IPTV troubleshooting
When IPTV is not working, the fault sits in one of four places: your home network, the device, the player app or the account. Guessing wastes an evening. This guide starts with a five-minute check that tells you which of the four it is, then gives the fix for buffering, freezing, login errors, missing channels and an empty TV guide.
Start here
IPTV stops working for a small number of reasons, and the symptom usually names the cause. A spinning circle points at the network. A login error points at the account or a typing mistake. A black screen with sound points at the player's decoder. Find your symptom in the table, then go to that section.
Symptom
Most likely cause
First thing to try
Picture stops and a circle spins
Slow or unstable connection
Speed test on the device
Picture stutters during sport
Frame rate or buffer setting
Turn on frame rate matching
Login failed or authentication error
Typing mistake, or a second device
Retype it, close other screens
Black screen, sound plays
Video decoder
Switch decoder in the player
Some channels load, others do not
Outdated channel list
Refresh the playlist
TV guide is empty or hours out
Guide not loaded, wrong time zone
Refresh the guide, set UK time
Five minutes
This five-minute check tells you whether the problem is your network, your device, the player or the account. Do the steps in order and change one thing at a time. Step three is the one most people skip, and it is the test that separates a Wi-Fi fault from everything else.
01
Fully close the app, not just back out of it, then open the same channel. This clears a stuck stream.
02
If one channel fails and the rest play, the fault is that channel. If nothing plays, carry on.
03
Install a player on your phone, turn Wi-Fi off and sign in. If it plays on mobile data, your account is fine and the problem is in the house.
04
Use the device you watch on, not a laptop beside the router. You need 10 Mbps for HD and 25 Mbps for 4K.
05
Unplug both for 30 seconds. Plug the router in first and wait until its lights settle before starting the device.
The spinning circle
IPTV buffering happens when the stream arrives slower than it plays. In most homes the cause is Wi-Fi between the router and the television, not the broadband package. Move the device to the 5 GHz band or a network cable, raise the player's buffer size by one step, and test the same channel at the same hour.
Between 7pm and 10pm your household and your neighbours are all online. Run a speed test at 8pm on a Saturday. If it falls below 10 Mbps on the device, a cable to the router is the lasting fix.
Walls, a fish tank or the metal back of the television weaken the signal. The router may show 70 Mbps while the stick behind the set receives 8.
It helps with short dips. A larger buffer starts a channel a second or two later and then rides out brief drops. It cannot fix a connection that is too slow all evening.
Stutter and freeze
IPTV freezing during live sport is usually a frame rate mismatch or a device short of memory, not a slow connection. UK sport runs at 50 frames per second. Turn on frame rate matching in the device's display settings, close other apps, and switch the player's decoder if the picture still catches.
A freeze at regular intervals points at the device. Clear the player's cache, free at least 1 GB of storage and restart. If the rhythm continues, switch between hardware and software decoding.
A 4K stream needs 25 Mbps on the device and a 4K-capable HDMI port. Try the HD version of the same channel. If that plays cleanly, the connection or the cable is the limit.
Cannot sign in
An IPTV login error has three common causes: a typing mistake, a second device already using the connection, or a plan that has reached its end date. Retype the details from your email character by character, stop the stream on every other screen, then check the expiry date shown in the player's account page.
Most often a capital letter, a missing http or a space added by the keyboard at the end of the password. Delete the entry and type it again by hand.
Yes. A Vivid TV plan covers one connection, so a tablet left playing upstairs can lock out the television. Close it and try again after a minute.
Plans end on their last day and do not renew by themselves. The player shows the end date under account or user information.
Nothing on screen
When IPTV channels do not load, first work out whether it is one channel or all of them. One channel failing is a fault on that stream and normally clears within the hour. Every channel failing while the menu still opens means the player needs its channel list refreshed or its decoder changed.
Open the player's settings and choose refresh, reload or update playlist. The player downloads the list again, which takes a minute or two.
The decoder cannot handle that stream. Switch from hardware to software decoding in the player's settings, or the other way round, and reopen the channel.
Empty guide
An IPTV TV guide that shows no information has usually not finished loading, or the player is set to the wrong time zone. Open the player's settings, refresh the guide and leave it for five minutes. Then check the time zone is set to UK time, because a guide one hour out is a clock setting.
The player's time zone or the clock change. Set the zone to London, or adjust the guide's time shift by one hour in the settings.
Guide data is supplied channel by channel, and smaller or overseas channels sometimes have none. The channel itself still plays.
By device
On a Firestick or a Smart TV, most IPTV faults come down to storage, cache or an out-of-date app. Clear the player's cache, free some storage, install pending updates and restart the device from the wall. These four steps take five minutes and fix more problems than reinstalling the player does.
1
Clear the player's cache in the device's application settings, without clearing its data.
2
Free 1 GB of storage by removing apps you no longer open.
3
Install any waiting system update, then update the player from the store.
4
Switch the device off at the wall for 30 seconds. Standby does not clear memory.
5
Power a streaming stick from its wall adapter, not the television's USB port.
6
Reinstall the player only after the steps above, and keep your login email open when you do.
Setting the device up again from scratch? Use the IPTV installation guide. For stick-specific settings, see the IPTV Firestick guide.
When it is us
Contact support when the five-minute check points at the account: the service fails on mobile data as well as on Wi-Fi, or the login is rejected after you retype it. Send five facts and we can answer in one reply: your order email, the device, the player, the channel and what the screen shows.
The email address you ordered with, the device and player names, one channel that fails, the time it happened and the speed test result from that device.
Yes. If the service does not work, or the fault is on our side, tell us within 72 hours of delivery and we refund the payment.
Support is by email. Contact Vivid TV and include the details above.
Questions
Short answers to the faults people report most often. Each one names the likeliest cause first, because that is the fix that works in most homes. If your problem is not here, run the five-minute check near the top of this page and note which step changed the result.
Usually the home connection dropped or the player needs a restart. Close the app fully, reopen it, and try your phone on mobile data to rule out the account.
The signal at the television is too weak. Test the speed on the device, then try the 5 GHz band or a network cable.
Often. A router that has been on for weeks slows down. Unplug it for 30 seconds once a month.
The account is fine, so the fault is the TV device or its Wi-Fi. Clear the player's cache and test the speed on that device.
10 Mbps for HD and 25 Mbps for 4K, measured on the device you watch on.
Only after clearing its cache and restarting the device. Reinstalling removes your login, so have the email ready.
If the checks on this page point at your account, or you have run out of things to try, email us. Tell us the device, the player, one channel that fails and your speed test result. With those four facts we can usually find the fault in a single reply instead of a week of back and forth.
Contact support