Roku mobile app

[manc]

Hi,

Recently I have noticed that my Samsung Galaxy S10+ (One UI 4.1 - Android v12) is draining its battery when using the Roku app (v9.3.0.1909385) with private listening, I have done various things to try and resolve this, all without success!

1. Factory reset my phone (especially for this one issue)
2. Factory reset Roku Streaming Stick+ 3810X (12.0.0 build 4184-50)
3. Cleared cache & data then reinstalled Roku app
4. Issue persists on wife's Samsung Galaxy A50 also.
5. Factory reset Netgear WIFI AP (running out things to try)
6. Samsung Galaxy S7

I have been in contact with Roku support, but we are going round circles with them assuming at one point the issue was with the Roku remote :(, we are 1 week in now.

I absolutely love the private listening feature of the Roku streaming stick and use it everyday, having lost it for 2 weeks I am really missing it, so I would really appreciate any advise on what I am doing wrong and why this is occurring.

[makaiguy]

On a Roku remote with a headphone jack, the remote's headphone amplifier uses power whenever the headset is plugged into the jack, whether or not you are streaming anything.  Perhaps your phones do the same(?).

Try to unplug any earphones from your remote and/or phone when you are not actively listening and see if that extends your battery life.

[manc]

Hi and thank you for your suggestion.

I tried as you asked last night with both mine and wifes phones, however I got the same result 😞

The son has an iPhone 13 max & his works phone (brand new), so will give these ago and report back.

[manc]

Here is some monitoring with AccuBattery to get an idea of battery drain whilst using the remote app in private listening. 

[CaroleV]

I never even use the app but when I checked battery usage on my Galaxy S10 after noticing it draining with zero apps open, I found that the Roku app was the culprit. The ONLY way I could stop it was to uninstall it! Won't be putting it back.

[DTM54]

Same issue with Samsung S10e. All of the suggestions--clearing cache, reinstalling, etc.--fail to help. If I give the app anything less than unrestricted background battery use, the private listening mode goes mute every couple of minutes, so that's not an option.

The only thing that helps is to force stop the app after every time I use it. This is the only app I've ever heard of that requires that!

[RokuJohnB]

Hi @DTM54,

Welcome to the Roku Community!

We understand that you're having a problem with your Roku mobile app. We're happy to help. If the issue persists on the Roku mobile app after attempting the troubleshooting steps, We suggest contacting the Samsung customer support team to report the issue and get help. In this case, there's likely an issue with that specific phone that needs to be addressed with an update from them.

Please let us know if there is anything else we can do to help you.

All the best,

John

[manc]

Your experience fits in with my experience also, it's super frustrating!

I've now moved to using my Xbox series s for private listening when using YouTube, Netflix, Plex etc, it's works really well, only hiccup is plugging my headphones into a Xbox controller then using that to control the app interface, I may end up getting the official Xbox remote control, nevertheless this is an awesome workaround I would suggest all give a chance👍

Thx.

[DTM54]

John, it amazes me that every time I've contacted Roku about a problem--there hasn't been a single exception--the response I get is that it's someone else's problem and you send the customer to them to get it fixed.

I'm an engineer with decades of experience with software development. Let me give you some advice. When your product doesn't work, it's YOUR problem, not someone else's. And it's YOUR responsibility to fix it, not the customer's. Even if this really is an issue with Samsung's phones, it's YOUR job to contact Samsung and work with them to fix the problem. My company has done that many times with other products that were at fault, and we would NEVER just tell our customer, "it's not our problem, you figure it out."

By the way, those other issues that were all "someone else's problem"--they miraculously got fixed right after a Roku update. 

[W8877]

Hi John,

It's not just Samsung, battery drain is happening on my Pixel 7 with stock Android 13.  The Roku app is clearly has issues.