Solving playback issues

[Mike_S1]

I am using a Roku express I purchased last fall from Best Buy.

It is running with supplied USB cable and power supply.
The unit was unused since late May while I was away.
Since I returned home at the beginning of July, the unit reboots itself about every 3 (or so) minutes.
This happens no matter what content/channel is being played.

Searching for this problem in the forums and internet, I saw many reports of this behavior over the last few years. The solutions were always to delete the offending channel, reboot the roku, and re-install the channel.

I did this. I removed ALL channels, rebooted, and installed ONLY YouTube.

It still rebooted itself every few minutes.

Again, on advice from the internet, I did a factory reset, installed a couple of channels and tried again.

It still reboots about every 3 minutes.

I have tried other power supplies with no change in behavior.

I have tried two different wi-fi networks, both connections previously worked, with the same behavior.

I have let the express sit over night unplugged and it begins rebooting a few minutes after you start a stream, so I doubt it's a heat issue.

I then went to Best Buy and purchased another Roku express.

I installed it with the new power supply and cables and linked it to my account.
As part of its installation, it did a software update.
It rebooted every 3 or so minutes.
I returned it the next day.

On these forums, it appears that this problem is occurring on Roku sticks, Roku 4's, and Roku TVs in recent months.

I did software testing on medical equipment for many years. This sure seems like a software defect.

Is there any hope of a solution?

[RokuTannerD]

Hi there, 

Have you tried rebooting your home network and the device, then trying to set it up again? I'd also recommend connecting the device to a different wireless network, such as a mobile hotspot, and seeing if you experience the same result. There could be an issue with your network's configuration that may somehow be causing an issue, but it's hard to say. 

Give that a try and let us know how it goes from there. 


Thanks,
Tanner

[Mike_S1]

"RokuTannerD" wrote:
Hi there, 

Have you tried rebooting your home network and the device, then trying to set it up again? I'd also recommend connecting the device to a different wireless network, such as a mobile hotspot, and seeing if you experience the same result. There could be an issue with your network's configuration that may somehow be causing an issue, but it's hard to say. 

I have rebooted the router (and the cable modem too). The second connection I tried was a mobile hotspot. I have used both before (in May) and they both worked.
I also tried the replacement express with both networks, but did not reboot the router for it. The new express also rebooted every ~3 minutes.
On the second express I went thru the same process... install, link, delete all channels, reboot, install only YouTube -> reboot loop. factory reset and do it all again -> reboot loop.
Thanks,
-Mike

[Chicken]

I'm curious to know if your ROKU reboots every 3 minutes whether or not it's playing video.

FWIW, and I could be wrong, but 3 minutes seems to be about the limit of the video buffer (depending on resolution, perhaps shorter or longer than this perhaps?) b/c I can disconnect the internet feed and the ROKU keeps playing for some amount of time (I never actually timed this but it's long enough for my routers to reboot and reconnect without causing playback disruption).

[Mike_S1]

"Chicken" wrote:
I'm curious to know if your ROKU reboots every 3 minutes whether or not it's playing video

Good thought! It did occur to me, but I didn't try it.
It just went 8 minutes on the home screen with no problem. Then I checked some settings, and then opened the YouTube channel. It rebooted after 2 minutes not showing anything but the but the YouTube start page.
After the reboot I went directly to the YouTube channel and let it sit there, no video playing. It rebooted after 3:27.
Probably not much buffering going on... Still rebooting.

[Chicken]

"Mike_S" wrote:

"Chicken" wrote:
I'm curious to know if your ROKU reboots every 3 minutes whether or not it's playing video

Good thought! It did occur to me, but I didn't try it.
It just went 8 minutes on the home screen with no problem. Then I checked some settings, and then opened the YouTube channel. It rebooted after 2 minutes not showing anything but the but the YouTube start page.
After the reboot I went directly to the YouTube channel and let it sit there, no video playing. It rebooted after 3:27.
Probably not much buffering going on... Still rebooting.

At this point, I'd have to try the Roku with another router.  Strange things can happen if the router isn't cooperating, maybe assign a static address to the Roku, swap the power supply or something like that.  I had a router with a bad power supply that was causing issues with not just the Roku but other devices, seems the router was rebooting and assigning DHCP addresses or forgetting the assigned addresses, took a while to comprehend the issue b/c there were no useful error reports.

[ronfelder]

"Mike_S" wrote:
I am using a Roku express I purchased last fall from Best Buy.

It is running with supplied USB cable and power supply.
The unit was unused since late May while I was away.
Since I returned home at the beginning of July, the unit reboots itself about every 3 (or so) minutes.
This happens no matter what content/channel is being played.

Searching for this problem in the forums and internet, I saw many reports of this behavior over the last few years. The solutions were always to delete the offending channel, reboot the roku, and re-install the channel.

I did this. I removed ALL channels, rebooted, and installed ONLY YouTube.

It still rebooted itself every few minutes.

Again, on advice from the internet, I did a factory reset, installed a couple of channels and tried again.

It still reboots about every 3 minutes.

I have tried other power supplies with no change in behavior.

I have tried two different wi-fi networks, both connections previously worked, with the same behavior.

I have let the express sit over night unplugged and it begins rebooting a few minutes after you start a stream, so I doubt it's a heat issue.

I then went to Best Buy and purchased another Roku express.

I installed it with the new power supply and cables and linked it to my account.
As part of its installation, it did a software update.
It rebooted every 3 or so minutes.
I returned it the next day.

On these forums, it appears that this problem is occurring on Roku sticks, Roku 4's, and Roku TVs in recent months.

I did software testing on medical equipment for many years. This sure seems like a software defect.

Is there any hope of a solution?

Doesn't really help you but my Roku Express and Ultra plus an old XDS have no problem like yours.

[ritagmiller]

I'm having the same problem, but it doesn't even wait 3 minutes. The problem has been getting progressively worse. It started this past summer, with an occasional reboot (about 1-2x per week), and got increasingly worse, until now it reboots before I can select a channel from the home page. I've got a Roku Express, have replaced it once with a new one from Best Buy, have deleted and reinstalled everything, and have even gone into the 'hidden' bit rate override screen and changed it to 'manual selection' and disabled playback debugging. No help. When I go back after a reboot, the settings are back at default. I'm on a wireless ATT router (that's in the same room as the TV) on an LG non-HD set. Getting ready to ditch Roku and get a Chromestick.

[RokuTannerD]

@ritagmiller Thanks for reaching out. Sorry to hear about the issue! 

Are you using the included wall power adapter that came with your device? If not, you'll want to ensure you use the original power adapter. Some USB ports do not provide enough power for a Roku device, which can cause the issue you described. 

If that isn't resolving the issue, I'd recommend trying to perform a factory reset on the device to reset it back to factory defaults, and allow you to set it up again from scratch. This will remove all data, channels, and login information from the unit. You can see the steps for this here: https://support.roku.com/article/208757008-how-do-i-factory-reset-my-roku-streaming-device-

Keep us posted from there! 

Thanks,

Tanner

[Bshrum5297]

I just got the roku express and it prompts me for internet says it’s connected and says it will reboot after update. This process just continues in a loop. Bought another one and same issue. Thinking I should of just switched to Apple TV because clearly they can’t even have an actual support line.