One question decides everything
Is it one channel, or is it every channel? That single distinction separates a problem on our side from a problem on yours, and it changes the fix entirely.
If one channel stutters while the rest run cleanly, the source feed is the issue and our engineers need to know which channel it is. If everything stutters, the fault is almost always between your router and your television — and you can usually clear it yourself faster than we can reply.
Before anything else: unplug the streaming device from power, count to ten, plug it back in. This resolves a surprising share of reported faults because it forces a fresh stream token and a clean network handshake.
Buffering or freezing
One channel only
An individual channel pausing while the rest behave points at the upstream feed. Message support with the exact channel name and the time it happened — our engineers can switch the source or rebalance the node, usually within the hour.
It helps enormously if you note whether it was the HD or the 4K variant; many channels are published in several qualities and only one may be affected.
Every channel
Work down this list in order and stop when the picture steadies:
- Run a speed test on the same network. Below 15 Mbps, HD will struggle; below 25 Mbps, 4K will.
- Switch from Wi-Fi to Ethernet. A cable beats any wireless setup on a congested evening.
- If Wi-Fi is unavoidable, move to the 5 GHz band and reduce the distance to the router.
- Restart the router, not just the streaming device.
- Select the FHD or HD variant of the channel instead of 4K.
- Some US ISPs throttle sustained video traffic during peak hours. A VPN often resolves this outright, and it is the single most effective fix when every channel misbehaves only in the evening.
"Channel not available" error
This message looks alarming and almost never means what people assume. Our streams are tokenised — each playback session is authorised for a limited window for security and capacity reasons. If the application or the device has been sitting powered on and idle for a long stretch, that token expires and the next channel you open reports itself as unavailable.
The fix is a power cycle: unplug the device, wait ten seconds, plug it back in. A fresh token is issued on the next launch and the channel returns.
To avoid it recurring, get into the habit of switching the device off after viewing rather than leaving it idle overnight, or simply reboot before you sit down to watch.
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Power off the device completely
Unplug at the wall. Standby is not enough on most streaming sticks.
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Wait ten seconds
Long enough for the network interface to drop and the session to close cleanly.
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Power on and relaunch IBO Player
The application requests a new token on first playback and the channel opens normally.
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Still failing on one specific channel?
Then it is a source issue rather than a token issue. Report the channel name and we will investigate.
The app crashes or behaves oddly
Clear the cache
Open IBO Player settings and choose Clear Cache, then relaunch. A stale channel index is the most frequent cause of a crash on launch or an empty guide.
Check for updates
Settings contains a Check for Updates option. Running an old build against a current playlist causes intermittent crashes on some televisions.
Free up device storage
Streaming sticks with almost no storage left crash unpredictably. Remove apps you do not use and leave a gigabyte or so free.
Re-attach the playlist
If the channel list is empty or partial, remove the playlist on the IBO Player portal and add it again exactly as shown in the setup guide. A trailing space in a pasted URL breaks it silently.
Reinstall the application
Last resort on the device side. Uninstall, reinstall, and register the device again on the portal. Your subscription is unaffected by this.
Check the guide data
An empty EPG usually means an XMLTV URL was entered manually. Leave that field blank so IBO Player takes guide data from the playlist itself.
No audio, no video, or audio out of sync
On one channel
A single channel arriving with no sound, a black picture or drifting lip-sync is a feed problem at source. Tell us which channel and roughly when — these are usually corrected quickly once identified, and you are rarely the only person seeing it.
On every channel
When the whole lineup is silent, blank or out of sync, the device is the suspect rather than the service. Reboot first. If that does not clear it, the device is likely struggling to decode the stream format.
- Switch the player engine in IBO Player settings — the Live TV Player and VOD Player options each offer alternative decoders, and switching resolves most sync faults outright
- Try a lower-quality variant of the same channel; 4K decoding is where older hardware gives up first
- Check the television's own audio output setting — passthrough modes to a soundbar or AV receiver are a common cause of silence
- Test the same channel on a phone. If it plays correctly there, the fault is the television, not the subscription
Diagnostic shortcut: the phone test settles almost every argument. Phone fine, TV broken means device. Both broken means connection or feed — and then we want to hear from you.
What to send us
A good fault report gets a fix on the first reply instead of the third. Include these five things and we can usually diagnose it without a back-and-forth.
- The exact channel name, or "all channels" if it is everything
- The device — Fire TV Stick, Samsung TV, Android box, and so on
- Whether you are on Wi-Fi or Ethernet, and your speed test result
- The time the fault occurred, with your time zone
- What you have already tried from this page