Is Your Google TV Streamer Crashing? (Try This Quick Fix)

Just as you are ready to sit back, relax, and enjoy a show, the Google TV Streamer crashing can immediately ruin your evening and destroy your mood.

Don’t worry–after this 5-minute guide, you’ll never have to worry about crashing issues again!

The problem might be caused by low storage space of the streamer, outdated software, or even overheating during the warm seasons.

To identify the exact issues, we recommend following our chronological troubleshooting steps!

How to Fix Google TV Streamer Crashing in 7 Effective Steps?

Note: Before we start, identify if there is a particular pattern to the crashes, when they happen, and most importantly, how the streamer behaves during and after the crash.

1. Force a *Soft Reset* on the TV Streamer

The forced “soft” reboot is a solution that’s highly effective against non-lasting and temporary issues with the streamer, including crashes, reboots, or reduced app performance.

All you have to do is access the “System” settings of the streamer and reboot it manually through an option.

• To start the “soft” reset, navigate to “Settings” (gear icon) → “Device Preferences” and highlight the “Reboot” tile to initiate.

The Google TV Streamer will power off for about ~10 seconds, then restart at the homepage.

Use the device for several minutes to determine if the crashing persists.

Quick Tip: Perform a “power” reset of the Google TV Streamer in case the crashing persists by suspending the power supply of the device for approximately ~60 seconds.

2. Configure the “Content Dynamic Range” 

The “Content Dynamic Range” allows the resolution to scale, in relation to what is currently viewed on your streamer.

An abundance of Google TV Streamer users reported that the root cause behind the crashes was due to the default value of this particular TV Streamer setting.

Here’s how to adjust the feature to resolve the streamer crashes:

1. Open the “Settings” tab and go to “Display Settings”.
2. Next, navigate to “Advanced Display Settings” below.
3. Locate the “Match Content Dynamic Range” feature.
4. Set the feature to “Force Conversion” and then save.
5. Test the Google TV Streamer for about ~5–6 minutes.

If your Streamer does not crash for approximately 10 minutes, then the issue is almost certainly resolved.

You could also reboot your Streamer right after adjusting the content dynamic range.

3. Force Close Background Applications

Perhaps the crash is caused by an overload of the Google TV Streamer system resources due to too many running background applications.

Fortunately, devices using the Google OS can access the temporal memory remotely, which allows you to “force” close any applications.

Follow these steps to force close unnecessary background apps:

1. Navigate to the “Settings” tab on your Google TV Streamer.
2. Access the “Apps” tab, then select the “See all apps” option.
3. Highlight an application from the list and select “Force Stop”.
4. Repeat for all the apps that are currently open on the streamer.

The CPU utilization of your steamer should be reduced immediately, which should hopefully put an end to the annoying crashes.

We also recommend opening a maximum of ~2–3 apps before clearing the temporal memory to preserve as much of your streamer’s performance as possible.

4. Check the Streamer Storage Occupation

One of the reasons why the Google TV Streamer keeps crashing is because of an exceeded storage space.

This could happen due to too many installed applications or an overfilled cache, as a result of operating with too many applications, without clearing the excess data. 

First, check the occupation of the streamer by navigating to “Settings” → “Device preferences” → “Storage” and check the leftover space. 

You can clear space on the streamer in two ways:

Method #1: Clearing Excess Files (Cache):

The quickest and easiest way to free up space on your Google TV Streamer is by deleting your cache files generated by the installed applications.

For this purpose, go to “Settings” → “Apps”, select any of the applications, and then press the “Clear cache” button first, then “Clear data”.

Note: Repeat for all installed applications and check if you have free up sufficient free space on your Google TV Streamer. 

Method #2: Uninstalling Applications:

If clearing the cache did not free a sufficient amount of space, you can uninstall apps on your streamer manually by accessing the “Storage” tab and highlighting an application.

Once you have highlighted an application, select the “Uninstall” button below.

Repeat these instructions until at least ~40–45% of the storage space is free.

This is the optimal space your streamer’s RAM and CPU require to operate uninterruptedly. 

Note: You can receive a thorough storage report for your Google TV Streamer under “Internal shared storage” at “Storage”.

5. Check for a Pending System Update

One of the reasons why your Google TV Streamer keeps crashing could be due to a pending update of system update.

If you haven’t allowed your device to update automatically, it may automatically power off periodically in an attempt to install the firmware, causing the crashes.

Here’s how to check for a more recent Android version for your streamer:

1. Open the “Settings” tab and navigate to “System”.
2. Next, navigate to “About”, then “System Update”.
3. Follow the instructions if there’s a newer firmware.

Before initiating the update, verify your streamer has established a secure Wi-Fi/Ethernet connection through the “Settings” app.

If not, reconnect the device, then start the update. 

6. Switch the Wi-Fi Bands on your Streamer

Note: Only proceed with this step if your streamer uses Wi-Fi and not Ethernet!

Although Wi-Fi is rarely associated with crashes of the system, a majority of users reported that switching the Google TV Streamer to a different Wi-Fi resolved the crashing.

In cases where the streamer fails to load an online service, apparently there is a system bug that causes it to crash.

Switching the Wi-Fi on your streamer consists of two steps:

Step #1: “Forget” the Current Wi-Fi:

1. Access the “Settings” page, then select “Wi-Fi” in the section.
2. Choose “Forget network” to disconnect from the current Wi-Fi.
3. Now, wait until the Google TV Streamer is no longer connected.

Step #2: Reconnect the Google TV Streamer:

1. Wait until the network list refreshes and all of the networks appear.
2. Next, specify the opposite band of your router (2.4 GHz or 5 GHz).
3. Select the network and press “OK” on the streamer remote control.
4. Finally, input the Wi-Fi password, then press the “Connect” button.
5. Wait until the streamer connects and see if the crashing is still there.

So, if your router is not dual-band-enabled, then it only has a 2.4 GHz network, and you can test the Google TV Streamer on your phone’s mobile hotspot.

If the streamer fails to connect with your Wi-Fi initially, ensure that the SSID and password are correct, then shorten the router distance.

7. Reset the System of the Google TV Streamer

If all else fails and the Google TV Streamer crashing does not stop, ZontSound recommends conducting a clean factory reset of the system.

Perhaps, you have misconfigured a setting or a feature that periodically causes your TV streamer to crash, and a reset can eliminate the error.

⚠️Warning: The factory reset erases all settings and installed applications on your Google TV Streamer!

If you are confident in losing all information, here’s how to start the reset:

1. Go to “Settings” on your streamer, then open “System”.
2. Now, navigate to the “About” tab from the pages below.
3. Select “Factory reset” and follow the on-screen steps.

Once the reset is complete, your TV streamer will reboot, and you will be back during the initial setup.

Reconfigure all settings, download essential applications, and check if the issue persists.

Note: Get in touch with Google Help if the crashing persists.