I’ve started experiencing playback issues on my Roku Ultra (4800R) when playing any video media. The video will freeze and/or pixelate periodically, and will typically lose sync with the audio (video freezes but audio continues, for example). This happens on anything from 4K HDR video to 1080p SDR video.
I initially thought it was only happening when direct streaming or direct playing, but I did still experience it when transcoding at higher bitrates, although the issues seemed less severe/frequent.
I’ve confirmed that the issue doesn’t happen when playing the files on other devices. I tested on the web player and also on Android TV running on the same TV that the Roku is connected to, and those devices played the media without issues.
Probably the most noteworthy thing to mention is that I’ve had this Roku for a couple years and it’s been playing this same media without issues up until now. There have been no changes in the hardware and software stack with the exception of the Roku Plex app being updated this week after the 7.12.4 was released. I was running a previous Plex Server Version (1.32.7.7621) when I first encountered the issue, and have since updated that during my troubleshooting, but it had no impact on the issue.
This is all over my local network. The Roku is connected via ethernet, so no bandwidth concerns.
I’ve tried uninstalling/reinstalling the Roku Plex app for good measure, but still experiencing the issues.
Thanks in advance for any help!
Server Version#: 1.32.8.7639 (using official Docker container)
Player Version#: 7.12.4
Just an update on this in case anyone else has similar issues — I came across a post on Reddit describing a similar issue. Per the comments there, I ended up doing a factory reset on the Roku and that cleared up the issues I was experiencing. Everything is back to playing well in Plex again.
Same issue over here. PMS version 1.32.7.7621 on a Windows 10 machine and every Roku on my local network (3 different models) suddenly can’t play anything. Video will start, then buffer, then buffer again, then stop completely with a message that my connection speed isn’t high enough.
I don’t want to factory reset my Rokus and log back in to 20 services; what else can we do to fix this?
On Roku devices specifically I recommend pulling the power cable for 30 seconds to help with resetting some of the cached app data - restarting doesn’t clear it but pulling power does and has helped me with a bunch of odd bugs.
The buffering on multiple devices sounds like something other than client issue though so those logs will be helpful in that case.
Thank you for the tip about the logs. I updated Plex to the latest version (1.32.8.7639) on my Windows 10 machine (OS Build 19045.3803) and pulled the plug on one of my Rokus for 30 seconds then restarted. Pulled up a movie that had failed before and hit play. It only got a couple minutes in before I got the message “Playback Error Your connection to the server was not fast enough to stream this video. Check your network or try a lower quality.”
