Here’s the crux of the article in video form:
New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….
Original story (published on September 16, 2021) follows:
Roku is among the most popular digital media player vendors with over 50 million active users. Numerous online services like Spotify can be used on Roku devices to stream media content.
However, it seems Roku users have been facing some problems with the Spotify app lately. According to recent reports, the Spotify app is not working on Roku and has also disappeared from the menu.
This is inconveniencing many Roku users as the app/channel for Spotify seems to have been deleted from the Roku devices automatically without any reason.
Workarounds like restarting/re-plugging the device and checking for system updates are not helping the affected Roku users. The issue appears to be widespread and needs to be addressed on a larger scale.
However, Spotify and Roku have not yet acknowledged this issue which clearly appears to be widespread. Thus it is unclear whether the issue is at Spotify’s end or needs to be fixed by Roku.
It must be noted that several users are already facing issues with the YouTube and YouTube TV apps on their Roku devices which the vendor is already looking into.
So, it is possible that this issue with Spofity not working on Roku devices might indeed be due to some fault at Roku’s end. However, this is still based on speculation.
Since Spotify is supported on most Roku devices running Roku OS 8.2 or above, it is unclear why the app has suddenly disappeared from the platform altogether.
While Spotify support has responded to some affected Roku users individually, they have either provided the generic troubleshooting steps or asked users to get in touch with Roku support.
As mentioned earlier, generic troubleshooting has been of little help to users as they are still facing the aforementioned issue hoping to get a fix soon.
On the other hand, Roku is yet to make any comments on the matter which has further left users stranded in the middle. Hopefully, Roku and Spotify soon shed some more light on the matter or better yet, fix it all together.
That said, we will keep tracking this for further development and will report back once new information becomes available so stay tuned.
Update 1 (September 18)
05:30 pm (IST): A Community Streaming Expert on the Roku community confirmed that the 2.8.90 update that may have been responsible for Spotify disappearing automatically from Roku devices has been reverted.
Users are advised to check for a new update to resolve the problem and get back the Spotify app.
Check for updates: Settings/System/System update/Check now (Source)
Update 2 (September 20)
12:25 pm (IST): One user has shared a temporary workaround for the problem that you can try out for yourself in case you’re facing the issue:
- RESTART the Roku (Settings/System/System restart/Restart) <– MUST DO THIS HERE!!!
(If you dont restart after removal, settings/cached data associated with the app are left behind and it wont be a clean re-install) (Source)
Update 3 (September 21)
11:50 am (IST): Roku has confirmed that the problem with the Spotify app disappearing on the platform should be fixed with the latest update.
– Press the Home button on your Roku remote. – Scroll up or down and select Settings. – Select System. – Select System update. – Select Check Now to manually check for updates. (Source)
Update 4 (September 22)
IST 11:59 am: As this issue continues to persist, a user on the community forum has shared a workaround that has worked for them and below is the suggested workaround.
NOTE: There are more such stories in our dedicated Roku section so be sure to go through it.
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