turn off any/all firewall settings and see if Roku can now detect).

[JES2user · Accepted solution]

Thank you for the responses. 

Yeah, I had done most of the above already but forgot to include in the list of things I did to troubleshoot.

Today I reset the  router back to factory spec and went back to ground zero with it.  After 30 or so mins of going through the settings, it still wasn't working.

As a last resort, I pulled the external drive from the router and plugged it directly into my PC and ran a CHKDSK on it and found that it had errors.  Once those were repaired, I was able to plug the drive back into the router and viola!  It's working again.

Apologies to the Roku folks for pointing the finger at the Roku software. 

Thanks again for the help.

[AvsGunnar]

@JES2user 

Good to hear you got it fixed.  👍