Manual / Single page

TiviGlass user guide, in full

Every chapter on one page, for searching with ctrl-F. The chapter index is easier to read, and the PDF is easier to print.

Chapter 1

Getting started

TiviGlass keeps three things separate: your TiviGlass account (identity, plan and cloud features), your TV services (the IPTV services, M3U playlists and addons you actually watch), and your profiles (the people in the house). You can use the app with just a TV service — the account is what carries your plan and syncs between TVs.

Choose how to sign in Free

Path: First launch → sign-in screen

How

Choose Sign in, then Use phone — recommended. Scan the QR code or enter the short code and the TV connects itself. On a phone or tablet the same card offers Open the sign-in page on this device, so you sign in right there and the app connects on its own when you come back.
Choose Use remote only when you want to type your email and password on this TV.
Create account opens the phone flow for a brand-new account.
Continue as guest skips the account entirely.

Good to know

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.

Add your first TV service Free

Path: Settings › TV services › Your TV services › Add a TV service

How

Choose — pick Type it on my phone instead, or the connection type your service supplied (see the table below).
Enter — fill in only the required details. A friendly name, backup addresses, guide URL and unusual device headers are under Optional details. Anything missing or malformed is flagged under the box it belongs to, not in one message at the bottom.
Test — select Run test. TiviGlass checks the details against your provider and tells you what it found. Nothing is saved at this point, so a wrong password or a mistyped address costs you a retype and nothing else.
Content — choose which of your provider’s groups to bring in. Everything is on to begin with, and providers often offer hundreds of groups, so the step is built for picking a few out of a lot: there is a search box, a row of section chips (UK, US, Sports and so on, taken from your own provider’s group names, each showing how many groups it covers), and bulk buttons that act on what is on screen. The quick way is: press a section chip, then Only these — that keeps the ones you are looking at and drops the rest in one press. Use the strip at the top to move between Live TV groups, Movie groups and Show groups. Anything you leave out is never downloaded at all, which makes both this import and every later update quicker. A playlist file or a pasted list has no groups until it has been downloaded, and Stremio catalogues come from each addon as you browse — for those two the step says so and you choose afterwards instead.
Review — check the summary. If you left the friendly name blank, TiviGlass fills one in for you here: what the source calls itself where it says so, and otherwise its address, so two services never arrive with the same name. It is only a suggestion, so step back to Enter and type over it whenever you prefer your own. Your password and any debrid key are shown masked, never in full. Select Add and import to go ahead.
Import — the stages are listed as they happen, with real counts. As soon as your channels are in, Start watching appears and the TV guide keeps loading behind you. You can also leave the screen entirely; the import carries on. A very large service can take longer than this screen waits, and when that happens it says so and offers Leave it running — closing the screen does not stop the import, and nothing you have added is lost.

Good to know

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, your channels and TV guide start loading automatically. Once your channels are ready, choose Start watching, even if the guide is still updating. Any guide update already running continues in the background. If the guide has not finished, you can retry it from setup or manage it later under Settings › TV guide › Guide listings.

Provider type	What you need	Notes
Xtream Codes	Server URL, username, password	The most common IPTV format. Brings Live TV, movies, shows, guide data and catch-up. Given more than one URL? See the note below.
M3U playlist	A URL, a local .m3u/.m3u8 file, or pasted text	Optional XMLTV guide URL. Plain, gzip-compressed and ZIP-wrapped playlist files are accepted, even when a provider omits the expected filename or compression header. Mixed lists are sorted automatically into Live, Movies and Shows. A group named Movies or Films can still contain live channels; its name alone does not move them into Movies. Refresh an existing playlist to apply corrected classification. If the list supplies Catch Up rules, guide time shifts, relative stream/guide links or per-item User-Agent/Referer headers (including VLC, Kodi adaptive and `#EXTHTTP` forms), TiviGlass applies them automatically across Live, Movies and Shows. Kodi-style User-Agent/Referer options attached to the playlist URL itself are also understood. A link copied without `http://` is accepted too. Before you confirm a new M3U service, TiviGlass reads the playlist and shows its groups in Content. Choose which groups to bring in; the confirmed import uses that same playlist and applies your choices before adding channels, movies or shows. Changing the address, file or pasted text reads the groups again. If reading fails, choose Retry or go back to correct the source. A URL remains an M3U source throughout this journey; use Xtream login separately if your provider does not allow playlist exports. Channel groups come from the list’s own `group-title` or `#EXTGRP` tags — a list with neither simply shows everything under All channels, and you can build your own with Custom Groups. If what you point TiviGlass at is not a channel list at all — a saved web page, a provider error page, an XMLTV guide file or an .m3u8 stream link — it says so and stops, whether it came from a URL, a file or pasted text. Nothing is imported and an existing line-up is left exactly as it was. A file or pasted list has no address to re-check, so it stays on this TV and you update it by picking the file again under Edit — that keeps your favourites and history. Give it a URL instead and you can re-pull it any time with Update on the playlist’s row (how-to 2c).
Stalker / Ministra portal	Portal URL and MAC address	Device ID, serial number and set-top-box profile are optional — fill them in only if your portal is strict. The account portal keeps the same three under Portal handshake.
Stremio addons Premium	Addon URL(s), optional debrid API key	Aggregated movie, show and compatible TV/channel catalogues. Set-up in full: how-to 27b–27d.

TV service blocking your connection? Open Optional details in the add or edit screen and use the User-Agent auto-detect option — TiviGlass tries a series of user agents and tells you which one works. It checks up to three channels spread across the service rather than just the first one, because a service that passes your streams on from more than one source can accept a user agent on one channel and refuse it on the next.

This is also worth trying when one saved service keeps saying your provider refused the connection, or shows a Refused badge on its row, while your other services are fine. That message usually means too many players are on your account at once, so close the others first; but some providers accept one particular user agent only, and refuse everything else in exactly the same way. Auto-detect is what tells the two apart, and it is added on the service that is failing rather than in Settings.

A live channel refused with HTTP 403 or 458? When nobody has set a User-Agent for it, the Playback failed card in the full-screen player can also offer Try player User-Agent. It waits a moment for your provider to free the previous connection, then tries that one channel again, once, with a media player’s User-Agent. If the channel then plays, TiviGlass asks whether to keep it. Save for all services stores it as User-Agent for all services (Settings › TV services › Connection fixes), which every TV service on this TV then uses; if cloud sync is on, it applies to every device on your account. Not now keeps it for that channel only, until you leave it. The button is not shown when you or your service chose a User-Agent, and the guide preview never shows it.

When you save a User-Agent for all services, characters that cannot be sent in a web request, such as curly quotes, accented letters or emoji, are removed, and a non-breaking space becomes an ordinary space. What Settings shows afterwards is exactly what is sent.

Live output format: For Xtream services, Auto prefers MPEG-TS and uses HLS when MPEG-TS is unavailable. This applies to new services and existing services left on Auto. You can still select HLS explicitly in the service’s optional details; a supported explicit choice is kept.

Given several server URLs? Enter them all Free

Path: Settings › TV services › Your TV services › Add a TV service → Xtream Codes → Optional details

How

Put the address you were given first in Server.
Select Add backup URL and type the next address into the line that appears.
Repeat for each spare address you were given — up to five. Use Remove to delete a line you no longer want.
Fill in your username and password as normal and continue through Test and Review. If the address you typed first is down, the test uses a backup and tells you which one answered.

Good to know

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 & about › Fix a problem › 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.

2a2

Fusion: one channel, every copy you own Premium

Path: While watching, press Menu → Switch source · Settings › While watching › When a channel fails · Fusion › Switch service when a channel fails (previously Switch to another playlist if playback fails)

How

Add two or more TV sources that carry some of the same channels.
Watch anything. Press Menu and choose Switch source — the list now includes matching feeds from your other playlists, not just the copies on the one you are browsing.
Pick one. The picture changes source; the channel, the TV guide, your favourites and the playlist you are browsing all stay exactly where they were.
Choose Suggest alternatives for a brief notice when another feed may help, or Automatic to let Fusion try verified backups when a channel fails.

Good to know

The heading on the Switch source list tells you what you actually have. “3 sources” means three copies. “Protected by 1 independent backup” means something stronger: at least one of those copies comes from a genuinely different provider account, so it is still there when the first one is not. Two playlists that turn out to be the same subscription under two addresses, or two resellers passing on one supplier, count as one — TiviGlass will not tell you that you are covered when you are not.

Suggest alternatives is the starting setting (previously called Ask before switching). When a channel stops, Fusion shows at most one brief notice per channel tune. It never opens a dialog or takes focus, and normal retries continue. Open Menu / More → Switch source when you want to choose a feed. Automatic tries closely matched alternatives without pop-ups or success messages. A name and quality label alone are insufficient: there must also be matching guide, declared region/language or logo information, or your confirmation. This is a metadata check, not a live audio/video comparison. Matching starts from the background index; after a failure, Fusion checks a small set of alternatives using local data. It only opens the chosen backup, so recovery still depends on how quickly that provider responds and the picture buffers. Uncertain matches remain in the source list for you to review. Fusion requires Premium in either mode. Existing mode choices are kept.

Some channels are deliberately left out of automatic switching however many copies you own: PPV and one-off events, and 24/7 loop channels. Two feeds labelled “PPV 1” are very often two different events, and a channel playing a box set on a loop is at a different point in it. Those still appear in the Switch source list so you can choose for yourself — TiviGlass just will not choose for you.

A +1 feed is never treated as the same channel as the live one, and neither are two versions of a channel from different countries.

If the list shows something that is not the same channel, open Switch source and choose Keep … separate. If it has missed one, it appears under Possible matches — select it to confirm. Either way the decision sticks, on this TV, for this profile. You can also turn automatic switching off for one channel without changing the setting for everything else.

Nothing is uploaded and nothing is shared. Fusion only ever plays sources you have already added, using your own logins, and it works with no internet connection to us at all. Turn the whole thing off with Switch service when a channel fails → Off, or hide other playlists’ feeds from the list with Show copies from other services. Both are on Settings › While watching › When a channel fails · Fusion.

It can take a little while after adding a playlist before matches appear — TiviGlass builds the list in the background, when the box is not busy, and the Switch source screen says so while it is working.

2a3

Fill in a channel that shows “No programme information” Premium

Path: Settings › TV guide › Fill gaps · Fusion › Fill gaps from other services · Fusion: also use near matches

How

Leave Fill gaps from other services on. When a channel has no listing of its own, TiviGlass shows the schedule from a matching channel on one of your other playlists.
Fusion: also use near matches covers the rest. Some channels have no guide because their name matched two entries in your EPG equally well, or matched none of them closely enough for TiviGlass to be sure — so it matched neither and left the row blank. This setting shows the closest entry it found anyway.
Choose how close the name has to be. Likely matches (70%) is the default, and 70% means the same thing here as it does in Match listings. Drop it towards Fill as much as possible (50%) to fill more channels, or raise it to Only near-certain (90%) to fill fewer and be surer of them.
This setting saves nothing, and it is not the same control as Match listings. It borrows a listing only while a channel has none, and the borrowed rows disappear the moment that channel’s real guide arrives. To make a match stick, use Match listings (how-to 14b), which saves your choice and keeps it. The two have their own percentages and changing one never moves the other.

Good to know

A channel’s own guide always wins. Filling only ever happens where a row is blank, and a borrowed listing says underneath where it came from — another playlist by name, or the EPG source it was read from. Nothing is written to your channel: turn the setting off and the row goes straight back to how it was, and a real guide arriving replaces the borrowed one on its own.

Lower settings fill more and get more of them wrong. That is the trade, and it is why the wording says likely and loose rather than just a number. If one channel matters to you, Match listings from its hold-OK menu is still the exact answer: a match you pick yourself is never overridden by any of this, and No listings for this channel keeps a row blank that you want blank.

Live events and 24/7 channels are deliberately never filled from a name match. “Sky Sports Box Office” and the event it happens to be showing tonight look identical to a name, and a wrong schedule there is worse than none.

The matches are worked out when your guide updates, so a channel that is still blank right after you add an EPG source will fill in after the next update of that playlist.

Type it on your phone instead Free

Path: Settings › TV services › Your TV services › Add a TV service → Type it on my phone instead

How

Select Type it on my phone instead, the first choice on the screen. It is also offered on the details screen itself, so you can switch to your phone after starting on the remote.
Scan the QR code with your phone, or type the web address shown into your phone's browser.
Choose your TV-source type on the phone, fill in the details and select Send to TV.
The form on the TV fills itself in and stops there. Check it, then continue through Test and Review as usual.

Good to know

Your phone must be on the same local network as the TV — a guest network usually cannot reach it. The TV and the phone do not have to use the same kind of connection: a TV on Ethernet and a phone on the house Wi-Fi are fine. If your phone is on a VPN, allow it local-network access or turn it off for a moment. 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. If the phone page stops responding before you send it, the TV says the connection ended — close it and choose Use my phone again for a fresh QR code. 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.

Refresh one playlist Free

Path: Settings › TV services › This service › Update now · for another service, Manage under its card → Update now

Channels & groups is one full screen, opened from Settings, beside a named TV service, from Movies and Shows, or from Edit in Channels & groups at the top of a group’s options in the guide, which opens straight onto that group. Every group is listed on the left: Favourites, then Your groups and New group, then the TV service’s own groups under All channels. The channels of whichever group you stop on fill the right as a grid of logos. Right goes into them and Left comes back. The line along the bottom always says what each key does where you are.

Four tabs down the left edge say what OK does, so it never surprises you. Press Left from any group to reach them, however far down the list you are: Up and Down choose one, and Right or OK takes you back to the group you were on. On a touch screen, tap a tab. In Show & hide OK switches a group or channel in or out of your guide; hidden ones stay listed, dimmed, so another OK brings them back. In Arrange OK picks a group or channel up: Up and Down move it, Left sends a group to the top and Right to the bottom, OK puts it down, and Back puts it back where it was. The order is saved for this TV service and this profile, and it is what the guide shows. While groups are sorted A to Z there is no order to arrange, and OK offers to switch to your own. In Rename OK offers a tidied name and the provider’s own name first, so you rarely need to type; Or type a name is under them. Tidy up (Live TV only) holds the duplicate, HEVC, regional and name tidy-ups and the ways to bring hidden groups, hidden channels and the provider’s names back. It covers the group you are on, one of your groups, or the whole line-up when you are on Favourites or All channels, and shows how many channels it will touch when it can count them. Nothing is ever deleted. Its New groups card decides what happens when your TV service adds a group: set it to Hidden and new groups arrive switched off for your profile, so a provider adding forty countries overnight does not undo a tidy guide. Groups already there are not touched, a group you have switched on or off yourself keeps your choice, and the card is free on every plan. The choice is kept with your profile for that TV service on this TV, and in its backups; the groups it switches off are switched off wherever your profile syncs, and a choice you make about a group on any TV always wins. A provider that renumbers every group at once is treated as a fresh line-up, so nothing is hidden then.

Menu, or holding OK, opens everything else for that group or channel: Lock with a PIN, Add all its channels to one of your groups, Select several, Undo my changes to this group, Show every group or Hide every group, Sort groups A to Z, Change TV service and More settings. Find a group or channel narrows the groups on the left and lists matching channels from every group on the right, saying how many hidden channels also match. A protected group shows no logos until you unlock it with your PIN: press Right on it, or choose Unlock on its card. Protected channels in Favourites and your own groups are listed with a padlock instead of a logo. Movies and Shows work the same way, with titles in place of logos and no Tidy up tab; a title can’t be hidden on its own, so OK ticks it for one of your groups.

How

Open TV services. The service in use has its own This service section; every other service has a card with its latest source check and the subscription expiry date reported by that provider. The service in use is marked separately from the check result.
For the service in use, choose Update now under This service. For another, choose Manage under its card, then Update now. TiviGlass re-pulls that provider’s channels, movies, shows and TV guide, telling you which stage it’s on.
When it finishes you get a single message with the new channel count — or a plain-English reason if something didn’t come back.

Good to know

Xtream providers normally report a dated expiry or explicitly say that the line has no expiry. Stalker portals also show an expiry date when their account or device profile supplies one. Expiry not provided means the provider supplied no readable date; Expiry unavailable means TiviGlass could not obtain the Xtream or Stalker account details. A missing date does not mean the subscription has ended. Check unavailable describes a failed source check, not a playback failure: channels and playlist updates may still work. The source screen refreshes these checks while open and when reopened, and checks again after a manual update. Network results are cached for up to 15 minutes to avoid repeatedly contacting the provider; 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 TV services, under Keeping up to date, still does the lot.

Update automatically uses the interval you set in Update every 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. A very large movie and show library is fetched in several shorter passes a few minutes apart, each carrying on where the last one stopped, so no single background run has to hold your provider connection for long and nothing already fetched is downloaded twice. If any of your services is a Stremio source, Guide sources & addons on the same page has a Stremio addons & debrid row that opens its addon list directly. Keeping up to date also says when each TV service last updated, and whether its automatic updates have been failing. A source that has failed several times in a row says so, with the reason; one that has been paused says when it will try again and reminds you that Update works straight away regardless. 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 Android stops an automatic update before it finishes, for example because the connection dropped, the next attempt still refreshes any TV guide that was not finished. A background retry that keeps being stopped gives up after a few attempts and leaves the work to the next scheduled update, and Recent activity says when that happens.

If a playlist’s channel and guide downloads both fail several times in a row — a provider that has gone dark, a box that runs out of memory part-way through, or an update Android keeps stopping before it can finish — 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 login & address to pick the file again.

Bring in less, so updates finish sooner Free

Path: Settings › TV services › This service › What this service downloads · for a service you are not using, Manage beside it → What this service downloads · when adding one, the Content step

How

Download movies & shows — turn this off to use a source for live TV only. It is usually the biggest saving there is: a film and show catalogue is often larger than the whole channel list.
Live TV groups, Movie groups and Show groups — pick the kind from the strip, then untick any group you do not want. Each row shows how many items you currently hold in that group.
Finding a group in a long list — type into Search groups, or press one of the section chips above it. The chips are built from your own provider’s naming, so a provider that calls its groups UK | Sports gives you a UK chip covering all of them. Search ignores punctuation, so uk sports finds UK | SPORTS HD.
Changing a lot at once — the buttons act on whatever the search or chip has left on screen, never on the whole list. Only these keeps what you can see and drops everything else; Bring in shown, Leave out shown and Invert shown do what they say. Showing switches between all groups, just the ones you are bringing in and just the ones you are leaving out, and Sort can put the biggest groups first.
Select Save, then Update now on that service to apply it.

Good to know

This is not the same as hiding a group. Hiding takes a group out of your lists and keeps everything downloaded; unticking it here means it is never downloaded at all, so it is the one that shortens the wait, uses less storage and puts less load on a slow box.

What you already have stays. Turning something off stops future downloads; it does not delete anything. Use Clear downloaded movies & shows when you want the space back. Your favourites, watchlist and viewing history are kept either way and reattach if you download it again.

Anything left out is not searchable, because it is not on the TV to search. Turn a group back on and update if you want it back.

Groups your provider adds later are brought in unless you untick them, so a new sports section does not silently go missing.

You can keep at least one group per kind. To bring in none at all, use the Download movies & shows switch instead — that is the control that says what it means.

Set up the household Free

Path: Settings › Parental & profiles › Who’s watching › Switch profile

How

Move right to Add profile.
Give each viewer a name, avatar and colour, and mark children as Child profiles.
Set a household PIN (4–8 digits) when prompted — it protects profile changes.
Hold OK on a profile to edit it, set access rules or remove it.

Good to know

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.

Find your way around Free

Path: Press Left from any screen to open the side menu

How

The side menu lists every section on one screen, with Settings and Exit at the bottom so you never scroll to reach them.
Move up and down, press OK to open a section. On Live TV, Movies and Shows, OK (or Right) opens that section with its groups beside the menu, so you can pick a group straight away; the arrow beside them says so.
The card at the top shows who is watching and which TV service is playing. Press it to switch profile or TV service without going into Settings. A profile with a PIN still asks for it.
Hold OK (or press Menu) on an entry to move it, rename it or open the menu settings. Moving and renaming come with Premium, as in how-to 50.
Press Back at the top level to reopen the side menu; press it twice quickly to leave the app.

Good to know

Sections you don’t have — or that a profile isn’t allowed to use — simply don’t appear. You can reorder, rename and hide menu entries later (see how-to 50), or straight from the menu. The highlighted entry is a bright bar that slides as you move; the screen you are on has a glowing edge and stays lit in the strip of icons, so the two never look alike.

Groups open beside the menu, not in place of it. The groups and the strip of icons on the left make one panel: the icons keep showing which screen you are on, with that screen’s icon lit as a tab that opens into its groups, and Left or Back steps back out to the menu. The groups panel has the same layout on Live TV, Movies and Shows: quick buttons along the top (Find playing channel and Jump to now; Surprise me and Filters), then Views, Your groups and the groups from your TV service, with Edit groups (and on Live TV, Customise guide) at the bottom. The line under the panel says what the highlighted button does. With Loop lists round on, Up from the quick buttons jumps to the bottom buttons and Down from the bottom buttons comes back to the first group. Holding Down stops on the last group; a fresh press moves on to the buttons below it. On Movies and Shows a view and a group combine, for example Favourites in Action, and the top of the panel says which.

The groups panel stays open while you work on it. Holding OK on a group for its options, or choosing Edit groups, Customise guide or Filters, opens on the right with the groups still beside it, and closing what opened puts you back on the same group or button. Choosing a group, a view or a quick button such as Find playing channel closes the panel so you can see the result.

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. On Live TV, Movies and Shows, Back from the channels or posters opens that section’s groups first, so one press takes you to “change group”, not all the way out to the main menu. Back again moves to the main menu and tells you (“Press Back again to exit”); a third press within 3 seconds leaves the app. On any other section, Back with nothing open goes straight to the main menu with the same message. If you opened the main menu yourself, Back just closes it; that is a cancel and never counts toward leaving the app. 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.

If a live channel is already playing in the TV guide preview when you switch service, it keeps playing until you select a channel from the new service — so you can browse the new line-up without the picture stopping first.

When a section is opening, a short loading message identifies what it is preparing. Longer waits show placeholders; if a read stalls, use Try again where offered. A failed read shows a retry message instead of leaving the placeholders running. Recordings shows your library, scheduled timers and series links as each becomes ready. Movie and show placeholders follow your poster-size setting, and reduced motion keeps the loading shapes still. Reduced motion (Android’s own Remove animations setting, and lower-powered boxes automatically) also holds the LIVE badge’s dot and the padlock on locked features still, and a long channel or programme name in the TV guide scrolls once when you focus it instead of scrolling for as long as you stay there. Indicators that show work in progress, such as spinners and the dot in an update banner, keep moving.

Learn the remote

TiviGlass is built for a physical remote. This table is also available on the TV itself — open the player menu and choose Remote controls.

The default side menu lists Home, Live TV, Movies, Shows and Search first, followed by Catch Up, Recordings, Reminders, Sports Hub, Kids, Multi-view and Apps, with Settings and Exit pinned at the bottom. Each destination has its own name; the former My TV hub has been removed. Your saved menu order, names and hidden choices are kept. Profile restrictions and section switches still apply. In TV mode, the closed menu shows your profile picture and the clock above the navigation icons, using your chosen 12- or 24-hour format.

The buttons that matter Free

Path: While watching → Menu → Remote controls

How

Press OK while watching to reveal the on-screen controls, and again to hide them.
Hold OK on a channel, poster or tile for its action menu.
Use Back to step out one layer at a time.

Good to know

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

How menus work. Every menu, option list and question in TiviGlass now works the same way. Every one of them slides in from the right edge of the screen as a full-height panel, the same way More opens in the player: menus, option lists, forms, larger pages such as long lists, and questions that need an answer (the screen behind a question dims until you answer it). Each choice is one line with an icon, its current setting shown at the end (for example Subtitles — English), and an arrow where it leads to a next step. The highlighted line turns red on a choice that removes something. A line at the foot of the panel says what the highlighted choice does, the usual key guide along the bottom of the screen shows which keys work in the menu while it is open, and Back always goes back exactly one step. Switches flip where they are, and a setting with a list of values opens its list in that panel with the current value highlighted, so pressing OK straight away changes nothing. Only things that cannot be undone ask “Are you sure?”, and both answers say what they do. Over live video, options open on the right so the picture stays visible. On boxes with Android 12 or later and plenty of memory, the page behind a menu is softly blurred; the video itself never is.

The player separates programme information from the playback buttons. The highlighted control's name appears below the buttons, for example Pause, Subtitles or More options. Channel and programme names have separate lines, with larger timing text. Stream information such as resolution, HDR, codec, bitrate and frame rate stays visible in a quieter row that wraps when needed. The full-screen player and the live-TV guide player share this layout.

