Roku is still trying to figure out what’s ailing some older Roku TV and Ultra players after Roku OS 10.5 caused a variety of streaming glitches and screen freezes. Luckily, there’s a quick fix: rolling back your firmware.
As TechCrunch reports, Roku users have been complaining that a number of popular streaming apps, including HBO Max, Disney+, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video, have stopped working on their devices, while others say the Roku interface has completely frozen.
In an update on its support forum Monday night, Roku said it was “continuing to investigate” the bugs, which were “only affecting a small subset of users due to specific network configurations.” The streaming player manufacturer also offered a rollback from Roku OS 10.5 to 10.0, but noted that “only affected customers [should] follow this step.”
The streaming glitches appear to be dogging older Roku TV models (7XXX), as well as Roku Ultra models 4660, 4661, 4662, and 4670. The most recent Roku Ultra player, which was released last year, is model 4800R and doesn’t seem to be affected by the bugs.
Roku users have been complaining for weeks about problems with their devices following the Roku OS 10.5 update, reporting everything from slow performance, poky connectivity, streaming apps that refuse to load, and frequent buffering.
After manually rolling back the 10.5 update, several Roku users on Reddit were reporting that their devices were working normally again.
If your Roku TV or Ultra player is still glitchy, you can roll back its firmware fairly easily. Here are Roku’s instructions:
- Press the Home button on the Roku remote.
- Scroll until you see the Settings option, then select it.
- Select System > System update.
- Select Check Now, and you should then be prompted to roll update 10.5 to version 10.0.
Initially rolled out back in September, Roku OS 10.5 adds a number of new features, including easier access to Roku’s live TV programming guide, voice-enabled “direct to playback” support for Netflix and Spotify, integrated music and podcast search results, and the ability for Roku’s Streambar and Streambar Pro to use those soundbars in 3.1- and 5.1-channel configurations.
While Roku OS 10.5 has been available for two months now, reports of glitches only started appearing recently because (as TechCrunch points out) older Roku hardware tends to get firmware updates later than newer models.