Troubleshooting
This page starts from the symptom: what you see, what the app does on its own, what you can do. Most disruptions originate with the provider or on the way to you; Neverlag bridges them as well as it can and tells you what is going on.
The three indicators in the player
- Loading ring with text: “The loading ring shows that Neverlag is building up buffer; the reason is shown underneath.” For example “Provider isn’t sending right now – picture will be back shortly” or “Wi‑Fi interrupted – reconnecting”.
- Hint line above the picture, for a few seconds, sometimes with a button: “After a stall, this line tells you how long the picture stood still and why, e.g. ‹Picture stood still for 6 s – provider didn’t deliver›.” If you press the button, your choice applies for the session; if you press nothing, everything carries on.
- Quality window (speedometer icon): the numbers behind it, see The quality window.
Symptom by symptom
Loading ring
What you see: A spinning ring with text. On start-up: “Starting channel – one moment”, “Provider is slow to respond – channel starts shortly” or “Device needs a moment – channel starts shortly”. In the middle of a programme: “Provider isn’t sending right now – picture will be back shortly”, “Network interrupted – reconnecting”, “Device is catching up – picture will be back shortly”. Underneath, “for 12 s”.
What the app does: The reserve is used up; Neverlag reconnects, checks other sources and builds up buffer. Afterwards the hint line tells you how long it took and why.
What you can do: Wait. If the loading ring appears often on one channel, it is usually the provider; check in History whether other channels run cleanly. Does a larger reserve help? With “Device is catching up”, choose a lower level.
Frozen picture
What you see: The picture stands still, no loading ring, or the sound carries on.
What the app does: Neverlag tolerates short data errors (a few seconds) without intervening. If it lasts longer, or picture and sound drift apart permanently, it fetches a new connection. With a broken timeline it rebuilds playback at the live edge (“Rebuilt — rewind window restarted”).
What you can do: Wait a few seconds. Then “Out of sync?” in the player (iPhone: under “More”); that restarts playback, and you stay on the channel. Finally: switch channel and back.
Picture plays but stutters
See Stuttering further down.
No sound
What you see: Picture plays, no sound.
What the app does: Nothing on its own as long as data is flowing – a missing audio track is not an error for the app.
What you can do: First check volume and mute on the device (on the Apple TV also on the TV and amplifier). Then open the subtitles icon in the player and check the audio track; some channels have a silent track as the first one. With Dolby sound through an amplifier: the quality window shows “bitstream audio” – if the amplifier cannot handle the format, it stays silent; then change the audio output on the Apple TV in the system settings. Finally switch channel and back.
Stuttering
What you see: Movement stutters, pans are jerky, even though the reserve is full.
What the app does: Nothing against the stuttering itself – that is a matter between the channel’s frame rate and the display. If the device is overwhelmed (the decoder drops frames), Neverlag goes one level lower.
What you can do, in this order:
- Check Low Power Mode (iPhone, iPad): It caps the display at 60 Hz. Control Centre or Settings → Battery. The quality window shows “Display 60 Hz (Low Power Mode)”.
- Read the Frame cadence line in the quality window: “uneven (x %)” confirms the problem.
- Dropped frames rising continuously? Then the device is overloaded: choose a lower level, on the Mac close other apps.
- Set Frame pacing to “Smoothing”; on the iPhone/iPad switch on Motion smoothing.
- Mac: use full screen so that Match refresh rate takes effect. Apple TV: switch on “Match Frame Rate” in the system settings.
More under Picture and sound.
Channel does not start
What you see: A message instead of a picture, for example “This channel is currently not available from the provider”, “Your provider is not delivering a picture for this channel right now”, “Your provider is not responding” or “This stream uses a format that cannot be played”.
What the app does: It tries other sources of the channel and other lists. If there are none, it waits with a countdown: “This channel is currently unavailable at the provider — retrying in 20 s”.
What you can do: Try another channel. If that one plays, the problem is with that one channel at the provider. If none plays: Network test. With “format … cannot be played”: Neverlag does not play streams with copy protection (DRM).
“Another device is using the provider” (458 / 407)
What you see: “Another device is using this provider right now — Neverlag waits instead of pushing it out. Retrying in 30 s”, “Your provider allows 1 simultaneous connections, currently 1 are active” or “Your provider refuses the connection — probably another device is active with this account”.