A compact navigation legend sits below the content, beside the full-height navigation panel. While browsing content it shows D-pad — Move and Back — Go back, including when an item has no hold action. In the navigation panel, movement reads ↑ ↓ — Browse and Back describes its current action: Close menu, Main menu, or the temporary Exit app confirmation (Switch profile for a child). Select describes the highlighted control: ordinary buttons say Choose, Movies and Shows tiles say Open details, and Continue watching tiles say Play. When holding Select does something, its action appears alongside, such as Hold Select — Options or Hold Select — Rename. Disabled actions are omitted. A glowing edge marks your current section in both the open menu and the collapsed icon rail; the bright bar that slides between entries follows the remote. The card at the top keeps your TV service and viewer together above the menu. On a TV every menu entry fits on the screen; where a list is longer than the screen (a phone, larger text, or a long list of groups) its top or bottom edge fades to show there is more. The legend follows focus into the navigation panel and moves clear of the expanded panel without shifting the grid. It uses two steady rows on narrower screens or with larger text. During full-screen playback, hold guidance stays inside the existing control-label area; no separate legend appears beneath the OSD. On touch screens, use a long press; the legend appears when navigating with a remote or keyboard.

Button	What it does while watching
OK	Show or hide the on-screen controls
Play / Pause	Pause and resume
Channel + / −	Next / previous channel (live TV); in the TV guide, a whole screen of channels at a time
Page Up / Page Down	Next / previous channel (live TV only), for remotes whose channel buttons send these keys. Movies, shows and the TV guide are unchanged: in the guide they still move a whole screen of channels at a time. A job you gave these buttons yourself under Settings › Remote & buttons still wins.
Up / Down	Next / previous channel (live TV)
Left / Right	Skip back / forward by your seek step (10 seconds by default)
Guide group preview	Rest the highlight on a provider group in the guide sidebar or horizontal group row and, after a moment, the guide shows that group’s channels and schedule together from the top while the current channel keeps playing. Holding the button down to sweep through the list loads nothing until you stop. Focus stays on the group while you look. To stay on it, press OK, press Right in the sidebar, or move down into its channels; it then becomes your Last used group. Press Back, or leave the list any other way, and the guide goes back to the group you were on. Find playing channel and the Tools actions do not choose a group either, and if you press OK on a protected group and then cancel its PIN or age question, you stay on the group you started from. A group you only previewed is never remembered. Protected groups need OK and access approval first. Turn off Preview group on focus in Settings › TV guide › Moving around the guide to require OK for every group. Channel Up/Down and Page Up/Down page through the group list; the guide wrap preference applies at its ends.
Show or hide several items	In a Show/Hide list, choose Select several, mark the rows, then choose Show selected or Hide selected. Select displayed selects the current filtered results. Bulk changes never affect selected rows outside the displayed results.
Stremio phone setup	Choose Stremio, then Enter on phone. The TV keeps checking the same code through temporary connection failures. If the code expires, choose Try again for a new one. Received details fill the TV form for you to review. Closing the handoff cancels it.
Skip length	In Settings › Remote & buttons › Skipping forward and back › Skip length, choose 10, 20, 30 or 60 seconds. Remote keys, on-screen seek buttons and touch double-taps share this choice. Holding a seek key accelerates the step.
Last Channel	A remote with a physical Last Channel button returns to the previous live channel. Your explicit shortcut binding takes priority. Shortcut editors list actions supported by the chosen screen; unsupported saved actions leave ordinary key handling available.
0–9	Type a channel number to jump straight to it
L	Jump back to the last channel you were on
Rewind / Forward	Rewind and fast-forward; on live TV, rewind where catch-up is available
Previous / Next	Previous / next episode (shows)
Menu	Open More — audio, subtitles, quality, display and help
A	Change the picture shape (aspect ratio)
Q	Choose video quality
S	Show playback details — codec, frame rate, buffer
P	Save a screenshot
Hold OK (guide or live video)	Open programme actions, including saving a matching movie or show
Back	Close an open panel or hide the controls, then leave the player. In guide fullscreen, Back returns to the guide even when no control is highlighted.

Chapter 2

The Home screen

The bar under the featured area filters Home: Everything, Recently watched, Favourites or Watchlist, with Customise Home at its end. The one you are on is highlighted; choose Everything to clear it. Filtering keeps your saved rail order and leaves hidden rails hidden. The menu opens Live TV, Movies and Shows.

Home is a set of rows that fill themselves from what you watch. Empty rows hide automatically, so a fresh install looks sparse and gets richer over a week of use.

Trending titles offer Find in my services, which opens Search across the TV services this profile can use. Choose a matching result to see its details; a trending title may not be available from your providers. Back from Search returns to Home. The featured area is smaller on a phone held sideways, leaving more room for the rows.

What the rails show Free

Path: Sidebar → Home

How

The hero at the top shows what’s on now or the thing you’re most likely to resume.
Move down through the rows; move left and right within one. The featured area scrolls away as you browse.
Rows follow your saved order exactly. Live TV, On Demand and For you headings mark each run of related rows.

Good to know

Available rails: Continue watching, Recommended live now, Recently watched channels, Favourite channels, Recently added channels, New channel groups, Upcoming reminders, Recordings, Trending now, Recently added, Recommended for you, Favourite movies, Favourite shows, Live sport now and Kids corner.

On capable devices, staying on a live channel card for about a second plays that channel behind the headline. This preview is always silent — moving around the rails never starts sound, so it will not interrupt anything else you are listening to. Press OK to watch it properly, with sound. Moving on before the preview starts cancels it, so sweeping along a rail does not tune anything.

While a free trial is running, a countdown sits above the rows and tells you how many days are left. Select it to see the plans.

Customise Home Free

Path: Home → Customise Home (on the bar under the featured area, or at the bottom of the rows) · or Settings › Home & menu › Home screen › Customise Home

Customise Home is the one place Home is managed. The list is on the left, and the right-hand side shows what the row you are on looks like, with its real artwork, next to a small map of your whole Home screen. The tabs down the left edge say what OK does: press Left from anywhere in the list to reach them, Up and Down to choose one, and Right or OK to go back to the list. The keys you can use are shown along the bottom. The preview follows the row you are on once you stop on it, so moving down a long list stays quick. Every change is saved as you make it.

How

Show & hide: press OK on a row to take it off Home or put it back.
Arrange: press OK to pick a row up, then Up and Down to move it. Left sends it to the top and Right to the bottom. OK puts it down; Back puts it back where it was. The map shows it sliding into place.
Start-up: choose what TiviGlass opens on (Where I left off, Home, Live TV, Movies or Shows), whether it starts on the last channel, and whether Home is in the menu.
Layouts: one press gives Home a ready-made shape: Balanced, Live TV first, Movies & shows first or Just the essentials. Go back to your layout appears at the top of the list and puts your own rows back until you leave.

Good to know

A row that is switched on but has nothing in it yet says Waiting and tells you why (Upcoming reminders, for example, waits until you have three). A row your plan does not include says which plan it needs instead of quietly never appearing. Recommended live now has one switch here; it used to have a second one in Settings called Live recommendations.

You can also change Home from where you see it: hold OK on any card and choose Hide this row, Move this row or Customise Home. The bar under the featured area filters Home to Everything, Recently watched, Favourites or Watchlist; the Live TV, Movies and Shows buttons that used to sit at the top of Home are gone, because the menu opens those. Home’s rows and their order are saved on this TV. What TiviGlass opens on is saved for this profile on this TV. A child’s profile always opens Kids and has no Customise Home.

The Watchlist row brings together up to 60 recently saved movies and shows from your current TV source. Hidden or locked categories stay out of it.

Chapter 3

Live TV and the guide

The Live TV section is a full programme grid with a live preview. It’s where most day-to-day watching starts, and where nearly every channel customisation lives.

Event details in channel names: when a provider has no current guide entry, names such as SPORTS 1 :: Premier League 15:00 supply a readable event title and time in the guide and player information. Sports :: Cup final also works without a time. TiviGlass does not invent a clock for it, and a real guide programme takes priority.

Changing groups while the guide loads. Channels become available as soon as the saved channel list is read; programme listings can arrive afterwards. While another group loads, the current group stays visible and a notice names the requested group. Refreshing the catalogue keeps the current channel playing. If saved programme data cannot be read, the guide offers Try again while your channels remain available.

Browse the guide Free

Path: Sidebar → Live TV

To return to the beginning of the channel list, hold Left while focused on the channel column. In the group list, holding Left returns focus to the first group without selecting it. Hold Back in the guide to reopen the playing mini player fullscreen. A short press keeps its normal navigation meaning; when using the TV’s remote through HDMI, the list waits briefly to distinguish a tap from a hold. On a phone or tablet, tap Top of channels. These defaults are free; Jump to top of channels or groups can also be assigned to another button under Remote & buttons. You can also open a preview fullscreen with OK.

Browse earlier programmes: use Rewind or skip-back in the guide. You can hold the key to keep moving back. Select an earlier programme to see its details; playback is offered only within that channel's catch-up archive. Plain Left stops at the live slot so you can reach the channel column. Use Jump to now to return.

Programme boxes show: In Settings › TV guide › How the guide looks, choose Channel name & logo to show channel names and logos instead of programme titles. The schedule timings, programme details, reminders and catch-up actions stay available. Choose Programme title to restore programme titles. The choice follows your synced guide settings.

How

Up and down move between channels; left and right move through the schedule.
Keep pressing right to look further ahead, and left to come back. Left stops at the current time and then moves the highlight onto the channel list on the far left, which is how you get back to the channels from the schedule.
To look at what has already aired, use Rewind (or skip-back) on the remote. It scrolls back as far as there is anything to see: your provider’s catch-up archive where the line-up carries one, or the days of past guide you keep under Keep past TV listings for where it does not, whichever reaches further. Fast-forward scrolls the other way.
However far ahead you have browsed, the Now button at the top of the guide brings the schedule straight back to what is on at this moment and starts following the clock again. In the sidebar layout it is the Jump to now button at the top of the groups panel.
Browse All channels, Favourites, All TV services, Recently added, your provider’s categories and custom groups from the left library sidebar — they are all in one list, so Favourites is one press away. Choose Horizontal pills in Settings › Home & menu › How each section opens › Group list layout instead and the same choices return to the filter and group rows above the guide.
Press OK on a channel to preview it, and again for full screen.

Good to know

The current-time line is off by default. Turn Show current time line on under Settings › TV guide › How the guide looks to draw a vertical line in the current theme’s accent colour from the time labels down through the programmes at the current time, so every channel can be compared at a glance. While the present is on screen, the current time sits in a small accent pill on the time row above the programmes, and the start of that row names what the guide is showing (All channels, Favourites or a group) with how many channels it holds. Whenever the visible hours no longer contain the present, a marker appears next to the date telling you which way it is: ◂ Now when you are looking ahead, Now ▸ when you have scrolled back into what has already aired. The Now button in the row above returns the guide to the current time from either direction, and the guide then follows the clock again by itself. If you would rather do it from a button, assign any spare key to Jump to now under Settings › Remote & buttons › What buttons do › Buttons in the TV guide (how-to 51) — useful when you are deep in the channel list rather than up on the buttons. Leaving Live TV and coming back also returns you to now. A short glowing edge in your theme’s accent colour, the side menu’s “you are here” mark, sits on the channel currently playing, while the highlight follows your remote as a bright bar the text sits on, the same bar the side menu and the guide’s menus use. The channel whose schedule you are reading across stands out in the channel list. Programme boxes show titles only unless you turn on Show programme times under Settings › TV guide › How the guide looks, which adds each programme’s start and end under its title; finished programmes are dimmed (less so when catch-up can still play them), and the preview names the channel playing in it. Choose Playing channel beside Now, or Find playing channel at the top of the groups panel, to return to that row without restarting playback or changing the guide time. If you were only previewing a group in the sidebar, it first takes you back to the group you started from, on the playing channel if that group has it. If the playing channel is not in the group you chose, it opens All TV services to find the row. Hidden or removed channels are not brought back. Replay icons mark catch-up where space allows. Source labels sit below channel names when the row has room; compact rows keep the name readable and show the source beside it. Focus a long source label to read it as it scrolls. Programme progress bars follow the theme accent unless you set a custom progress colour. The information panel follows the programme you focus. Its height stays steady while details load, so the channel grid stays in place. The title and one time row take priority: a red LIVE mark, the start and end, how far through it is and the minutes left, or for a later programme how long until it starts. The episode line and synopsis come next, in larger white text that stays readable over programme artwork; they fit the remaining room, and full details stay available through Info. Choose its ⓘ Info action, or press a remote’s Info button, to open the complete scrollable synopsis and programme metadata. A red record icon marks a programme scheduled to record, and a chain icon marks programmes covered by a Series Link. A replay icon on a past programme marks one you can watch from catch-up. Rewind on the remote also scrolls the guide back in time. The preview keeps playing while you keep browsing. For a TiviMate-style flow, turn on Play a preview as you browse under Settings › TV guide › Preview & the OK button; rapid scrolling is allowed to settle before the preview changes. Make the preview fullscreen after can then promote that channel after 5, 10 or 15 idle seconds. Both controls are available in the free version. If you’d rather skip the preview step entirely, turn on Open fullscreen with one press of OK in the same section.

To open Live TV on Favourites, All TV services, Recently added or one of your own custom folders instead of All channels, choose Live TV opens to under Settings › Home & menu › How each section opens. Its help names the TV service Live TV uses, and Which service Live TV uses just below it opens TV services at Which service each section uses, where you change it. Custom-folder choices are labelled Custom folder · Name, and the stable folder identity means renaming one does not lose the choice. Choose Last used group to have the guide reopen on the group you were browsing last time, such as UK Sports, one of your folders, Favourites or All TV services. It is remembered separately for each profile and each TV service, so it holds when you close the full-screen player, leave Live TV and come back, switch TV service and back, or restart TiviGlass. A group you only previewed in the group list does not count; it has to be one you chose. If that group has since been removed or hidden, the guide opens on All channels instead, and a PIN-protected group asks for the PIN first. You can also choose one of your TV service’s own groups, labelled Group · Name, so a family TV opens on the kids’ group instead of All channels. The list comes from the service Live TV opens with (the one chosen in Live TV uses, if you set one) and leaves out groups you have hidden or filtered out. Stremio sources and lists loaded from a file offer no groups here. The choice belongs to that one service: with a different service in use the guide opens on All channels, TiviGlass starts on its usual screen rather than Live TV, and the picker shows Group (not available), which is also what you see if the group has since been hidden, filtered out or removed by your provider. With parental controls on, a locked or adult group asks for the PIN first, unless Skip PIN on locked channels, films & shows is on. The group choice only decides where the guide opens: hiding a group (hold OK on it, then Group options) is what removes it from All channels for that profile. If a TV on the same account runs an older TiviGlass that does not know this option, that TV can reset the choice to All channels when it next syncs. Anything you pick here other than All channels or Last used group also makes TiviGlass open straight into Live TV, on that screen, after a cold start (a group choice only while its service is the one Live TV opens with) — so choosing Favourites is how you get the app to start on your favourites. Start on the last channel remains the higher-priority option: switch that off under Settings › Home & menu › When TiviGlass starts if you want to see your chosen screen instead of immediately resuming playback.

Recently added uses the catalogue dates supplied by your TV source. If an older saved catalogue has no dates yet, the empty screen offers Refresh channels. A source that supplies no date metadata cannot build that list.

Change channel while watching Free

Path: Full-screen live TV

The guide uses clearer cell gaps and alternating channel rows to separate programmes. The strong highlight follows your remote; a play icon in your theme’s accent colour marks the channel playing in the mini-player, and the matching Now marker and vertical line show the current time. The information area names the selected channel and keeps its programme title and time prominent, with quieter episode details and synopsis. Status badges sit beside programme titles without overlapping them; a +number indicates additional statuses, while narrow cells prioritise the title. Hold Select for programme options and details. The navigation legend describes Select as Preview live, Full screen, or Watch catch-up, matching your playback setting and the selected listing. Future listings and past listings without catch-up follow the live channel action.

Recently watched spans groups in the current TV service. In fullscreen controls, press Down to open the recent row and OK to tune a channel, including one outside the group you were browsing. Programme labels refresh as guide data arrives.

Radio and audio-only stations: Once an audio-only stream is ready, both fullscreen players show the station name and logo, with track title and artist when supplied. The normal playback controls still work. A TV stream with a missing or unsupported picture is not labelled as radio.

How

Channel +/− or Up/Down move to the next or previous channel. On live TV, Page Up and Page Down do the same.
Type a number to jump straight to that channel.
Press OK then Down to open the recently-watched strip and pick from it.
L returns to the previous channel.

Good to know

Every channel change brings up a short channel banner — the channel name and logo, what’s on now with how far through it is, and what’s next — so you always know where you have landed. The banner shows no buttons: along its bottom it reminds you which keys do what (▲ ▼ Change channel and OK Controls; the first is left out if you have given Up or Down another job). It clears itself after a few seconds and does not take over the remote: Up/Down keep moving through channels while it is showing, so you can keep surfing. Press OK to turn the banner into the full playback controls (how long those stay up is Settings › While watching › Player controls & clock › Hide player controls after). Auto leaves that to TiviGlass: the controls you open yourself stay a little longer than the banner that appears on its own. Never keeps the controls you opened on screen until you hide them, and still clears the channel banner.

Good to know

If you like to surf quickly, set Delay before switching channels (Settings › While watching › Changing channels). With a delay, the on-screen selection moves instantly but only the channel you settle on is actually tuned — much faster, and much kinder to your provider.

The channel menu — hold OK Free

Path: TV Guide → hold OK on a channel or programme

How

Hold OK to open the menu for that row. It slides in on the side away from the guide’s preview, so the picture stays in view. You can also hold OK on the video while watching live TV.
The three things you do most sit across the top as big buttons: From start, Record and Remind me. Everything else is one line each below, under Organise and Fix. The line at the bottom of the menu says what the highlighted choice does, and the keys that work there.
Choose Save movie or show, select the matching catalogue title, then add it to Favourites or Watchlist. When only one title matches, its options open straight away; with several, Back from the options returns to the list of matches. If the catalogue on this TV cannot be read, it says so and offers Try again.
If your remote has a Menu button, a single press of it opens the same menu.

Good to know

The programme and channel stay visible at the top while you choose. Back closes the menu (on a touch screen, use the Back arrow at the top), and the first focused choice is never a delete or reset action. This single menu covers favourites, watchlist, recording, reminders, multi-view, groups, renaming the channel, channel numbers, guide matching and per-channel corrections.

The menu shows what this programme is already set to do. Once you have set a reminder its button lights up and reads Reminder on; press it again to remove the reminder, with no question asked, and once more to set it back. While a channel is recording, the Record button reads Recording; a scheduled recording reads Will record; a linked series offers Remove series link. Cancelling a recording or removing a series link still asks once first, with the answers Keep it and Cancel recording (or Keep link and Remove link), and you never have to leave the guide to undo what you just set. The full lists stay where they always were — Recordings, Reminders and Settings › Recordings › Recording › Series Links.

Actions your TV service or your box cannot do are simply not shown. Watch from start and Watch this programme appear only when your provider actually carries catch-up for that channel and the programme is still inside the days it keeps; Add to Multi-view appears only on a box that can decode more than one channel at once. An action your plan does not include is shown greyed with the plan it needs, because that is the one limit you can lift.

A guide programme has no on-demand ID of its own, so TiviGlass asks you to confirm a matching title from your provider’s Movies or Shows catalogue. If the provider does not carry it there, nothing is saved and the app tells you.

Match listings chooses where this channel’s programme listings come from, with the closest matches first and their schedules beside them. How-to 14b explains it in full.

If holding OK does nothing

Some remotes report a held button as lots of very fast presses instead of one long one. TiviGlass detects this and adapts, but on a third-party remote the first hold may register as a normal press — back out and hold again and it will work from then on.

Your TV’s own remote is the common case. When you control the box with the TV remote rather than the one it came with, the buttons travel over the HDMI cable, which has no way to say “still holding” and repeats the press instead. TiviGlass recognises that immediately, with no first-hold cost, so holding OK opens this menu. Holding Back jumps to the top in a channel or group list; elsewhere it counts as one Back rather than several. If you want two Backs there, leave a short beat between them.

If your remote still won’t hold, assign any spare button to Options for the focused item under Settings › Remote & buttons › What buttons do (how-to 51); one press of it opens this menu.

Action	What it does
Favourite / Unfavourite	Adds or removes the channel from your Favourites chip and Home rail. It works on a channel from any of your TV services, so you can favourite straight from All TV services and from your own groups.
Add to groups	Puts the channel into one or more of your custom groups. To file a whole provider group at once, hold OK on the group instead and use Add all to a custom group on its Channels tab — it adds every channel the group is currently showing, leaving them in the provider group as well. New group there makes a custom group of that group in one action. Very large groups are added up to a limit, and the message says how many went in.
Record live	Starts recording what’s on right now.
Record programme / Record at airtime	Saves this programme, or schedules it to be captured when it airs.
Series link	Records every episode of this programme automatically.
Set reminder / Cancel reminder	Notifies you shortly before it starts, or drops a reminder you already set. Offered only for a programme that has not started yet.
Cancel recording	Drops the timer for an airing you have already scheduled. Replaces Record at airtime once one is set.
Remove series link	Stops new episodes recording. Recordings you already have are kept.
Watch from start	Restarts a programme already in progress, where the provider allows it. If the provider sends only the archive available when you started, TiviGlass requests the next segment from your watched position. At the recording edge there may be a short wait. If the provider cannot supply more, the player tells you instead of repeatedly restarting the same segment.
Watch this programme	Plays a programme that has already finished, out of your provider’s catch-up archive.
Add to Multi-view / Remove from Multi-view	Puts the channel in the mosaic, or takes it back out. Shown only on a box that can run Multi-view.
Edit channel number	Gives the channel your own number, or restores the provider’s.
Match listings	Chooses where the channel’s listings come from when they are missing or wrong: the closest guide entries first, with what each is showing. See how-to 14b.
Channel corrections	Override the logo URL, shift the guide time, or set a local timeshift for this one channel.
Move within group	Drag the channel into the position you want inside the current group. In Favourites it reads Move and arranges your favourites.
Number favourites from 1	Gives your favourites the numbers 1, 2, 3 and so on, in the order they are shown — so it follows your arrangement, or the A–Z sort if you used one. Across every source when Favourites shows them all together. It replaces any number you typed by hand on those channels; Restore provider numbers in the same menu puts them all back.
Restore provider numbers	Undoes Number favourites from 1: every favourite goes back to the number its provider gave it.
Sort favourites A–Z	Arranges your favourites alphabetically, in one press. Offered on any channel while you are in Favourites. It writes an arrangement, exactly as dragging does, so it syncs to your other devices and stays put until you change it. Reset favourites order below it throws the arrangement away instead and lets each screen use its own default order.

Organising channels

Custom groups Premium

Path: Live TV → groups panel → Edit groups, or Settings › Channels & groups (Movies and Shows have their own group lists)

The library panel keeps Browse and Tools tabs visible above the scrolling list. Live TV tools include Jump to now, Manage custom groups and Customise guide. Find playing channel is the first row in Browse, so the way back to what you are watching is always where you already are. Use left/right between the tabs and OK or Down to enter a view. Up from the first group reaches the tabs even when list wrapping is enabled; continue Up to leave the list for the navigation controls. Previewing a focused group keeps your place in the list. The default hold-Left shortcut returns to these tabs from deep in a group list; from a list, a normal Left or Back still returns to the main menu. If you were previewing groups, the guide also goes back to the group you started on. Recovery stays beside the groups in Browse: if hiding has left the list with no groups at all, it says All your groups are hidden and offers Show hidden groups.

How

Open Channels & groups. Movies and Shows open the same screen from Edit groups at the bottom of their groups panel, and Settings › Movies & shows › Manage movie categories or Manage show categories opens it too.
Choose New group on the left, give it a name and choose Create. It opens ready for adding.
While adding, the left side lists your favourites and every group of the TV service. Move onto one, go Right into its channels, and press OK on each channel you want: it gets a tick. OK again takes it out. Every change saves as you make it. Back when you are done, and the group opens with its channels.
To add more later, move onto the group under Your groups in Show & hide and press OK. Its channels show on the right; OK on one there takes it out, dimmed in place, and OK again puts it back.
To include channels from another TV service, choose Change TV service from Menu, then add from there. This does not switch what you are watching.
In Arrange, OK picks your group up to move it among your groups, and in its channels OK picks a channel up to put the group in your own order. In Rename, OK renames it. Delete this group is in its Menu, asks first, and leaves the channels on your TV services.
Any channel’s Menu also has Add to one of your groups, and a provider group’s Menu has Add all its channels to one of your groups. The guide and Search still offer Add to groups for a single channel.

Good to know

Holding OK on a group in the guide opens its options with Edit in Channels & groups first, which lands on that group, and the quick changes after it: rename, move, lock, hide, reset, Add all to a custom group, Show and hide in the guide and Tidy up. Bulk changes always ask before changing everything.

