Solving playback issues

[cj90029]

The restart did not work.  My subscription to MAX is through Roku.  I do not have the option of removing the channel so I can’t reload it.  Does Roku keep up with the apps that it is supposed to support?  Thank you.

[atc98092]

---

@cj90029 wrote:

The restart did not work.  My subscription to MAX is through Roku.  I do not have the option of removing the channel so I can’t reload it.  Does Roku keep up with the apps that it is supposed to support?  Thank you.

---

When you subscribe through Roku, the channel cannot be removed without removing the subscription first. Yes, it seems odd but that's the way it works. And while Roku permits the MAX app to to used on their devices, they don't provide the support. HBO is the only one that can resolve the issue. We know it's being worked on, but we also know that it doesn't affect every single device. That makes troubleshooting much more difficult. 

[Portalogem]

If you want to skip all my explanations, the potential solution is in bold below, which I sincerely hope works for you.

This issue has been affecting me for a month now. After reading about other's complaints about this on a different forum, I've noticed that there appears to be multiple issues within the same theme on Max. For some, they can't even use Max due to an error; for others like me, when pressing pause and play, it skips back to a prior resume time; for others, it skips back to the beginning; and for others, it skips to a future point in the show they're watching, which is just terrible. People have tried to log out, uninstall, restart, and even hard reset their Roku, but Max would either reinstall itself or, when installed, it would already be logged in. And, if a person was able to resolve the issue by doing these tasks, the bug would appear to go away for a bit but then come back. 

I believe that the reason this didn't show up on Max's end in the release notes is because it may end up being a Roku cache error, which happens when a channel updates and conflicts with the cache, which allows your Roku to remember your settings -- including being logged into the channel. So when support tells you to do the above steps, this all goes toward clearing that channel's cache, but if the channel is still logged on, then the cache isn't cleared, and we still have the bug. If this is on Roku's end and not Max's end, then I have named this new hypothetical issue "The Roku Sync Glitch."

I believe this glitch started when a user complained one day, "Hey, why do I have to keep logging into Max with multiple Rokus? Please do something about this." And either Max or Roku did solve this problem, so now when you log into one Roku with Max, most, if not all, Rokus connected to your account log into Max. This, I believe, unfortunately, created this new problem, "The Sync Glitch", but I still need to verify this speculation before making this conclusion. I would very much like to be wrong about this potential headache which could someday soon potentially include all channels that auto-log into most if not all Rokus on your account, which hypothetically could have this same overarching problem when a future bug arises on a channel or the Roku itself, such as what happened with the in-channel screensaver glitch that was fixed by the newest Roku OS update. I never even thought of having to apply this fix to all my Rokus instead of just the one I was currently watching as I kept pondering, why does this issue keep recurring? But what if it was because of "The Roku Sync Glitch"?

Since I want to find out if this could be a bigger Roku cache issue than that of it just being a Max issue, I have yet to test this solution on my Rokus since I don't watch Max all that much, and I really want to troubleshoot this when I have the time. And this will take me time because I could be wrong, and Max could potentially fix this issue (or had already done so) without my knowledge. If, however, this post fixes your issue and my Roku is still glitching, then this will further validate that I could be right about this, and so far, it appears to be heading in this direction. 

On this different forum, we've been trying to figure out this issue for a week, and hopefully, I think I've solved this after what I had to previously do to fix my Roku with past cache issues when combined with reading what other users were attempting to do. I then thought of this potential horror scenario which is similar to that of what occurred in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," in which the user keeps trying to log out of Max, but once on their fifth Roku, Max decides to log itself back into all the previous Rokus, and then the solution came to me of how to solve that potential nightmare which makes this solution very simple to implement if it works. 

If this does solve your issue, I apologize that it took so long for me to figure this out, as, like I previously said, I don't regularly watch Max. So here is the fix that helped another user on a different forum who had a much worse problem than what we're experiencing in which Max was erroring out on their Roku, with the message "something went wrong," which I hope equally works for us. Unfortunately, that user just solved that problem last night (9/11/23), so if the bug returns, then we're in the same situation as before, but I don't think that will happen.

The irony is that even though my post is long, and this issue has been plaguing us for a month, the solution I've come up with is short, quick, and easy:

1) Go to max.com, login, and in the menu, go to account; then, on the bottom, click on "Devices" and click on "Sign Out of All Devices."

2) Go back to your Roku(s) and make sure each of your devices has been logged out because it could take a little while for the "log out" command to kick in.

According to the user who claims that my solution fixed Max on their Roku, they didn't need to uninstall the channel as they just logged in, and Max simply worked again. But in the event this doesn't work for us, you may want to uninstall the channel and restart your Roku before logging back into Max. If you have a micro-SD card installed in any of your Rokus, before logging into Max, you may need to remove the SD-card(s) and format it/them in a computer before re-inserting it/them into your Roku(s) (you won't lose any data by doing that). It's a pain because you first have to detach your HDMI cable to get to the micro-SD card if you even have a card slot, as all the new Rokus no longer have this option due to all the issues this caused.

If this does end up solving everyone's issue with Max, perhaps someone should contact Max support and tell them how to help Roku users resolve this, so they don't start to lose customers after a month of this happening.

I sincerely hope I was able to help all of you fix this most annoying and troublesome issue, and I apologize if you ended up reading all of this and this solution doesn't end up working for you because that would just be an absolute bummer. 

