Well it finally happened. I had to factory reset my shield after 5 years of faithful work. I tried not to but it was getting very frustrating with constant hassles.
Issues and efforts:
Att fiber 1000
Ethernet connected not WiFi
Modem replaced in case it was the issue
Replaced my Ethernet cable with a brand new one
No external installed
On the latest shield experience
Project ivy installed and upgraded as well
As recent as a month all of my apps on my shield we slow to open if all including surfshark, vpn safety dot kodi and all streaming platforms.
Surfshark would refuse to connect
Been getting Ethernet not connected but it is popup and no one has touched it. Same for WiFi as I troubleshooted.
Just got a new Ethernet cord this morning so I will monitor for that popup again.
All apps were deleted and added again still slow to open if at all.
Modem device list was refreshed by Att bc I had a lot of old devices clogging the list that have never reconnected over the years.
Kodi and tivimate are the only apps going thru surfshark everything else is not.
Last night as a last ditch effort I factory reset the device and reinstalled everything. What a royal pain in the ass.
Last night everything seemed quicker and opened fine.
This morning I tired to open YouTube tv and it hung and would not open again!
I had to reboot the shield yet again!
Is my shield dying? Is there a fix? Is Att blocking a port and not telling me ?
Is my shield sleeping the issue ? If so how do I turn it completely off?
Please help. I love my shield and I will buy another one if necessary and if still a strong player.
Sounds like something that happened to me as well. I found the solution was to open it up and clean out the dust that had accumulated. It was thick. Now I remove the cover every 2 to 3 months and clean it out. I also bought a little vacuum/blower designes for electronics off amazon and give it a good blow every couple of weeks to loosen up any dust and stop it from packing around the boards.
Reapplying a thermal paste is an option and I have seen this mentioned many time on Reddit.
Thermal paste does degrade overtime.
But you can check to see if there’s any thermal throttling first.
But cleaning out would be a start.
Interesting…From reading posts here you would think the Shield a robust device that cost upwards of $200 and is considered by many as the greatest thing since sliced bread would need “Dust Cleaning”. Yet Cheap China T95Z Boxes I have had for 7+ years and never cleaned dust or cache or anything are still running strong. Enjoy your weekend @Miki hope you are watching all the March Madness as I am!
It’s a gaming console, so it’s built differently to a streaming device and even PlayStation and Xbox have had issues with thermal paste and dirt inside them.
So true. Some of these top line units could sure use better engineering. You would be shocked at what the internal fan looked like with all the dust packed on the fins. They don’t make it easy to clean either. My old meat hook for hands don’t handle these tiny, and I mean tiny, screws very well.
March madness? Heard the term but no idea what it is. Have a great weekend @MarkxG and may your numbers come in and you win big. Then you can afford a real streaming device. . If you find a dust free model let me know. And you’re right. Higher price doesn’t necessarily equate to better it seems.
Geez I thought I had to worry about all the Malware on my Boxes. Now you are telling me there is some type of paste I need to be concerned about? @Miki are you serious you don’t know what March Madness is about? NCAA College Basketball Championchip! Is your VPN blocking Sports?
Ahh basketball. Definately not my sport. Same with soccer. Come to think of it I think I saw a listing and it has a huge selection of both Men’s and Women’s games.
You don’t own a shield so no need to worry.
As for long term use of devices I rarely keep any devices more than four years except for TVs.
In the past when I used to use gaming consoles I did find they did need cleaning out due to internal fan issues and dust buildup.
Do you have a link on how to open it? I’m afraid to break it. Is there any way to blow the dust out from the outside? I’m all thumbs as well. What size torx screwdriver do you need?
So my question is the YouTube TV app is the one that seems to be hanging when I try to launch it when the device has been asleep all night and I wake up to try to watch the news the other apps seem to launch OK now that I reset everything to factory and start over. I am going to clean out the dust, but do you think there’s an issue maybe with the YouTube TV app and possibly the project Ivy launcher that it’s hanging? I even tried launching it with the VPN turned off entirely and it still hangs. Seems to be the main app now that gets stuck from when the shield is asleep.
I can’t honestly say. I never used a launcher as I was only on the landing page of the Shield for the short time it took to boot then straight into TiVimate after dbl checking my vpn was active, and I never use you tube.
So new info. I disabled the launcher and opened YouTube tv on the shield on the google launcher and then re-enabled the project ivy launcher. I use launcher manager from Troy. Now it seems to go on just fine. Ugh! I don’t know how long it will last. Planning on clearing out dust later. Just thought maybe it’s a google app issue only and I needed to open it there first for some reason.
Unfortunately I cannot. I just cannot deal with the stick Android Tv cluttered mess. I have always used a launcher going back to wolf launcher since I got this box. I really think YouTube tv app and google services is the culprit. Knock on wood now that I put a new Ethernet and cleared old devices from my router WiFi list which I was shocked I had so many and logged into YouTube tv on the android tv side. Everything seems to be working ok. Fingers crossed. I did not open it yet to dust it but that is next if it hangs again. Thanks !
I have the same issue with the YouTube app. I don’t use a launcher, but I’ll choose a video to watch, and it will start then spinning circle. Have you reboot to watch. It’ll work fine for a good amount of times going out and back. Then it will hang again. Tried force stop, clear cache, reset the app, delete the app. Still same issue.
Enjoy your weekend 