A group can hold channels from several playlists at once — manage each source in turn, and rows from elsewhere carry a source badge and play using their own provider’s details. Groups exist separately for Live, Movies and Shows. Deleting a playlist thins the groups it fed rather than removing them. Groups you already made keep working even if your plan lapses — only creating new ones needs Premium.

11b

Copy or move channels between groups Free

Path: TV Guide → hold OK on a channel → Select channels

How

Hold OK on any channel and choose Select channels. The channel you were on is ticked to start you off.
Press OK on any other channel to tick or untick it. The bar above the list shows how many you have.
From any channel, press right once to reach Choose destination, then press OK. You can also select that button directly in the bar.
Pick where they should go — one of your groups, or one of your provider groups — then choose Copy or Move. New group creates one on the spot.

Good to know

You can send channels straight into a group your provider already gave you: to merge “UK Regionals” into “UK Entertainment”, select them and pick UK Entertainment as the destination — no need to invent a group you already have. Copy leaves the channels where they are as well as adding them. Move also takes them out of the group you are standing in — they stay in Favourites, Search and All channels. To undo a move, select the channels in their new home and move them back to the original group. The group you are currently viewing is not offered as a destination. Custom groups are Premium, but copying and moving between your provider’s groups is free. Switch playlists and keep selecting: one custom group can be filled from all of them (provider groups belong to a single playlist, so channels from another one are skipped). Back leaves selection mode without changing anything.

Watch across every playlist Free

Path: TV Guide / Movies / Shows / Search → All TV services

How

Select All TV services in the TV guide, Movies, Shows or Search.
Browse the merged list — rows from other playlists carry a source badge.
Play anything; it connects using its own provider’s details.
To stop choosing it every time, set Live TV opens to, Movies opens to and Shows opens to to All TV services under Settings › Home & menu › How each section opens. Search remembers its own choice as soon as you make it.
Default TV services: In Settings › TV services › Which service each section uses, choose Live TV uses, Movies use and Shows use. For example, choose your IPTV service for Live TV and Stremio for Movies and Shows. Each choice applies when you enter that section; you can still change service manually during the visit. Keep current TV service disables the automatic switch for that section. Choices belong to the current profile on this device and do not sync to other devices. An unavailable or restricted service leaves the current service selected and shows a notice.

Good to know

Your active playlist does not change when you play something from another one, so your guide, favourites and resume points stay where they were. Favouriting a channel here works whichever service it comes from. Playlists a profile isn’t allowed to see never appear in the merged view.

Hide, rename and de-duplicate channels Free

Path: Settings › Channels & groups

How

Show, hide or rename channels — open Channels & groups, move onto a group and go Right into its channels. In Show & hide, OK on a channel switches it in or out of your guide; in Rename, OK renames it. The same rename is on Rename channel in the channel menu (hold OK on the channel in the guide), so you can do it without leaving what you are watching.
Find one in a long group — type in Find a group or channel at the top of Channels & groups. Matching channels from every group appear on the right, and the heading says how many hidden channels also match. A hidden channel stays listed in its group, dimmed, so you can find it there and press OK to bring it back. The heading over a group always counts all its channels and how many are hidden.
Hide one channel where you are standing — hold OK on it in the TV guide and choose Hide channel, under Organise. It leaves your line-up straight away, and the guide keeps your place: the highlight moves down to the next channel rather than jumping back to the top of the group, so you can carry on down the list. Nothing is deleted: hold OK on its group and choose Edit in Channels & groups, where it is listed dimmed, and press OK on it to bring it back. Hiding is free on every plan.
Go through a group with the guide beside you — hold OK on a channel and choose Show and hide channels (it is also in a group’s options as Show and hide in the guide). Every channel in the group gets an eye next to its name, and the ones you have already hidden appear too, dimmed, with the eye shut. Press OK to shut or open an eye. Nothing moves and nothing vanishes while you work, so you can go straight down the list, and the schedule stays on screen next to it — which is usually how you know you don’t want a channel. Back returns the guide to normal — the bar at the top is a reminder, not a set of buttons, so nothing up there can take the highlight off the list you are working down. To bring a whole group back in one press, use Tidy up on the group menu and choose Bring back channels. This is for one provider group or All channels; it is not offered on Favourites, custom groups, Recently added or All playlists.
Hide several channels at once — hold OK on a channel in the guide, choose Select channels, tick as many as you like (or use Select all), then choose Hide in the bar at the top. They all leave together and the message says how many went. Same overlay as everything else here, so Channels & groups brings them back.
Favourite several channels at once — the same Select channels mode, with Favourite in the bar instead. It only ever adds: channels you had already favourited are left alone rather than being switched off, and the message says how many were new.
Add to groups while watching — press OK then More, and choose Add to groups. This works on the main player and on the guide’s own full-screen view, so you no longer have to come back out to the grid to file a channel you have just found. From the guide’s full-screen view you can file into groups you already have, but not start a new one — hold OK on a channel in the grid to make a group first.
Show or hide groups hides whole categories: in Show & hide, every group on the left has a switch, and OK flips it. The summary at the top counts how many groups are shown. On a line-up with hundreds of groups, choose Hide every group from Menu and then switch on just the ones you watch, or type a word in Find a group or channel and use Show these groups or Hide these groups. A hidden channel or group is also left out of Search; Search says how many it left out so you can tell that from a channel your provider never sent. Hiding a group does not stop its channels being matched to an XMLTV guide in your TV guide sources, so a channel you keep in Favourites or one of your own groups still shows the listings that guide has for it. If one is missing, Match listings (Settings › TV guide › Missing listings) lists it too, marked Hidden from your line-up.
Hide groups & channels by name Premium builds keyword rules — e.g. keep only channels whose name starts with a region prefix.
Hide duplicate channels hides extra quality or backup copies, keeping one feed per matched channel. Service differences such as ESPN and ESPN+, channel numbers and letters, and identity inside brackets stay distinct. It sits under Duplicate channels with Merge duplicate channels, Which copy to keep, Hide HEVC channels and Hide regional copies, the same clean-ups as the Tidy up tab in Channels & groups, where each one can cover a single group too.
Order & numbers holds Channel order and Group order, Arrange groups for putting groups in your own order (not offered while Group order is alphabetical), and Restore provider numbers. Favourites holds Favourites from every TV service, Sort favourites A to Z, Number favourites from 1 and Reset favourites order. These are the same controls as the guide’s own menus, so a change in either place shows in both.
Channel corrections lists every channel you have corrected on the TV service in use and opens its corrections; Clear all guide time corrections removes the guide time correction from every channel on the TV service in use, in one go; custom logos, timeshift choices and the Guide time offset for the whole guide all stay, and nothing is downloaded again. Lock channels with a PIN is a link to Parental & profiles › Locks.

Good to know

Filter by channel prefix: open Settings › Channels & groups › Groups › Hide groups & channels by name → Add custom filter. Select Channel name starts with, enter a literal prefix such as US|, UK| or FHD, then choose Hide matches or Show only matches. Matching ignores case and uses the displayed channel name; renaming a channel can change whether it matches. Multiple Show filters combine, and Hide wins. Saved filters apply to this TV source in the channel list, guide, favourites and custom folders, including after refresh. Disable or delete the filter to restore those channels; no channels or favourites are deleted. Prefix filtering requires Premium and stops narrowing lists if Premium expires. Prefixes TiviGlass detects in your groups are listed one per row: press OK on one and choose Off, Show only these or Hide these. Deleting a filter you made asks first.

Missing channels after cleanup? Open Settings › Channels & groups, choose the Tidy up tab with All channels selected, and choose Bring back channels. This restores every hidden channel in the active playlist for your profile, including channels you hid manually. The restore is carried to your other devices when cloud sync is enabled. A playlist refresh preserves hidden flags; it does not undo cleanup. Restore all channel names only undoes renaming. If feeds are still collapsed together, turn off Merge duplicate channels under Channels & groups › Duplicate channels, and check Show or hide groups and Hide groups & channels by name for hidden groups or filters.

All of these are overlays on top of your provider’s data. Refreshing the catalogue never wipes them, and clearing an override always brings the original name, logo or number straight back.

Renaming is free. Typing a name yourself is included on every plan; on a paid plan the same dialog first offers tidied-up suggestions built from the provider’s own name, so you can clear a country prefix or a quality tag in one press instead of retyping the line. Restore original is always there, and a rename follows the channel everywhere — the guide, search, favourites, your groups and the player.

Event and pay-per-view slots are treated differently on purpose. Some providers rewrite those channel names every few hours to whatever is on right now, so they arrive looking like ENDED | Fri 28 Aug 05:59 | UK: MAX PPV 1 or MAX USA 43: NO EVENT. A rename is permanent, so tidying one of those would pin last night’s match to the channel for good. TiviGlass instead suggests the part that stays true — MAX PPV 1 — and where there is no such part it offers nothing and leaves the provider’s own text alone, which is why the suggestion list is sometimes empty on those channels and not on the ones beside them.

The other half of that is what you see while you browse. When a slot like that has no real guide listing, TiviGlass reads tonight’s fixture out of the channel name and shows it as what’s on — next to the picture, in the empty guide cell, and on Home. A real guide always wins. A reminder or recording you set from that title still fires at the time shown, but it will not follow a later schedule change, because there was never a guide row to follow.

Guide data and behaviour Free

Path: Settings › TV guide

How

Programme titles are the same size as channel names, and time labels use larger text too, for reading at a distance. Guide text size offers Small, Normal, Large and Extra large, and changes the size of the channel names, programme titles and times in the guide only. Choose Small for a denser guide that shows a little more of each title. The rest of the app keeps the size set by App text & layout size under Settings › Look & feel › Size & screen.
Guide row height offers Compact, Normal, Relaxed and Tall, and decides how many channels fit on screen at once. Compact fits the most; Tall gives each row more room. The two work together: whatever height you pick, a row is always made tall enough for the text size you chose, so the guide never clips a channel name.
Time shown on one screen decides how much of the schedule fits across the guide, which is the same thing as how wide each programme is. 2 hours 30 is the default. Choose 1 hour 15 when programme titles are being cut off and you would rather read them than see further ahead; choose 5 hours to plan the evening without scrolling.
Show channel numbers puts each channel’s number in front of its name in the guide. Channels with no number are unchanged. Turn on Number guide rows from 1 to display 1, 2, 3… in the TV guide’s current browsing order instead. Filtering and reordering update this sequence; provider numbers and your saved custom numbers stay intact. Turn it off to see those numbers again.
Wrap long channel names lets a long name use two lines instead of scrolling along one. Rows are made taller to fit, so fewer channels are on screen at once — that is the trade, and the guide will not clip a name either way.
Show programme times puts each programme’s start and end time on a second line under its title. It is off by default, so the guide shows titles only; the programme you are on always shows its times in the details at the top of the guide. When it is on, Compact rows (or rows at a larger text size) are made a little taller to fit the second line, and very short programmes keep just their title. Boxes set to show the channel name and logo under Programme boxes show never show times. The setting follows your synced guide settings.
Show TiviGlass watermark shows the faint TiviGlass name behind the programme details at the top of the guide. It is on by default; turn it off for a plain background.
Guide preview size offers Small, Medium, Large and Extra large. Medium is the default; Extra large matches the original full-height preview. Smaller choices shrink the whole programme band so more channel rows remain visible. The band keeps only the title, live time, a short synopsis and progress; press Info for episode details, ratings and credits.
Guide preview position puts the preview on the left instead of the right. Useful if the right of your screen sits behind something in the room, or if you simply prefer it that way round.
TV guide sources — add XMLTV URLs and order them. Every source that is switched on contributes, and the one nearest the top wins where two of them carry the same channel; switching one off stops it being used without deleting it. Each line is numbered and says whether it is on or off, so the order you are changing is the order that decides. Adding, removing, reordering or switching a source waits for any guide update already running, then refreshes the guide with your new setup — so a change made mid-update is applied rather than quietly skipped. Plain XML/XMLTV, gzip and ZIP guides are accepted. A copied link may omit http://, include an HTTP Basic login, or carry Kodi-style User-Agent/Referer options. TiviGlass also tidies up what a copy-and-paste tends to add: surrounding quotation marks or angle brackets, invisible characters some phones and mail apps slip in, a trailing comma, and a mistyped htp:// or htps://. What it will not do is guess at a different kind of address: a guide has to be an http or https link to an XMLTV file, so a streaming address such as rtsp:// is refused rather than quietly turned into something else. A guide URL you set on your account at tiviglass.com is checked the same way there, so you find out on the spot instead of the TV silently skipping it.
After changing a source, choose Update TV guide (in the same section, and also inside TV guide sources as Update guide now). It downloads only the guide; Update now for the service under TV services refreshes its channels, movies and shows as well. A source line reading it was stopped before it finished is not a bad address: the download was cut off part way, what arrived was kept, and Update TV guide finishes it.
Keep past TV listings for and Download future TV listings for, in the folded Storing listings group, control how many past and future days are kept.
Guide time offset — under Guide listings, and also inside TV guide sources, shifts every programme time for the TV service in use in 30-minute steps, up to 12 hours either way. Use it when the whole guide is consistently ahead of or behind the real broadcast time, and note the direction: a guide running behind what is actually on needs a plus offset. It applies to every channel whichever guide source filled it in. Applying an offset re-downloads the guide, so give it a moment to finish.
If only some channels are wrong, leave the offset alone and use Channel corrections in the channel menu (hold OK on the channel) to correct just that channel. Type the minutes, or use the −60m / −30m / +30m / +60m buttons if you would rather not type on the remote; the line underneath spells out which way the programmes will move. This one applies straight away — no re-download — and it follows that channel everywhere: the guide, the player’s now/next, Catch-Up, search results, and any reminder or recording you set from them.
Loop from the last channel to the first is on by default: pressing down past the last channel continues from the first, and up past the first lands on the last. Turn it off to stop at the ends.
What Select does in the guide — under Preview & the OK button. Open fullscreen with one press of OK turns the usual two presses (small preview, then fullscreen) into one press straight to fullscreen. Play a preview as you browse makes the preview follow whatever you are scrolling over, and Make the preview fullscreen after promotes it to fullscreen once you stop on a channel — set that to Off if you do not want it maximising by itself.

Good to know

Three ways to reach the guide’s button behaviour. From the guide itself, hold OK on a channel and choose Guide behaviour. From Settings, it is under TV guide › Preview & the OK button, and the same switch is also on Remote & buttons › What buttons do. Searching Settings for “single tap”, “small player” or “fullscreen” also lands on it.

If the guide looks too small or too crowded, these are the two controls for it. They are free, they are per profile, and they only affect the guide — so you can enlarge the guide without enlarging every other screen. To make the whole app bigger instead, use App text & layout size under Settings › Look & feel › Size & screen; the two combine, so it is worth changing one at a time.

A guide source that came from your provider is shown but can’t be deleted — it disappears with the playlist. Sources you add yourself, including their order and On/Off state, travel with cloud sync and Cloud Backup; the feed address is encrypted in the cloud copy. Provider-supplied sources are rediscovered when that playlist updates. The line at the top of Guide listings (for example “TV guide: 812 of 900 channels have listings”) tells you how many of your channels currently have programme data, which is the quickest way to spot a bad source. When some channels are blank, Missing listings has the tools: Check for missing TV listings and Match listings (how-to 14b).

A very large guide that keeps stopping part way now carries on where it left off. Each source shows what happened on its last try, and where a download was cut off mid-way the line tells you how much was saved and that the next update continues from there rather than starting again. Some very large feeds take two or three updates to arrive in full on a slow connection; that is normal and it does not mean the address is wrong. Nothing is lost in between, and the saved part is thrown away only if you change or remove the source, or the TV runs genuinely short of storage.

Opening the TV guide pulls the schedule in by itself the first time each session if there isn’t one yet. Routine manual and timed updates live under TV services, so there is only one update process to remember.

Background updates run on any connection, including a 4G router or phone hotspot. If data use matters, lengthen Update every or turn Update automatically off under Settings › TV services › Keeping up to date.

The channel list and the movie and show library never update while you are watching. If an update comes due in the middle of a programme, including the one that follows opening the app, it waits and runs once playback has stopped. The TV guide is still checked on time.

Programme times come from your guide source, not from TiviGlass, and the app shows them in your TV’s own time zone. If everything is out by a whole number of hours, the source is stamping its times against a different zone — that is what Guide time offset is for. Check your TV’s date, time and time zone first, then set the offset to the difference you can see. If it is one or two channels rather than the whole guide, use Channel corrections on those channels instead. Whichever you use, the direction is the same: the guide running behind the real broadcast needs a plus correction to move it forward.

Chapter 4

The player

Opening a guide preview full screen raises picture quality gradually: first the preview limit, then up to 720p after about 20 seconds of uninterrupted playback, then your normal quality setting after another stable 20 seconds. Buffering or pausing restarts the current wait. Your Video quality and Data Saver limits still apply. A channel with only one available quality continues to use it.

The same player handles live TV, movies, shows, catch-up and recordings. Press OK to bring up the controls; they fade away again on their own.

Playback option	How to use it
Guide fullscreen rewind	Guide and Search open the same fullscreen player. Rewind uses the stream’s DVR window, a usable local buffer, or your provider’s archive. Fast-forward and LIVE become available while you are behind live. A channel without any usable rewind source shows Rewind unavailable.
Picture looks too large	While watching, open More → Picture size → Fit to show the whole picture. Fill stretches it; Zoom and Crop remove edges. This changes your default unless this title already has its own picture setting, in which case that setting is updated.
Clock while watching	Open More → Clock. The row shows On or Off; select it to change the setting. On keeps a clock visible when the playback controls disappear. The same option is available on Fire TV and Android TV, including playback opened from the guide.
Wrong or missing listings	While watching a live channel, press OK, then More → Match listings. It opens beside the picture, so you can compare each suggestion’s schedule with what is actually on (how-to 14b).

14b

Match listings: choose where a channel’s listings come from Free

Path: TV guide → hold OK on a channel → Match listings, or while watching → More → Match listings. For every channel at once: Settings › TV guide › Missing listings › Match listings

How

For one channel: hold OK on it in the guide (or on its empty row), or press More while watching it, or open its options in Search, and choose Match listings. The top of the page says where its listings come from now: Chosen by you, Matched by name, From your provider, or No listings and why.
The best matches from your guide sources are listed first, with the closest one highlighted. Move down the list and the panel beside it shows what that entry is showing for the next few hours, and which of your channels already use it, so you can compare it with what is on the channel.
Press OK on the one you want. The guide row fills straight away from the listings already on this TV.
Not in the suggestions? Use All listings to look through every guide entry, Your channels to use the listings another channel in your line-up already has, or the search box. You can type a channel name in any spelling, an id, or a programme you can see on the channel.
For every channel: Settings › TV guide › Missing listings › Match listings lists your channels on the left, starting with the ones that have no listings, and the suggestions for the highlighted one on the right with a score. Press OK on a suggestion and it moves on to the next channel. To take many at once, choose a score and Accept all. More options opens the one-channel page for the highlighted channel.

Good to know

A choice is yours. The automatic matcher leaves it alone from then on, on every TV service update. Use automatic match (shown only when you made the choice) removes your choice and nothing else, and the app matches the channel again by itself straight away. No listings for this channel keeps its row blank on purpose, for a channel the app keeps pairing with the wrong schedule; filling gaps from other services leaves it blank too.

Choosing downloads nothing. The row switches straight away to listings already on this TV. Where another of your guide sources carries the same channel, a few of its times can stand in until the next guide update brings in the source you chose.

Suggestions come first, not a keyboard. They are worked out from the channel’s name. A name too short to compare, such as “T2”, gets no suggestions; search for a programme you can see on it instead, or pick one of your channels that has the same listings. An entry with no listings is marked and listed below the others, and choosing one asks first.

Your other TV services. If another of your services has its own guide source, All my services searches that too. Choosing one of its entries adds that guide source to this service as well, so it keeps itself up to date (it asks first).

Accept all takes each channel’s best suggestion at or above the score you pick, and never a weak one. A very large line-up is checked up to 500 channels at a time; accept those, then open it again for the rest.

A PIN-locked channel is never offered as a source of listings, and a channel hidden from your line-up says so. Guide sources opens the sources of the channel’s own service. Your choices follow your account to your other TVs when Cloud sync is on.

On-screen controls Free

Path: While watching → OK

The controls sit in one band across the bottom of the picture, drawn like the side menu: buttons rest in a quiet fill, the highlighted one turns into the same bright bar the menu uses, and a soft fade above the band keeps it from cutting across the picture. The band uses your theme’s colours, and your player transparency setting (how much of the band’s background is removed) still applies however you opened the player.

How

The band has three rows. The top row says what is on: on live TV a red LIVE mark (or BEHIND LIVE once you have paused or rewound), the channel name and the programme title, with the clock on the right; on a movie or episode, its kind, year, genre and rating, the title and one line of the story. The middle row is where you are: the programme’s start and end, its progress and the minutes left, then what is NEXT; on a movie or episode, the seek bar with the time played and the time left. The bottom row is the buttons. After a channel change the band shows the top two rows only (the channel banner); there is no previous/current/next channel strip.
Choose ⓘ Info to open the full, scrollable programme information: synopsis and any episode, category, year, rating or cast details supplied by the guide. The line under the clock shows the exact resolution the channel is actually sending (for example 1920×1080, not just HD), along with HDR, the video codec and the measured frame rate, then the sound: its format and channel layout, for example DD+ 5.1 or AAC Stereo. If you would rather see a label such as SD, HD, FHD or UHD than the exact size, set Show resolution as (Settings › While watching › Player controls & clock) to Quality label. The Stats overlay adds the deeper read-out: decoder, buffer level, connection speed, the picture’s colour description (bit depth, colour space and HDR type, shown as standard when it is the ordinary case), and an audio output line giving the player’s own volume and whether the sound is being passed through untouched. If you ever report a picture that looks the wrong colour, or sound that stops while the picture keeps playing, a photograph of this overlay usually answers it outright.
Instead of a caption under the buttons, the end of the button row shows which keys do what, drawn as small key caps the way the Customise screens show them: OK with what pressing it now does (Pause, Add to favourites, Programme information and so on), and on live TV ↓ Recently watched. On a movie or episode it shows ↑ Seek bar; on the seek bar, ◀ ▶ Seek, OK to pause or play and ↓ Controls. There is no previous/next episode strip, so use your remote’s Previous / Next keys to move between episodes. Recently watched expands only when opened, giving its cards room without enlarging the controls. While surfing, Up/Down continues changing channels; press Select to activate the controls, then Down to open recent channels. A custom Down action hides this shortcut. In the panel, move left or right, then Select to watch; the highlighted channel turns into the bright bar. The panel shows OK Watch and ↑ Controls; press Up or Back to return without changing channel. Channel names are larger and programme titles have two lines. If the history refreshes while you browse, your highlighted channel stays selected where possible. The panel stays open while you browse. Opening an options panel closes Recently watched and hides the underlying controls until the options panel is dismissed. On touch screens, tap Recently watched at the end of the button row or a channel, and use Back to controls to return.
Move along the button row for the buttons this channel offers. It is deliberately short: rewind, play/pause and fast-forward sit together in one group, then Favourite, Info, Record and More, each with its name on it. A filled star in your theme’s accent colour means the channel is a favourite. Rewind always keeps its place: a line through its icon means there is no usable rewind source, and the key reminder then says Rewind unavailable. Fast-forward and Live (with a red dot) join the group while you are behind the live edge. On a movie or episode the buttons are rewind, play/pause and fast-forward, then Sound, Subtitles and More; Sound looks quieter when the title has only one audio track, and still opens.
More holds playback choices: Sound, subtitles, quality, Switch source when the same channel exists more than once in your playlist, Advanced playback for this item’s picture size, video decoder and external player, the Sleep timer, Stream facts, Diagnostics and Remote controls. On a movie or show it adds Speed.

Good to know

A physical Info button opens the same programme panel when programme details are available; otherwise it keeps showing the existing channel and picture information. The on-screen information action is hidden when the guide supplies nothing beyond a title and time.

Some providers put tonight’s event in the channel name instead of in the guide. TiviGlass still shows that title next to the picture, so you can tell what is on without waiting for the name to scroll. If the name includes a start time, the progress bar uses it; if it does not, the title is shown without a made-up clock.

On a touchscreen, tap the picture to show or hide controls. Double-tap the left or right side to seek a movie by your chosen step or change live channel; drag horizontally to scrub a movie or swipe between live channels. Drag vertically on the left side for brightness or on the right side for volume. A percentage appears while you drag. Leaving playback restores the previous screen brightness, so the rest of the app follows your phone’s normal brightness again. Gestures wait for a clear direction, so a diagonal or ordinary tap does not accidentally adjust playback.

