Photo: APN Photography (Shutterstock)
No one wants to deal with so many preinstalled channels on their Roku, especially when you only have a few you regularly watch. As it turns out, there’s no need to keep those unnecessary channels around. In fact, you can delete any and all of them.
Some of the preinstalled apps and channels are helpful—it saves you a trip to Roku Channel Store, and lets you jump into streaming your favorite shows and movies. Your Roku doesn’t know you, it’s just guessing at what it thinks the average user will want on their device (not to mention including what it wants you to use on your Roku). But I, for one, believe the device should come with as few preinstalled programs as possible; and if you have a cluttered Roku home screen, it might be because it isn’t obvious that you can delete all the bloat. But you can.
How to delete or move channels on your Roku
Removing a particular channel is simple, albeit a bit unclear. To start, head home on your Roku (press the Home button if need be), then move the cursor to highlight the channel you don’t want on your Roku anymore. Now, press the Star button (*) on your remote to open your Options menu. From there, hit “Remove channel,” then confirm your choice when your Roku prompts you.
You can also rearrange the channels your home screen so that the channels you use most end up on top. Same procedure: Highlight a channel with the remote, press the Star button, but now, hit “Move.” You’ll be able to move the channel to a new location and press OK on your remote to lock it in place.
This hack came to my attention from a comment on this TikTok, which features a man helping his grandma navigate the many apps on her Roku. Commenter Ria suggested the Star button on the remote to help clean up Grandma’s Roku home screen, and we’re all better off for it.
