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IPTV Troubleshooting

thebesh

thebesh

Member
TK Supporter
There are so many posts with people asking for help/advice with IPTV troubleshooting I wanted to create a sticky where people can check/confirm/validate the items below BEFORE creating a post asking for help. Most of the time the issues are very simple to fix.
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#1 - First Step EVERY time!
Before you do ANYTHING! Reboot your hardware. By this I mean your internet router AND your IPTV device. I've had some odd issues with EPG not updating properly, or some of my apps being a bit funny. Rebooted the IPTV box and it's back working as it should. This should be your first port of call every time. IPTV boxes and apps can play up. They are not perfect.

Connectivity
Before going any further, if the device running IPTV has poor connection, you will get a poor service. You only need a reliable 30/40MB connection from your ISP to watch 4K UHD content.
  • Is your IPTV device connected by Ethernet (cable) or by WiFi?
    • Test both, if possible. If you are using WiFi and your IPTV device is far away from the access point, then this may cause issues with basic connectivity.
  • You can test 4K UHD content playing on YouTube. This video is around 20MB/s. If this plays on your IPTV device, then you can likely rule out connection speed.
    • Test YouTube video in 4K HDR - link
  • If your IPTV was working perfectly beforehand and suddenly stopped working...
    • Try and use a different internet connection - i.e Tether to your phone's mobile data (so it's running off another network)
    • Check if your supplier has a Discord and if they have announced any outages/issues that are on-going.
    • Test turning on VPN and see if it works after this.
IPTV App
  • If rebooting the IPTV device hasn't resolved, you should try clearing the cache of the IPTV app that you use. Go into Settings > Apps, find your IPTV app and click on it. You can click the "Clear cache" button.

ISP's and IPTV Blocking
  • ISP's often have options for people to enable Parental Controls (nanny settings) on their account. This is basically a filter service to stop people accessing gambling, porn, etc. Make sure this is turned off. You can normally find this by logging into your ISP's website and look at the settings
It's too easy to think it's your ISP blocking the content or causing issues. This may or may not be the case. They tend to happen for the 3pm EPL Kick Offs in the UK. If you try and play a channel and it's not working, try enabling a VPN on IPTV and test again. If it plays then you know that your ISP was blocking it.

IPTV and Supplier
I've seen lots of people go and blame their provider with little/no evidence that it's the supplier at fault. It may be the supplier, but it's often what someone is doing or how they have set something up.
  • How many connections have you paid your supplier for? If you paid for 1 and trying to stream on 2 devices, expect issues.
  • Does your IPTV provider require you to use a VPN? If you are not sure ask your supplier. Do NOT ask other members in forum, they may have a different supplier from you.
  • Any messages/info from supplier telling you they are having issues? Check their Discord or preferred method of communication.
Buffering
In my experience I only need VPN on rare occasions. There are known issues on some channels from some providers where you enable VPN and there is a lot of buffering. Try turning it off and try again. This seems to be common on Sky Sports UHD channel.

Final Note
Please try and go through as much of this as possible and if you are still stuck, then you can create a post and ask for help. The main advice people will come back with is to use the steps above to help diagnose where the problem is. Chances are that you can fix this yourself using the information above as a guide.
 
Last edited:
Might be worth mentioning the nanny/parent settings each ISP has too.

And I'm with BT Broadband and have had blocks when the Champions League has been on this season (I usually stream everything through a vpn but turned it off to check when others were saying it was blocked) so might be an idea not to just name Sky and Virgin as ISP's who block as people might rule out ISP blocks if they're not with those two.

A good idea for a thread, well done for taking the time to put it together.
 
pupuqiop said:
Might be worth mentioning the nanny/parent settings each ISP has too.

And I'm with BT Broadband and have had blocks when the Champions League has been on this season (I usually stream everything through a vpn but turned it off to check when others were saying it was blocked) so might be an idea not to just name Sky and Virgin as ISP's who block as people might rule out ISP blocks if they're not with those two.

A good idea for a thread, well done for taking the time to put it together.
Click to expand...
Thank you + Done (y)
 
thebesh said:
There are so many posts with people asking for help/advice with IPTV troubleshooting I wanted to create a sticky where people can check/confirm/validate the items below BEFORE creating a post asking for help. Most of the time the issues are very simple to fix.
-------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------

#1 - First Step EVERY time!
Before you do ANYTHING! Reboot your hardware. By this I mean your internet router AND your IPTV device. I've had some odd issues with EPG not updating properly, or some of my apps being a bit funny. Rebooted the IPTV box and it's back working as it should. This should be your first port of call every time. IPTV boxes and apps can play up. They are not perfect.

Connectivity
Before going any further, if the device running IPTV has poor connection, you will get a poor service. You only need a reliable 30/40MB connection from your ISP to watch 4K UHD content.
  • Is your IPTV device connected by Ethernet (cable) or by WiFi?
    • Test both, if possible. If you are using WiFi and your IPTV device is far away from the access point, then this may cause issues with basic connectivity.
  • You can test 4K UHD content playing on YouTube. This video is around 20MB/s. If this plays on your IPTV device, then you can likely rule out connection speed.
    • Test YouTube video in 4K HDR - link
  • If your IPTV was working perfectly beforehand and suddenly stopped working...
    • Try and use a different internet connection - i.e Tether to your phone's mobile data (so it's running off another network)
    • Check if your supplier has a Discord and if they have announced any outages/issues that are on-going.
    • Test turning on VPN and see if it works after this.
IPTV App
  • If rebooting the IPTV device hasn't resolved, you should try clearing the cache of the IPTV app that you use. Go into Settings > Apps, find your IPTV app and click on it. You can click the "Clear cache" button.

ISP's and IPTV Blocking
  • ISP's often have options for people to enable Parental Controls (nanny settings) on their account. This is basically a filter service to stop people accessing gambling, porn, etc. Make sure this is turned off. You can normally find this by logging into your ISP's website and look at the settings
It's too easy to think it's your ISP blocking the content or causing issues. This may or may not be the case. They tend to happen for the 3pm EPL Kick Offs in the UK. If you try and play a channel and it's not working, try enabling a VPN on IPTV and test again. If it plays then you know that your ISP was blocking it.

IPTV and Supplier
I've seen lots of people go and blame their provider with little/no evidence that it's the supplier at fault. It may be the supplier, but it's often what someone is doing or how they have set something up.
  • How many connections have you paid your supplier for? If you paid for 1 and trying to stream on 2 devices, expect issues.
  • Does your IPTV provider require you to use a VPN? If you are not sure ask your supplier. Do NOT ask other members in forum, they may have a different supplier from you.
  • Any messages/info from supplier telling you they are having issues? Check their Discord or preferred method of communication.
Buffering
In my experience I only need VPN on rare occasions. There are known issues on some channels from some providers where you enable VPN and there is a lot of buffering. Try turning it off and try again. This seems to be common on Sky Sports UHD channel.

Final Note
Please try and go through as much of this as possible and if you are still stuck, then you can create a post and ask for help. The main advice people will come back with is to use the steps above to help diagnose where the problem is. Chances are that you can fix this yourself using the information above as a guide.
Click to expand...
Brilliant information well done you
 
Good post but you would think suppliers cover this. I think it's been entitled on forum many times 95% of issues are customer related.
 
I would say it'd be worth mentioning to join suppliers support group, and if they having problems at time, ask others in the support group if they're having problems.
 
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