The action row only ever shows what applies to the channel you are on, and moving left or right walks exactly the buttons you can see. If one disappears while it is highlighted — the guide stops supplying details, or a stream you had rewound catches back up to live — the highlight returns to play/pause rather than being left on nothing.

For a live stream that has frozen or keeps buffering, choose More → Reload stream to reconnect the same channel at its live edge. This works from both player screens without changing channel. With Premium, Remote & buttons → Shortcut keys can bind Reload live stream to a spare remote button.

More lists only what this screen can actually do. Watching full screen from the guide opens the same player as Search, including its timeshift controls and More options. Back returns you to the guide.

The recent-channel prompt only appears once you have some viewing history, so a brand-new install won’t show it. How long the controls stay up is yours to set: Settings › While watching › Player controls & clock › Hide player controls after. Back hides the controls first and only leaves the player on a second press.

Sound, subtitles and speed Free

Path: While watching → Menu, or the More button on the controls

How

Choose More → Sound for audio tracks, Fix sound, sound timing and the audio decoder in one place.
The track list shows the languages carried by the stream. The scope note explains whether a language choice is for this title or changes your default.
Fix sound runs the existing sound recovery. Its result distinguishes a selected track from confirmed sound; you still need to listen through your TV or speakers.
Sound timing uses Earlier and Later. Timing and the audio decoder here apply to this item only, where an item is available. Choose Default to follow this TV’s sound settings again.
Other tabs keep Subtitles, Speed, Quality and Picture size together. Speed appears where playback supports it. Advanced playback opens the item-specific picture and player choices.

Good to know

More and playback options open on the right beside the picture. From More → Sound, Back to More returns to the Sound action; the next Back returns to the video. An option opened with a direct shortcut instead offers Back to video. The return button stays below the choices. Switch source, subtitle search, recording options and the channel list also open as panels on the right. Remote controls is in More. Set defaults once instead of choosing every time: Settings › Picture & sound › Sound › Default audio language, and Settings › Subtitles › Turning subtitles on › Subtitles on by default and Default subtitle language.

Subtitles the stream doesn’t carry Free

Path: Menu → Subtitles → Search subtitles… / Load file…

How

Search subtitles lists matching files online; choose the one to attach.
If it finds the wrong title or nothing at all, choose Search by title. Enter the movie or show name, and optionally both season and episode for a show. This search replaces the service’s match. Use service match returns to automatic lookup.
Load file attaches a subtitle file from the device.
Turn on Settings › Subtitles › Finding subtitles online › Search online automatically to have it happen without asking.

Good to know

Subtitle search is free. You can link an OpenSubtitles account for better limits, and prefer hearing-impaired (SDH) results. If a subtitle drifts, there are two different controls and they are not interchangeable. For a subtitle you searched for or loaded from a file, use the Sync −0.5s / Sync +0.5s / Reset sync buttons in the Subtitles section of the player’s track picker (press More, then Subtitles). They move that one subtitle either way, up to 30 seconds, they take effect straight away, and they are free on every plan. For a subtitle that came inside the stream itself — broadcast captions, DVB subtitles, or a track built into an HLS channel — there are no Sync buttons, because the file those buttons rewrite does not exist; use Subtitle delay under Settings › Subtitles › Size, look & timing instead. That one holds a subtitle back by up to two seconds. It only goes one way on purpose: a subtitle that has not arrived yet cannot be shown earlier than it arrives, so it can fix a subtitle running ahead of the speech and cannot fix one running behind. It is part of Advanced playback, so it needs Essentials or Premium.

Search subtitles is offered on movies and shows, because a live channel has no single film to look up. Load file is offered on movies, shows and live channels. Neither appears while you are watching Catch-Up or a recording: those have no separate identity to save a subtitle against, so a subtitle saved there would show up on the whole channel instead.

Picture quality and shape Free

Path: Q for quality, A for aspect ratio

Good to know

The information bar also carries what the stream itself is: its resolution, HDR, the video codec, the measured frame rate, the sound’s format and channel layout (DD+ 5.1, AAC Stereo), and the video and audio bitrate where the provider declares them. Plenty of live streams declare no bitrate at all, and in that case the badge is simply left out rather than showing a zero. The sound badge describes what the channel sends, not what your speakers play: a 5.1 channel on a TV with stereo speakers still reads 5.1.

Show resolution as (Settings › While watching › Player controls & clock) picks between the exact size (1920×1080, the default) and a quality label (FHD). The label goes by the width as well as the height, so a film cropped to 1920×800 still reads FHD. The choice follows your account to your other TVs when Cloud sync is on.

Keep a clock on screen (Settings › While watching › Player controls & clock) shows the time in the top corner for as long as something is playing, instead of only while the information bar is up. It uses the 12 or 24 hour Time format set on the same page, which is the same setting as the one on Look & feel. To protect your screen, the clock drifts by a few millimetres every minute rather than sitting in exactly the same spot — anything left in one place for hours can mark an OLED panel, so it is never still for long enough to leave a trace. The movement is slow and small enough that you will not catch it happening.

How

Q lists the stream’s quality variants.
A cycles through picture shapes when a channel is letterboxed or stretched.
For permanent defaults use Settings › Picture & sound › Picture.
To change the shape for one channel or one film only, open More → Advanced playback → This channel (or This movie / This episode) and pick an aspect there.
If the black bars are part of the picture your provider sends, the shape options cannot help — they scale the bars up too. Use a Crop choice instead: Crop to 2.35:1 for widescreen films, or Crop 5% / 10% / 15% to trim a little off every edge.

Good to know

Automatic Use less data is recommended for unstable connections. TiviGlass keeps full quality while the connection is healthy, then lowers adaptive-stream quality in steps when repeated stalls show the link cannot sustain it. Always on deliberately selects the lowest available variant.

Once a channel has its own picture shape, A changes that channel’s shape rather than your global default — so the button always changes what you can see. Everything else keeps following the default until you say otherwise.

Cropping always loses some of the picture. Filling a normal TV with a widescreen film means the left and right edges go off the screen; that is the trade for losing the black bars. The A button skips the Crop choices, so it stays a safe thing to press blind — pick a crop from the menu, and pick Fit there to undo it.

Pause and rewind live TV Essentials

Path: Settings › While watching › Pause & rewind live TV

Opening a live channel from the TV guide, Search or a reminder uses the same fullscreen player and controls. Your entry point only changes where Back returns and which channel order you browse. Rewind and fast-forward work directly from guide playback when the channel has a provider DVR window, a usable local buffer or provider catch-up. Rewind is always visible, with a line through the icon while unavailable. It becomes usable as soon as a DVR window, local buffer or provider archive is ready; Forward appears once you are timeshifting. Provider archive rewind can go back before you started watching, within the service's archive limits. The local buffer holds only what this TV has buffered since tuning in; it cannot recover earlier television. Changing profile discards a live channel that was still opening for the previous viewer. Enable local buffering under Settings › While watching › Pause & rewind live TV. Channel up/down keeps the guide's displayed order, and Back returns to the guide. Channel up and down never stop to ask: they step over any channel that would ask for a PIN or an age confirmation, and the banner says how many they skipped. Choosing such a channel yourself still asks first, however you opened the player: from the channel list, by typing its number, with Last channel, from Recently watched or from Sources, including a copy of the channel on another of your TV services. The PIN keypad also takes your remote’s number keys, and Back or Cancel keeps you on the channel you were watching. Playing a recording of a locked channel asks the same way. Movies and programmes opened from Catch Up already have their own seek controls.

How

Turn on the timeshift buffer and choose a size.
While watching live, Pause holds the picture and Rewind goes back through the available history.
Live (with a red dot) in the controls returns you to the live edge. While you are behind, the band says BEHIND LIVE and its bar shows where you are, with how far behind live you are beside it.

Good to know

Rewinding into your provider’s own archive is free — it’s the on-device buffer that needs a paid plan. The buffer is marked experimental and uses storage while it runs, so leave it off if space is tight.

The local buffer rolls as you watch. Supported transport streams share one live connection with the recorder in both guide preview and fullscreen. Local capture stops when playback is sent to the background with Home; ordinary live viewing can continue if recording permission is removed. Rewind waits for new recorded data without jumping live, and an explicit pause stays paused. Turning the local buffer off, or losing access to that paid feature, restores the live source while keeping your play/pause choice; a paused viewer must press Play to continue. If space cannot be freed safely, capture stops to preserve your position and the controls explain why. The chosen duration is limited by available storage and the stream’s bitrate. Choose Where paused TV is kept in the same Settings section to use app storage or a connected USB / SD drive. Use Refresh storage list after connecting a drive. This choice belongs to this device and applies to the next viewing session; it does not move existing history or travel with a profile or backup. If the selected drive is unavailable or has too little free space, live viewing continues with an explanation that local capture could not start. TiviGlass never silently switches to another drive. Opening the playing guide preview in fullscreen, then returning with Back or the TV guide action, keeps the live session, local rewind history and your play/pause choice. Changing channel in fullscreen returns that channel to the guide. If the handoff has expired, playback has failed, or access has changed, the channel may need to start again. Leaving for another section can discard local history. Provider archive playback follows its separate catch-up journey. A provider DVR window and a provider archive have their own retention limits.

See what’s really happening Free

Path: S for stats, P for a screenshot

From the full player or the fullscreen TV guide player, open More → Stream facts. Choose it again to hide the panel. The Colour row reports declared bit depth, colour space, transfer and range. Unknown means the stream did not provide that fact; it does not establish 8-bit SDR. The panel appears immediately and says Waiting for playback details until the player reports its first sample. Channels without guide information and audio-only streams can still show the facts they provide.

How

S overlays the codec, resolution, measured frame rate, buffer level and connection speed.
P saves a still of what’s on screen.

Good to know

The stats overlay is the first thing to check when a channel stutters — it separates “the stream is thin” (buffer emptying) from “this device can’t decode it” (frame rate far below the stream’s).

When a stream misbehaves Free

Path: Player controls → More → Switch source / Also showing on…

How

If the same channel exists more than once in your playlist, More → Switch source hops to another copy.
Turn on Try another copy of the channel to have it happen automatically.
Reconnect when playback stops plus Reconnect attempts control how hard TiviGlass retries. An occasional live HTTP 403 is retried once with a clean stream session before TiviGlass asks you to intervene. With Reconnect when playback stops on, which it is by default, a stream that was already playing and is then answered with a web page instead of video also gets one retry, after a short wait, because that is usually your provider still counting the connection that just dropped. If the page comes back, TiviGlass stops and says so.

Good to know

All three live in Settings › While watching, under When a channel stutters and When a channel fails · Fusion. Together with Merge duplicate channels (Channels & groups › Duplicate channels) they turn a provider’s five copies of one channel into one entry with four fallbacks.

Chapter 5

Movies and Shows

One line above the library says where you are (for example Movies › All movies) and holds Sort, Filters and Library settings. Filters shows the number of active choices. With more than one TV service, the same line starts with In and the service you are browsing; select it to pick another service, or Manage services at the end of that list. In the side panel layout, Filters is also a button at the top of the groups panel. On a movie’s page the actions run down the right-hand side, with Play or Resume first. On a show, Reload episodes is beside the episode controls. On phones and tablets, the visible Options (…) button on a card opens the same menu as holding OK on TV.

On a TV, Movies shows a panel beside the posters. The posters are smaller, with one line of title each, so more fit on screen, and the panel on the right describes the highlighted film once the highlight stops moving: its year, rating, running time and genres, whether it is in your favourites or watchlist or part-watched, and the plot when the film’s details are already on the TV (the panel never asks your TV service for them, so a film you have never opened shows no plot until you do). Press OK on a poster to move into the panel and reach its actions: Open details, Play or Resume, Add to favourites, Add to watchlist and Add to groups. The first action is what OK used to do, so pressing OK twice opens the film. Right from the last poster in a row, or the end of a rail, also reaches the panel, and Left or Back returns to the poster. To open a title with one press instead, set Settings › Movies & shows › Browsing › Select on a poster to Opens the title; the panel is still there, and Right still reaches it. On a phone, a tablet or a narrow screen there is no panel, and each tile keeps a two-line title with the year and a rating out of five.

Shows has the same panel. It describes the highlighted show: its year, rating and genres, whether it is in your favourites or watchlist, which episode you are up to and how much of it is left, and its description. Its actions are Open show, Resume for a show you are part-way through, Add to favourites, Add to watchlist and Add to groups. On a Continue watching tile they are Resume, Open show and Remove from Continue watching. OK works the same way as in Movies: it moves into the panel, and OK again opens the show or, on a Continue watching tile, carries on watching.

Poster tiles keep space around the title. Extra genre and guessed quality badges have been removed from the grid. TV-service and platform badges have their own space beside any watched or play indicator. Ordinary browse tiles open the title’s details; a play symbol appears on Continue watching tiles because selecting those starts playback. Hold Select for the action shown in the shared hint area.

To take something off Continue watching, hold Select on its tile and choose Remove. Removing a show in Shows takes it off Continue watching on Home too. Playing it again puts it back.

Both sections work the same way: filters run across the top, groups use either the horizontal pill row or the optional left sidebar, and holding OK on any poster opens its actions.

The toolbar line above the posters shows the category or collection you are browsing, with how many titles it holds for a list TiviGlass has in full (Favourites, History). It stays steady as you move between titles.

To sort a category: select Sort in the toolbar line. It shows the current order, with a downward arrow to change it; on narrow screens the buttons sit directly below the category name. Choose A–Z, Z–A, Recently added, Oldest added, Highest rated, Popular, Most watched by me or Most watched on TiviGlass, then Done. Sorting is free, applies to the category’s paged catalogue and is remembered separately for Movies and Shows. The date choices use when your provider added a title, not its cinema release date. Sorting also works in All titles, All TV services and Watchlist. Favourites and custom groups retain their arranged order; History and Recently added keep their own chronological order, while Trending keeps its discovery order.

What the rankings mean: Highest rated uses your provider’s ratings. Popular uses TMDB popularity, which is a discovery score, not a viewing count. Most watched by me counts a minute of advancing playback once per movie or episode session in the built-in player, for the current profile on this device; old history and external-player sessions cannot be counted retrospectively. Series totals combine qualifying episode sessions. Most watched on TiviGlass uses optional contributions from participating signed-in accounts over the last 30 days, with one contribution per account/title/day and at least five contributors before a title appears. It is not a worldwide audience chart. Missing data appears after ranked titles. Popularity and community metadata update in batches of up to 20: use Refresh ranking data to check more titles. Large catalogues may remain partially ranked.

Sharing is optional: under Sort → Most watched on TiviGlass, Share viewing counts is off by default for each profile on each device. Turning it on shares known movie or series TMDB IDs linked to your account for deduplication; provider credentials, provider names and playback positions are not sent. Only aggregate counts are shown. Turn it off to stop future contributions; existing contributions expire within 30 days. Clearing watch history also resets personal watch counts for that scope. Personal counts and this preference are removed from this device on account sign-out or profile deletion.

Find your next watch: All movies and All shows can show Because you watched …, based on recent viewing in that TV source. Detail pages offer More like …; for shows, choose More like this below the seasons (on a phone or tablet, beside Episodes directly below the title details). Switching back preserves your season and episode-list position. Select a suggestion to open its details. Suggestions are an ordinary row of posters under a heading that says why they were picked. Rows contain available, unlocked titles and explain whether suggestions come from TMDB or similar genres. Local matching compares genre combinations across categories and works offline; a shared category or high rating alone does not qualify a title. Rows may show fewer suggestions when there are few close matches. Hidden and adult categories are excluded; if no suitable matches exist, the row stays out of the way. These rows do not change a category’s chosen order.

Browse the library Free

Path: Sidebar → Movies (or Shows)

A movie’s page puts the film across the top: its poster (with how far through it you are along the bottom), year, rating, running time, genres, whether it is in your favourites or watchlist, and the start of the plot. Its actions run down the right: Play, or Resume with the time left, then Play from start once you have started it, Watch the trailer when your service supplies one, Sources for a Stremio title, and Add to favourites and Add to watchlist. The page opens on the first action. When the plot is longer than four lines, Read the full story at the end of the actions opens the whole text; use Page up, Page down and Close, just like episode descriptions in Shows. Cast and More like this are rows underneath. On a phone or a narrow screen the actions sit under the poster instead.

How

Pick Favourites, Watchlist or History, or browse All movies / All shows, provider categories, your custom groups and All TV services — from the groups panel beside the menu. Surprise me and Filters sit at its top and Edit groups at its bottom, so nothing is behind a tab. Switch back to Browse to return to your previous group position. Choose Horizontal pills in Settings › Home & menu › How each section opens › Group list layout to put them back in the filter and group rows above the posters instead.
Press OK on a poster for its detail page, or Right from the last poster in a row for its actions in the panel.
Keep scrolling — more pages load as you reach the end.

Good to know

Set Movie & show poster size under Settings › Look & feel › Size & screen, or Settings › Movies & shows › Browsing (the same setting), to Small, Medium or Large. It applies consistently to All, Favourites and Watchlist, so smaller covers fit more titles on screen and larger covers are easier to see.

The detail page shows the plot, cast, rating and, where the provider supplies one, a Watch the trailer action that opens YouTube or your browser.

Choose Movies opens to and Shows opens to under Settings › Home & menu › How each section opens to start on All, Last used group, Favourites, All TV services, Watchlist, History or Recently added whenever you select that section. Last used group reopens the category, folder or list you were browsing last time, remembered for each profile and each TV service, including after a restart. A category that no longer exists opens All instead, and a PIN-protected category asks for the PIN first. Picking All TV services is how you keep one TV service for live channels and another for films and shows without switching service every time: the section opens on the merged library and stays there. Backing out of a title still returns to the list and position you came from.

You don’t need to load the library yourself. Movies and Shows fill in on their own once a playlist becomes active, and refresh in the background on the same schedule as your channels and guide. The first load on a large provider can take a couple of minutes — the screen says “Loading your movie library…” while it works, and the posters appear as soon as it finishes. There is nothing to press and you can leave the screen; it carries on in the background.

The Recently added filter reads the real newest dated titles across the whole library, not just the first alphabetical page. If an older saved catalogue has no dates yet, use the refresh button offered on that empty screen. Sources that do not publish catalogue dates cannot populate the filter.

If the library itself ever comes up empty, there is a Load movies (or Load shows) button right on that screen, and Refresh movies / Refresh shows under Settings › Movies & shows. They are not offered for a TV service you have set to bring in live TV only. Some playlists carry no library at all — an M3U list or a live-only line — and TiviGlass will say so rather than leave you waiting.

Shows, seasons and episodes Free

Path: Shows → a series

On a TV, a show opens on one screen and nothing scrolls away. The show sits across the top: its poster, rating, year, genre and number of seasons, whether it is in your favourites or watchlist, which episode you are up to, and the start of its description. Its actions run down the right: Continue (with the time left), Trailer when your service supplies one, Add to favourites, Add to watchlist, Random episode, and Read the full story when the description does not fit.

Underneath are three columns. Seasons is on the left, with a tick beside a season you have finished. The middle column lists that season’s episodes, each with its number, a picture, its title, its length and how much is left. On the right is a panel for the highlighted episode, which catches up once the highlight stops moving. The show opens on the episode you were watching last, or the first episode of the season. Press Right to use the panel: Resume or Play, Play from start, Mark as watched or Mark as unwatched, and Episode details when the description is long. Left or Back returns to the episode. From the episodes, Left moves to the seasons, and with several seasons Back does too; press Back again to leave the show. More like this and Cast are below the seasons in the same column, and Reload episodes is above the episode list. Holding OK on an episode still opens its options.

On a phone or tablet, or a screen too small for the columns, the page scrolls instead. The show artwork and cast scroll away as you browse, giving the episodes the full page, and the season selector stays at the top of the list. Each episode has a separate row with its title, duration and watch progress. Choose the three-dot Options button beside a row (or touch and hold the episode) to start over or mark it watched or unwatched. The episode’s description is shown at the top of those options, and a long one opens in full with Episode details, which returns you to the options when you close it. Up and Down scroll a long description. With several seasons, Back from an episode returns to the season selector; press Back again to leave the show.

Movie and show details display the cast when your service supplies it. Choose a cast name to browse matching Movies and Shows in that TV source, then open a title’s details. Use Next page and Previous page to see more. Matches use cast information imported with your library or loaded when you open a title’s details; titles without saved cast information cannot appear. Hidden or locked categories are excluded.

How

Pick a season, then an episode.
Inside the player, your remote’s Previous / Next (skip) keys move between episodes; Auto-play next episode carries on for you.
Mark episodes watched or unwatched from the episode list.

Good to know

Turn on Auto-play next episode (Settings › Movies & shows › Resume & history) to binge without touching the remote. Continue where you stopped in the same place decides whether TiviGlass asks, always resumes, or always starts over. With Ask, the Resume and Start over choice appears before the video starts loading. If the saved position cannot load, you can choose the beginning without waiting for a picture.

Favourites, watchlist and history Free

Path: Hold OK on any movie or show

How

The menu separates Save, Remove and Arrange so opposite actions are not mixed together.
Favourite pins it to the Favourites chip and Home rail.
Watchlist is your “get to it later” queue.
Mark as watched / unwatched corrects the progress state; Add to groups files it into a custom group.

Good to know

A safe Save choice receives focus first. Remove choices sit in their own final group, and Close stays pinned. All of this is per profile. Turn on Favourites from every TV service (Settings › Channels & groups › Favourites) to see favourites from every playlist in one list rather than only the active one.

If a playlist disappears and comes back, your favourites come back with it. When a playlist is removed by something other than you — switched off in your account on the website, signed out of, or removed on another TV — your favourites, watchlist, history and reminders for it are kept aside rather than deleted. Add that playlist again, or switch it back on, and they reattach on their own. Only removing a playlist yourself, with Remove this service in TV services, clears them for good.

Filters and categories Premium

Path: Movies / Shows → Filters

How

Open Filters to go straight to its filtering options, or use the visible Sort control above the posters to change category order. Display holds the duplicate-title options.
Narrow by genre, tag or streaming platform, then choose the duplicate-title display you prefer.
Manage which categories exist at all in Settings › Movies & shows, with Manage movie categories and Manage show categories. Hide movie categories by name and Hide show categories by name sit beside them.
Hold OK on a category chip to open its separate Category and Titles options.

Good to know

Browsing the catalogue is always free — only the filter controls are Premium. Hiding or resetting a category asks for confirmation; a locked category asks for the parental PIN before it opens.

Trending Premium

Path: Movies / Shows → Trending, and the Home “Trending now” rail

How

Select the Trending chip.
Pick a title; TiviGlass finds it in your own playlist and plays it from there.

Good to know

Trending is a view of what’s popular right now, matched against your catalogue — if a title isn’t in your playlist, TiviGlass says so rather than failing silently.

Tidy up messy channel and title names Premium

Path: Settings › Channels & groups › Clean up names › Tidy all channel names; or hold OK on a group in the guide → Auto-rename channels; Movies / Shows → category menu → auto-rename

How

For channel names like T1 | CA: TSN1, use Tidy all channel names under Settings › Channels & groups › Clean up names. It learns your provider’s own habits — a tier or package tag at the front, a country code, a [VIP] or quality tag — and strips them, leaving TSN1. To clean one group only, hold OK on the group in the guide and choose Auto-rename channels. That covers every channel the group is showing you, including ones your provider also lists in another group and ones you moved in yourself.
For movie and show titles, run the auto-rename on a category full of provider prefixes and tags from its category menu, or tidy every category name at once with Tidy movie category names and Tidy show category names under Settings › Movies & shows › Clean up names.
Review the result — it reports how many names it changed.
Restore the originals from the same place if you don’t like it: Restore all channel names in Settings, or the group or category menu.

Good to know

Renames are overlays, so a catalogue refresh never undoes them and restoring always brings the provider’s original name back untouched. A name you typed yourself is never overwritten by the auto-rename. Group names have their own pair of buttons beside these (Tidy all group names / Restore all group names).

Stremio sources. As well as an IPTV provider, TiviGlass can use Stremio addons — the same open HTTP(S) addon protocol Stremio uses. Android keeps apps’ data separate, so TiviGlass cannot automatically read addons already installed in the separate Stremio app: explicitly choose an optional quick-add preset or supply the same addon manifest URLs yourself, along with your own debrid subscription if the addons you choose need one. Movie, series and custom on-demand catalogues appear under Movies or Shows; addons that publish TV/channel catalogues can also populate Live TV. Zero Live TV channels is therefore normal for a movie/show-only Stremio source and is not treated as a failed connection: Live TV says so in plain words and offers a shortcut to Movies rather than asking you to check a connection that is working. A Stremio source still has no guide or Catch Up unless that information comes from a separate TV source.

