Solving playback issues

[BillPeacock]

The home screen tiles are blank at the homepage and I have to restart the Roku anytime I want to use an app that is not on my remote shortcut buttons. The Roku is up to date. This is on a streambar pro

[AvsGunnar]

@BillPeacock 

Try restarting both your router and the Roku device.

If still a no-go, try changing the wallpaper and/or theme.  Use a Roku default theme and wallpaper. (Settings/System/Theme).  After changing the theme and wallpaper, perform another System Restart.

If that still does not work, a Factory Reset may be needed. (Settings/System/Advanced System Settings/Factory Reset).  ** Make sure you have a working physical Roku remote before performing a factory reset on any Roku device/RokuTV.

[robbiestewart88]

I'm not sure why it needs 25 characters in the subject line either. It's probably one the forum moderators tools for fighting spam.

Anyway, first things first. Run a connection check on your Roku. If you're not seeing an Internet download speed of at least 5 Mbps, then you have a problem somewhere with your Internet connection. Either with the connection itself or with your router. Your streambar pro should have a dual-band 2.4/5.8 GHz Wi-Fi card built into it. Make sure your router is also a dual band 2.4/5.8 GHz also and make sure you're connected to the 5.8 GHz side. If your router is an older router, then you will need to upgrade it to a dual band one. 2.4 GHz was fine back in the days of 720p, but with 1080p and 4K now being the standard, you really should be connected to a 5.8 GHz Wi-Fi network. I've ran into this similar problem myself many times. Especially when I was using the cheaper versions of the streaming players that they always sell at a discounted rate at Christmas time via retailers like Wal-Mart. Only problem with these players is they only have a 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi card in them and not the dual-band 2.4/5.8 GHz Wi-Fi cards, like your streambar pro is supposed to have. 

Secondly, your Roku player's cache memory may be full, which is another reason why you're having to constantly restart it to get it to work. This can happen if you've used your player quite a bit or if you've done a lot of streaming on it as the cache memory fills up. I run into this problem occasionally myself. Follow the steps in this article to clear your player's cache files. I have to run this procedure every so often myself.