PSA: How to fix random HDMI issues (inputs missing / black screen on input) on Android TV

[ray_tv]

I experienced this today and it took my a while to uncover, so I thought I'd post this here incase anyone else runs into the same issue.
 
If your:

• HDMI inputs are missing from the input menu
• the TV refuses to switch inputs
• the HDMI Signal Format settings page is blank and shows no inputs
• input screen is just black

and you've recently setup an external device storage, then it could be related to that.
 
I setup my external SSD as "Device storage" a few nights ago and moved some apps over to the external storage. During the setup process where Android formats the storage device for it'll ask you if you would like to move some system files over to the newly formatted device storage (it'll give you an option to move now or move later.) If you move over the system files, it will break selecting any HDMI inputs. If you are setting up a new device, select move later and then only manually move the apps you want over to your external device storage.
 
To fix this, go to Settings --> System --> Storage, select "Internal shared storage" and there will be an option to "Migrate data to this storage", click that and move the system files back to your internal storage. You will notice that any apps you've moved to your external storage will still be there, that option only moves some system files between internal and external device storage. After that, reboot your TV and your HDMI ports should be working again. You can also check that your previously moved apps should still be on your external device storage. To confirm that the system files are in the right place, you should now only see “Migrate data to this storage” when on the settings page for the external device storage and NOT the internal one (because the files are already on the internal storage)
 
I have a feeling that some part of the system that manages HDMI inputs breaks when moved to external device storage, probably because the external storage starts up later and after Android has already booted up, so that functionality is missing and results in this weird behavour.

TV is the X75WL model, but this will probably happen on most if not all Sony TVs with external device storage setup.

[graygerman]

Ok so i read what youve said and in my case and i suspect most, not strictly correct.

When migrating "Apps" to external storage it does just that with certain 3rd party apps only and thats where they run from, Kodi for example uses so much space it really needs ext storage, however at no point will it migrate essential system apps that are required for the system to run correctly and certainly hasnt on my KD65X89K, therefore if i follow your post and try to migrate data back to the internal storage an error will pop up.

So unfortunately the problem is within bugs itself present in Android 12 that breaks the hdmi inputs, and i might add the internal built in tuner selection, a simple solution to this issue is to turn the tv off at the power source a few minutes, then back on and power up and things return to normal.

Somewhere within the system code this bug causes the most damage when the tv is turned off onto standby, and when powering back up after a period of time the problem rears its ugly head again, however it appears impossible to disassemble Sonys update to investigate the codeand even have the ability to run the code to trace the glitches,  also theres one or 2 that havent migrated data and still they suffer this issue.

Glad it works for you but for most of us i suspect no.

[Bartleby]

The storage is the problem - Or more so, how Sony handles it. Whilst I don't have this particular problem, I did have a similar one. I have no idea why, but my storage would prevent the TV from booting. It would start to power on as usual, then shutdown - I'd then have to wait a few minutes before I could power the TV on correctly.

Fortunately, this problem seems to have been fixed in the newest update. So hopefully, Sony will fix your problem in the next update too.

[graygerman]

@Bartleby   Hi,  unfortunately its nothing to do with storage, int or ext, if only it was that simple, if that was the case then 

1 - My Tv wouldnt be booting with storage connected, it does, works fine and no problem loading my streaming apps which are on the ext storage.

2 - The tv displays and behaves the same with this big (missing settings and either missing inputs or Inputs just going nowhere) regardless of connected or not connected storage.

To sum up, reboots or power off at wall are hit and miss, sometimes it fixes it for the time being, other times it doesnt, Yesterday my TV worked fine all day long without even 1 single problem, today it took me 2 hours and about 30 restarts to finally get connected to my hdmi port.

This is nothing more than random bugs in the programming, to jump from a perfectly working Android 10 system to Android 12 is a big jump, they skipped an entire generation of Android and went big, it didnt pay off, I aware that 68022 is hit and miss, some are affected worse than others and some on newer generations of the tv, not at all, that in itself tells you the problem is more than storage.

From what i have managed to disassemble on the pc and inspect, bot 10 and 12, there appears no change to storage and the software appears fine, i have come across 1 or 2 errors myself, but again they appear strange and random and either show or dont and i cant work out why, a obvious persistent mistake in the programming or code would always be present at the point its located, this one seems to hide, making it complete impossible to really narrow it down and i suspect that there are a whole host of problems with this update.

Thats made my very disheartened, if the software is so buggy i think it will take them a good while to eliminate the worst problems so we may be waiting a matter of months for the fixes to start rolling out.

Not much we can do for now except get used to watching catchup tv and youtube, heck i may just cancel my tv license ha ha ha