27b

Add a Stremio source Premium

Path: Settings › TV services › Your TV services › Add a TV service → Stremio addons

How

Give it a friendly name.
For the standard Torrentio setup, select Add Torrentio. This is opt-in and adds its default manifest URL to the form. You can instead paste one or more addon manifest URLs, one URL per line. Do not split on commas: configured addon paths often contain commas themselves.
Choose a debrid account — None, Real-Debrid, Premiumize, AllDebrid, Debrid-Link, EasyDebrid, Offcloud, TorBox or Put.io — and enter its API key or OAuth token. Choosing a provider without entering its key is refused here rather than failing silently at playback.
Select Continue. The test checks every addon URL and names any that did not answer, then Add and import confirms.

Good to know

Cinemeta, the official movie and show catalogue, is installed for you. Torrentio is an optional community stream addon and is checked like any manually entered manifest before TiviGlass saves it. The default Torrentio preset contains no debrid credential; choose a debrid account in TiviGlass if its torrent results need resolving. Direct HTTP media plays in TiviGlass; YouTube and external-link results open the appropriate app or page. Per-stream headers and addon-provided subtitles are applied automatically. Your API key or OAuth token is encrypted on the device, like every other credential.

27c

Manage addons and debrid Premium

Path: Settings › TV services › Guide sources & addons › Stremio addons & debrid

Paste addon URLs from your phone: Open the existing Stremio source’s Addons sheet and choose Enter addon URLs on phone. Scan the secure one-time QR code, paste the configured URLs, and send them back. Review the URLs on the TV, then select Add addons. Use one URL per line; commas and case-sensitive tokens are preserved. The phone fills the draft and does not install anything until you confirm. Existing source and debrid settings are kept. If an addon fails, the URLs stay for retry and any addons already saved remain installed. A new Stremio source also offers Enter on phone during setup.

How

Under Quick add, select Add Torrentio to install its default manifest, or use Add by URL for any addon.
Select an add-on row to turn it On or Off without removing it.
Choose Options for the grouped Status, Order and Remove choices; Move earlier/later sets the order used when finding streams.
Change the debrid provider or save a new API key or OAuth token from the top of the same dialog.

Good to know

Adding, removing, turning off or reordering an add-on rebuilds this source’s catalogues on its own — a short update runs a couple of seconds after your last change, or straight away when you close the dialog, and a new add-on’s films, series and any TV channels appear when it finishes. Removing an add-on now asks for confirmation. Stremio addons & debrid keeps a Stremio service’s addons and its connected debrid account together; searching Settings for any supported debrid provider — including Real-Debrid, Premiumize, AllDebrid, Debrid-Link, EasyDebrid, Offcloud, TorBox and Put.io — jumps straight to TV services. TiviGlass reads the addon’s manifest as you add it, so a URL that isn’t a real addon is refused straight away instead of quietly doing nothing. Addon links copied without a scheme default to secure HTTPS, and signed configuration parameters after ? are kept on manifest, catalogue, metadata, stream and subtitle requests. Search covers Stremio sources too — results open the normal detail page and play exactly like a browsed title.

You can also manage a Stremio source from your account portal on a phone or computer: open Playlists, choose Stremio, and paste one manifest URL per line. Each URL is checked before it saves, an add-on you switched off on the TV stays off, and your debrid key is kept unless you type a replacement. While TiviGlass is open and connected, saved account-source changes start a sync automatically. A large source may still take time to import; the update progress shows that separately. A TV that was offline catches up when it reconnects or you open the app again.

27d

Choose which source plays Premium

Path: Movies / Shows → a title → Sources

Switch between Stremio and your IPTV provider: when more than one source is available, Home has a TV source row, and Movies and Shows have an In button in their toolbar line naming the source you are browsing. Select a source to change catalogue while staying in the same section. The selected source is highlighted or ticked. Per-section default sources remain available in Settings › TV services › Which service each section uses.

How

Press Play to let TiviGlass pick the best source by itself.
Or select Sources — on a show, selecting an episode opens the same list — to see every stream your enabled addons returned.
Each row shows the addon it came from, the file size and the quality, best first.
Select the one you want.

Good to know

The title shows the number of sources returned, so you can tell at a glance how many choices were found. CACHED means it is already sitting on your debrid account and will start almost instantly. NEEDS DEBRID needs a configured debrid key; OPENS APP is a standard YouTube or external-link result. Once you pick a source for one episode, TiviGlass prefers the same release for the next one, so a binge stays consistent. If the list is empty, the addons you installed provide catalogues but no streams — add a stream addon in 27c.

Chapter 6

Search and the Sports Hub

On a TV, Search shows your results on the left and the highlighted result on the right: what it is, whether it is already in your favourites, watchlist or groups, what is on now and next for a channel, a show’s description, and everything you can do with it. Press Right to reach those actions, and Left or Back to come back to the same result. On phones and tablets there is no panel: each result has a … button for its actions instead. Sports and Kids hero controls scroll when space is short; automatic spotlight changes pause while any hero control has focus and stop when Reduced motion is enabled.

Search everything at once Free

Path: Sidebar → Search

How

Type at least two characters, or select Speak to search to use your voice. The microphone only appears if your TV has a speech service installed. Wherever the TV has one, TiviGlass listens itself rather than handing you over to the TV’s assistant (on Google TV boxes such as Chromecast and onn. the assistant takes the words for itself and never passes them back), so it asks once for microphone access the first time you press it and a small Listening panel shows what it hears. If it opens and hears nothing, or the speech service fails, TiviGlass says so instead of leaving you looking at an unchanged screen. The same microphone sits beside the Settings search box as Speak a setting.
Choose which TV services to search with In … at the end of the filters: your current service by name, All TV services, or another named service. Selecting a named source only changes Search; it does not switch the service you are watching.
Use All, Channels, Programmes, Movies or Shows to narrow the results. Channels and programmes have separate choices, and each filter shows its result count.
Press Right on a result to reach its actions beside the list. Something you can watch now starts with Watch now, and a film or show with Open details; a programme still to come starts with recording and reminders. The guide, favourites and groups follow. On touch screens use the result’s … button; holding OK or pressing MENU opens the same actions as a menu. Add to groups adds that channel even when you found it through a programme. Tick the groups and choose Done to return to the actions.
Movie and show options also offer Add to groups. You can make a New group from that page, then return without leaving your results.
Show in guide opens the result’s playlist and channel; for a programme it also goes to that programme’s time. Back returns to Search and the result you opened.

Good to know

Live, Movie and Show groups are kept separate, and each can contain matching items from different playlists, so the same quick action works in All TV services without switching your active provider. The same menu also carries the relevant favourite and watchlist actions. Creating a new custom group requires Premium; any groups you already have remain editable. Guide results cover roughly the next two weeks, so searching a film name will find the broadcast as well as the on-demand copy. Recent searches are kept so repeat lookups are one press. The current TV service / All TV services choice is remembered too, on this device, so if you search across everything you only have to say so once — it is still there next time you open Search, and after a restart. A particular named playlist is kept for this Search visit.

A guide result does everything the guide does. Open one and you get the same Watch and Record actions as holding OK on it in the TV guide — record it, schedule it, set a Series Link, set or cancel a reminder, add the channel to Multi-view, and watch a finished programme from catch-up where your provider carries it. A live channel result offers Record live and Multi-view the same way. Actions your provider or your box cannot do are not shown at all; actions your plan does not include are greyed with the plan they need.

Every result is organisable, whichever playlist it came from. Favourites, watchlist and groups work on a film or show found in another TV service exactly as they do on one from the service you are watching — the menu acts on the item’s own provider, so nothing is switched behind your back.

Typing never blanks the screen. While a new search runs, the results you already have stay where they are, with a thin line moving above them, until the new ones arrive; the filters keep their place too. If a search is still going after ten seconds, a strip above the results says so, with Try again. The keyboard opens by itself when you first open Search. After you have moved away from the search box, coming back to it does not throw the keyboard up again: press OK on the box to type.

Leaving a result and coming back keeps your place. Play a channel, open a film, open a show, or jump to the TV guide from a result, and Back brings you straight back to the same search: the same text, the same source choice, the same filter, any group you had expanded with Show all, the same position in the list, and the same result under the highlight. The keyboard is not reopened over the top of it. Only when there is nothing to come back to does the cursor start in the search box again.

Searching all TV services includes your current service. It always includes the service you are watching, plus every other service the current profile may use. If one service cannot be reached, the results from the others still appear and a strip above them names the service that failed, with Try again — a single unreachable provider no longer empties the whole screen. And if nothing can be searched at all, TiviGlass says which it is rather than reporting no matches: no TV service has been added yet — with an Add a TV service button right there — or this profile is not allowed to browse any of them.

Different channels come before repeats of the same one. Many providers carry one brand several times over — an HD copy, a 4K copy, a backup feed. Searching the brand shows you each distinct channel first, and the extra copies of one you have already been offered below them, so a name like “ESPNEWS” is not pushed off the end of the list by four more copies of “ESPN”. Nothing is removed: the group heading counts every match, and Show all opens the lot.

An All TV services search shares the list fairly. Results from every service are ranked together, so one large provider cannot fill the screen and leave a smaller one with nothing.

Channels you have hidden are not searched, because hiding one takes it out of your line-up and results are a line-up. If a search found nothing except hidden channels, it says so rather than reporting no matches, so an empty result reads as your own setting rather than a search that lost channels. Bring them back in Channels & groups, where hidden channels and groups stay listed, dimmed, and OK switches them back on (how-to 13).

If the selected playlist has no matches, Search all TV services broadens the search. If a selected content type is empty but another has results, Show all matches brings them back. Search actions, group editing and guide matching open as pages; Back returns to the preceding page.

Live sport at a glance Essentials

Path: Sidebar → Sports Hub

Everything that shapes the hub sits on one bar under the featured match: Today and Tomorrow, All sport, My teams once you follow someone, a chip for each sport in your guide, Find and Customise Sports. Choose a sport and its competitions appear on a second line underneath, so you can narrow Football to the Premier League in two presses. All competitions clears it; changing sport, day, viewer or source resets it. Football recognises EPL/Premier League, EFL, SPFL, MLS and Champions League. Competitions appear only when the guide supplies matching listings.

Find opens a search box that filters the matches by words in the guide title, description or channel name. It only browses and creates no recording rule. Choose Find again (it then reads Close find) to clear it.

Hold OK on any match, or choose More under the featured one, for its options: watch or remind, Follow either side or the competition, Record every match of a team you follow, Hide that sport, or open Customise Sports.

How

Move through Your teams, Live now, Starting soon, Tomorrow’s matches and Recently finished.
The hero at the top follows whatever you have focused.
Filter by day, sport or competition on the bar under the hero. Darts has its own filter when your guide contains darts or PDC events.
Press OK to watch, or set a reminder for a fixture that hasn’t started.

Good to know

Turn on Hide sports scores (in Customise Sports › Options) to hide scores until you choose to see them. Fixtures are read out of your guide data, so how much detail appears depends on how good your EPG source is — and on a very large channel list the first visit takes a while to read through it all. Matches appear as they are found rather than all at once, and the heading says “Still searching your guide” until the sweep is done, so you can start watching before it finishes.

On capable devices the hero plays the match behind it. While the hub is showing its own pick it plays with sound; as soon as you focus a match card the hero follows your focus and goes silent, so arrowing along the rails never starts audio you did not ask for. It also waits for your focus to settle for about a second before changing channel, so moving quickly through a rail does not tune every match you pass. Press OK to watch a match properly.

Customise Sports and follow your teams Essentials

Path: Sports Hub → Customise Sports · or Settings › Home & menu › Menu entries › Customise Sports

Customise Sports is the one place the Sports Hub is managed, laid out like Customise Home and Channels & groups: tabs down the left edge that say what OK does (Left reaches them from anywhere in the list), then the list, a preview of what it changes on the right, and the keys along the bottom. Every change is saved as you make it.

How

My sports: press OK to show or hide a sport. The preview shows today’s matches and the competitions found for it.
Arrange: press OK to pick a sport up, move it with Up and Down (Left for the top, Right for the bottom) and OK to put it down. The bar and rows follow this order.
My teams: every team, player and competition in your guide is listed, so there is nothing to type. Press OK to follow one. Following is free: their matches get a star, a Your teams row at the top of the hub, and come first in every list.
With a followed team focused, press Right for Record every match, which records each of their matches by itself when it is in the guide.
Options: Hide sports scores (with an example of what it hides) and Sports in the menu.

Good to know

You can also follow straight from a match: hold OK on it and choose Follow. Teams are read from the match’s title or, when the guide puts them there instead, its subtitle, so an NFL listing such as NFL Football with Kansas City Chiefs at Buffalo Bills underneath offers both teams. American football, basketball, baseball and ice hockey listings written as Team at Team or Team @ Team are understood; in other sports at usually names a venue, so only v, vs and @ count there. Stopping following a team also stops recording its matches. Record every match uses the same engine as Series Links, so recordings land in the normal Recordings section and obey your storage limits, and it needs a plan that includes recording. Hidden sports disappear from the hub, the bar and Home’s Live sport row; saved reminders still go off. Your sports are saved for this profile on this TV service; the teams you follow go with your profile to every TV service, and both travel with cloud sync.

Chapter 7

Multi-view and Catch Up

Guide listings are cached within a storage budget. TiviGlass can trim optional old or distant listings and fetch missing windows when you open them, where your guide source still provides that day. Current programmes and recording/reminder references are preserved. The database file may keep freed space for reuse.

Watch up to four channels Premium

Path: Sidebar → Multi-view

The panes take most of the screen, and a bar along the bottom holds everything else. Its top line names the pane you are on (Pane 2 of 4), whether it has the sound, and what is on it now, from your guide; a pane with no guide shows its channel’s name, and a locked channel’s programme is never shown there. The clock sits on the right, with one line about provider connections under it. Its buttons are Layout (with the arrangement in use beside it), Channels, Live sport, Presets and Full screen. Each pane shows its number and channel name in its top corner, clear of the subtitles. While your channels load, shimmering panes follow your selected layout, with the bar in its usual place.

Changing a pane’s channel: focus a tile and press Select (on a touch screen, tap the pane). That opens a chooser aimed at that pane and titled Change pane N’s channel, with a small drawing of your layout that lights the pane you are filling — your other panes keep playing, and picking a channel swaps just that one. Hold Select instead to watch that pane full screen. The helper line at the very bottom of the screen says what Select and Hold Select do on the pane you are on.

Mix TV services: Open Channels or Change channel on a pane. Choose a TV service at the top of the group chooser, then choose a group and a channel or its programme cell. You can use a different provider for each pane; changing the service in this picker keeps your other panes playing and leaves your main TV service unchanged. All channels searches the selected service’s available line-up. Back to groups returns to the group chooser; its Cancel button closes the picker. This works for adding tiles and replacing one tile. Show hidden groups remains optional, and individually hidden channels remain excluded.

How

Press Down from the panes to reach the bar along the bottom, then open Channels. Press OK on a channel to put it in the mosaic, and OK again on a ticked one to take it out — the same list does both. Pressing OK on an empty tile opens it too.
Pick an arrangement with the Layout button: Side by side, Stacked, Big top + two, Big left + two, 2 × 2 grid, or Big + three. Each one is drawn as a picture of itself, and the one in use is marked In use.
Focus a tile and turn Sound on for it — audio follows one tile at a time. The pane with the sound has a speaker beside its name, and while you are on the bar it keeps a faint outline, so you can always see which picture you are hearing. Press OK on a playing tile to open its channel picker and replace that pane directly. Hold OK to watch the pane full screen. On touch screens, tap to choose a channel and hold to watch full screen.
Choose Full screen to expand the entire mosaic and hide the sidebar and the bar along the bottom. Your channels keep playing, and you can still move between panes for sound or press OK to change a channel. Press Back to return to setup and restore the navigation sidebar; on touch screens, tap once to reveal Exit full screen, then tap the button to leave. The button starts hidden and hides again after three seconds without another tap. The first tap reveals it without opening the channel picker; long presses still open a single channel. This expands the whole arrangement; holding OK still opens just one channel in the full-screen player.
Or start from Live sport to fill the mosaic with what’s on now, and save any arrangement as a preset: give it a name and press Save. Each saved preset shows its arrangement and how many channels it holds; press OK on one to load it, or the bin beside it to delete it (you are asked first).

Good to know

The channel list holds exactly as many channels as your arrangement has tiles, so everything you tick is on screen. If it says it is full, press OK on the pane you want to replace, untick a channel in Channels, or pick a bigger arrangement from Layout. The picker shows the TV source and a programme timeline for visible channels. Use Earlier, Now and Later to browse the guide; choosing a channel or programme selects that channel for live playback. Hidden groups includes channels from hidden categories only when you ask; individually hidden channels stay hidden. How many tiles you get depends on your box, not your IPTV plan: multi-view runs a separate decoder per tile, so TiviGlass offers two, three or four according to what the hardware can sustain, and only the layouts that fit are listed. Weaker boxes are told up front that they can’t manage it. TiviGlass checks measured memory as well as Android’s low-memory label, so custom TV firmware cannot disqualify a high-memory box with a stale label. Each tile uses one connection from its own TV service. Limits apply separately: one pane from each of two different provider accounts can work even if each account allows only one connection. Other viewers and recordings using those accounts still count towards their limits. The connection line on the bar names a service, in red, when its known limit is smaller than the number of panes using it. Saved presets remember every channel’s TV service and order; older single-provider presets still load. Arrangements remain saved under the main TV service from which you opened Multi-view, and only services available to your current profile can play. A locked channel, or one in a locked or adult group, never plays in a pane without the PIN or the age question. A pane that holds one, from a preset or saved before the lock was set, shows Locked instead of playing. Hold OK on it to watch it full screen, where you are asked; once it is unlocked it plays in Multi-view too, for as long as that unlock lasts. Choosing a locked channel in Channels tells you to play it once first, and Live sport leaves locked channels out.

Replay what already aired Free

Path: Sidebar → Catch Up

The selected channel and day choices share a separate card. Programme rows show the title first and broadcast times underneath, with Record aligned on the right. When a description is available, select the Details info button or hold OK on the programme to read it. The reader uses the same Page up, Page down and Close controls as Movies and Shows. Spoiler-free mode keeps sports descriptions hidden here too.

Choose Order categories, select a category, and use Earlier or Later, then Save. Catch-Up and Live TV share this saved order for the current profile and service; other categories keep their positions and All stays first. The category rail wraps at either end, and moving beyond the first or last channel wraps within the filtered list.

How

Narrow the list with the group chips along the top, or leave it on All. Each chip carries the number of archived channels in that group, and a group with none is not offered at all.
Search or pick a channel from the Channels with archive list on the left.
Choose a day, then a programme.
Press OK to watch it, or schedule it as a recording.
If a day cannot load, choose Try again directly on the error screen.

Good to know

Only channels whose provider advertises an archive appear here, and each shows how many days back it goes. Catch Up is free — TiviGlass simply asks your provider for the past programme. How that request has to be worded differs between providers: some archives are addressed in the provider’s own local time rather than UTC, and some are served only as a streaming manifest. TiviGlass reads both of those from your provider when it connects and adapts automatically, so there is nothing to configure. If a whole archive opened the wrong programme on an older version, open Settings › TV services and choose Update now on that service once so the new details are picked up.

Chapter 8

Recordings

TiviGlass records to the device, to attached storage, or straight onto a network share. Recording needs a paid plan (Essentials or Premium).

Stopping and recovery: Stop cancels a stalled stream connection and finishes saving the buffered footage before updating the recording. A slow or disconnected drive can still delay that final save. Interrupted recordings respect your simultaneous-recording limit when restarting and keep their original planned end time. If a provider returns an invalid byte range during a catch-up resume or HLS download, TiviGlass rejects it before adding those bytes to the recording. If storage cannot report the saved size at Stop, the recording keeps its file reference and last known size.

Fusion recovery (Premium): with Settings › While watching › When a channel fails · Fusion › Switch service when a channel fails set to Automatic, a live recording can recover onto a verified alternative of the same channel, including an HD or SD feed. Your cross-playlist setting and “never switch automatically” channel choices still apply. Suggest alternatives and Off keep recordings on the selected source; only Automatic enables recording recovery. Recovery tries at most three replacement sources, keeps the original stop time and never changes the channel you are watching. A recovered recording stays one library entry and plays its saved parts in order. There can be a gap or overlap at a switch; missing footage is not restored. On USB, NAS or Plex, the parts are separate media files. Storage failures do not trigger channel switching, and catch-up downloads keep their existing recovery behaviour.

The Recordings screen: one list with Recording now, Scheduled, Series Link and Library, each headed with its count, and Storage, New timer and Recording settings along the top. With a remote, the panel on the right shows the row you rest on: what it is, when it was made, how long and how big it is, and for anything that did not record properly, the reason in full. Press OK to play a recording. On a timer, a Series Link or a recording that can’t be played, OK takes you to the panel’s actions; Right does that from any row. The actions are Stop recording, Delete recording, Change recording limit, Cancel timer and Remove series link, depending on the row. Left or Back returns to the same row. On a touch screen, tap a recording to play it, or tap anything else (or long-press any row) to open the same details and actions from the right.

Record what’s on now Essentials

Path: Guide → hold OK → Record, or player → press OK → REC

How

In the Guide, hold OK on the channel and choose Record live (or Record programme). While watching full screen, press OK, move to REC and press OK again.
The Recordings section shows it live with its current size or percentage.
Open that channel’s Record menu again and choose Stop recording, select Stop on its row in Recordings, or use Stop & keep on the recording notification where your device exposes notification actions. On Android TV, the silent recording notification is offered in the system notification panel; selecting it opens TiviGlass. You can always stop from the app. Everything captured so far stays in your library and can be watched.

Good to know

While anything is recording, a red dot sits on the Recordings icon in the sidebar, so you can see it from wherever you are without opening the section. It is on the icon rather than the label, so it shows on the narrow rail too.

Recording continues in the background while you carry on watching something else — you don’t need to stay on the channel. If your provider cuts the stream short, the recording says so. A capture that stops well before the programme was due to finish is marked Partial with the length it got — it still plays, and everything captured is kept, but it is never presented as a finished recording. The line under it says what TiviGlass could see at the time, not a guess. If this box was also watching live or running another recording, it says so and points you at your plan’s connection limit, which is the usual cause. If nothing else on this box was streaming, it says that instead — because then the connection limit is unlikely to be the answer and counting your connections is the wrong errand. Take the channel name and the time to your provider in that case. (It can only see this box: another TV, a phone, or another app on the same line still counts against your plan and TiviGlass has no way to know.) If the recording is still within its scheduled window, TiviGlass picks it back up on its own. You do not have to leave TiviGlass open. A recording in progress keeps going in the background, and carries on if you go back to your TV’s home screen or swipe TiviGlass out of recent apps. It stops early only if the TV force-stops TiviGlass or restarts, and even then everything captured up to that point is kept and plays. If TiviGlass is stopped or restarted only after a recording has already reached its planned end, that recording is saved as complete rather than marked as interrupted, and the line under it says which happened. And if the programme is still on air, TiviGlass picks the recording back up by itself — you do not have to open the app for that to happen. It checks about every ten minutes for as long as the scheduled window is still open, so a recording interrupted overnight carries on into the same library entry rather than waiting until the next morning. It cannot recover the minutes between the interruption and the next check, so a long recording that was cut short may have a gap; everything either side of it is kept. If the line under a recording says Android closed TiviGlass because the box ran low on working memory (RAM), that is the memory apps run in, not storage space. It does not mean your drive is full, and more free space would not have prevented it. A window with under a minute left is not reopened, because restarting the stream for it would not be worth the discontinuity.

Schedule a timer Essentials

Path: Sidebar → Recordings → New timer

How

Search for and deliberately pick the channel; TiviGlass never silently chooses the first one.
Pick the date and the start and end times. Five-minute steps carry across the hour, and a timer made near midnight starts tomorrow.
Set it to repeat daily or weekly if you want, then save — it appears under Scheduled. Once a one-off timer has recorded, it leaves Scheduled and the recording is in Library, so there is only one thing to delete. A timer that could not record stays under Scheduled saying why (for example Missed or Not recorded) until you remove it.
The line under New timer says what will be recorded in plain words (for example “Records News 24 every Mon, Fri, 18:00 – 18:30 · 30 min”) and changes as you do, so you can check it before you press Schedule.

Good to know

A timer does not need TiviGlass to be open — it wakes the app at the right moment and records on its own. If your TV has blocked exact alarms for TiviGlass, the Recordings screen says so at the top; allow Alarms & reminders for TiviGlass in your TV’s app settings, or timers may not start while the app is closed. As soon as you allow it, TiviGlass re-arms the timers and reminders you have already set so they fire on time. You do not need to restart the TV or the app. If the alarm and a restart recovery arrive together, they still create only one library recording. Start recording early and Finish recording late (Settings › Recordings › Start early & finish late) start every timer a few minutes early and end it late, which covers broadcasters who never quite run to time.

