Have you tried double clicking the home button to bring up recent apps and close from there? Also you can try the NVidia shield remote app for your phone, that works very good too. Also the new remotes work way better than the original little ones. I have 2- 2017 , and 1- 2019 all with the new remotes. I think the key is the double click with the home button and then I would reset the Shield and start fresh. Hope that helps.
Best suggestion I've had yet!! I'll give that a go and let everyone knows what happens. Last night it locked twice in a row. I wasn't doing anything unusual, but it just wouldn't let me change anything EXCEPT within Channels.
Android sometimes needs to be reset to factory after a long period of time. I reset mine occasionally when it begins acting squirrely. A third party chinese remote may be the only problem, easy to fix that too.
I had this happen the other day on an Onn dongle with the new reference remote....with PiP auto to LIveTV set, it would get stuck with a non-responsive exit/back button in the guide. Home still worked though and returned with the PiP window still playing on the home screen.
I've seen cases to where I'm in the guide and press the back button...and it won't go back. I've been able to re-create that situation today, but can't quite figure out the steps to get there. I do know this much. It was when I was in the guide, watched something and pressed back to go to the guide. I could move around within the guide (and use it), but the back button just sits on the currently selected program.
I see this frequently on my Shield Pro, on the original remote I simply hit left on the D-Pad to get to the left menu and proceed from there. I see no rhyme or reason, it simply happens at times when I've been watching for a long while on the same channel usually. I've also seen it fix itself after a minute or so of doing nothing (walking away while the channel grid is displayed).
I think I saw @tmm1 mention elsewhere something about rewriting the guide, I figured I'd wait until it trickled down to Android before I reported as a bug.
[edit] sorry, I was replying to @Oingofan, thought I needed to mention this to avoid confusion.
I have also seen this happen it started happening when they made the back button go to the top of the guide ... Sometimes I have to hit back then left then back to exit.
I liked it before when I hit back I wanted to go back not top of guide.... but many users requested it so I live with it.
I have the Nvidia Shield TV Pro that I purchased in JAN 2021. This same problem started approximately a month ago. It does it one or two times a week and I have to go to setting to do a force stop. The Amazon Fire TV Sticks and Apple TV aren't having this problem. I'm using the original Nvidia Shield TV Pro remote.
Thanks, sounds like it's not specific to any remote. Makes sense it would be related to the new guide behavior.
When the button stops working, does it move to the front or top of the guide? Or does nothing at all?
It moves to the top for me. I'm just glad I'm not crazy.
I hadn't thought of using my Shield controller. It does the same thing with it though. I do think PiP might have something to do with it.
Mine does nothing when it's failing. Other times it works great? Weird.
[edit] I bet many of these odd bugs would disappear if they put more than 2-3gigs of ram in the Shields.
[edit2] No PIP, always the latest beta. I'll test on the lastest stable from the Play Store.
My shields don’t have this problem and I never use PiP. So you might be on to something.
When it happened to me, it did nothing....didn't move to top. I also haven't had the problem without PiP enabled.
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I have a 2017 Nvidia Shield in my living room and early on I replaced its crappy remote with a Harmony Companion remote.
I also have some living room lights plugged into smart switches that are operable from the four smart lighting & outlet buttons on this remote.
Occasionally, both Channels Plus and Plex will refuse to exit properly, which is when I know it's time to reboot my Nvidia Shield.
I also have a treadmill in the corner of the living room and purchased the newest triangular Nvidia Shield replacement remote as soon as they were available to have a dedicated remote at the treadmill.
Between the treadmill remote on the main 2017 Shield and the same remote that came with my tube shaped Nvidia Shield in my office, I have never experienced that same issue.
Admittedly, the replacement remote usually just starts and ends one video while I'm on the treadmill, and doesn't get used near as much as the Harmony remote.
My office Shield gets more use and I've had it 18 months without duplicating the same issue that I face occasionally in the living room.
And again, if I reboot the living room Shield, it doesn't happen for a while.
If I remember to reboot the Shield every 2nd days, it doesn't happen at all.
I'm a scientific study of one, so take my advice & experience for what ever it may be worth to you.
But, Android devices need to be restarted occasionally no matter what some people may believe.
They also need to be unplugged to have the dust blown out of them a few times a year too.
This problem has to do with the back button going to the top of the guide ... before that was implemented there was no problem exiting the APP.... has nothing to do with the remote but the APP itself. It plain and simple is a bug. Remove the code that makes the back button go to the top of the guide and the problem to exit the APP will disappear.
Maybe time to revisit my suggestion/request....wrap from last channel to first and first to last....
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If you page through the guide using Page Up/Down or Channel +/- buttons, the guide does wrap. If you use only Up/Down, it does not.
I didn't know that 
.....and you are right.
Personally, I'd just prefer they implement the same behavior for basic up/down instead of the 'exit to top'.
I don't like when basic button behavior changes.
Dang, now I have remote envy. My Shield Triangle remote is basically featureless, except I really like the backlight.
Do you, or anyone for that matter, have a specific remote that they find worth mentioning?
Android TV Nvidia Shield Pro 2019 here.
- The Sofabaton is decent, and can do both IR and BT.
- If you can find them, the Harmony 650 is a great classic IR remote; pair it with a Flirc, and that works well, too.
- I'm not sure if it works on other systems, but the TS4K remote is actually quite nice.
- Flirc paired with any IR remote you like.