Hi, I’ve recently updated my Sky Go box to a Roku 3 box as Plex was barred on the Sky boxes.
It’s working fine except for one very annoying problem.
When I show a photo slide show from my PC streamed to the Roku box, it works fine for the first few dozen pictures, and then suddenly stops showing them, just saying “cannot load photo”.
Once it gets in this state, it will then not load any photos at all, apart from ones it’s already shown, which are presumably cached.
If I then try to play a sound file, the sound plays but no artwork is shown.
If I then try to play a video file, it loads to around 33%, but then just shows a black screen, and about 10 seconds later, the Roku box just spontaneously reboots!
It’s then fine again until the whole performance repeats.
Anyone any idea what could be wrong? The Roku box is connected to the PC via Ethernet, so there are no wi-fi problems.
I’m running Plex Media Server 0.9.16.6 on Windows 10 64 bit.
I know that’s not the latest version, but I found it was the last version that produces sensible photo thumbnails on the PC browser, rather than ones that fill almost the whole frame and apparently can’t be re-sized!
The version of the Plex app on the Roku 3 is 4.4.1.
Any suggestions gratefully received. I’m assuming this is a problem with Plex, as all the other functions on the Roku box seem to be work perfectly. Sorry if this thread should have gone in the Roku section, moderators please feel free to move it if you feel it should be there rather than here.
Cheers, Dave.
Roku INC is famous (or infamous, if you will) for introducing show stopper bugs with under-tested FW ‘Upgrades’. Roku INC is now hip deep into their Hand Grenade approach to development in a somewhat ineffective attempt to fix multiple problems with their new line of Roku Boxes - problems that started way back at the Roku 4 (that was in the process of being replaced before it was ever introduced).
If you’ve been a Roku user long enough you may remember the FW ‘Upgrade’ that bricked the Roku XS with this very same issue - Spontaneous Reboots and General Unexpected Misbehavior. Unfortunately, at this time Roku has all their new boxes in some state of disrepair and now their last remaining stable unit - the Roku 3 - is suffering from the dreaded XS spontaneous/misbehavior making it a rather disturbing realization that Roku doesn’t have any stable boxes at this time. Not all users are experiencing this issue - exactly like the XS issues (different parts of town in China develop different boxes, apparently). If you’re unlucky enough to have one of the ‘iffy’ boxes - join the hate party here: https://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=102414
(not really hate right now - but could easily evolve into same very quickly)
Plex App Development for Roku has been engaged with Roku for some time now regarding this issue as have several users (myself among them). Plex App Development for Roku assures us all that can be done, has been done, and we are all waiting for the other shoe to drop at Roku INC. I have complete trust in the Plex App Developer for Roku. If it can be fixed, he can fix it. He can’t and I believe him.
Given Roku INC’s track record on these types of issues it’s anyone’s guess if it will ever be resolved, but as we manufacture torches and sharpen up the farming implements for what will surely be an epic Villager uprising when we storm Castle Rokenstein - we can still hope.
I also recall when the Villagers stormed the Castle during the XS Black Death the result was squat. Roku was unwilling or unable to do anything about it and if you were infected - you died. End of story.
Let’s hope it doesn’t go that way this time.
(I’ve got a bad feeling)
@ucjb said:
“I’m running Plex Media Server 0.9.16.6” That is a very old version.
Indeed.
It may be interesting to know if PMS is upgraded from that version and while running ‘The Black Death’ Roku FW Version the problem remains the same. Not sure what that would tell us other than what many of us already know - Roku’s FW ‘Upgrades’, in some cases, will brick your box.
@ucjb said:
I have 3 roku 3s and the latest Plex Pass version and I have no issues.
You’re a Plex Passer - we are not. You may be running versions we are unable to run at this time.
Don’t know if that matters, but that’s where we are.
‘The Issue’ has been confirmed and identified. It doesn’t affect all boxes - obviously.
@ljunkie said:
Hey all. We have submitted a bug report to Roku regarding the 7.6 b4125. Something has regressed in that firmware that we are unable to fix on our side. The reboot issues logged in the Roku forums are not only related to the Plex channel. You may also notice intermittent poster failures while browsing the Plex channel, and the only way to fix that temporarily is to reboot the Roku. No other firmware is affected. We’ll update this thread when we have more info.
It’s manifesting itself in the exact way ‘The Roku FW Plague’ for the XS developed and it’s very disturbing.
Thanks guys!
Sorry for the delay in responding, I thought I would get e-mail notifications of replies to this thread, but I’m not for some reason.
Rather worried to see that this is apparently a known issue for some people. It doesn’t look as if updating to the latest version of Plex Media Server on my PC would necessarily fix it, as it looks like a Roku problem, although I will give it a try and revert back afterwards if it makes no difference. As I said, I don’t like the thumbnail presentation on PMS 10.
Is it possibly something to do with caching? I’ve tried with other photo folders on my PC, and ones with smaller file size pictures taken with my compact camera seem to be OK, it’s the folders with big photograph files taken with my DSLR camera which seem to cause the problem if there are a lot of them.
Presumably putting a larger capacity SD card in the Roku box wouldn’t help? I believe that only stores app information, not media data.
Cheers, Dave.
Well I’ve now replaced the Plex app on my Roku 3 with RARflix, and as @JuiceWSA said, it works fine with no crashes!
It’s actually very similar to the Plex app I had side-loaded onto my Sky Now TV box before they blocked it.
I think I’ll stick with that for now at least, as it does the job. A bit annoying that neither Plex nor Roku seem to be addressing the obvious stability problem with the current Roku Plex app though!
Thanks everyone, I think this is probably the best answer to this for now.
Cheers, Dave.
You actually don’t have to ‘Replace’ the official Plex app. I run that one and RARflix side by side. RARflix in slot one, Official in slot two. You’ll find some things RARflix doesn’t do or doesn’t do well, but it doesn’t explode and right now that’s a good thing.
If you’re like me you’re gonna love ‘Cast and Crew’ for movies. Awesome sauce.
We can’t blame Plex ‘THIS TIME’. It’s allllll Roku and it’s alllll bad at the moment.
There are so many threads that are talking about the same problem: Plex crashing on the Roku. I have deleted, reinstalled Plex, changed the speed of playback, all to no avail. The only thing that worked for me was to go to Settings on the Roku player, click on Screensaver, then click on the name of the Screensaver and then select “Delete”. I got this info from a Plex thread (2017) in which a Plex employee advised users with similar problems to delete the Roku Screensaver. Now Plex works once again.
