Android 11 on Nvidia Shield TV devices is breaking a bunch of apps among other issues

Who would have thought that a new Android version update for the Nvidia Shield TV and Shield TV Pro would end up breaking things? The new push to Android 11 brings with it per-use file permissions (scoped storage), so many users are now reporting things like apps that aren’t able to access the internal storage, and more.

To fix this, Nvidia has posted on its customer help page that visiting the app’s settings and enabling ‘Files and Media’ under the file management app permissions can fix this for many experiences, but it’s unfortunately not the solution in all situations, as reported by Redditors. If you’re getting errors like “VLC not finding any media files”, or anything similar, this should resolve it.

Android 11 includes a new permission system to allow file access to apps.  Many apps have not yet adopted the new system.  To allow file permission manually for these apps go to Settings -> Apps ->  [File management app] -> Permissions and enable “Files and Media” access for the app. If you see permission options to “Allow while using this app” and “Allow all the time”, select “Allow all the time”.

Nvidia Customer Help

Sadly, the OS update issues extend further in regards to file management access. Some users have reported that their Plex servers have disappeared entirely. When visiting the Plex app settings page, the server is blank with no options at all. The user, who goes by the name jjkc29 has restarted their device and such as well, but to no avail. Several people have recommended turning off auto-update at a system level until all of these bugs are worked through, so you’ll have to decide for yourself.

It’s unclear if Nvidia’s fix will get you back up and running with all of your apps, especially since you have to enable these permissions for each individual app, but you can try. It worked for several users who had vanishing Plex servers, but not for all of them – especially with those who have their media servers on external HDDs or SSDs. Plex is looking into this itself though, so a fix should come up rather quickly, especially if they collaborate directly with Google to make sure it’s a well-known error. Of course, you can always try to downgrade via ADB if you’re more tech-savvy.

Piunikaweb has heard reports of HDMI CEC “stuttering” on several popular video streaming apps, randomly disconnecting Bluetooth, the Shield TV remote turning on only the device itself and not the TV as well (CEC again), broken third-party app launchers, and more. It’s incredible to see so many software issues in one update. Depending on who you ask, this could rival the issues that many are experiencing with their Pixel 6 Pro devices before the January update, which seems to be working well so far. Tell us what issues are you having, if any? I would love to hear in the comments. This certainly makes a case for waiting a while to update, don’t you agree?