Roku has a solid portfolio of streaming media players that seamlessly add smart TV functionality to your old TV or give you an alternative to your TV’s operating system. These streamers have a lot to like, including an easy-to-use and intuitive interface, apps for popular streaming and services, access to local TV channels, and a bunch of helpful but hidden features. However, these are not the most powerful streamers you can find on the market, and every once in a while, you may encounter your Roku TV Stick becoming laggy and sluggish. While a slow interface or subpar app performance is frustrating, it can often be fixed. Unfortunately, though, there isn’t one specific magic pill setting that can make all your problems go away.
Before we dive deeper into steps that actually require some effort, you can start with a simple restart. While it’s not the most technical step, a reboot can often clear out temporary memory glitches, clear the cache of your slow Roku TV, and restart background services and system processes. There are a couple of ways to reboot a Roku TV Stick. The easiest is to press Home on your Roku remote and navigate to Settings > System > Power > System restart. If you don’t see the Power sub-menu in System, the System Restart option should be available directly under the System menu. If your Roku TV is still laggy and slow after the restart, here’s what you can try next.
Troubleshooting your Roku TV
If you are seeing slow performance across multiple apps or channels, the company suggests resetting the network connections, as pretty much all apps on your Roku need an internet connection. To do so, press Home on your remote and navigate to Settings > Advanced system settings > Network connection reset > Reset connection. Once you reset the network, your device will restart, and you’ll have to set up Wi-Fi again. Another good idea to ensure you get the best performance out of your Roku device is to ensure you’re running the latest version of Roku OS. Although all software updates are automatically applied, you can check for them manually for confirmation. You can find any available updates by navigating to Settings > System > Software update and tapping on Check Now.
If nothing else seems to be working, your best bet is to factory reset your Roku device. Notably, a factory reset will erase all your data, downloaded apps, and any saved preferences, and revert it to the state you got it when you purchased it. To perform a factory reset, open Settings and navigate to System > Advanced system settings > Factory reset, and select Factory reset everything. This will wipe everything and restart your Roku device, bringing back the same snappy performance from when the Roku TV Stick was brand-new. Some Roku devices also have a physical reset button that you can press for 10 seconds to revert the device to its factory state.
