Solving playback issues

[rong194]

Hello,

Using ROKU app on samsung smart tv 2022 and using app on mobile phone. I installed the ROKU app on my tv and I watched a few shows on the app no problem. The next day the app would give "unfortunately, we were unable to play this content. please try again later" error message. Also the app on my phone gives same error.

[RokuMary-F]

Hi @rong194,

Thanks for your first post in the Roku Community!

We understand that you are getting an error message when streaming The Roku channel through your Samsung TV as well as through Roku mobile app. We would like to know how to identify and resolve any playback issues but the need more details. 

Here are a few questions here to better understand what you're experiencing:

• Does this happen on all movies/shows on The Roku Channel or just specific titles?
• Please cite specific content title examples that you have tried to play on The Roku Channel that is experiencing an issue.
• What are the steps to reproduce the issue you are seeing?

We look forward to hearing from you and looking closely into this issue. Thank you!


Best regards,
Mary

[rgminneapolis]

We cannot play any content from the Roku app. Same error message every time. We just downloaded, too.

[RokuNimfa-C]

Hi @rgminneapolis, 

Thanks for reaching out to the Roku Community. 

Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Roku mobile app and see if it helps? If you have another mobile device, could you attempt to download the app and examine if there's any difference? 

Please let us know what you find out. 


Regards, 
Nimfa

[Joe151]

Hello,

Sorry your experiencing this issue, it can be very frustrating when you just want to watch your Roku and it seems possessed!

I believe I have a fix for you, it's not really the Roku app, Roku box or your phone, it is a problem with VPN tunnel and GRE header packets. Certain types of VPN tunnels for instance L2TP cannot be interpreted by some software/hardware, so it drops the GRE header and the packet becomes unreadable.

But we don't need to know all the fancy stuff Here's the long and short of it. If it's a VPN tunnel issue you can try the following.

1)TURN OFF any VPN software or appliances. Temporarily stop or disable them so that they will not function on reboot.

2) RESTART The device you wish to access the Roku app or channel with.

The Roku app/ device and or your phone should then connect.

Try this let me know how it works, best of luck to you.

[Zerofallout]

Hi,

I actually own a Firestick, but downloaded the Roku Channel app to watch some content that was listed only to come across the same exact error on every single video I tried to play:

“Unfortunately, we were unable to play this content. please try again later”

So, first I did a hard restart on the Firestick…still the error. So, I deleted the app, did a hard restart, installed the app again….still the error.

Then it hit me….some apps don’t like VPNs and I run Express VPN. As a last ditch effort before permanently deleting the app, I turned off my VPN.

Voila….fixed. Every video played, when before none would. I guess the Roku channel doesn’t like VPNs probably for their advertising. 

[Dmonk69 · Accepted solution]

Thanks i turned off my VPN and it solved that problem