Safe removal. Canceling a timer, stopping or deleting a recording, and removing a Series Link all ask for confirmation. Cancel receives focus first so an extra OK press cannot remove anything.

Series Link Essentials

Path: Guide → hold OK on a programme → Series link

Choose Series link on this channel on the exact regional or quality version you want. This also changes the channel of an existing rule for that title, without deleting the rule or its existing timers. New scans use only that channel; if it is missing, another variant is not substituted. Older rules retain their playlist-wide scope until you choose a channel. Review already scheduled variant timers separately: changing a rule does not cancel them. Update every recording device before relying on channel-specific rules; older app versions do not understand the new scope.

How

Set the Series Link from any episode of the programme.
New episodes are found in the guide and recorded automatically.
Review or remove rules in Settings › Recordings › Recording › Series Links.

Good to know

A Series Link matches on the programme, not on a time slot, so a schedule change doesn’t break it. Saving or re-enabling one queues a scan straight away, and background scans cover every playlist, not only the one currently open. It obeys your storage cap and retention settings like any other recording. Android may defer an archive download until TiviGlass next opens, so set a timer as well for anything you absolutely must not miss.

Two Series Links can want the same hour. A Series Link creates its timers for you overnight, so nobody is there to be asked about a clash. Open Recordings and look at Scheduled: a timer that will lose is marked Clashes with another timer while you can still act on it. Raise Maximum simultaneous recordings (how-to 37) if your TV service allows more than one connection at a time; otherwise cancel one of them. If it has already happened, the one that lost appears in your Recordings list as Not recorded with the reason.

Choose where recordings are stored Essentials

Path: Settings › Recordings › Where recordings are saved › Recording storage

How

A plugged-in USB stick or SD card appears under On this box on its own — just select it. There is no folder to pick and nothing to set up.
Under Somewhere else, A folder you choose opens your TV’s own file picker and is only needed for a folder that isn’t listed. Some TV boxes make that picker awkward to drive with a remote, so use the listed drive where you can.
For a NAS choose Network share (SMB) and enter host, share, folder and credentials, then select Test. Put only the address in Host — 192.168.1.50 or mynas.local, with no smb:// or https:// in front of it and no share name after it. Android TV’s own network-share screen asks for the full smb://… form, so it is an easy habit to carry over; TiviGlass now tidies that up for you if you do.
For a Plex library, add the Plex server URL, token and library section so Plex rescans when a recording finishes.

Good to know

SMB2 and SMB3 are supported; the old SMB1 is not. On Android/Fire TV devices whose security provider can’t complete SMB3’s signing setup, TiviGlass automatically retries that connection in SMB2.1 compatibility mode. Network recordings play straight inside TiviGlass — you don’t need a file manager. Changing storage affects new recordings only; existing ones stay where they are, and any recording still in progress when you change it is stopped rather than moved. Unplugging a drive mid-recording ends that recording — whatever was captured stays on the drive.

A nearly full drive stops a recording cleanly. On the box’s own storage or a plugged-in drive, TiviGlass will not start a recording unless the drive has more than about 320 MB free, and it stops a running recording when free space falls to about 256 MB. Everything recorded up to that point is kept, and the recording says the drive is almost full rather than blaming your provider. Free up space, or choose another location here. A network share, a Plex library and a folder picked with A folder you choose are not measured this way.

If TiviGlass itself is installed on a drive rather than on the box, every drive in this list is that same drive. Android only ever offers an app the volume it lives on, so there is no box-storage row to pick. The list says so: the top row is named after the volume the app is actually on instead of being called Internal storage, and it is marked TiviGlass is installed here. To record onto the box’s own storage in that case, move the app back to it in Android’s own app settings, or use A folder you choose or a network share. The app disappearing when you unplug that drive is Android’s own behaviour for an app installed on one, not something TiviGlass does.

Keep storage under control Essentials

Path: Settings › Recordings › Where recordings are saved

How

Recording storage limit is the most space you want recordings to use. It is not applied on its own: when your recordings add up to more than it, this page says by how much, and Clean up recordings now deletes the oldest until the rest fit.
Keep recordings for deletes recordings older than that automatically. TiviGlass does this in the background about once an hour, never while something is playing (if you start watching part way through, it stops and finishes later), and also whenever you open Recordings.
Maximum simultaneous recordings sets how many programmes may record at the same time. It is under Recording at the top of the page, while Record programmes is on.
Clean up recordings now applies both rules immediately, and it is the only thing that applies the storage limit. A recording saved to a network share that cannot be reached is kept rather than deleted without its file, and the message says how many were kept. The share may be switched off or asleep, or no longer set up in Recording storage: switch it on or set it up again, then try again. To remove a recording whose share is gone for good, delete it in Recordings; its file stays on the share.

Good to know

Maximum simultaneous recordings starts at 1. That is deliberate: every recording running at once uses one of your provider’s connections, and so does anything you are watching. Most plans allow two or three, some allow only one, and there is no way for TiviGlass to ask — a provider that refuses a second connection often answers with an empty file rather than an error, which is far harder to spot than a recording that plainly did not happen. So if you know your plan allows more, set it to 2 or 3 once and it stays.

If two programmes overlap and only one can record, TiviGlass tells you which and why. Nothing is dropped in silence any more. Before it happens: a timer that will clash is marked in Recordings under Scheduled (“Clashes with another timer”), and creating one by hand offers Raise limit or Schedule anyway. After it happens: you get a Not recorded notification, the timer says Not recorded: something else was recording, and a Not recorded entry appears in your Recordings list naming the limit and where to change it. That entry holds no video and deleting it removes nothing from your drive.

A missed recording of this kind is our limit, not your provider’s. If the line under it names the limit, there is nothing wrong with your TV service and nothing to ask them about — raise the setting, or record the two programmes at different times.

Record programmes, at the top of this page, turns the whole feature off. While it is off, nothing records and nothing can be scheduled: the guide, the player menu, the manual timer and Series Links all refuse and say Recording is turned off in Settings, rather than accepting a timer that would never run. The same switch puts Recordings in the menu, and it works even when your plan does not include recording: turn it off to take the padlocked entry out of the menu, and back on to bring it back. While your plan does not include recording, See plans just below it opens Account & plan.

A timer only says a recording needs a paid plan once your account has actually been checked. If a recording is due before TiviGlass has been able to check your plan, for example on a box that has just woken up without internet, it tries again about a minute later instead of skipping the programme, and keeps trying until shortly after the programme ends. If the plan still cannot be checked by then and your provider keeps that programme on catch-up, the timer stays under Scheduled and TiviGlass looks again about once an hour, for up to 14 days after the programme started, recording the programme from catch-up as soon as it can check your plan. Otherwise the timer shows Missed and says TiviGlass could not check your plan in time. A Series Link in the same situation simply waits for its next scan.

Chapter 9

Reminders, Kids and Apps

New reminder is beside the Reminders heading when a source and profile are available. App tiles on phones and tablets have a visible Options (…) button; holding OK on TV still opens the same menu. Header actions wrap below the heading on narrower screens.

Set a reminder Free

Path: Guide, Search or Sports Hub → hold OK → Set reminder

No guide entry needed: open Sidebar → Reminders → New reminder. Pick a channel from the current source, using search to narrow the list, then choose a future date, hour and minute and select Set reminder. The time uses your device’s local clock. This manual reminder keeps the time you chose even if the guide changes, so you can tune in before an event starts. Hidden, locked or profile-blocked channels cannot be selected. Review or remove it from the same Reminders screen.

How

Set the reminder on any future programme — from the guide, from a guide result in Search, or while watching (hold OK on the video, then look under Next).
Shortly before it starts, a small countdown card slides into the corner over whatever you’re watching. It doesn’t black out the picture — carry on watching if you want.
Choose Watch now to switch straight away, Not now (or Back) to cancel, or ignore it — it tunes automatically at zero.
Change the countdown length in Settings › Home & menu › Reminders & alerts › Reminder countdown (10 seconds to 1 minute).
Review everything in Sidebar → Reminders.

Good to know

The countdown appears inside TiviGlass and needs no notification permission, so it works even with your TV’s notifications switched off. Reminders are per profile and remember which playlist the channel came from — if that’s a different playlist, TiviGlass switches to it for you. If the guide later moves a programme you set a reminder for, the reminder moves to the new time, whichever profile set it. New reminders are assigned to the device where you set them. In the Reminders list, This device or Another device shows the destination; choose Remind here to move delivery to the TV you are using. Older reminders show All devices (older reminder) until you choose a destination. Keep every participating device updated for device-specific delivery, and allow cloud sync to finish after moving a reminder. They survive a reboot. With exact-alarm permission, reminders use alarm-clock delivery so Doze does not delay the countdown; Android may show the next reminder as a system alarm. Turning Reminders off or cancelling a reminder removes its alarm.

A reminder is only offered for a programme that has not started yet — there is nothing for a “starting soon” card to warn you about once it is already on. Once one is set, the same place offers Cancel reminder instead. If Android has not granted TiviGlass exact alarms the action still works and says so: the reminder may arrive a few minutes late.

Make sure reminders actually arrive Free

Path: Settings › Home & menu › Reminders & alerts

How

Check the status line at the top of Reminders & alerts.
It only ever reports a problem with reminders that arrive while TiviGlass is closed — the in-app countdown always works.
To fix those, allow TiviGlass notifications in your TV’s Android settings, and grant it permission to show full-screen alerts if your TV asks.
Return to TiviGlass — the status updates straight away.

Good to know

There are three honest answers, not one: reminders are Ready; they work while TiviGlass is open but only raise a notification when it’s closed (common on Android 14 and newer, which restricts full-screen alerts); or their timing may drift because your TV limits exact alarms. If Android cannot confirm full-screen access, TiviGlass gives the notification-only advice until access can be checked.

The Kids section Free

Path: Sidebar → Kids

How

Open Kids for a simplified screen of children’s channels, favourites and shows.
Everything is bigger, brighter and reachable with fewer presses.
The bar under the featured show filters by age: All ages, Preschool, Younger kids or Older kids. At its end are the grown-ups’ two buttons, Kids Mode and Customise Kids.

Good to know

Kids is this page of children’s shows; anyone can open it. Kids Mode locks the TV to it until someone enters your PIN. A profile marked as a Child opens straight into Kids and cannot leave it, and has no grown-up buttons. What appears is drawn from the playlists and categories you allowed for that profile, and from what you chose in Customise Kids. Channels with a parental lock never appear. Like the Sports Hub, Kids reads its shows out of your guide, so on a very large channel list they fill in over the first minute or so rather than appearing all at once.

Hold OK on a show or channel for Not for Kids, which takes that channel out of Kids and Kids Mode, and Customise Kids. Both ask for the PIN when parental controls are on and a PIN is set. One correct PIN covers the rest of that visit to Kids; leaving TiviGlass for another app or the home screen, or switching profile, forgets it.

Customise Kids: what’s in Kids, Kids Mode, time limits and bedtime Free

Path: Kids → Customise Kids · or Settings › Parental & profiles › Kids › Customise Kids

Customise Kids is where a parent decides what Kids shows and sets up Kids Mode. It is laid out like Customise Home: tabs down the left edge (Left reaches them from anywhere in the list), then the list, a preview on the right and the keys along the bottom. When parental controls are on and a PIN is set, it asks for the PIN before it opens, so nothing here can be changed without it. Every change is saved as you make it.

How

What’s in Kids: switch an age group off to take its shows out of Kids and Kids Mode. Below are the channels found in your guide; press OK to take one out or put it back. Add a channel to Kids finds any channel by name and adds it; a locked or adult channel can’t be added.
Kids Mode: Daily time opens a list: No limit, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 90 minutes, 2 hours or 3 hours. Bedtime opens another: Off, 7pm to 8am, 8pm to 7am or 9pm to 7am, plus your own times if you set different ones. Turning bedtime Off keeps those times, so you can turn it back on. The preview shows how many minutes are left today.
Select Start Kids Mode now to lock the TV into Kids. If no PIN is set yet, it asks you to set one first and then starts Kids Mode. The Kids Mode button on the Kids page does the same.
Options: Kids in the menu, and Kids corner on Home (the same switch as that row in Customise Home).
To leave Kids Mode, choose Grown-ups: exit and enter the PIN.

Good to know

When the limit runs out or bedtime arrives, the TV shows a friendly message instead of just stopping. The allowance resets the next day. What you choose for Kids applies to every profile in the household, a Child’s included, so a child’s own profile shows exactly what you chose, and it travels with cloud sync. A channel you take out or add belongs to its TV service; the age groups apply on every TV service.

Apps and web shortcuts Free

Path: Sidebar → Apps

How

Your apps lists what’s installed on the TV; press OK to launch.
Web shortcuts open a site directly.
Focus a tile and follow the visible menu-dot hint: hold OK or press Menu to pin, hide, lock or uninstall it.
Rescan picks up newly installed apps.

Good to know

Hidden apps aren’t gone — they stay under the Hidden group. A PIN-protected tile asks for the parental PIN before it opens, which is a neat way to keep a store or browser out of a child’s reach.

In the Google Play edition, web shortcuts open inside TiviGlass and stay on the selected site. Some redirects to another site are unavailable. TiviGlass links open sign-in, legal and support pages; purchases use Google Play. Software downloads are unavailable in this web view. Press Back to return.

Chapter 10

Profiles and parental controls

Two related systems. Profiles decide whose data you’re using and which sections and playlists are reachable. Parental controls put a PIN in front of specific channels and screens regardless of profile.

Switch profile Free

Path: Settings › Parental & profiles › Who’s watching › Switch profile

How

Open the “Who’s watching?” picker and select a tile.
Profiles with protection show a lock badge and ask for the PIN.

Good to know

With only one unprotected profile the picker is skipped at startup — this menu path is how you reach it. Choose Startup profile on this TV to open an unprotected profile automatically on this device. The choice stays on this device, belongs to the current account and is removed on sign-out. PIN-protected profiles still need to be chosen and unlocked. Choose No default profile to restore the usual startup behaviour. Switching swaps favourites, history, watchlist, reminders and personal display settings in one step.

Decide what a profile can reach Free

Path: Switch profile → hold OK on a profile → Access

How

Choose which sidebar sections that profile may open.
Choose which playlists it may use.
For a child, narrow it further to specific Live categories.
Enter the household PIN and select Save access.

Good to know

Blocked playlists and categories don’t just disappear from menus — they’re excluded from search, from All TV services and from reminders too, so nothing leaks in by a side door.

Turn on parental controls Free

Path: Settings › Parental & profiles › Parental controls

How

Enable parental controls is already on when TiviGlass is installed. Set a PIN to start using it.
Under Ask for the PIN before opening, choose which places ask for it. Settings pages asks before any Settings page opens, except Parental & profiles itself, so Who’s watching stays open to everyone. On that page Enable parental controls, the PIN, the locks, Customise Kids and these switches ask for the PIN instead whenever parental controls are on and a PIN is set, even with Settings pages off, so nobody can switch a protection off without it. TV services page asks before TV services opens, including from Manage services, and before the TV guide sources open from either page. The TV guide asks before the TV guide opens in Live TV, and before the TV guide settings open; Cancel takes you back to where you were. Channel options asks before a channel’s or a group’s options open in the guide (hold OK, or press and hold), and before Channels & groups opens in Settings. One correct PIN covers the rest of that visit to Settings, or to the guide. Opening the TV guide’s own settings from the guide (Customise guide) and coming back counts as the same guide visit, and a guide PIN also opens the TV guide settings page reached that way. Leaving for another section, leaving TiviGlass for another app or the home screen, switching profile or signing out forgets it; watching a channel full screen from the guide does not. On older versions these switches were saved but did not ask; from this version each one asks. Individual channels, groups and apps are locked under Locks (how-to 46).
Leave Skip PIN on locked channels, films & shows off to protect channels, movies and shows. Turning it on bypasses their PIN checks, except that a channel you locked yourself still asks when it opens full screen; it does not remember an earlier unlock. Menu locks still apply.

Good to know

Parental controls are free on every install and switched on from the start, though nothing is actually gated until you set a PIN. The old remember-PIN-until-restart switch has been removed because it did not change PIN checks. How to enter your PIN lets you swap between an on-screen keypad and direct number-key entry, whichever suits your remote.

45b

Change or remove the PIN Free

Path: Settings › Parental & profiles › Parental controls › Parental PIN

How

Open Parental PIN. Its value says Set or Not set. To set a different one, type the new PIN and press OK.
To stop using a PIN altogether, press Clear. Parental controls stay switched on but nothing is gated until you set a PIN again.

Good to know

The PIN is stored on the device it was set on and never travels with your account, so it does not appear on another TV and signing in cannot bring it back. Clearing the app’s data removes it too. If you have forgotten it and cannot get into Settings to clear it, contact support and we can unlock the device for you.

45c

Adult categories always ask first Free

Path: Live TV, Movies or Shows → an adult category, or one of its channels from Search, a custom folder, All TV services, Favourites or Home

How

Opening a category your provider lists as adult always asks something before it plays.
If you have a PIN, it asks for the PIN, as it does for any locked category.
If you have never set a PIN, it asks once whether you are over 18, and offers to set a PIN there and then.
The same question comes up when you play one of that category’s channels from somewhere else: Search, a custom folder, All TV services, Favourites, Home or a reminder, and for its past programmes on catch-up. Search lists these channels with a padlock (and no schedule beside them), and the TV guide marks them with a small padlock in a custom folder, All TV services and Favourites, so you know before you choose one that it will ask.

Good to know

The question is asked once per TV and is remembered, so it will not keep interrupting you. Set a PIN is the stronger answer if anyone else uses the TV — a confirmation only covers the person who gave it, while a PIN is asked every time. Choosing Not now leaves the category closed and changes nothing. Resetting the app’s settings asks again, which is what you want if you pass the TV on. To have it asked again straight away, choose Settings › Parental & profiles › Locks › Adult content confirmation; it only affects this TV.

Lock individual channels Free

Path: Settings › Parental & profiles › Locks › Locked channels

How

Search for and tick the channels to lock.
Save. Locked channels ask for the PIN before they will play.

Good to know

Locking hides a channel from playback, not from the list, so channel numbering stays stable. Movie and show categories can be locked the same way from their category menu. Locked groups, beside it, locks and unlocks whole TV groups, movie categories and show categories, and Locked apps lists the app tiles you locked on the Apps screen so you can remove a lock. Channels & groups has a link here too, Lock channels with a PIN. A locked channel, or a channel in a locked group, asks for the PIN wherever you start it: the TV guide, Search, a custom folder, All TV services, Favourites, Home, a reminder or catch-up. A channel also counts as being in a group when your provider lists it there as well as in its own group, or when you added it to that group yourself. With Skip PIN on locked channels, films & shows on, a channel you locked yourself still asks when it opens full screen, as it always has, but changing to it inside the player, recording it or adding it to Multi-view does not. Search shows these channels with a padlock (and no schedule beside them), and the TV guide marks them with a small padlock in a custom folder, All TV services and Favourites. Once you have entered the PIN for a channel or a group, it plays without asking again until you leave TiviGlass for another app or the home screen, switch profile, sign out or change the PIN, so full screen does not ask again for a channel you just unlocked in the guide. Moving between TiviGlass’s own screens does not count as leaving. If a locked channel was playing full screen when you left, TiviGlass asks again before it plays when you come back, and closes the player if you cancel. The Home and Sports previews stay on the channel logo instead of playing a locked channel; choose Watch to be asked. The TV guide’s preview does the same once an unlock ends: a locked channel that was playing there shows its logo until you choose it again. Adding a locked channel to Multi-view, or recording what is on it now or from catch-up, asks too: in the TV guide you are asked for the PIN or your age first, and from Search or Multi-view’s channel list TiviGlass says the channel is locked, so play it once to unlock it and try again. A custom folder only lists channels your profile is allowed to watch. A film or show in one of your own folders asks the same way when you open it, judged by the categories it is filed in on its own TV service.

Chapter 11

Make it yours

Colour theme Premium

Path: Settings › Look & feel › Colour theme

How

The Colour theme row lists every theme by name and applies the one you pick straight away. To preview first, use the cards below it.
Browse Standard, Inspired and Animated. Select a miniature interface to preview its shell, focus and progress colours, then choose Apply. Cancel or Back leaves your saved theme unchanged.
The catalogue has nine standard themes, including Graphite and Amethyst, six inspired themes, including Cyberpunk-inspired, and eight animated themes: Aurora (flowing teal and violet ribbons), Deep Current (travelling cyan waves), Ember (rising amber embers and a copper glow), Snowfall (winter-blue with gently falling snow), Rainfall (fine falling drops with tapered silver-blue trails), Starfield (a stationary night sky with gentle twinkles), Autumn (falling copper and gold leaves) and Halloween (midnight purple with creeping mist, drifting bats, wailing ghosts, glowing pumpkins and occasional forked lightning).
Turn Background motion off for a still version with the same colours. In Live TV, animated themes replace the programme-artwork background with one continuous effect behind the header, programme grid, collapsed navigation rail and bottom control helpers, alongside the small channel preview. Opening or closing navigation keeps the same background moving. The glass TiviGlass wordmark sits on the opposite side of the header from the preview, following its left/right position and size. Text, cells and focus indicators stay still while the background moves. Motion pauses for fullscreen video, other video previews, and while the app is hidden. Devices needing reduced motion and Android’s Remove animations setting also keep the backgrounds still.
Your themes holds your custom choices. Select one to preview it; Apply, Edit and Delete are on the preview. Create custom theme builds your own from Shell, Accent and an optional Progress colour. Select Progress to change programme and playback bars independently; Default progress colours makes programme and playback bars follow the theme accent.
Duplicate current copies the current colours into a custom theme; background animation is not copied.

Good to know

TiviGlass keeps a dark TV-friendly backdrop and steady text, buttons and focus indicators. Gallery thumbnails stay still; choose Open animated preview to see movement in a larger viewing area. The preview tells you if Background motion, reduced motion or playback is keeping it still. Ocean, Nord, Aqua & Coral, Mountain, Game of Thrones and Peaky Blinders are retired from the catalogue, but an existing saved selection continues to work and appears under Your saved theme. You can duplicate it into a custom theme. The colour palette applies from the first frame at startup. Background motion follows your profile and syncs with appearance settings; each device still applies its own reduced-motion restrictions. Without Premium the app uses Navy & Sky.

Layout, logos and the clock Free

Path: Settings › Look & feel

How

App text & layout size switches between compact and comfortable spacing, for the whole app. To change the TV guide on its own — bigger text, or more channels on screen — use Guide text size and Guide row height under Settings › TV guide › How the guide looks (how-to 14). Guide text size is also on this page, beside App text & layout size.
Movie & show poster size chooses Small, Medium or Large covers for every library filter, including Favourites and Watchlist.
Group list layout, on Settings › Home & menu › How each section opens, chooses the original horizontal pills or a Left sidebar for Live TV, Movies and Shows.
Channel logos and Channel logo size control whether and how big logos appear. Off removes the whole tile, including the two-letter coloured stand-in a channel gets when its provider has no logo, so the row is just the channel name.
Fix cut-off screen edges pulls the picture in if your TV crops the edges.
Time format and Date & time language set how times are written.
Remote or touch layout chooses Automatic, TV / remote, or Phone / tablet for this device.

Good to know

Left sidebar is the default. It opens each library’s groups in a panel beside the menu, with Views, your groups and the TV service’s groups in one list, including Favourites, Watchlist, History, Recently added and filters where available; the old pill rows are removed from the content area. The icons on the left keep showing where you are. Pick an item to return to the content; press Left or Back in the groups panel for the main app menu. Choose Horizontal pills in Group list layout if you prefer the original layout.

Use your own channel logos Free

Path: Settings › Look & feel › Logo sources

How

Put PNG, JPG or WebP files in a folder, named after the channel — for example BBC One.png.
Select that folder as the Local logo folder.
Set Preferred logo source: playlist first, TV guide first, or local folder first.
After adding files later, select Refresh local logos.

Good to know

Matching ignores case and punctuation, so “bbc one.png” works too. If a logo is missing or fails to load, TiviGlass falls through to the next source and finally to a coloured letter tile.

Rearrange the menu Premium

Path: Settings › Home & menu › Menu entries

How

Open Order and rename menu entries, or hold OK on an entry in the side menu itself and choose Move in the menu or Rename. A moved entry follows Up and Down; OK puts it down and Back puts it back.
Move sections up and down and rename any of them. To hide a section, turn off its own switch on the same page: Sports hub, Show Kids in the menu, Search, Movies & shows, Apps and Reminders. Turning Reminders off also stops every saved reminder from going off until you turn it back on. Sports hub carries the silver Essentials badge when your plan does not include Sports, and its switch still works, so you can take the padlocked entry out of the menu. Recordings has its switch on its own page, Record programmes in Settings › Recordings, and it works the same way.
Change a section’s icon if you prefer a different shape.
Each entry shows its state: Shown; Hidden, with where to turn it back on; Locked when your plan does not include it; or Always at the bottom for Settings, which sits beside Exit at the foot of the menu. If you hid entries with an older version, Show hidden menu entries appears on the page and brings them all back.

