Roku: Playback stops

[dmarmet]

I have been listening to Pandora on my TV for years. All of a sudden it will play a station for a while and then stops playing., goes back to the roku home screen. so I try to start it again and the station won't play. Shows the station but blank where the songs should be. Please help and thank you!

Moderator Edit: Changing title for clarity

[jharan]

The word "obscure" in your response would seem to answer my question in the affirmative. 8^)

Seems my theory might be on track. Hard to say with just two data points. I hope I'm wrong, that it's just some technical glitch that they haven't worked out yet, but this wouldn't be out of character for internet companies in general.

They are giving the service away after all. I suppose they can manage it the way they want at least for non-paying users like me. Paying customers would be a different story.

They would have to decide if the resultant bad press is worth any bump in ad revenues.

[profilergirl]

The ads still play like every half hour when it is working.

[jharan]

It might not be as diabolical as I am making it out to be. It could be just flaky ad sources. I've see that with other sites. They make you watch some ad before you get to see the content you want but then the ad itself is coming from some other site and that site won't serve the ad up, so the whole thing just hangs. They really should cache their ads locally so that can't happen or at the least make their site handle the error better, if that's what's going on.

[TannerPandora]

Hi @jharan and @profilergirl 

Thanks for posting your experiences, sorry for any continued trouble.

This issue was resolved with the Roku version 12.5. If your Roku is not on this version or later, then I recommend logging out of the Pandora app, and uninstalling and reinstalling the app on your Roku device.

Sometimes, rebooting your Roku with the steps above may help.

Please note after reinstalling you will be asked to sign back into Pandora.

If after updating to 12.5, you're still having trouble, let me know the following info and I can pass this along to our engineering team.

• What Roku software version is your device using? (Settings > System > About)
• What Pandora channel version are you on? (Highlight the Pandora channel icon and select the * key.)

If you're unable to update to the latest version, then I recommend reaching out to Roku Support for additional assistance. You can get in touch with them from the Roku Support page, or by phone at: (816) 272-8106.

Thanks for the help!

[profilergirl]

Thank you, Tanner, for the comprehensive fix on this continuing Pandora issue with the Roku devices. Much appreciated. (Happy Friday the 13th, btw!  😱)

Ok - discovered a bunch of intel speaking with Roku tech support. I currently only have Roku version 12.0.0 Build 4186-51. When I try to do software update - it says "Already up-to-date."

Roku tech central is CURRENTLY slowly rolling out Version 12.5 to all customers. However, those who call in to request that version NOW - they are being kind enough to escalate to the top of the queue.
(Mine has just been escalated as I type this.)

Roku support is emailing me with date/ time of my update, along with any other instructions I might need. I will post here in this thread as I receive. He said he was going right now to the "back-end" team to initiate this process for my device.

Again - thank you so very much for your assist. ✨

[jharan]

My Roku stubbornly refuses to upgrade past Roku software version 12.0.0, despite the fact that my Roku hardware is apparently still supported. From what I've read since yesterday, this is a Roku policy. They roll out software updates slowly and there's no telling when you are going to get the latest. According to this Roku software release link:

https://support.roku.com/article/228844467#section-3

my model 4230X is among those getting the upgrade. But I guess being on that list doesn't mean your going to get the upgrade on your Roku. At least not today.

So if current Pandora is for some reason dependent on some Roku software feature added since 12.0.0, then I'm just out of luck until Roku decides to upgrade my Roku. Too bad, I've liked Pandora. I guess I won't be buying another Roku when this one drops out of support.

Seems odd though. Pandora used to work fine on older Roku code than what I've got now. Netflix still works fine. Amazon video still works fine. Perhaps Pandora engineering would want to look into what they added to Pandora that doesn't work with Roku version 12.0.0 but does work with 12.5. Is utilization of that feature really necessary to deliver streaming audio?

jharan

[profilergirl]

Call Roku tech to have yours escalated like I just did.
See if you can get at the top of the queue with me.

[Mario52]

Thank you so much for the update.

[jharan]

For those of you who may still be experiencing this problem because Roku refuses to provide you with the 12.5 software update needed to fix it, I have found what seems to be a work around. I find that if while listening to Pandora on my Roku, I hit the Home button on the Roku remote and then click into Pandora again after some period of time then the problem doesn't seem to occur. What exactly that "period of time" should be is unclear, but about every 1/2 hour seems to be working for me. Not an ideal workaround, one has to remember to do this while listening, but the alternative is you get locked out of your channels for days while Pandora's servers decide to let you listen to them again. Nothing you can do on your end corrects the problem. It's possible that the magic time period could be longer, but that's a matter of experimentation.

[profilergirl]

Got the upgrade to Roku 12.5 today!  🎉

Will report if any more issues, but do not anticipate any.

[TannerPandora]

Thanks for the follow up @profilergirl! :🎉 🙌 Let us know if you still have trouble. Happy listening! 🎧