First, the question that saves the most time: does EVERY channel fail, or just one?
- Just one channel — that is the channel or your device's decoder. See “A channel plays sound but shows no picture” and try the alternate feed.
- Every channel — that is almost always the network between your box and your provider. Work through the list below in order.
1. TURN OFF ANY VPN, JUST TO TEST
This is the most common cause by a distance, and the easiest to rule out. A VPN sends your video the long way round — often to another country and back — which can leave far too little bandwidth for a live stream even though web pages and menus still feel perfectly normal. That is what makes it so confusing: everything else works.
Turn the VPN off, try a channel, and turn it back on if it made no difference. If channels start playing, you have your answer — and you do not necessarily have to choose. Most VPN apps have a split-tunnelling setting that lets you exclude MyTVGuide, so the rest of your device keeps the VPN and only your television stops going the long way round.
2. CHECK THE STRENGTH OF THE CONNECTION ITSELF
- 1Move the stick or box closer to the router, or plug it in with an Ethernet adapter if you have one. A streaming stick behind a television is sitting inside a metal box.
- 2Live TV needs steady bandwidth, not fast bandwidth. A connection that runs a speed test beautifully can still stutter if it dips.
- 3If your provider offers a lower-quality version of the channel (SD, or HD instead of FHD), try it. If that plays and the higher one does not, the connection is the limit.
3. CHECK YOU ARE NOT USING TWO CONNECTIONS AT ONCE
Most plans allow only ONE stream at a time. If the same account is playing on another television, a phone, or a computer, this one cannot start. Recording counts as a second stream too.