Good to know

The menu layout travels with the profile, so switching viewers re-themes the sidebar in one step. Without Premium the sidebar uses the built-in order.

Remap remote buttons Premium

Path: Settings › Remote & buttons

In the live-player button editor or Shortcut keys, assign Channel list (live player) to browse and search your current channel order without leaving playback, or Recently watched channels (live player) to open the recent-channel row. Use a normal button press; both custom actions require Premium. Last channel still switches straight to the previous channel, and it is now also in the player’s More menu, so you can use it without setting a button up first. Back closes the channel list.

How

Buttons in the live player, Buttons in movies & shows and Buttons in the TV guide, under What buttons do, each open their own editor. The guide editor lets you assign spare buttons to Favourites filter, Page channels up/down, Jump to now and Jump to top. Arrow keys, Select and Back keep their guide navigation roles. Open fullscreen with one press of OK is on the same page too. Button remapping requires Premium, and every row that edits it carries the Premium badge. Without it you can still look through the editors and set your buttons up — your choices are saved and start working the moment you upgrade — but until then each button keeps its built-in behaviour, which is the one the editor shows you. A choice that is waiting is listed underneath as Set to … — needs Premium, so the list never claims a button does something it does not.
Inside a button editor, Colour shortcuts previews four actions for that screen. Apply it to set red, green, yellow and blue together, then adjust any button individually. Other buttons and long presses keep their settings. Use the existing key-learning editor for remotes that send different key codes, including Formuler models.
Shortcut keys assigns spare, colour and number keys to actions like Screenshot, Last channel, Jump to now in the guide, or Open recordings. Choose Tap, Hold or Double at the top, press OK on an action, then press the key to use. New profile and Rename are in the Button profiles window. This is the same Premium feature as button behaviour, and behaves the same way without it.
Back button while watching chooses whether Back hides the controls first or exits immediately.
Loop lists round is on by default: pressing down on the last item of the menu, Home, a settings page, a list or a picker carries on from the first, and up on the first goes to the last, so going up from the top of the menu reaches Exit. Only a fresh press loops: holding the button stops at the end, so holding up to reach the top never overshoots. Movies and Shows loop once the whole list has loaded, so the last row of a long library still loads the next page instead. Turn it off to stop at the ends. The TV guide’s channel list has its own switch, Loop from the last channel to the first. This setting is shown when you use a remote.
CH+ and CH− (or Page up and Page down) move a screenful at a time on every screen and in every window: Home, the menu, Movies, Shows, Search, Recordings, pickers and the rest. CH+ goes up the page and CH− goes down. Hold one to keep paging. The guide pages its channels with them, and on a settings page they jump a section. If you have set CH+ or CH− under Shortcut keys to open a section, that shortcut wins; one set for the player only still pages while you browse.
Under Skipping forward and back, Skip length sets how far, and Left and Right skip, Up and Down skip and Rewind and fast-forward buttons skip set which keys do it. Rewinding live TV has the same choice for live channels.

Good to know

Remote or touch layout, on Settings › Look & feel › Size & screen, is free: choose Automatic, TV / remote, or Phone / tablet. It changes this device immediately and survives restarting or signing out; it never changes your other devices. Remote button customisation remains available in every mode, including phones with a keyboard or remote; paid shortcut features still require Premium.

To close the TV app without scrolling to Exit, leave playback and any dialog first. Press Back on the guide until the menu opens and shows the confirmation (the first press goes to the groups), then press Back again within 3 seconds. A child profile returns to the profile picker instead. Phone / tablet mode follows Android Back behaviour.

Bindings are per context — live TV, movies and shows, browsing and the guide can each behave differently. Button profiles (remote layout only) mean a cheap box with a four-button remote can be set up separately from your main TV. One action is worth knowing about even if you never remap anything else: Options for the focused item opens the same menu as holding OK, so a remote that can't hold reliably still reaches every channel action.

Sounds and the sleep timer Free

Path: Settings › While watching › Sleep, screen & picture-in-picture · Settings › Look & feel › Sounds

How

Turn Startup sound on or off. It is on Look & feel › Sounds, and the same switch is on Home & menu › When TiviGlass starts.
Turn Interface sounds, beside it, on or off. This switch controls your device’s navigation and click sounds for remote buttons across menus, dialogs and playback. Each press sounds once; holding a button does not repeat the sound.
Set a Sleep timer, under Settings › While watching, to stop playback and turn off after a chosen period.
You can also set one without leaving what you are watching: More → Sleep timer on the player controls.

Good to know

Path: Settings › While watching

How

Buffer size sets how much video is held ahead of the picture. It does not slow how fast a channel starts, and devices with less memory offer fewer steps because they cannot hold the largest cushion.
Delay before switching channels, under Changing channels, makes fast channel surfing smooth.
Reconnect when playback stops, Reconnect attempts and Try another copy of the channel handle dropouts. The two Fusion switches beside them reach copies of the channel on your other TV services (Premium).
Reduce live TV delay, Pause & rewind live TV, the Sleep timer, Keep screen awake during playback, Picture-in-picture when you press Home and Play video in for an external player complete the page. Merge duplicate channels is now on Channels & groups, and Continue where you stopped and Auto-play next episode on Movies & shows.

Good to know

The external-player choice stays saved if another app cannot accept a particular stream. TiviGlass tells you when it has fallen back to its own player; also check whether Use the other app for is set to movies and shows only or to live TV as well. Reset playback learning (Picture & sound › Fix picture problems) undoes the automatic codec workarounds TiviGlass has applied for your device — use it if playback got worse after a system update, then let it relearn. Protection that switched a video type to software for a week after a crash stays until its end date.

Chapter 13

Account, plans and sync

If you open Plans while signed out, choose Sign in there. Finishing or backing out returns you to Plans; signing in does not start a purchase. For web checkout on a phone or tablet, Open secure checkout opens the existing payment link on that device. Open plan management does the same for billing management. QR codes remain available for another device, and Google Play purchases continue through Google Play.

Confirmation dialogs keep their decision buttons below the scrolling explanation. Sync confirmations identify what the change applies to. During source setup, Continue in background leaves the progress screen while setup continues.

Manage live favourites on the website: open your account’s playlist list and choose Favourites beside an IPTV source. With Premium and Cloud Sync enabled, select the viewer profile, search the TV-uploaded channel list, and tick or untick a channel. Favourites only also lets you remove channels that are no longer in the catalogue. Each change is saved separately and travels to TVs using that profile. If no cloud copy or catalogue has arrived yet, open that profile and playlist on a TV and run Sync. Use Refresh on the website to see the latest copy. The website editor covers live channels; manage movie, show and Stremio favourites in the app.

You can also manage your account at tiviglass.com/account. On a computer, choose a section in the sidebar; on a phone or smaller screen, use Menu to see the same sections. The theme button switches the website between light and dark and remembers your choice. Staff using the admin panel can select Search admin in the header, or press Ctrl K (Cmd K on Mac), to find a section or account. Use the arrow keys and Enter to open a result, or Escape to close search. In Pulse, Recent activity shows up to 30 recent events in a compact panel; scroll inside it to see older entries. For written overviews of the player and its plans, see Features and Pricing.

Your TiviGlass account Free

Path: Settings › Account & plan

How

Your plan at the top shows who you’re signed in as and what your plan includes.
Change email, under Your account, and Refresh plan manage the account itself.
Sign out of TiviGlass, under Sign out or delete, disconnects this TV only. Your other TVs, your phone and the website stay signed in; to sign out everywhere at once, use Sign out of all devices on the tiviglass.com account page.

Good to know

Signing out removes account-synced playlists from this TV so nothing leaks to the next person who signs in — they come back automatically next time you sign in.

While signed in, TiviGlass records three account milestones: usable service setup, active playback (including radio and a playing guide preview), and a displayed plan price. These timestamps help identify problems getting started; they contain no channel names, programme titles or viewing history. They are separate from optional anonymous diagnostics. See the privacy policy for retention and your choices.

58a

Delete your account for good Free

Path: Settings › Account & plan › Sign out or delete › Delete your TiviGlass account

How

Select Delete your TiviGlass account and read the confirmation carefully — this one cannot be undone.
Confirm. The account is deleted on our side and this TV signs out.
You can also do it at tiviglass.com/account if you would rather use a keyboard.

Good to know

This is not the same as signing out, and not the same as Reset settings to defaults. Signing out leaves your account exactly as it is; resetting settings only affects this TV. Deleting removes the account itself: your sign-in, cloud sync and cloud backups, playlists added through your account, your device list and your purchase record all go, on every device. Any paid plan ends and is not refunded, so if you only want to stop a subscription, cancel it instead of deleting. Playlists you typed straight into this TV are not part of your account and stay on it.

If the app cannot complete it — there is no internet, or your account uses an authenticator app, which needs a code this TV cannot ask for — it says so and stays signed in. Use tiviglass.com/account in that case.

58b

Forgotten your password Free

Path: tiviglass.com/account → Forgot your password?

How

Open tiviglass.com/account in a browser, type your email address and select Forgot your password?
We email you an 8-digit code. Type it into the box that appears on the same page.
Choose your new password. You’re signed in straight away.

Good to know

It’s a code rather than a link on purpose: email providers automatically open links to check them for viruses, which used up one-time reset links before people could click them. A code can’t be used up that way, and it still works if you ask for it on a computer and read the email on your phone. Your TVs stay signed in throughout — you only need this for the website. If you created your account on a TV and have never set a website password, use exactly the same steps.

The page may show a short Cloudflare security check before it sends the code. If the check never finishes, allow challenges.cloudflare.com in your ad blocker or privacy extension, or open the page in another browser.

Plans and upgrading Free

Path: Settings › Account & plan › Your plan

How

Select Your plan; the TV shows a QR code.
Scan it with your phone and complete the payment there.
The TV picks up the new entitlement by itself — no restart needed.

Good to know

Payment happens entirely on your phone; the TV never handles card details. If you’re on a free trial or an admin grant, the wording tells you so plainly rather than pretending you’ve purchased.

Free trials. Most new accounts start with a free Premium trial the first time you sign in, on the TV or on the website. While it runs, Home, Your plan and the Account & plan tile in Settings show how many days are left. Select the countdown on Home to see the plans, Lifetime or yearly, with their prices. When the trial ends, each TV that was signed in while it ran shows a card telling you so, once, with the plans that bring Premium back, and Your plan reads Trial ended there. A TV you sign in on later shows Free instead. Your account page on the website shows that the trial has ended too, with a button to buy Premium. Live TV, the guide, movies, shows and Catch Up stay free, and nothing you set up is deleted.

Plan	Price	What it unlocks
Free	—	Live TV, the guide, movies and shows, Catch Up, unlimited playlists, profiles, parental controls, reminders, search, Kids, Apps and updates.
Essentials	£25 one-time	Adds Recording and Series Links, the Sports Hub, and Advanced playback.
Premium	£19.99 yearly £39.99 Lifetime (recommended)	Everything: the above plus cloud sync, Cloud Backup, portable backups, Multi-view, custom groups, filters, themes, Trending, menu and button customisation, external player, live AI captions and Stremio sources. The yearly plan auto-renews until cancelled; Lifetime is one payment.
Extra device slots	£10 per pack	Five more devices on the account. Stackable — buy as many packs as you need.

The price shown at checkout is the one that counts. TiviGlass reads the current plan list from your account rather than baking it into the app. Direct purchases use Stripe; purchases in the Google Play version use Google Play. The yearly Premium plan renews automatically until cancelled through the payment provider you bought it from; access continues through the paid period. On Google Play, access continues during a payment grace period, pauses if the subscription enters account hold or a scheduled pause, and resumes when Google confirms the subscription is active again. Manage payment recovery and cancellation in Google Play. Supported international customers may see a local-currency checkout price. Lifetime, Essentials and device-slot packs are one-time payments.

After a purchase you get two emails. Stripe sends the payment receipt, and TiviGlass sends a confirmation naming what you bought and how to use it. Your access is granted the moment the payment clears, so it does not wait on the email — if the confirmation is slow or lands in spam, nothing is wrong with your purchase. Check the plan on your TV under Settings › Account & plan › Your plan, or use Refresh plan there.

59b

If an installer set your TV up for you Free

Path: Settings › Account & plan › Your plan

How

The line at the top of Your plan shows your email, plan and whether it needs attention.
If it reads Premium · via someone’s name, a TiviGlass partner set this TV up for you.
Your plan and Refresh plan are right below it, and Change email is under Your account.
If your access is time-limited, the TV starts reminding you a month before it ends, and names who to call.

Good to know

Your installer holds the email address your account was created with. That means they can reset the password and sign in to it, and see the IPTV provider logins saved on it. They can also add, change or remove your playlists and your signed-in TVs from their partner panel without signing in as you — that is how they fix a dead playlist or free up a device slot without a house call, and every change they make is recorded against them. That is how they set the account up and how they support it — but you should know it, and you can take the account over at any time by changing its email address from the account portal, which stops your installer making any further changes to it. Nothing on your TV is deleted when a plan ends; the account simply returns to the free features.

For installers: Partner credit packs start at £45 for 48 credits: enough for four yearly client activations, or one Lifetime activation and one yearly activation. Larger packs offer volume discounts. Credits already purchased keep their value. See the partner programme for details.

Devices on your account Free

Path: Settings › Account & plan › Devices on your account

How

Scroll to the device list. It starts with a line naming the TV you are using, such as You are using Living room TV; that TV cannot be removed from here.
Remove device takes off any TV you no longer use.
Buy more device slots raises the limit permanently.
On your account page you can also rename a TV, so the list reads “Lounge” rather than a model number. The name you give it is yours and stays put: the TV no longer replaces it with its own model name when it next checks in.

Good to know

Your plan applies to every device on the account, so upgrading once covers the whole house up to your slot count. Every account includes five devices, and each £10 pack adds five more.

Open now on tiviglass.com/account means TiviGlass is actually open on that TV right now. A Shield that is powered on but sitting on the Android home screen, or under a screensaver, shows as recently active or idle with when we last heard from it — it is not “offline”. The list refreshes itself while the page is open.

If you see “Device limit reached” when you open the app on a new TV, that is the slot count, not your plan — your purchase is intact and still covers this device. Slots are held by the TVs that registered first, so it is always the newest one that gets stopped. Remove a TV you no longer use from the list on that screen and the new one unlocks straight away; buying another pack does the same thing without giving anything up. A removed TV that is still signed in can register itself again when it next opens TiviGlass. Sign out on that TV before removing it if you want it to stay unlinked. A TV that hasn’t been used for two months stops taking up a slot on its own.

“Device access restricted” means a restriction on this device rather than a shortage of slots. Contact TiviGlass support for a review; buying more slots will not remove that restriction.

Using a confirmed modified or re-signed TiviGlass app can automatically suspend your TiviGlass account, affecting your genuine devices too. It can also automatically block the detected device, even without a signed-in account. On older devices running Android 7.1 or earlier, a device block can also stop the official app on that same device until it is lifted. Install the official app and contact TiviGlass support to request a review. Buying more device slots will not lift an account suspension.

Account suspended / Modified app blocked: playback and ordinary app features are unavailable while the restriction is active. A confirmed restriction stays in place after restarting the app, including offline playback. Use Contact support for a review, then Check again after access has been restored. Repeated checks are limited to once every 30 seconds. A modified copy needs replacing with the official app. A temporary failure to read the app’s signing information does not by itself count as proof of tampering.

Cloud sync Premium

Path: Settings › Sync & backup › Sync between TVs

Staging preview: scan the QR code on your phone or sign in with your public account’s email and password to download its saved data into the separate staging app. Changes you make in staging stay on that device. Upload, account editing and account-wide rollback are unavailable. Later changes made in the public app can still be fetched into staging.

How

There’s nothing to switch on — cloud sync starts working as soon as you sign in with a plan that includes it.
It runs quietly in the background; Sync now forces a round trip.
If two TVs disagree, open the folded If sync goes wrong group: Replace the cloud with this TV makes this TV’s setup the copy in your account, and Replace this TV with the cloud takes the copy in your account.
After replacing this TV with the cloud, open TV services and select Update now on each restored service, or Update all TV services, to load its channels, guide, movies and shows from your TV provider.
If the cloud copy was using a TV service that this TV has too, that service becomes the one in use here and starts loading its channels by itself.
Roll sync back to an earlier day puts your account back to how it was at an earlier point.
Cloud sync at the top turns it off if you’d rather it didn’t run, and Stop syncing this TV takes just this TV out.
While Cloud sync is off, Sync TV services from my account (Settings › TV services › Keeping up to date) refreshes only the list of TV services. Favourites, history, settings and channel changes are not copied in either direction until you turn it back on.

Good to know

Sync carries settings, history, favourites and their order, reminders, playlists, custom TV guide sources, watchlist, renames, custom channel numbers, groups and Series Link rules. A few settings describe one TV’s own hardware and stay on it: Video decoder, Audio decoder, Surround sound, Audio passthrough, Adjust sound timing, Match TV frame rate and Playback learning. A custom EPG source’s encrypted URL, On/Off state and order all travel, so Replace this TV with the cloud brings the same source setup onto another TV. Deletions travel too, so removing a favourite or custom guide source on one TV removes it everywhere rather than reappearing. A new TV takes on your account’s cloud copy when it signs in, so setting up a second TV is mostly just signing in. It starts from your Cloud Backup, however old that backup is, unless your TVs have kept syncing well past it: when the backup was saved more than two days before your latest synced changes, the TV takes the synced copy instead. Recent activity says when that happens. To keep that older backup as it is, this TV then stops backing up by itself until you choose Restore from cloud backup to bring it back or Back up now to replace it. If the TV cannot reach your cloud copy when it signs in, it tries twice more within about two minutes and then carries on with ordinary syncing. Automatic syncing on a new TV waits until it has taken your cloud copy, for up to 45 minutes. Sync now pressed while the copy is being put in place waits for it to finish. If you turn Cloud sync off during that wait, the TV stops waiting and does not take the copy. When you turn it back on, it syncs straight away in the usual way. Until the new TV has taken your backup, or found that your account has none, it does not back up by itself either, so the backup already in your account stays as it is. While that lasts, the Cloud backup section says Automatic backups are paused on this TV to keep your older backup. Choose Back up now or Restore from cloud backup to start them again.

Your TV service logins stay encrypted. If a TV cannot fetch your account’s encryption key, for example during a short server problem, it still brings changes down but keeps its own changes back until it can encrypt them, so they are never uploaded in the clear. Until then the status line says Couldn’t reach the sync server, and a backup taken at that moment says Couldn’t encrypt your provider sign-in details, so nothing was backed up. The next attempt normally goes through.

Hiding, renaming and reordering are done on the TV, under Settings › Channels & groups, and cloud sync is what carries them to your other TVs. There is no channel editor on the website.

The panel also tells you how it’s doing: when the last sync happened, which TV wrote the copy that’s in the cloud now, and a warning if this TV hasn’t managed a sync in over a day.

It stays quiet while it works. Background syncs say nothing, because most of what they carry is your other TV’s resume position rather than anything you changed. Sync now always reports what it found, and a sync that fails is always shown. If you would rather see every automatic sync as well, turn on Show sync messages in the same section.

Roll sync back to an earlier day is the undo. Every time your TVs sync, the previous state of your account is kept — the last ten of them — and this button lists them by when they were made and which TV made them. Pick one and your account goes back to how it was then, on every TV. The version you were on is kept too, so if you pick the wrong one you simply restore again. Restoring brings back anything that went missing; it does not delete things you have added since. If what you are missing is older than the list goes back, use Cloud Backup instead.

One exception: a playlist you imported from a file or pasted text stays on the TV you imported it on, because there is no address for another TV to fetch. Import the file again on the other TV, or use a URL playlist — those travel normally.

There is an upper limit, and you will be told if you reach it. Your channel order, hidden channels and renames are stored one entry per channel, so a very large line-up that has been heavily reordered or renamed can eventually outgrow what cloud sync holds. If that happens, Recent activity (Settings › Help & about › Fix a problem) says so, and changes stop being uploaded until you make room — removing some renames or hidden channels, or resetting the order on one large category, is enough. Nothing on the TV itself is lost, and normal use does not come close: it takes many thousands of customised channels.

Custom channel numbers have their own limit. They are also stored one entry per channel, so if you have typed your own number for more than 20,000 channels the oldest ones stop being copied to your other TVs. Recent activity tells you when that happens. They are not deleted, and they stay correct on the TV you typed them on; only the copy to your other TVs stops. Everything else keeps syncing normally.

Cloud Backup Premium

Path: Settings › Sync & backup › Cloud backup

How

Select Back up now for an immediate snapshot.
Set Back up automatically to run every few hours, or turn it off.
Restore from cloud backup, in the same section, brings it back when setting up a new TV.

Good to know

Cloud sync keeps two TVs level with each other; Cloud Backup is a snapshot you can roll back to. They’re different things and both are included with Premium. A restored backup brings back your playlists and customisations, but the listings themselves still come from your TV providers; open TV services and select Update all TV services after restoring.

Where it goes, and how to check it worked. A cloud backup is saved to your TiviGlass account, not to this television — which is the point: a new box gets your setup back by signing in. The Cloud backup section says where the last one went and when, and every backup, automatic or on demand, is listed under Settings › Help & about › Fix a problem › Recent activity, so you can confirm one landed after the message has gone. The Backup history link in the same section takes you there. There is no separate backup browser: Roll sync back to an earlier day on the same screen rewinds live sync to a recent saved copy, which is a different thing.

Portable backup file Premium

Path: Settings › Sync & backup › Backup file › Save my setup to a file

How

Choose a destination and accept the suggested .tgbak name.
Set a passphrase of at least eight characters and confirm it.
Copy the file to the new TV and use Restore from a file with the same passphrase.

If the picker has nowhere to save

Some TVs open a file picker that is completely empty, with the Save button greyed out. Use Save a copy on this box instead. It needs no picker, writes the same encrypted file into TiviGlass’s own folder, and the file is listed under Manage backup files, where you can restore or delete it. Because it lives inside the app, removing TiviGlass deletes it — so copy it somewhere else if it matters, or use Cloud Backup as well.

Good to know

The file is encrypted — credentials and PINs are never readable inside it — and a forgotten passphrase cannot be recovered. It carries settings and library data, not the recorded video files themselves. It holds only your own TV services and profiles, even when other accounts also use this TV. Restoring a file saved by an older version on a shared TV leaves out any TV service that belonged to another account.

Chapter 14

Keeping TiviGlass healthy

Updates Free

Path: Settings › Updates & storage › App updates

How

Leave Check for updates automatically on and TiviGlass offers updates as they appear. Turning it off stops only the background checks.
Read the patch-note preview in Update available, or choose View full release notes. Long notes open in a wide reader; use Page up and Page down with the remote.
Check for updates looks immediately, even when automatic checks are off. The same row is under Settings › Help & about › About TiviGlass.
Receive beta updates opts into early builds. Beta testers still receive every normal release too, so you never fall behind by staying opted in.

Good to know

The check tells you what it compared: the build number you are on, and whether it looked at the stable channel alone or stable and beta together. Because beta and stable share one build counter, a stable release published after a beta is the newer build — so “you’re on the latest version” with beta updates switched on is a correct answer, not a sign the opt-in failed. Settings › Help & about › About TiviGlass › Version shows which build and release channel you are running, and pressing OK on it opens Updates & storage › App updates. Above it, two lines say which TV this is (This TV: make, model and Android version) and what the TV service in use has stored on it (On this TV: channels, movies and shows). If the update service cannot be reached the screen says so rather than claiming you are up to date.

Later puts optional updates aside for a few days, including any newer build published in the meantime. Backing out of the panel does not: it clears the offer for now and it returns at the next check, so a prompt dismissed part-way through a programme is not taken as a decision to stop being told. Check for updates always looks, whichever you chose.

Updates install over the top — your playlists, profiles and recordings are untouched. In the Google Play version, Google Play keeps TiviGlass up to date, and App updates is a single line, Updates from Google Play; pressing OK on it opens TiviGlass in Google Play. On the first launch after an update, What’s new shows those full release notes once more; it does not appear when somebody installs TiviGlass for the first time. The first time an update is installed, the TV may ask permission to install apps from TiviGlass; that’s a one-off.

If an update stops before Android’s installer even opens — an older version says APK signing certificate mismatch, or a current one says the update can’t be installed automatically — download the current APK from tiviglass.com and open it once. When Android accepts it, it installs over the existing app without clearing its data; future in-app updates then use the corrected check. If Android’s own installer instead says the app is incompatible, stop and contact support rather than uninstalling, so your local data can be protected first.

