Cannot use NOW TV App on laptop

[SAUJLA07]

I cannot sign in to the NOW TV App on my laptop. It was working fine but now it says that "Somethings not right" after prompting me to sign in. I repeatedly try and sign in and same problem. I am using Windows 10 and the latest app version from the Windows store. NOW TV works fine on my phone but not the laptop. I have tried deleting the app and reinstalling it and no difference. I even tried a system reset and that did nothing. I have tried using the live chat to get some help but it was passed on to another technical team they said who haven't contacted me yet. 

Does anyone know a fix for this issue?

[tehSmoogs]

Same here.

Windows 10 Version 1909 (OS Build 18363.476)

Now TV app 1.19.02

[RoyB]

@SAUJLA07 @tehSmoogs 

Last weekend, I ran up both the Microsoft Store and the Browser/Player PC versions of the NowTV app on Windows 10 1909, as you are not the only people to report issues here. 

I would not have been surprised to find that the Store app stopped working on 1909, as NowTV aren’t keeping it up to date any more, but it was fine, as was the Browser/Player version also.

64-bit Dell XPS15, over my Netgear Nighthawk router, on BT Fibre Broadband.

Not that I think the tech spec is especially relevant, but there seems to be no generic fault with either NowTV app on 1909, so it must be down to environment or configuration differences between our setups.

If you have a NowTV Hub (router), you could try turning IPv6 off, as this seems to fix various ills, I am told.

But apart from that, I have not so far heard of anything you could change to make your app work, and nor am I likely to find any such thing myself.

And the situation with NowTV on Windows is such that I’m saying “if one of these apps doesn’t work for you, try the other one”, as they are different enough to make this worth a try.

[SAUJLA07]

This is ridiculous, I cannot use the browser app anymore. Paying even £1 for this rubbish is a joke

[RoyB]

@SAUJLA07 

You certainly shouldn’t pay anything for an app you can’t use.

Perhaps you could ask Live Chat if they have any suggestions on how to tweak Windows to behave better around these apps.

[SAUJLA07]

I have lost my mind talking with the people on the live chat, the last remark I got was that maybe its a problem with my laptop. Despite me pointing out everything else works, I only brought it in April this was a ridiculous reply. Watching the browser app isn't ideal but its okay but when that stops working it really  is getting out of hand!

[SAUJLA07]

I got the browser player working so that is something at least, with no help from the live chat 

[RoyB]

How?          

[SAUJLA07]

On Chrome browser, signed out of the Google account running, then logged back into Now TV and tried using the browser player again and it worked. Had to try it a few times and more luck really. If I couldn't get the browser player working it really would be a new low level of Now TV incompetence 

[RoyB]

@SAUJLA07 

Well, good for you. BUT- a little story.

Last night, my wife and I wanted to watch The Irishman on Netflix; 4K, 5.1, HDR, all the trimmings, on our big Samsung TV in the lounge. Had to sign in, so it looks like we never used Netflix on it before. Got about two minutes in, going fine, then bang - ‘Looks like we’re having trouble bringing you this programme’. It said Try Again. No better. I checked everything I could about Netflix, restarted it and so on. Nothing. Loading to 6%, jumps to 99%, fails again.

So I went to their help on the web. It came up with a suggestion for the issue on Samsung TVs - the biggest baddest restart you could think of.

TV Off at the wall. Wait one minute. Press the power button on the back of the TV and hold it in to drain the residual power. And my wife, round the front of the set, could see the red light bottom right on the TV flashing as I did so, told me when it had stopped, which took a good few seconds.

Powered the TV back on, back to Netflix, restarted the movie, powered up taking a bit longer to get to 99%, back into the movie, perfect.

So who should I blame for the initial failure? A Netflix app I never ran before? A Samsung TV with no priors for misbehaviour?

I guess the power-down flushed some cache deep in the TV, maybe Netflix, maybe Samsung.

Me, I was just grateful for the advice that fixed the issue.

Point is, these things are a system. NowTV on a laptop is sitting on top of a software stack made up of Windows software so complex that I bet even Microsoft couldn’t tell you quite what was going on in there, third party drivers for video, audio, and so on, software and firmware from the laptop maker, you name it.

And you want to lay it all on NowTV when the app doesn’t work for you, even though it works for the vast majority of people?

Thats why the gold standard is the NowTV Stick and the NowTV box. Power in, WiFi in, HDMI signal out, and not a damn thing else that isn’t under NowTV’s complete control.