Roku sideload distribution is failing for customers and has no recorded decision

[altaywtf]

Roku sideloading is failing for customers, and there is no recorded product decision about how the Roku app should reach devices.

Customer evidence

Five separate support conversations, most recent 2026-07-23:

• Sideloaded app disappeared from the device (twice — 2026-07-23 and ~2025-05)
• Dev-mode reinstall instructions no longer match Roku's current UI
• A new Roku stick will not install the sideloaded app
• "Does the sideloaded app auto-update?" — it does not, and nothing tells the user that
• "Is sideloading still working?", plus what to use on a non-smart TV

Roku dev-mode sideloads are wiped by factory resets and some firmware updates, and they carry no update path. So a customer who successfully installs today has an app that silently ages and can vanish without explanation.

What is missing

There is no issue, and no written decision about which of these Roku is:

• a channel-store app
• a permanently sideloaded app with maintained instructions and an update-check
• a beta/dev distribution that customers should not be pointed at

Support is currently answering as if it were the second, without the tooling that implies.

Scope

• Record the distribution decision
• If sideloading stays: refresh the instructions against current Roku UI, publish where the package lives, add an in-app version/update check, and state the factory-reset caveat up front
• If the store is the target: scope submission, certification and update ownership
• Give support one accurate article to link

Context

putio-static/public/dl/ already hosts putio-roku-v2.zip and putio-roku.zip, so a hosted artifact exists — what is missing is the surrounding contract.

Raised from the consolidating TV epic, putdotio/putio-web#954, which found this had no tracking anywhere.