Getting started

This is your TiviGlass account, not your IPTV provider login — that comes next. The phone route is far quicker than typing a password with a remote. If you started as a guest and sign in later, TiviGlass asks whether to keep the profiles you already made or start fresh.

Nothing is created until you confirm. Choosing a type, filling in the boxes and running the test all leave your TV exactly as it was, so you can back out at any point — and if you do, TiviGlass asks before clearing what you typed. Everything you have entered also survives a failed test or a failed import, so fixing one field never means retyping the other six.

A TV service is not your TiviGlass account. The account is your sign-in and your plan; a TV service is the provider whose channels you are adding. TiviGlass does not supply or sell channels.

If the test cannot get through, it says which part failed — the address was never reached, or it was reached and your login was refused — because those need different fixes. Where your provider only accepts a particular User-Agent, the test finds a working one and tells you it has set it for you; where you have entered backup addresses and the first one is down, it says which one answered.

You can add as many playlists as you like — multiple playlists are free. Each TV uses one current source at a time, and every TV chooses independently. To change which one you are watching, you do not need Settings: open the sidebar and press the TV service line in the panel header. It lists everything this profile can use, says whether each one is on your account or only on this device, and switching keeps you exactly where you were in the app. The line is only pressable when you have more than one service to choose between. Separate TVs can play at once as long as they are within your TiviGlass account’s device allowance and each provider allows the required connections. Your credentials are encrypted on the device, never stored in plain text.

On a new install TiviGlass then walks you through the last two steps by itself: loading your channels, and fetching the TV guide. Both start on their own — you only press anything if one doesn’t finish.

If the guide step won’t complete, choose Skip for now — start watching. Some providers offer no programme data at all, and others are simply busy when you first connect; neither stops your channels working. TiviGlass keeps trying quietly in the background, and you can fetch the guide any time from Settings → EPG.

Many providers issue two or more addresses for the same account. They are usually the same service reached by a different name — a spare in case the first address stops working, not a faster one to choose between. So there is nothing to test or compare: enter them all and let TiviGlass handle it.

You can also manage these from your account portal on a phone or computer, under the playlist's Backup server URLs, and they sync to every TV signed in to your account.

Once they are saved, TiviGlass tries each address in turn whenever the one in use stops working, and keeps the one that works as its first choice from then on. It does this when you load or refresh channels (it retries straight away and tells you), during overnight background updates (silently — look under Settings → Help & diagnostics → Recent activity if you want to see it), and while you are first adding the playlist, so an address that is already unreachable will not stop you getting set up.

One thing to expect: if the address dies while you are watching, that channel still stops and you will see the usual playback error — but the app has already moved to your backup behind the scenes, so simply picking the channel again, or any other channel, plays normally.

Your username and password stay the same either way. TiviGlass only switches when the address itself is the problem — a wrong password, an expired subscription, or "too many connections" all stay put, because a second address cannot fix any of those.

Add no backup lines at all if you were only given one address — nothing changes.

Your phone must be on the same Wi-Fi network as the TV — a guest network usually cannot reach it. Nothing is sent over the internet: the page is served by your TV itself. The page closes as soon as you send it, and always within 10 minutes. Sending only fills in the boxes — the phone cannot skip the test or the confirmation, so nothing is saved until you press Add and import on the TV. The review screen also says the values came from your phone, so you know to check them.

Xtream providers normally report a dated expiry or explicitly say that the line has no expiry. Other source types may show Expiry not provided because their protocol has no reliable expiry field; Expiry unavailable means TiviGlass could not read the Xtream account response. The app checks again after a manual update, so a renewal can appear without re-adding the playlist.

Use this when one provider has changed its line-up and you don’t want to wait for every other playlist to be re-checked too — a large provider can take several minutes on its own. Update all at the top of the page still does the lot.

Automatic playlist updates uses your chosen interval for the same data, but refreshes the time-sensitive TV guide first. The guide can update while you are watching; only the heavier channel, movie and show catalogue work waits for playback to finish or for more memory. If a provider cuts a guide download short, TiviGlass retries that guide separately without repeating the large catalogue update. Android schedules background work approximately, so the start time can be a little later than the selected interval. The timer also waits while the device is offline.

If a playlist’s channel and guide downloads both fail several times in a row — a provider that has gone dark, or a box that runs out of memory part-way through — TiviGlass pauses the automatic channel, movie and show update for that playlist only, and says so under Recent activity. It keeps updating that playlist’s TV guide throughout, leaves every other playlist alone, and tries the catalogue again by itself a few hours later. Nothing is deleted, and pressing Update on the playlist starts it again immediately.

Updating a playlist does not switch to it. Whatever you were watching keeps playing and your active playlist stays active, so you can refresh a spare line-up in the background.

Your own changes are kept: favourites, watch history, renamed channels, hidden channels, custom groups and your channel order all survive an update — it only replaces what the provider sends.

If you switch to or remove a playlist while an update is running, that update is cancelled first and any data it already saved is kept. Your selection then continues automatically.

One exception: an M3U list you imported from a file or pasted text has no address to re-check, so Update will say so and point you at Edit connection to pick the file again.

Up to 8 profiles per household. Each one keeps its own favourites, watch history, watchlist, reminders and personal display settings. A deleted profile stays recoverable for 30 days under Recently deleted.

Sections you don’t have — or that a profile isn’t allowed to use — simply don’t appear. You can reorder, rename and hide sidebar entries later (see how-to 50). By default, opening Live TV, Movies or Shows slides this same panel horizontally to that section’s groups; the TiviGlass heading, account details, clock and divider stay fixed. Back returns it to the main menu, so no second sidebar is added.

Back always undoes exactly one step, in the order you took them: an open film or series page first, then the groups panel, then the sidebar itself. Closing the sidebar is treated as a cancel, so it never counts toward leaving the app — only Back from a section with nothing open does that, and it tells you (“Press Back again to exit”) before the second press. Remotes that repeat a held button, and some HDMI-CEC setups that send a burst of presses, cannot skip a step: presses that arrive within a fifth of a second of the last one are ignored, so one press means one step even on a remote that stutters.

When you open a film or series from Home, Search or the Sports Hub, Back returns you to that screen — with your search text and position intact — rather than dropping you into the Movies or Shows list. Jumping to the TV guide from a Search result works the same way: it is a visit, so one Back puts you back in your results rather than opening the sidebar. If a section disappears while you are using it (a profile change, a hidden section, or a plan change), TiviGlass moves you to the closest section still on your sidebar and says so, instead of silently jumping to the top. Switching TV service closes an open film or series page, because that item belongs to the service you switched away from; TiviGlass tells you that too.

Every one of these can be reassigned — see how-to 51. Number and colour keys are especially worth mapping if your remote has them.