UPDATED: Users say that HBO Max, which costs $15 a month, has been broken for a week
HBO says a fix is coming, but the complaints are still rolling in.
TV News HBO Max
Image: Warner Media
HBO Max, ostensibly the streaming service with the best library, can’t get its tech together. Last week, Apple TV users began complaining about the app malfunctioning, saying that, following a recent update, the app refuses to rewind, fast-forward, or pause. It’s been days, and the streaming service that would love nothing more than for you to cuddle up and watch The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It still can’t get the devil to fix their platform. Have they considered selling their souls to the dark lord? All signs point to no because it’s still broken (haven’t you been reading).
On Twitter, users in the industry and regular people struggle to get the dang thing to work. Still, it’s nice to see that the rich and powerful have to use the same dumb streaming services as the rest of us. The market has determined that no one gets special treatment when trying to stream the Snyder Cut.
“It’s pretty hilarious that HBO Max broke their Apple TV app so badly,” Keith Calder, a producer on Starz’s Blindspotting, tweeted two days ago. “No fast- forward or rewind? How did this ever make it through testing.”
He continued:
“I don’t know why all these media companies thought the tech part of having a top-tier streaming service would be the easy part. Media companies have historically struggled to find and keep top tech talent.”
He’s got a point. HBO Max has one of the worst, buggiest interfaces around. Simply opening the app on any platform tests your patience. And forget about saving your food for your movie or show to start. That Big Mac will be cold by the time Hacks boots up. Maybe you can chomp on a cold burger during Mare Of Easttown, but Hacks? No, thank you.
Strangely enough, HBO Max’s customer service Twitter account acknowledged the issue on June 4. They wrote to a Twitter user, “We’re aware of this issue with our app on Apple TV and our team is working to find a solution as quickly as possible. Thank you for your patience while we sort this out.”
HBO says “fixes coming,” according to The Verge. Yesterday, the site’s editor-in-chief tweeted about the issue to HBO Max’s executive vice president and general manager Andy Forssell, who tweeted, “First priority is to deliver for users in addressing the issues, but in parallel we will also dive deep into that question.” As of now, though, the company is still charging users for an app that won’t let you rewind, say, that scene from Dumb & Dumber where Harry has diarrhea. This leads us to ask, where’s the money going?
[Updated 6/9:] HBO updated the Apple TV app with a supposed fix.
65 Comments
It’s not just AppleTV because for the past few days I’ve noticed the inability to fast forward on my Android smart TV app.
Same on my Fire tablet. It started maybe 10 days ago, and the issue appears to have been resolved over the weekend. Fast forward seems to be working again now, but overall it is a really buggy app. On Roku, I’ll select the user profile and every so often the app will just shut down and take me back to the Roku home screen. Sometimes I can sign in, other times it tells me my cable login is invalid. Sometimes an episode will finish, and I’ll try to play the next one and the whole device freezes. At first I could chock it up to the sort of bugs that arise when a new app launches, but it’s been like a year now and these things shouldn’t be happening.
I never really had any issues with the HBO Max app until recently. I’ve always had more issues with the Hulu app on the same TV (green lines on the bottom of the screen, or it would glitch out when coming back from commercial and just go to a black screen but you can still hear audio). Most of the glitches seemed to center around going to and coming back from commercials, so since my wife pulled the trigger and upgraded us to the ad-free subscription (she’s more of a Hulu watcher than I am), it’s been a lot more stable.
I have the ad-free Hulu subscription and had more problems with it compared to all the other streaming services. My boyfriend and I usually stream hours of the same show during the day. When an episode ends, it starts the next episode two minutes before the ending, so you have to pause and restart the episode.
I hate when Hulu jumps to live in the next show if you build up a buffer, instead of just starting the next show at the beginning, so you have to rewind to the beginning.It’s one of the reasons I switched to YouTubeTV, along with unlimited DVR and ad skipping for the same price.
Good to know. My Xfinity contract runs up next April and plan to look for a better internet provider than paying up the ass for Xfinity alone. I might have to go back in the office a few days a week and most of the shows we watch we can stream (and it helps that FX let’s you watch it on hulu the next day).
(and it helps that FX let’s you watch it on hulu the next day).YouTubeTV has unlimited DVR, so you can watch any FX show you check any time you want.And YouTube TV shows up as a provider so you can use it to sign up for free in individual channel apps. Hulu was almost never on the provider list when I had it.
The Roku app has never worked for me.
I’m really happy to know I’m not the only Roku user with HBOMAX issues. But it sounds like they’re all so different. Well, maybe because I have a Roku TV. My issues are overall slow operation, mostly just loading menus and even pausing; and Sesame Street’s page with all of its seasons is a mess (I used to not be able to navigate, but now it lets me switch between seasons while not letting me see the bar listing the seasons…so I don’t know what season I’m in).
I am so baffled by the shitty Roku app, because HBO’s original HBO app (pre Max) was really solid. I don’t remember ever having any issues with it.
I don’t know what OS Samsung TVs use, but it’s all kinds of broken on that one. The app wouldn’t launch at all yesterday and today the forward/rewind and the “next episode” box are unoperational.
