Your streaming set-top box or stick, such as Apple TV, Roku, Google Streamer, or Fire TV, is like a little computer that delivers to you a world of streaming shows and movies. But just like a computer, it can get laggy, sluggish, and buggy, causing playback issues and an overall bad viewing experience.
And just like the wise nerds fromThe IT Crowdso eloquently coined: sometimes you just need to turn it off and on again. Here, then, we outline why it’s important to reset yourstreaming device, when to recognize when to do it, and how.
What Does Resetting Your Streaming Device Do?
We’ve all been there—you’re swiping through menus on your Apple TV or Roku looking forsomething to watch on Netflix for the week, when your swiping starts juddering, menus take their time loading, or everything just freezes up, full stop.
Quitting the app isn’t working, nor is just trying to wait it out, so it’s time for a restart.
Restarting your streaming device, be it from Apple, Roku, Google, or Amazon, means powering the device off, unplugging it, or perhaps using its own default restart features. These devices, even though we don’t always think of them as such, are computers with tiny operating systems that can get bogged down with things like cached files and open programs and processes running in the background. These can take up valuable system resources like RAM and slow things down.
When restarting your streaming device (and many other digital devices), all these programs, processes, and cached files are ended and cleared, giving you a fresh start.
Apple TV 4K
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How Do You Know It’s Time for a Reboot?
In addition to the above-mentioned sluggish performance and freezing when navigating content on your streaming devices, other red flags that it might be time for a restart include:
It’s supremely frustrating, but in most cases, a simple restart solves most issues.
How To Reset Your Streaming Device
Luckily, restarting most modern streaming devices is as easy as powering it down or unplugging it. Here’s how to restart a range of the most common streaming devices.
Apple TV
The basic idea for restarting is more or less the same on all Apple TV models, but they can vary based on generation, tvOS version, and the remote style.
Fire TV & Fire TV Stick
Google TV & Chromecast with Google TV
It’s important to note the difference between restarting your streaming device and a more drastic factory reset, or “hard reset.” A restart does all that good stuff like clearing processes and cache while keeping all your apps, settings, and accounts intact. A factory reset is like returning the device to its out-of-the-box state—all your apps, data, accounts, and logins are wiped. This should be done as a last resort.
Why Reset Your Streaming Device Every Month
While it’s not necessary to reset your streaming devices each month, it certainly is a good habit to get into. Not only does resetting do all the great clearing of processes and cache files we mentioned—fixing glitches, sluggish performance, and more—but as your device’s firmware updates roll out and are installed (either automatically or by you), they often need a restart to take full effect. This will ensure you’re getting the latest features and bug fixes that are released.
In short, resetting your streaming device every month is probably the best way to keep it running at its best. Pick a consistent day each month, like the first or last. Right before bed is a good time, when no one is using it.
Additionally, we also recommendrebooting your home’s internet router and modemfrom time to time. With many of the same principles, rebooting modems and routers clears old processes and caches. It also refreshes the router’s connection to your ISP, refreshes your IP address, and can reprioritize the devices connected to it, allocating more bandwidth to the devices that need it, like streaming devices.
Roku Streaming Stick 4K
The Roku Streaming Stick 4K is a cheap and painless way to stream all your favorite movies and shows in ultra-crisp 4K resolution.
Restarting your home’s streaming devices regularly is a bit of a no-brainer. It’s simple to do, doesn’t take much time, and keeps your devices operating at their best, saving you from throwing your remote at your TV in frustration. Like theIT Crowd guys said in their greatest episodes—Turn it off, Turn it on. Happy.
