What happened
Nvidia's Shield Experience 9.0 update, based on Android 11, was praised because it covered Shield TV models dating back to 2015. The Verge reported on 19 January 2022 that the buzz faded quickly, as owners reported major bugs even on the latest models. People who ran the update lost access to their Plex media servers, a popular use of the devices thanks to their processor and a USB port for storage. Others reported Kodi stutter and blank screens, and delayed loading or blank screens in apps such as YouTube and Hulu.
Nvidia posted a support page explaining how to give apps permission to use storage under Android 11, which fixed at least one user's Plex server, and a forum post explaining how a broken release shipped. It said it had worked with Plex during development and that Plex worked in all internal and external beta testing, but that a new Plex Media Server version on 4 January changed the reported API level and broke it. 'All of our testing had been complete and the change went unnoticed until launch day,' the post said.
Nvidia later told 9to5Google it was working with Google because Android 11 treats the 'Allow only while using the app' permission as 'Don't Allow', so the manual fix was to set storage permissions to 'Always Allow'. It opened a support forum to collect bug reports and compiled about 27 known and reported bugs. Its HotFix program offered test builds for fixes, but these were untested releases that broke some DRM-protected services such as Disney Plus and had no option to roll back.
What it cost
Plex media servers stopped working for many owners and Nvidia listed about 27 known bugs; its HotFix builds had no rollback and broke some DRM services.
Why it happened
Nvidia's testing was finished before Plex pushed a 4 January update that changed the reported API level, and Nvidia says the change went unnoticed until launch day.
Android 11's changed storage permissions interacted with a use case, Plex servers on attached drives, that Nvidia knew was popular.
The Plex storage handling was not fully ready for Android 11, a gap Nvidia says it knew about during development.
Interim HotFix builds were untested and could not be rolled back, so users had little safe recourse.
The lesson
A test pass goes stale when a key third-party app ships a change before launch; a streaming box's main use, here Plex servers, should be re-checked right before release.
Aftermath
Nvidia was working with Plex and Google on a fix as of 19 January 2022, with manual permission changes and the HotFix program as stopgaps. The article gives no date for a full resolution.
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