Roku channel is stuck, cannot remove

Have you found yourself in a predicament, where you have a channel on your roku device with no possible way visible to remove it? Well read on, I had this same problem and found a way to remove the channel.

Back in the day we installed the "my video buzz" ( myvideobuzz ) channel/application on our Roku device. During a year or two of having that channel on our box, Roku was going through some turbulence with youtube and at the time did not have the youtube channel on the Roku. Apparently the myvideobuzz channel was streaming youtube content as a private channel, we found it's recommendation online somewhere. Roku eventually shut them down, claiming violation of some terms of use. Now that roku officially has youtube on the Roku 2, that wasn't a big deal for us.

We were cleaning out our channels on the roku, and noticed that when we hit the asterisk key (*) on our roku remote for the my video buzz channel, there was no "remove channel" option to be found. Apparently when roku removed/shut down the channel, our roku box disconnected that app from the roku mothership, removing our ability to remove the channel directly from the roku. Ahhhhh, how can I get rid of this channel?

I will tell you how I removed this channel. Here is a quick overview of the steps, with a detailed explanation below.

Summary:

1. activate development mode on your roku
2. go to development panel on your roku from your computers web browser
3. login to developer panel
4. delete the custom application that is there

Detailed explanation:

1. Activate the Roku Development Mode on your roku. When you activate it, you will see a username and a password, remember the username and password for the next steps. To activate development mode, you will need to enter in a special remote sequence; this reminded me of the good old days on the nintendo entering cheat codes. At any rate, the key sequence that worked for me was: Home 3x, Up 2x, Right, Left, Right, Left, Right. After choosing to install, your roku will restart. After it restarts go to the next step.
2. In your web browser from your computer, go to your Roku box IP address in your address bar. You can find your roku's ip address by going into the Settings menu on the roku then the about sub menu. There you will see a line that says IP address. Type that in your browser ( example, mine is http://192.168.0.7 in my browser, yours will be different ).
3. Type in your username and password setup from the first step. The username looks to be standard, it set mine as "rokudev"
4. You now see a screen for installing applications that you would build as a developer, don't worry though if you have no intention of uploading your own custom built app. You should focus on the area where it shows a long line of goobly glop and an option to delete. Although I never installed a custom application, there was one there waiting to be deleted; this must be the "my video buzz" app. So I clicked delete and crossed my fingers, gave it a few seconds and then checked my Roku. HAHA the my video buzz app is gone from my roku, SUCCESS!

Disclaimer: Although this worked for me, it may not work for you. In my experience the Roku can be a little finicky, so the problem you are having may not be the same as mine. Don't get me wrong, I love my Roku, it's a great inexpensive device for streaming on my tv. Heck, I even use the roku over the included "smart" features of my tv, because the roku interface and responsiveness is just plain better than my smart tv interface feel.