Solving playback issues

[Alatarius]

Most of the other apps and devices have a "Clear Cache" option to their channels, like Samsung TV and Netflix, Hulu, etc on mobile devices. Roku is the only device/service that I have found that doesn't have this feature, and I own many devices. The only reason I use Roku is that all the other device only support the most popular streaming service and Roku is the only one that allows you to add more niche streaming services.

Currently, the only way to clear an outdated cache is to remove the channel and power cycle your Roku box. Which is time consuming and a pain to have to re-login to your service.

Why can't they add this option to the channels, because each service will get a corrupted or outdated cache at some point. It seems that any competent leader of devs/programmers will know this and plan for such things.

[atc98092 · Accepted solution]

That needs to be communicated to the individual channel developers. Roku only provides two channels themselves: The Roku Channel and Roku Media Player. All other channels are developed by 3rd parties, and would have to build that functionality into their own channels.

I think it's a good idea, but getting all the developers to implement such a function might prove to be difficult. Roku is dropping support for an older version of their programming language late this year, and it's been announced to the developers for quite some time. And yet, some channels still rely on that old programming language that will soon fail to work at all. 

[Alatarius]

The device itself (no matter the device or platform) has to cache x amount of data to said device regardless of the service before it becomes clogged(?) even Smart TVs, computers, phones, tablets, etc have an option to clear a channel's cache from their device. Why can't the devs add an option to the setting to clear the roku device's cache like every other device has? This has nothing to do with the channels provider.

[Alatarius]

Isn't the Roku development team the one's responsible for programming the streaming devices? How can they NOT be responsible for adding this to a streaming device. This seems to be trying to shift the blame from the Roku dev teams, who are the ones responsible for programming Roku streaming devices, to 3rd parties who are NOT responsible for programming Roku streaming devices.

Why can the device itself not have a clear cache function like every other app and device out there?

[atc98092]

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@Alatarius wrote:

Isn't the Roku development team the one's responsible for programming the streaming devices? How can they NOT be responsible for adding this to a streaming device. 

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Roku developers are responsible for the core operating system, as well as a handful of Roku branded channels. All other channels are developed by 3rd party developers, who are paid by the content providers, not Roku. No, Roku developers are not responsible for the functionality within these 3rd party channels. 

Rebooting the Roku is how you clear the cache from the operating system. There's no method of the OS clearing the cache within a specific channel. Look at the browser cache on your computer. Clearing the cache in Edge does not clear the cache for Chrome or any other browser you install. Each app must have its own method. 

[Alatarius]

Not true If I open my browser on my PC the I can clear the cache from every site I have visited within the browser itself. As the browser isn't the website itself all site would be considered 3rd party and yet I can clear the cache with the browser itself and browser developers don't leave it up to the individual sites to clear the cache from the browser. Roku device are basically browsers for streaming sites so to say it's the sites problem to clear the cache is a misnomer. You shouldn't have to power off the device to clear the cache. You don't have to shut down your browser to clear the cache.

Even the streaming sticks let you clear the cache from within their devices but yet Roku can't seem to figure this out. The Amazon Firestick allows this, so does Google TV streaming stick. With both of those they have an option in their settings to clear cache, so why can't Roku? Are you saying that these other two companies can do something that simple but you can't?

To say it's the streaming sites problem, in my opinion, is just lazy development, since all the other streaming devices have this option.

[atc98092]

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@Alatarius wrote:

Not true If I open my browser on my PC the I can clear the cache from every site I have visited within the browser itself.

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Yes, but you're only clearing the cache for that one browser. I have three different browsers on the computer I'm using at the moment. Clearing the cache for Chrome does NOT clear the cache for Edge or Brave. That's why I say the app has to clear its own cache. And Windows itself has no method of clearing the cache for any of them. Again, it's not the OS's job to do those things. It's the application itself that handles that. 

[Alatarius]

But we're not talking about browsers. We're talking about a physical device where the cache is stored such as any Roku streaming box or Roku TV. Third parties don't have access to those and I assume it's safe to say that all of the streaming hosts don't have access to your proprietary software. There needs to be a setting to clear the cache on a particular Roku device without having to unplug said device and plugging it back in.

For example both Google TV streaming device and Amazon Firestick have settings to clear the cache since that's not a 3rd party capability. That is up to the device software.

And yes, the device itself is where the cache is stored so again, why can't Roku devices have a clear cache button?

[atc98092]

I admit I don't know the inner functionality of the Roku OS. I used browsers as a comparison because they are apps, just like the Roku channels. If each channel stores its cache independently (like the browsers do), then it would not be viable to have a global cache clearing function.

Now if every channel stored their cache in the same folder, then an OS level clear function would be possible. But my guess is each channel stores its own, and I do know enough about coding to know that would be a complete pain to attempt to program at the OS level. 

[Emissary35]

I can manually clear the cache for every single app on my Fire TV devices by going into the application settings. There should be the exact same thing on Roku devices as well.

Anyone saying this is the responsibility of third parties who create the Roku apps is an absolute joke! This should be a setting built into the Roku device settings just like it is on other streaming devices and browsers on your computer.

Trying to shift blame away from Roku for this and saying you have to contact the developers for all of the apps to get them to add a clear cache option is laughable!

This is a feature that should be available and it is absolutely Roku's responsibility because it is Roku's devices.