Why Is Roku Live TV Pause Not Working? Best Fix Methods

Your Roku live TV pause not working and you don’t know why? Look no further!

Live TV is often unstable, and it is not excluded that you will experience such troubles whenever you try to pause it or rewind it.

We will do our best to explain what could be happening to your Roku and how you could fix the issue in a matter of minutes!

The Roku Live TV won't work if your pausing isn’t set up. The problem can be with the broadcast itself, or the flash drive is not being recognized by Roku TV. Also, the flash drive doesn’t contain enough storage or isn’t compatible with your Roku TV at all.

Let’s review the causes for this problem a little better before we proceed with the actual troubleshooting solutions recommended by the users.

Why Roku Pause Live TV Not Working?

Pausing Roku live TV is only available when watching content that is being streamed online.

Anything besides live content, will not be compatible with being stored on your connected flash drive.

You will be allowed to play/pause and rewind the given broadcast, as long as it is streamed live.

Here are some of the causes that might be preventing you from pausing your Roku Live TV:

1. Incompatible Broadcast

If the broadcast isn’t compatible with being paused, for instance, it isn’t live, you won’t be able to use the pausing feature.

2. Not Enough Storage

The 90 minutes you will save from your live broadcast must be stored on your flash drive, but if it doesn’t have enough storage, you won’t be able to pause.

3. Flash Drive not Recognized

In case your Roku TV hasn’t recognized the flash drive, pausing will not be available.

4. Live Pausing not Set Up

Not establishing the live TV pausing function won’t allow you to play/pause any of the live content you’re watching.

5. Enabled Screensaver

Turning on the screensaver on your Roku TV will sometimes lose the buffer you’ve generated on the live broadcast when resumed from it.

Now that you’re aware of the possible problems your live TV functions might be going through, let’s move on to resolving the problem.

How To Fix Roku Live TV Pause Not Working Issue?

Before we move on to any of the actual solutions, we suggest restarting your Roku TV.

Sometimes the problem is simply occurring due to a temporal fault, which you should be able to resolve with a basic reboot of the system.

In case the restart didn’t help, proceed with the following solutions:

Solution #1 Setup Live TV Pause

If you haven’t set up the live TV pause in the first place (which is an independent feature), you won’t be able to use any of the functions during live (play/pause, rewind).

In that regard, we will now guide you through the live TV pause enabling process, so you can make sure everything is being done correctly.

Follow the instructions below to enable the live TV pause on your Roku:

1. Set the live TV input, by searching for available channels over the air (you will be given a choice after setting up your antenna).
2. Once the live input has been set, press the Home button on your Roku TV remote.
3. Highlight “Live TV” in the options tab and press the “*” button on the top.
4. On your Roku remote, press the Play/Pause button.
5. After the live TV menu appears, choose “Setup Live TV pause”.
6. Follow the on-screen instructions.

You will be guided through the complete process of setting up your live TV pausing, as long as you follow the instructions on the screen of your TV.

If the feature still doesn’t seem to be working, let’s proceed with the next solution.

Solution #2 Try With A Different Broadcast

Changing the broadcast might be the key to resolving this problem. Some live streams are well-known to be unstable, therefore it may not let you play/pause or rewind the broadcast itself.

We suggest changing your television to a different broadcast, to determine how the feature is going to work there.

If everything seems to be alright with a different broadcast, then you may consider contacting the authorities of the problematic broadcast or leaving them an email regarding the problem.

In case the problem wasn’t occurring from the broadcast, let’s proceed with the next troubleshooting step.

Solution #3 Reconnect Flash Drive

If your Roku live TV pause is not working, maybe your Roku TV cannot recognize the flash drive.

In the prompt of setting up live TV pausing, you will be required to insert a flash drive, which is going to be formatted automatically.

If something failed during the process, or your flash drive hasn’t been fully erased, problems could occur with saving any of the 90 minutes you will be getting from live TV buffering.

We suggest connecting the flash drive of your USB slot and trying again. If the issue is still there, perhaps you should try with a different USB slot on your Roku TV.

Solution #4 Clear Flash Drive’s Storage

Even if erasing is automatic and the formatting is applied to your flash drive once plugged, corrupted data may sometimes remain on your portable storage.

In those cases, we suggest clearing your device’s storage from any faulty data that has remained after the scan.

Proceed with the instructions down below to clear your flash drive’ storage:

1. Unplug the USB drive from the back of your Roku TV.
2. Insert it into a computer or a laptop.
3. Open the flash drive storage.
4. Save anything you wish to keep from the data inside.
5. Delete the rest of the data.

Make sure your flash drive is completely empty, before plugging it back into your Roku device. 

You may have to run through the live TV pausing process again after connecting the flash drive.

Solution #5 Try With A Different Flash Drive

As you’re probably aware, the flash drive you have to plug in your Roku TV to buffer paused live TV must be compatible.

If your unit isn’t compatible with the TV’s live TV requirements, it may not be recognized, therefore you won’t be able to pause live TV.

Down below we have some of the requirements in regard to USB flash drive compatibility:

1. Use USB 2.0 – Any older USB than 2.0 might not be recognizable by your TV and you won’t be able to pause live TV.

2. Have at Least 16GB of Storage – Your flash drive must have 16GB of storage at least, in order to buffer & pause live TV.

3. Only one USB can be Used – Only one of the USB slots in your Roku TV will be recognized, therefore only one flash drive can be used to buffer live TV.

We also suggest trying with a different flash drive, yet compatible with the stated above requirements for live TV pausing.

Solution #6 Disable Screensaver

Users and Roku itself have suggested that resuming live TV from the screensaver might kill the buffer so far, therefore it will look like the broadcast has not been paused.

This is why it is recommended to disable the screensaver on your Roku TV in case it has been enabled, to preserve what you’ve buffered so far.

You can disable this feature from Settings > System > Power and from there, make sure that “Power On” is not set to the “Live TV” label. 

As long as this feature is not enabled when buffering live TV, you won’t be losing your progress.

If you’re unable to pause your live Roku TV, make sure the feature is enabled and reconnect your flash drive. Try hard resetting your TV, disable the screensaver for live TV and try with a different flash to ensure compatibility.

Read Next: Why Is Airplay Unable To Connect To Roku TV?

Bottom Line:

Now that you know why Roku live TV pause not working and how to resolve the problem, we hope that now you’re able to pause your live broadcasts.

Pausing, especially with live TV is always a useful thing to have and making sure it’s working is always an important thing.