IPTV troubleshooting

Before anything else: two minutes of facts

1. Does it happen on one channel or all of them? One channel is a source problem at the service end and nothing you can fix. All channels is local.
2. Does it happen on a second device? If the phone is fine and the television is not, the television is the problem.
3. Did it ever work? Never-worked is usually setup. Stopped-working is usually network or an app update.

Those three answers narrow it more than an hour of guessing, and they are the first thing we will ask you on WhatsApp.

1. Buffering every few seconds

• Move the device beside the router or run a cable. If that fixes it, it is Wi-Fi — a mesh point or a powerline adaptor is the permanent answer.
• Switch the player's decoder between hardware and software. On cheap sticks this is transformative.
• Increase the buffer in the player's settings. A second of extra start-up delay buys a much steadier picture.
• Check nobody else is saturating the line — a large game download will flatten a stream without anyone noticing.
• Restart the router, then the device. In that order.

2. One channel freezes, others are fine

That is the source, not you. Nothing on your side will change it. Tell us which channel and when; it is useful information and we would rather know.

3. Nothing loads at all

• Retype the details. Do not re-read them — retype. On a television at three metres, l and 1 are the same shape.
• Check which kind you were sent. Portal details in a playlist field fail exactly like wrong credentials.
• Check the device is actually online. Open something else that needs the internet.
• Check the subscription has not expired. There is no automatic renewal, by design.
• Try a second player. Two minutes, and it settles whether the app is at fault.

4. It plays, then stops when someone else starts watching

The connection limit. One connection is one stream at a time. This is the single most common “fault” that is not a fault, and the fix is another connection rather than more broadband.

5. The guide is wrong or missing

The EPG is a separate file from the video and can drift without anything else being wrong. Some players let you refresh or re-download it. If it stays wrong, tell us which channels — guide sources can be corrected at our end.

6. Sound but no picture, or the reverse

Almost always a codec the player is not handling. Switch decoder mode, or try another player. A different app on the same device playing the same channel correctly is proof.

7. It was fine, and now it is not

Something changed. In order of likelihood: the player updated, the device updated, the router was replaced or reconfigured, or the subscription reached its end date. Work backwards from what changed most recently.

When to message us

Once you have done the two-minute facts at the top. Send: the device, whether it is one channel or all, whether a second device does the same, and a photograph of the screen. That message gets a real answer immediately instead of six questions.