I’m having an issue on my Android TV where HBO Max won’t load any interface elements after switching from it to any other app/input/whatever, and requires using the “Force stop” menu option to get it going again. This also just started in the last week or two. I’ve had issues with twitchy fast-forward/rewind as well, but the “Entire interface enters weird perpetual digital coma” bug is more obnoxious.
Just checked HBO Max on my Android TV, and the fast forward and rewind worked just fine, and no other issues. I’ve still had way more issues with Hulu, which often forced me to switch over to my AppleTV, which is so old it doesn’t support newer apps like HBO Max.
Now that you mention it, I’ve noticed that a lot of the time when I switch from the HBO Max app to one of the other inputs (usually DirecTV), the sound doesn’t work. I have to do a hard reset of the TV by unplugging it since my TV doesn’t have a reset or power off that I know of (power off button just goes to standby). It could just be my TV, which is starting to show its age (purple areas on the edges of the screen) and needs to be replaced soon, but it’s weird that it’s always the HBO Max app that this happens with.
Also noticed when I had it that sometimes it would freeze when I tried to go back to the homepage.
Just checked my android tablet. Works fine for me.
Is HBO Max run by Kinja?
Their app has been janky from the jump. I don’t know how they weren’t immediately staffing up on the tech side once all the howls of complaint rolled in.
Because AT&T owns HBOMax. In my experience, AT&T’s response to any problem, dating back to the olden days when they basically owned telephony in the US has always been “We’re working on it”. Translation: “We’ll get to it when we get to it. Now shut up, go away and pay your bill on time.”
So they’re applying “they have nowhere else to go if they want cable, so we win” philosophy, despite the fact streaming services are popping up like weeds and people will dump them without a second thought…. that’ll work well for them.
I’m old so I go way back to when AT & T had the monopoly on phone service in the U.S. and I’ve hated that company ever since (MCI was my hero). AT & T’s service was always crap and they nickel and dimed you over everything. For example you couldn’t just buy a cheap phone; you had to rent your phone from them and that was tacked onto your monthly bill. The day SCOTUS broke up AT & T’s monopoly only the execs and shareholders cried. Anyway it makes total sense to me that HBO Max is the glitchiest streaming service around. My latest bout with it was trying for two hours to stream the Mare of Easttown finale on my Roku. I never know when I get on if I’m actually going to get to watch something.Jesus AT& T put a crowbar in your wallet and pay for some decent tech people.
I found one of my old AT&T/Bell Telephone bills from the ‘70s while recently cleaning out some old crap that had accumulated over the years. My base monthly bill for just having a phone in my home was higher back then than my cell bill is today…without adjusting for inflation. And that didn’t include long distance charges.
I found one of my old AT&T/Bell Telephone bills from the ‘70s
Did you donate that dinosaur to a museum?AT&T made a mint on long distance. But remember all the dire warnings about how our formerly “free” local service was going to skyrocket now that Ma Bell had been broken up? Yeah that happened lol. It does still blow my mind though that my current phone service is so much cheaper that in the 70s, and my long distance is free.
Interesting side note. I was living in California in the early 80s and we were one of the few places that could opt for MCI before the breakup. We were ecstatic about being able to jump to them, and their service was so much better in every way.
AT&T, according to critics of its merger with TimeWarner, was supposed to be ill equipped to handle the creative work it was taking on because it was a telecom-infrastructure company staffed with nerdy engineers. If that’s the case, shouldn’t basic technical competence have been the one silver lining in the whole HBO Max raincloud?
This seems like a good spot to rant that all these apps have terrible UIs. Whether designate choice by making still frame 3% bigger than the other pictures. Trying to move the highlighted icon on the vertical menu on the left, but instead you are in control of the box around the picture on the array to the left (or visa versa). Or choosing the show, and then needing to move left from default episode s1 e1 to choose another season then back right to choose episode again. Or the mad dash to find the remote and listen to closing credits before being moved to next episode and having to slecect old episode and fast forward through it all. Or using arrow key not to fast forward, but to choose the fast forward icon and then using backwards arrow to highlight the play icon on the screen.
Honestly cable is the better product. Netflix is the least bad UI and that’s damning with faint praise, and mostly because it runs well generally regardless of your connection or setup. But cable works well, you know what you get, has lots of different offerings, and most cable companies offer a good selection of on demand titles anyway. The streaming platforms have full series which is appealing obviously, but the experience is terrible, especially now that each service has such limited and specific content..
I liked cable better too, but when you add in the DVR box rent and “DVR Service Fee” on top of it, I was paying twice as much as I pay for YouTubeTV, which is good enough for half the price. It’s just insulting the way cable builds in fees like that.
There’s also all the taxes/fees they make cable companies charge you, which isn’t their fault.
Absolutely, not at all defending the cable companies, just that it is a better product. My hope honestly was that the streaming wars encourage a cable price drop so it’s more affordable, but all that seems to be happening is evermore $10-15 subscriptions for shittily-designed services in addition to expensive cable bundles. Worst of all worlds!
Of the many, many services I subscribe to, Max is the only one that has frequent crashes in the final 5-10 minutes of a program.