What is behind it: Your provider allows only a certain number of simultaneous connections for your account. Every device that is watching occupies one – including a running recording. The numbers 458 and 407 are the provider’s response codes for “busy”.
What the app does: It waits and tries again by itself instead of throwing the other device out. After a network change (Wi‑Fi to mobile data), your old connection often still counts at the provider for another minute; the app says so: “This usually resolves itself within a minute.”
What you can do: Close the app on the other device or stop a recording. Then “Reconnect”. No player can get more connections than agreed. How many your account has is shown under Diagnostics & status → Provider overview.
Provider under maintenance
What you see: “Your provider is currently unreachable — maintenance or overload on their side (HTTP 503). This is not a Neverlag error; it usually works again in a few minutes.” Underneath, “Neverlag keeps trying — retrying in 30 s”.
What the app does: It keeps trying at intervals and listens via the receiver until the provider is back.
What you can do: Wait. The Network test shows whether the neutral reference site responds quickly and only your provider does not.
Access expired or wrong
What you see: “Your access with this provider expired on …” or “Sign-in with the provider failed. Check username and password in the settings.”
What is behind it: The expiry date comes from your provider’s server; the app only shows what the account reports there. If it still says “expired” after a renewal, the provider has not yet passed it on.
What you can do: Refresh catalogue now and compare the date with your provider’s confirmation. Only the provider can correct it.
Catalogue refresh
What you see: “Refreshing catalogue …” or “Reloading the catalogue of … — your favourites are safe.”
What the app does: It fetches the channel list and programme data afresh – according to the chosen interval, never during playback. Favourites, tags and locks are kept. It reports new groups from the provider but only imports them after your decision.
What you can do: Nothing. If a channel is missing afterwards, the provider has removed it from the list or moved it to a group you have not imported: Manage groups.
App restarted
What you see: The app is suddenly back on the start page, or the channel restarts after returning from the background.
What is behind it: In the background, with the screen saver on or when the device is locked, Neverlag pauses playback and rebuilds it once when you return. On iPhone, iPad and Apple TV, the system can terminate the app in the background to free up memory; it then starts fresh the next time you open it. A recording ends in that case (“Missed — the app was not running at broadcast time”).
What you can do: For scheduled recordings, use the Mac and switch off sleep. If the app crashes, the crash report goes only to Apple, and only if you have allowed that in the system settings – additionally send us the journal.
On HD instead of 4K
What you see: “Playing in FHD instead of 4K — quality lowered automatically” with the button “Back to 4K”.
What is behind it: The line or the provider has not delivered enough for 4K over several minutes, and two reconnections have not helped – or your device cannot manage 4K. See The ladder.
What you can do: Press “Back to 4K”. It does not go back on its own in 1.0.2; after 30 minutes the channel starts in the best level again the next time. If 4K is permanently too much: set Preferred startup quality to “Up to FHD”.
Pause and rewind do not work
What you see: “The timeshift buffer could not be created. Pause and rewind are temporarily unavailable — playback continues normally.”
What you can do: Check storage space if Timeshift on disk is on; otherwise switch channel and back.
Sharing the journal
The journal is the technical log of playback. It stays on the device until you share it and is deleted automatically after 10 days.
- Settings → Diagnostics → Share journal.
- Choose a period: “Today” is usually enough if the problem has just happened.
- The app removes provider names, addresses, IP addresses and credentials. The events remain complete.
- Share menu: Mail, AirDrop, Files. Mac: also “Save…” for WhatsApp or other apps.
On the Apple TV: the journal is sent encrypted to your paired iPhone or your Mac on the home network; the share menu opens there. If none is reachable, the Apple TV shows a QR code; your phone downloads the file directly from the Apple TV, valid for 30 seconds.
History and network test
- History: Which channels played when and how well, 30 days. If only one channel is disrupted, that points to the provider; if all are, to the route to you.
- Network test: Checks your provider against a neutral reference site. If the neutral site responds quickly and the provider slowly, it is the provider; if both are slow, it is your network.
- Diagnostics & status: Traffic light per area for the last 30 days, current session, provider overview with permitted connections.
What support needs
- The journal from the day of the problem (see above).
- Device and app version – included automatically in the email from Send feedback.
- What you saw: the text in the loading ring or in the hint line, the time, the channel (demo name is enough, e.g. “Sportwelt”).
- Which channels are affected: one, several, all.
- If possible: the result of the network test.
No credentials, no playlist address – support does not need them, and the journal does not contain them.