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Anonymous User
Not applicable

All catch up apps disappeared

Hi- I have just bought a new sony bravia (minus std catch up apps). However it has Now TV and I have been watching through that. Yesterday all of the apps disappeared and I am no longer able to find any of the apps eg iplayer, 4oD, ITV hub. Any suggestions ? This is integrated in to the tv, not run through an external box. Thanks Claire 

5 REPLIES 5
gavs82008
Legend 5
Legend 5

@Anonymous User 

Is YouView enabled on the TV?

 

If you don’t have it enabled then you won’t have access to the Freeview catch up apps.

FYI that I do not work for NOW, just a NOW customer trying to help
RoyB
Legend

@Anonymous User @gavs82008 

 

Those are the standard catchup apps, and they have never appeared on 2021 Sony GoogleTV/Android TVs. Sony are promising that they will be added later in the year.

 

And while the TV has Now, you should not confuse having Now on the TV, which is just purely the Now app on its own, and having a Now (or Roku, or Amazon) device with Now on it and lots of other apps as well, including all the standard catchup apps.

 

I wonder if your TV, like mine, has both the Now app, and a device attached with Now on it, and you meant to switch to whichever HDMI input the device was on, to get the catchup apps on it, but misthought, and just started the Now app instead?

 

That’s certainly the only way I can think of that you would get to think that the catchup apps had ‘disappeared’.

 

@gavs82008 

 

Sony and YouView changed the rules in 2020:-

Switching between Freeview and YouView was made easier;

YouView was placed like an app, under the heading ‘Live and Catchup TV’;

The catchup apps remain available even if you aren’t in YouView;

The catchup apps no longer require you to have tuned in the corresponding commercial terrestrial TV channels;

 

After this brief Prague Spring, Sony royally muffed it up for 2021.

 

And remain my second largest source of head-banging, close behind Now 😛

 

Set a Payment PIN on your account so that no-one but you can buy memberships on it. Check your bank accounts monthly for any other unexpected payments to Now. That way you can at least nip them in the bud, while you and Now figure out whose fault they are.
gavs82008
Legend 5
Legend 5

@RoyB 

So noticed with my Sony YouView is that I still need to "tune" in Youview by putting in my activating YouView just to get apps like ITV, All4 and BritBox. 

https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/articles/00136179

 

Noted that ITV app is just gloriously terrible and I never use it. In fact I use my Amazon Fire Stick for ITV hub. 

 

That being said I was always able to get the usual apps by going to homescreen. The outdated freeview apps such as ITV, All4 and My5 on the YouView side just drive me completely insane. 

Whereas I can manually install My5 via the Play store and its bang up to date. So right now I have 2 completely different versions of the My5 app, which also just grinds my gears. 

 

It will be very interesting to see how this "unified app" for the freeview type apps play out. 

FYI that I do not work for NOW, just a NOW customer trying to help
RoyB
Legend

@gavs82008 

 

Apologies, I should have been clearer, and said

 

“Sony and YouView changed the rules in 2020, for the 2020 model year sets

 

There was talk of back-porting this to earlier year’s models, but I don’t know how far it got.

 

I presume you have a 2015-2019 model year Sony TV?

 

And that 2015 reference you cited may have been amended recently, but it hasn’t been fully updated, and still says that Sony will introduce HDD recording, outside of YouView, when they actually did this years ago.

 

And on retuning when you go between YouView and Freeview, in either direction, it’s just plain wrong; you don’t have to retune. 

Just for grins, I once replaced the YouView SD 1-4 channels on my Sony Android TV with the HD versions:-

 

1AECD1A5-F05C-47AD-8A34-45DC8E76FAB6.jpegEB0B0979-B2C5-4938-97AA-296D38F483B7.jpeg

 

Which you could only do by going to the Freeview side without retuning, editing the channel list there, which you couldn’t do on the YouView side, and coming back into YouView with the edited channels, again without retuning, as retuning would revert them.

 

YouView still worked perfectly, and nothing made the channels suddenly revert to the standard SD ones, for as long as I gel off retuning 😛

 

Set a Payment PIN on your account so that no-one but you can buy memberships on it. Check your bank accounts monthly for any other unexpected payments to Now. That way you can at least nip them in the bud, while you and Now figure out whose fault they are.
gavs82008
Legend 5
Legend 5

@RoyB 

The model of my TV is kd55xh8096bu and I did pay it towards the end of last year. 

 

That being said I don't have an arieal and I flat out refuse to get one out of principle. For my the massive gripe is the "freeview" catch up apps being so out of date its just drives me insane. 

 

The only way to get the most up to date apps for ITV and All4 is using my Amazon Fire Stick. 

FYI that I do not work for NOW, just a NOW customer trying to help