Introduction
As an avid user of the NVIDIA Shield TV, I’ve come to appreciate its capabilities and versatility in handling various multimedia tasks. However, one persistent issue that has been plaguing my experience is the frequent crashing of the Plex.tv application. This problem seems to be shared by several users, and I wanted to share my journey in troubleshooting and attempting to resolve this frustrating issue.
The Problem
Plex App (the player) on Shield TV tends to crash frequently, disrupting the streaming experience. What makes this issue particularly challenging is that Plex comes pre-installed on the Shield TV, and you cannot uninstall it completely. The only option available is to uninstall updates, which unfortunately results in an even buggier application.
Initial Troubleshooting Steps
- Uninstalling Updates: As mentioned, uninstalling updates is possible, but it reverts the app to less stable version, exacerbating the problem.
- Clearing Cache and Data: I tried clearing the cache and data for the Plex app, but does not address the underlying issue.
- Reinstalling Updates: After clearing the cache and data, reinstalling updates was another step I took. However, this did not prevent the app from crashing.
Exploring Custom ROMs
Frustrated with the persistent crashes, I decided to explore alternative solutions. One such solution was installing a custom ROM on my Shield TV. I opted for LineageOS with last Android TV version, a popular custom ROM known for its stability and performance improvements.
Experience with LineageOS
- Initial Success: After installing LineageOS, the Plex app worked smoothly without any crashes. This was a significant improvement, and I was hopeful that my issues were resolved.
- Post-Reboot Issues: However, the relief was short-lived. Upon rebooting the device, I encountered a new problem. I was unable to switch local users without first killing the Plex app. The error message “User Switching is not available, please check your connection” would appear, despite having a stable and robust internet connection. Killing the Plex app would temporarily resolve the issue, allowing me to switch users until the next reboot.
Reverting to OEM OS
While using a custom ROM provided some benefits. But, I decided to revert to the original OEM Shield TV OS to see if that would resolve the Plex crashing issue.
Post-Reversion Experience
Unfortunately, reverting to the OEM OS brought back the original problem. The Plex app continued to crash randomly, and I also noticed input direction lags, which further degraded the user experience.
Conclusion
Definitely the issue is related to the Shield Android TV official ROM. It would be nice if Plex developers, could check what is wrong on Shield Android TV 9.2.1, as many users are trying to use Plex on the type of devices
Regards,
I have 2 Shields, both have started this behaviour in the last few months. I am afraid I don’t share your love of the Shield TV boxes, with the one in my 4k setup often having handshake issues unless I drop it down to 1080p, and the remotes on both being dreadful in both design and usability, often with delays of several seconds from pressing a button to the unit reacting. However Plex not working has made these units next to useless and a device that I can not recommend to anyone for any purpose.
I also have a Sony Android TV that is several years old, but that works without issue, so I know it is a Shield problem. Sadly Plex’s lack of proper decoding options for HDMI ARC is the reason I need to use the Shield as well.
I definitely sympathise with your experience of “uninstalling” Plex, definitely one of the most unintuitive processes I have ever come across. I will also note that when my systems crash, it is always in the menu system, never when playing a file. Sometimes immediately on startup, sometimes when trying to navigate, sometimes just randomly, sometimes immediately after a file has finished playing. I have found that letting it sit for a while before navigating sometimes improves the chance of it not crashing, but often it won’t even last a few seconds.
I will also note that this appears to be the re-emergence of a bug documented about 3 years ago. I can’t help but think that both Plex and NVidia may have moved to the seemingly industry wide standard of getting their customers to test new releases, a move that seems to always result in these types of issues.
Regardless, I would say that several months without a fix, or any word that it is even being looked at, on such a highly used system is unacceptable.
Hello anyone who might be reading this, particularly the Fifou Family.
I am interested in hearing other’s stories regarding this issue, particularly as it seems to have gone away on both my devices with no update to Plex. At a guess, I would say it was a recent update to Geforce Now, which is the only NVidia Shield specific app that has been recently updated. I cannot find any release notes, and the app itself seems to be more gaming related, but both my devices seem to load Plex “quickly” now and I have not had any crashes where they were next to unavoidable before.
I did notice failure to play some files in surround, although that seems to have been fixed with a server reboot.
Please let me know if you have experienced this issue and whether it has gone away in recent times.
Thanks!
1 Like
Hello @Experious
To fix my issue with the Shield, I installed LineageOS on it
You can find full tutorial here: Lineage OS for NVIDIA Shield TV
This solution is putting Android 15 on the Shield TV while the official ROM Experience Upgrade 9.2 is on Android 11.
I also changed the App Launcher to something more lighter without publicity etc…
Now I have a Shield that looks like new.
PLEX has no issue anymore, but my Launcher does give me a black screen sometime,
I am ok with that.
Don’t forget the Nvidia Shield has been release in 2013, 10 years ago.
It ‘s still a good product after installing LineageOS. 
1 Like
Also I create a Thread on Nvidia forum but no body seems there…
Performance Issues and App Crashes on Shield TV with OS 9.2.1
I also ask for information on the Main Release Thread, that correspond on date time to our issue:
Shield Experience Upgrade 9.2.1 (5/6/25)
1 Like