Well that’s $3.75 those people won’t see again… wait is the $15 inc tax?
I’m still pissed i went to HBO Max to find not only did they NOT have season 2 of This Time with Alan Partridge but they apparently yanked season one as well as all other Alan Partridge related content! WTF??
You and me both. Unforgivable.
am I the only one who gets him confused with Alan Parsons, the eighties prog-rock star?
Well, their names are quite similar so I’mma say, probably not.
You can’t be sirius.
I believe that’s some kind of hovercraft.
… they had Alan Partridge?! And pulled it?! I didn’t even know it was there to begin with 🙁
They had Mid Morning Matters and everything!
Series *ahem* 2 has just finished over here in UK. While it’s not as great as the first season, it’s still pretty funny.Alan’s interview with a Guardian journalist was a highlight for me.
You think that’s bad? They haven’t offered The Corner yet.And, if you haven’t heard of it: it’s a miniseries adaptation of David Simon’s book, a precursor to The Wire, and directed by Charles S. Dutton. It’s fucking awesome, and I’ve had to track the shit down on random sites, because they refuse to add it to the rotation.And THEY PRODUCED IT!
You can’t even pay to rent that on Amazon Video which makes me think there must be a rights issue somewhere.
Funny, I’ve been having issues with browser-based Hulu for the past week.
I’ve been having issues with browser-based Hulu for the past decade.
Hulu has been busted forever for me. Every time you return from commercial it plays ten seconds of the show, goes to black, plays the ten seconds again. Sometimes taking three or four times for the show to return.
It’s relative. The last week or so has been worse than normal.
Across several different devices HBOMax is the crashiest streaming app I have ever used.
My HBO Max has been outright crashing on Roku. Weirdly after episodes are over. Without pressing any buttons, it’s like it knows I’m done, and just boots me out.
Consider that a built-in convenience. They’re reducing your screentime. Or something.
It did the same thing on my Amazon Fire tablet for about the last two weeks, finally resolved over the weekend. So from the looks of it, HBO fucked up their app across multiple platforms with whatever updates they recently made. Bravo to them.
Since I bought my subscription through Youtube TV, I have to re-login every month because it breaks. Their app doesn’t TELL you want the problem is. It keeps you logged in but starts giving errors when you try to watch some content (that you aren’t authorized). I finally figured out (their CS wasn’t helpful) that I had to find their nearly-hidden log out button and then log back in. Completely shutting down the app doesn’t help either.
That’s terrible. A tech company should be able to keep their platform working properly.Now let me go check my Kinja replies….
can you imagine if they charged for kinja?
Can you believe how bad the whole comment process has gotten? Since it used to be really functional during Nick Denton’s time this just seems like a real fuck you to the readership.
The webpage works pretty well generally. Sometimes it’ll bug out if I”m watching a lot of episodes of a series and I’ll have to close/reopen the browser, but otherwise I can’t complain too much.
I’ve … never had a problem with the app? The only streaming service that has given me a headache was Peacock and that was at launch. HBO Max has been the best bang for the buck. Netflix is filled with garbage these days, and I can’t justify paying for Hulu just to watch Killing Eve and What We Do in the Shadows. (OK, Disney+ is also great if you have kids and love Marvel and Star Wars).
Whoa, whoa, whoa to everyone saying it’s the worst streaming app/UI. Have you TRIED Amazon Prime???
Right? I’ve been using HBOMax for about a month and, aside from the occasional “Something Went Wrong” error, haven’t had any trouble whatsoever.
How many profiles do you use on HBO Max? One of its many fun quirks is that things will migrate from one family member’s watchlist to another’s. The 8 year old has got a whole lot of R-rated content on hers until we force a reload of the app.
Holy Cow, not my imagination that my ability to rewind/fast forward on my Apple TV remote was broken (rewinding/fast forward on my old Apple TV 4K remote was never fun/easy to begin with but it was noticeably worse yesterday evening), and it was driving me nuts. Too funny, because I was binging the show Hacks yesterday evening. Okay, I guess the issue should hopefully be resolved soon because yes, it makes me not want to watch stuff on HBO Max for the time being. At least since I pay xfinity a ton for my services I get it for “free,” but the folks who pay a la carte must be pretty vocal on-line with how unhappy they are about this situation, and I do not blame them for being frustrated. HBO Max is not some tiny start-up company that does not have a lot of experience getting their tech stack up to speed, and a lot of folks use the Apple TV to watch stuff like HBO Max (I also use it for Hulu, Disney+, and other stuff) so this is effecting a ton of users.
this is why I watch on my laptop or connect it to my tv with an hdmi cord. the interface is still choppy sometimes but it works well most of the time.
Umm have you tried FF or REW on ANY streaming or on demand service? Total shitshow. Things freeze, go sideways, commercials you already watched are required watching again. The internet has ruined everything it’s touched.
My favorite is Hulu, which seems to fast forward and rewind slower than normal playback.
It’s been fucking up on my Samsung TV as well.The website itself works fine so I just watch it on the PC connected to my TV.
Where’s the article about AV Club readers complaining Kinja has been broken for months though?