[RickyZ]

A post from @depreciated that they had spoken with Max, that they are aware of the problem, and are working on it. An anonymous poster said the same. Others said they contacted them and were given a bunch of stuff to try that didn't help. Some submitted the issue on the Max Feedback form with a link to this thread. I just did that too. One more voice there if anyone is listening. Here is a link to their Feedback form:

https://help.max.com/us/Feedback/index

I am also monitoring this thread to see if it is eventually reported by users that they are no longer experiencing the problem. 

[AwesomeToast]

Yup. Same for me. Starts when the max logo starts. It's getting annoying now

[jnyerere89]

It's been like this ever since HBO Max changed into Max. Essentially we're paying a premium price for a low quality platform. 

[jnyerere89]

I tried it and unfortunately it didn't work for me. 

[Portalogem]

I'm sorry that this didn't work for you @jnyerere89. When that OP in the different forum said it worked for them, I was hopeful the same solution would work for us, but their issue with Max erroring out was different than ours. I usually don't like posting before trying the fix myself, but since it worked for that person, I thought it could be beneficial and, therefore, could be potentially bad if I withheld a potential fix from the Roku community. So, I decided to post that, but with the preface that it was a hypothetical fix that was based on pure speculation (especially noted with the question mark in the subject line). I'll continue to keep the post up in the event it does help someone, and when I get around to it if the issue is still persisting, I'll still try this myself. But it appears it's a Max issue which surprises me because, at least when they were HBOmax, they usually would resolve any issues right away, but at least we know Roku is not the one to blame if the fix I posted doesn't resolve this.

I think the reason for this issue is that Max is introducing live streaming by the end of the month with CNN Max, and perhaps this did something to cause it to go wonky, so I'm hopeful that after they roll this out, Max will then focus on this issue and fix it.

Also, I was thinking that if the Max service is unusable due to this issue, I may consider canceling it since they're just too pricey to cause month-long malfunctions like this, especially when there are other streaming services out there that are less or just as pricey that work fine. I'll give them another couple of months, which I think is generous, and then I may cancel. If enough people cancel Max (and HBO), I think that will tell them that if they can't maintain their premium service on a popular streaming device, people aren't going to pay for it and go elsewhere for streaming content. And it's true that people have HBO and use Max as an adjunct -- I'm one of them, but I'll still be considering canceling my HBO subscription over this. 

However, for those who don't want to cancel Max and are fed up, I recommend getting a redundant (different) streaming device to use with Max till the issue is resolved with Roku, which will also come in handy, not just if another channel becomes buggy on the Roku or a Roku feature becomes buggy in the future, but also if Roku ever decided to block out HBO or any channel again as they had in the past due to streaming disputes. Just make sure that this Max issue isn't also affecting that (non-Roku) device before purchasing it, as I have noticed that sometimes a channel issue can affect multiple devices; also, keep in mind that each device could have its own set of potential bugs, so it's silly to stop using a device because it happens to be buggy at one time or another. You may already have a redundant streaming device through your smart TV, Blu-ray player, tablet, or computer. Unfortunately, my ancient Blu-ray player doesn't have the Max channel on it, so once I get my tablet up and running, I may use that as a temporary workaround. 

[atc98092]

---

@Portalogem wrote:

However, for those who don't want to cancel Max and are fed up, I recommend getting a redundant (different) streaming device to use with Max till the issue is resolved with Roku, which will also come in handy, not just if another channel becomes buggy on the Roku or a Roku feature becomes buggy in the future, but also if Roku ever decided to block out HBO or any channel again as they had in the past due to streaming disputes. Just make sure that this Max issue isn't also affecting that (non-Roku) device before purchasing it, as I have noticed that sometimes a channel issue can affect multiple devices; also, keep in mind that each device could have its own set of potential bugs, so it's silly to stop using a device because it happens to be buggy at one time or another. You may already have a redundant streaming device through your smart TV, Blu-ray player, tablet, or computer. Unfortunately, my ancient Blu-ray player doesn't have the Max channel on it, so once I get my tablet up and running, I may use that as a temporary workaround. 

---

Unfortunately, problems with MAX are on other platforms as well. I see many complaints about it on the Shield forums, and I think some have mentioned it impacting Apple TV as well. 

What makes this so difficult for HBO to resolve is that it doesn't impact every player. I've tested MAX on my Ultra 4800, and just now on my Premiere 3920. Both players will resume a movie from where I stopped it, within a few seconds of the stop point. But other people with the same Roku devices have had problems. Those sorts of problems can be maddening for the software developers. 

[Portalogem]

More unfortunately, @atc98092, even if this issue doesn't currently appear present on your various Rokus, I have found through another thread on a different forum that this glitch may go latent at times before reoccurring. For instance, that OP did a support chat and then posted that this solved this issue, only to post back sometime later that it was not resolved as the bug had come back. This person's most recent post on that thread was that, again, the issue was not currently occurring on their Roku, which hadn't logged out even after they clicked the link to log out of all devices on Max.com. So it may be an intermittent bug as well, which must be an absolute nightmare for software developers who think they fixed it only to find that the gremlin has come back. Again, this glitch may have happened throughout multiple streaming devices because Max is rolling out that live CNN Max streaming feed, which they have never done before.