TiviGlass needs Android 6.0 or newer (Fire OS 6 or newer on Amazon devices), and has since version 2.1.1. On an Android 5 box, including a Fire OS 5 stick, Android refuses every newer version with App not installed or There was a problem parsing the package, whether the update comes from the app or from tiviglass.com. That is the device’s Android version rather than a damaged download, so trying again will not help, and uninstalling will not either: a fresh install is refused the same way.

Diagnose problems yourself Free

Path: Settings › Help & about › Fix a problem

How

Find and fix a problem does an end-to-end check of playlist, guide, on-demand, recording, account and sync.
It ranks what it finds and names a likely root cause.
Fix what I can applies the safe fixes automatically.
Probe a channel tests one specific stream in the background.
Cancel stops a run there and then. Back asks whether to Keep running or Cancel run, so a check that takes a while is never thrown away by the press you use to leave every other screen.

Good to know

Quick connection test checks only your internet and TV services, and Check my saved data only what is stored on this TV. Recent activity shows what the app just tried. View device log and Save a support report, the redacted diagnostics export, are under Privacy & device log; the export never contains passwords or stream URLs.

Send crash reports, on the same page, sends a technical report when something goes wrong, so the fault can be found and fixed. While it is on, it also sends a short summary of how smoothly video played. That summary is numbers only, goes at most once a week, and only when you have watched at least 10 minutes of video since the last one. It says how long video played, how often it stopped to buffer and how smooth the picture was, along with the device details a crash report carries. Nothing you watch is named in it. Turn the setting off and the summary stops.

A run keeps going if you leave it. Choose Keep running when you press Back and a small banner stays at the top of the screen with your report ID and how far it has got; come back to Settings › Help & about › Fix a problem › Find and fix a problem and you pick up exactly where you left off, or read the finished report. One exception: a run that includes a playback check cannot be left running, because it needs the video player you are about to go back to — there, Back simply cancels and keeps whatever finished. Whatever you choose, the checks that already ran are kept in Previous runs.

Every run has a report ID like TGD-M3K8QF2-1, shown on the results screen. Copy report puts a short plain-text summary on the clipboard for support: the ID, which checks ran and whether each passed, and nothing else — no channel names, no server addresses, no passwords.

You don’t have to come here to find these. When a channel fails to play, the Get help button on the error takes you straight to the right row with it already highlighted — the health check if the channel never started, or self diagnostics if it started and then stopped. Press Back and you are returned to whatever you were watching or browsing before, not left in Settings. If the setting has moved or been renamed in a newer version, TiviGlass opens the page it is on and tells you it moved, rather than silently landing you somewhere blank.

65b

When a screen is loading, or will not load Free

Path: Anywhere in TiviGlass

How

A screen that is still working tells you what it is preparing, not just “Loading”. If it is unusually slow it says so, and the rest of TiviGlass keeps working while you wait.
If something fails, the message names what failed, which part of the system it belongs to (your TV service, your account, or storage on this box) and whether anything was lost.
Every failure offers a first thing to try — usually Try again — and, where it can, a second option such as Run a check or Sign in again.
If the profile screen cannot load, Try again re-reads it. You no longer have to close and reopen the app.

Good to know

Anything already on screen stays there when a refresh fails. If your channels, movies or guide are already loaded and an update cannot complete, TiviGlass keeps showing what it has and puts a small line at the top explaining why, rather than emptying the screen. An empty screen therefore means genuinely empty, not “the refresh went wrong”.

A message never blames your internet for something that happened on the box, or the other way round. If it says storage on this device, your broadband is not the problem.

Options that would not do anything on the screen you are looking at are simply not shown. The profile screen appears before the rest of the app exists, so it offers Try again and nothing else; the same failure on the Home screen also offers Run a check, because self diagnostics is reachable from there.

During first-time setup, a step that was tried and did not finish now says so under the card, so Try again is not the only clue that something went wrong.

Free up space Free

Path: Settings › Updates & storage › Storage space

How

The lines at the top of Storage space show what TiviGlass and the device are using, including what recordings and paused TV take up.
Clear cache removes temporary artwork and files.
Apps you may not need scans for installed apps you could remove.
Re-download all channels & guide deletes the downloaded TV guide for every TV service on this TV, and the downloaded pictures, then runs Update all TV services, so channels, the guide, movies and shows download again, one service after another. Your services, favourites and settings are kept. While an update is already running it asks you to try again when that finishes. To do this for the service in use only, use Clear downloaded TV guide on the TV guide page.

Good to know

Clearing the cache never touches favourites, custom names, groups or recordings — those are stored separately and rebuild on top of the fresh catalogue.

Anything on this page that clears or resets in bulk asks you to confirm first, and the confirmation now starts with an Applies to line saying how far the change reaches — This TV service, This device or Your whole account. Read that line rather than guessing from the title: “Restore all group names” affects only the TV service you are using, while “Remove device” affects your account on every TV. On anything irreversible the highlight starts on Cancel, so it always takes a deliberate move to go ahead.

TiviGlass also tidies up on its own. If you have several playlists and haven’t opened one for about a month, its downloaded movie list, show list and TV guide are released to free up space; the playlist itself, and everything you set up on it, stay exactly where they are. The next time you switch to that playlist it fetches them again, so the first load takes a little longer than usual. Anything you starred, added to your watchlist, put in a custom folder or renamed is kept, so it keeps showing up in your lists in the meantime. A playlist you imported from a file is never touched this way, because there would be nothing to download it back from.

Get help from support Free

Path: Settings › Help & about › Get help › Start support session

How

Select Start support session, choose the problem you want checked, then select Start.
The TV begins the matching diagnostic checks straight away and shows an 8-character code. Give that code to support within one hour.
A banner shows when support connects; select End session to disconnect at any time.

Good to know

The first person to use the code is the only person who can claim that session. If TiviGlass restarts, it safely resumes an unfinished session and does not repeat a completed support action. Passwords, tokens and stream URLs are stripped before results leave the TV. Sessions end themselves after 20 minutes of inactivity and cannot last more than two hours.

Start again Free

Path: Settings › Updates & storage › Start again

How

Open the folded Start again group at the bottom of Updates & storage.
Reset settings to defaults keeps your TV services, account and PIN, and resets every other setting.
Clear watch history is on Settings › Movies & shows › Resume & history. It empties Continue watching and the recent rails for the current viewer on the TV service in use.

Good to know

Take a backup first (how-to 63). If cloud sync is on, a reset device pulls its data back down as soon as you sign in again.

Chapter 15

Settings map

Settings opens on one screen with a search box at the top and 16 topics in 5 groups, named for what you are doing when you go looking: Watching TV, What’s on my TV, Make it mine, Household & account and Help & updates. Each group is one row of tiles, drawn like the side menu: the highlighted tile sits on the same bright bar. With a remote, when you come back from a page the highlight lands on its tile, and once you move off it that tile keeps a glowing edge, so you can see where you were. A strip along the bottom says what is inside the tile you are on: what it is for, and the names of its sections. It cannot take the highlight, so it never gets in your way.

Settings was rearranged, and nothing was reset. Every choice you made is still in force; it is only in an easier place to find. The first time each viewer opens Settings on a new version, a short message says so, with See what moved beside OK. The full list stays under Settings › Help & about › Get help › What moved in Settings, where pressing OK on a setting takes you straight to it. Search still finds every old name, so typing Video & audio, TV sources or This device still gets you there. The tables at the end of this chapter list every move.

Moving around the first screen. Up and down move between groups, left and right along one. Moving down from the end of a longer row lands on the end of the shorter row below it, so nothing is ever out of reach. While part of the first-time setup is unfinished, a Finish setup · N tile appears at the end of the last group; it opens the setup checklist in Help & about and disappears once everything is done. The first-time setup screen on Live TV has the same door: its Finish setting up button opens Help & about › Finish setting up, and Back returns to the setup screen. On a phone or tablet the topics are one scrolling list, each with a line saying what it holds. At the largest text size the groups wrap onto more rows and the screen scrolls.

Search all settings looks across every topic. Type a setting’s name or a problem such as “no sound”, or use the microphone. Each result shows where it lives, for example While watching › Sleep, screen & picture-in-picture, and opens with that setting highlighted. If it sits in a folded group at the bottom of a page, that group opens for this visit only. This works for a setting anywhere on the page, however far down: the page scrolls to it and the highlight lands on it. If it only appears once another setting is on, you land on that other setting and TiviGlass says Turn this on first. When a setting cannot be shown here, search says why rather than landing you on nothing: for example That setting is only in remote layout, Sign in to TiviGlass to use that setting, That setting appears once a TV service is added and in use, That setting appears once this TV has a second TV service, or That setting isn’t available on this device or plan. Settings a version of TiviGlass can never show are not offered at all: the update settings are left out of the Google Play version (which says where its updates come from instead), and test builds leave out the settings they do not have.

How a settings page works

The page title stays pinned at the top with the group above it, for example Watching TV › TV guide, and a back arrow beside it. Back, or Left from the left edge of the page, takes you back one step, usually to the first screen of Settings; Left there opens the menu. Each page is a few sections with a heading each. Every setting is one line: its name on the left and its current value on the right, and the name never changes, so what you search for is what you see.

What you see at the end of a line	What OK does
A switch	Turns it on or off straight away.
A value and ›	Opens the choices, a list or a dialog. Your current choice is marked.
↗ and “Opens …”	A link to the page that owns it. Back returns you to the page you came from.
Nothing	Does it now, for example Update TV guide.
A red name	Deletes or resets something you made. It always asks first, and the question starts with an Applies to line saying how far it reaches.
A gold or silver badge	Part of Premium (gold) or Essentials (silver). The value shows what is in force now, usually Off. OK says which plan unlocks it, for example Needs Essentials, and opens Account & plan: at Your plan when you are signed in, or at Sign in to TiviGlass when you are not.

A setting that only matters while another is on is set in a little under it and only appears while that one is on: Reconnect attempts under Reconnect when playback stops, for example. Less common settings are folded into a group at the very bottom of the page, named for what they fix, such as Fix picture problems · 3; while it is folded it lists what is inside. Your open or closed choice is remembered on this TV.

Jumping through a long page. On any settings page, CH+ and CH− (or Page up and Page down, if your remote has them) jump to the previous or next section; past the last section they move a screenful at a time, as they do on every other screen. They only save time: the arrow buttons reach every setting too, so a remote without those buttons misses nothing. A search result, or a link from elsewhere in the app, opens the page scrolled to its setting with the highlight already on it.

About this setting. Rest on any setting for a moment and a panel on the right explains what it does and what your current choice means. On a narrower screen, or with larger text, the same words appear in a strip under the list instead; the strip grows to show all of them. On a touch screen, tap the ⓘ beside a setting to read it under that line. There is no longer a Show help button on settings pages: the explanation is always one rest of the highlight away. Anything you must know before changing a setting, such as a warning that it stops something else working, is still written on the page under that setting.

Going back. Back, or the back arrow, returns to the first screen with the highlight on the topic you left. Pressing left when there is nothing further left to move to does the same, so you never have to scroll back to the top. Controls that use left themselves, such as text boxes, keep it. When a link inside Settings took you to another page, Back returns once to the page you came from. When something outside Settings brought you here, such as Get help on a playback error, Back returns you to what you were watching or browsing.

The same control on two pages. Eight settings are drawn in two places because people look for them in both. They are one setting, not two copies: changing it on either page changes it everywhere.

Setting	Where it lives, and where else you will find it
Guide text size	TV guide › How the guide looks; also Look & feel › Size & screen
Open fullscreen with one press of OK	TV guide › Preview & the OK button; also Remote & buttons › What buttons do
TV guide sources	TV guide › Guide listings; also TV services › Guide sources & addons
Time format	Look & feel › Date & time; also While watching › Player controls & clock
Startup sound	Look & feel › Sounds; also Home & menu › When TiviGlass starts
Movie & show poster size	Look & feel › Size & screen; also Movies & shows › Browsing
Show Kids in the menu	Home & menu › Menu entries; also Parental & profiles › Kids
Check for updates	Updates & storage › App updates; also Help & about › About TiviGlass

Every topic, and what is inside

Folded groups are marked (folded). They always come last on their page.

Topic	Sections, in page order
Watching TV
TV guide	How the guide looks · Preview & the OK button · Moving around the guide · Guide listings (with a line saying how many channels have listings, and Guide time offset) · Missing listings (including Match listings) · Fill gaps · Fusion · Storing listings (folded)
While watching	When a channel stutters · When a channel fails · Fusion · Player controls & clock · Pause & rewind live TV · Sleep, screen & picture-in-picture · Play in another app · Changing channels
Picture & sound	Picture · Sound · Fix picture problems (folded) · Fix sound problems (folded). See chapter 16.
Subtitles	Turning subtitles on · Size, look & timing (with a live preview) · Finding subtitles online · Captions from speech · More subtitle styling (folded)
What’s on my TV
TV services	Your TV services (switch to another, or add one) · This service (update, edit login, backup addresses, sign out or remove the one in use) · Keeping up to date · Which service each section uses · Guide sources & addons · Connection fixes (folded: User-Agent for all services, HTTP proxy)
Channels & groups	Groups · Channels (including Channel corrections and a link to Lock channels with a PIN) · Order & numbers (Channel order, Group order, Arrange groups, Restore provider numbers) · Favourites · Duplicate channels · Clean up names · Undo hiding (folded)
Movies & shows	Resume & history (Continue where you stopped, Auto-play next episode, Clear watch history) · Movies · Shows · Browsing · Clean up names · Undo hiding (folded)
Recordings	Recording (Record programmes, See plans while your plan does not include recording, then the limit and Series Links while it is on) · Where recordings are saved · Start early & finish late
Make it mine
Home & menu	When TiviGlass starts · Menu entries (a switch for each optional section, then Order and rename menu entries) · Home screen · How each section opens · Reminders & alerts
Look & feel	Size & screen · Colour theme · Channel logos · Date & time · Sounds · Logo sources (folded)
Remote & buttons	What buttons do · Skipping forward and back · Rewinding live TV
Household & account
Parental & profiles	Who’s watching · Parental controls · Locks (Locked channels, Locked groups, Locked apps, Adult content confirmation) · Ask for the PIN before opening · Kids
Account & plan	Your plan · Your account · Devices on your account · Sign out or delete
Sync & backup	Sync between TVs · Cloud backup · Backup file · If sync goes wrong (folded)
Help & updates
Help & about	Finish setting up · Fix a problem · Get help (including User guide and What moved in Settings) · Privacy & device log · About TiviGlass (version, device, Licences)
Updates & storage	App updates · Storage space · Start again (folded). In the Google Play version, App updates is a single line saying that Google Play keeps TiviGlass up to date.

Management dialogs use the same item borders and rounded backgrounds as Settings, with consistent spacing. Some of them, such as source setup, Stremio addons, movie and show filters, app shortcuts and recording times, still offer Show help beside optional instructions; Hide help collapses them again, and errors, requirements and consent always stay visible.

Choice lists explain themselves. When a setting opens a list of choices, a line under the list says what the highlighted choice does, and the highlight starts on the choice in use. In TV guide sources, Listings from your TV service offers Off, Only where my guide is empty and Use it for every channel; the guide time offset there is a list from −12 to +12 hours in half-hour steps; and Use a guide from another TV service reuses a guide address another service already has. Series Links lists the programmes that record every new episode; you make one by holding OK on a programme in the guide and choosing Series link on this channel.

Shortcuts into Settings from where you are. Many screens now have a way straight to the settings behind them, and Back returns you to that screen:

TV guide: Customise guide ends with Order & numbers and All guide settings. A group’s options have a Settings tab with Locked groups, Show or hide groups and Group order. When a channel has no listings, resting on it shows a short line pointing to Missing listings, and holding OK on the channel name, or on the empty “No programme information” gap beside it, offers Missing listings too.
Movies and Shows: Library settings in the toolbar.
Home, Sports and Kids: each has a Customise button at the end of the bar under its featured area, which opens that hub’s Customise screen (the same one Settings opens). Hold OK on a card for that row’s or that match’s options.
Recordings: Recording settings at the top.
The service switchers: Manage services.
The “Who’s watching?” picker says where profiles are managed: Settings › Parental & profiles › Who’s watching.
In the player’s options, the tab for one channel or film says it changes that item only, and Quality and Picture size say they change the default for everything you watch. A kids profile has none of these shortcuts.

On the Google Play version, User guide shows the code to scan and the address to type; it does not open the guide on the TV.

Manual recording timers separate the date, repeat days, start time and end time. Schedule, Cancel and any validation error stay below the scrolling form. Long text (the player’s Remote controls guide, descriptions, release notes, the device log and recent activity) scrolls with Up and Down on a remote.

Announcements show a short preview of longer messages; choose Read full message for the rest. An update announcement with Open update settings takes you straight to Updates & storage › App updates, or in the Google Play version to the line saying where updates come from. Other links open directly on a touch device or show a QR code on TV.

Moved in this release

Every setting that moved page or section, under the page it used to be on. The left column is the name you remember; the right column is where it is now, with its new name where it changed. The same list is on the TV under Help & about › Get help › What moved in Settings. Settings that are new to this version, such as Arrange groups or Locked groups, are not listed, because nothing moved.

It used to be called	Now in Settings
TV sources
Add TV source	TV services › Your TV services › Add a TV service
Update all	TV services › Keeping up to date › Update all TV services
Sync across TVs	TV services › Keeping up to date › Sync TV services from my account
Automatic playlist updates	TV services › Keeping up to date › Update automatically
Update interval	TV services › Keeping up to date › Update every
Last update, per source	TV services › Keeping up to date › Update all TV services
Use this source	TV services › Your TV services › Use this service
Update now	TV services › This service
Edit connection	TV services › This service › Edit login & address
Backup server addresses	TV services › This service
Sign out of provider	TV services › This service › Sign out of this service
Remove provider	TV services › This service › Remove this service
Addons	TV services › Guide sources & addons › Stremio addons & debrid
Account & Premium
Sign in to TiviGlass	Account & plan › Your account
Upgrade to Premium	Account & plan › Your plan › Your plan
Change email	Account & plan › Your account
Refresh plan	Account & plan › Your plan
Remove a device	Account & plan › Devices on your account › Remove device
Buy more device slots	Account & plan › Devices on your account
Switch profile	Parental & profiles › Who’s watching
Cancel pending email change	Account & plan › Your account
Sign out of TiviGlass	Account & plan › Sign out or delete
Delete your TiviGlass account	Account & plan › Sign out or delete
Sync & backup
Cloud sync	Sync & backup › Sync between TVs
Show cloud sync update messages	Sync & backup › Sync between TVs › Show sync messages
Sync playlists now	TV services › Keeping up to date › Sync TV services from my account
Sync now	Sync & backup › Sync between TVs
Upload this device	Sync & backup › If sync goes wrong › Replace the cloud with this TV
Use cloud copy	Sync & backup › If sync goes wrong › Replace this TV with the cloud
Back up now	Sync & backup › Cloud backup
Restore from backup	Sync & backup › Cloud backup › Restore from cloud backup
Automatic backup frequency	Sync & backup › Cloud backup › Back up automatically
Earlier versions	Sync & backup › If sync goes wrong › Roll sync back to an earlier day
Unlink cloud sync	Sync & backup › If sync goes wrong › Stop syncing this TV
Parental & Kids
Enable parental controls	Parental & profiles › Parental controls
Kids Mode & screen time	Parental & profiles › Kids › Customise Kids
Set a PIN	Parental & profiles › Parental controls › Parental PIN
Manage locked channels	Parental & profiles › Locks › Locked channels
How to enter your PIN	Parental & profiles › Parental controls
Skip PIN for protected content	Parental & profiles › Ask for the PIN before opening › Skip PIN on locked channels, films & shows
Ask for the PIN before opening Settings	Parental & profiles › Ask for the PIN before opening › Settings pages
Channels & groups
Manage TV groups	Channels & groups › Groups › Show or hide groups
Manage group filters	Channels & groups › Groups › Hide groups & channels by name
Manage channels	Channels & groups › Channels › Show, hide or rename channels
Favourites from every playlist	Channels & groups › Favourites › Favourites from every TV service
Restore hidden TV groups	Channels & groups › Undo hiding
Restore hidden channels	Channels & groups › Undo hiding
Auto-rename all channel names	Channels & groups › Clean up names › Tidy all channel names
Restore all channel names	Channels & groups › Clean up names
Auto-rename all groups	Channels & groups › Clean up names › Tidy all group names
Restore all group names	Channels & groups › Clean up names
Hide duplicate channels	Channels & groups › Duplicate channels
TV guide
TV guide sources	TV guide › Guide listings
Update TV guide	TV guide › Guide listings
Check for missing TV listings	TV guide › Missing listings
Match listings	TV guide › Missing listings
Guide text size	TV guide › How the guide looks
Guide row height	TV guide › How the guide looks
Time shown on one screen	TV guide › How the guide looks
Show channel numbers	TV guide › How the guide looks
Number guide rows from 1	TV guide › How the guide looks
Channel identity in programme cells	TV guide › How the guide looks › Programme boxes show
Wrap long channel names	TV guide › How the guide looks
Show programme times	TV guide › How the guide looks
Show TiviGlass watermark	TV guide › How the guide looks
Guide preview size	TV guide › Preview & the OK button
Guide preview position	TV guide › Preview & the OK button
Play a preview as you browse	TV guide › Preview & the OK button
Make the preview fullscreen after	TV guide › Preview & the OK button
Open fullscreen with one press of OK	TV guide › Preview & the OK button
Loop from the last channel to the first	TV guide › Moving around the guide
Keep past TV listings for	TV guide › Storing listings
Download future TV listings for	TV guide › Storing listings
Show current time line	TV guide › How the guide looks
Save programme descriptions	TV guide › Storing listings
Clear downloaded TV guide	TV guide › Storing listings
Movies & shows
Restore hidden movie categories	Movies & shows › Undo hiding
Restore hidden show categories	Movies & shows › Undo hiding
Auto-rename movie categories	Movies & shows › Clean up names › Tidy movie category names
Auto-rename show categories	Movies & shows › Clean up names › Tidy show category names
Restore original movie category names	Movies & shows › Clean up names
Restore original show category names	Movies & shows › Clean up names
Recordings
Recording storage	Recordings › Where recordings are saved
Recording storage limit	Recordings › Where recordings are saved
Keep recordings for	Recordings › Where recordings are saved
Clean up recordings now	Recordings › Where recordings are saved
Start recording early	Recordings › Start early & finish late
Finish recording late	Recordings › Start early & finish late
Video & audio
Video quality	Picture & sound › Picture
Picture shape & zoom	Picture & sound › Picture
Use less data	Picture & sound › Picture
Match TV frame rate	Picture & sound › Picture
Video decoder	Picture & sound › Fix picture problems
Dolby Vision	Picture & sound › Fix picture problems
Default audio language	Picture & sound › Sound
Surround sound	Picture & sound › Sound
Adjust sound timing	Picture & sound › Sound
Audio decoder	Picture & sound › Fix sound problems
Audio passthrough	Picture & sound › Fix sound problems
Even out volume	Picture & sound › Sound
Boost quiet audio	Picture & sound › Sound
Subtitles & captions
Subtitles on by default	Subtitles › Turning subtitles on
Default subtitle language	Subtitles › Turning subtitles on
Broadcast captions (CC)	Subtitles › Turning subtitles on
Subtitle text size	Subtitles › Size, look & timing
Subtitle background box	Subtitles › Size, look & timing
Subtitle colour	Subtitles › More subtitle styling
Subtitle outline & shadow	Subtitles › More subtitle styling
Subtitle position	Subtitles › More subtitle styling
Subtitle delay	Subtitles › Size, look & timing
Search online automatically	Subtitles › Finding subtitles online
Language for online subtitles	Subtitles › Finding subtitles online
Prefer hearing-impaired subtitles	Subtitles › Finding subtitles online
OpenSubtitles account	Subtitles › Finding subtitles online
Create captions from live speech	Subtitles › Captions from speech
Download speech languages	Subtitles › Captions from speech
Streaming & reliability
Buffer size	While watching › When a channel stutters
Reconnect when playback stops	While watching › When a channel stutters
Keep screen awake during playback	While watching › Sleep, screen & picture-in-picture
Hide player controls after	While watching › Player controls & clock
Keep a clock on screen	While watching › Player controls & clock
Continue where you stopped	Movies & shows › Resume & history
Auto-play next episode	Movies & shows › Resume & history
Delay before switching channels	While watching › Changing channels
Reconnect attempts	While watching › When a channel stutters
Try another source on failure	While watching › When a channel fails · Fusion › Try another copy of the channel
Merge duplicate channels	Channels & groups › Duplicate channels
Reduce live TV delay	While watching › When a channel stutters
Video player	While watching › Play in another app › Play video in
Use external player for	While watching › Play in another app › Use the other app for
Pause & rewind buffer (experimental)	While watching › Pause & rewind live TV › Pause & rewind live TV
Pause & rewind storage	While watching › Pause & rewind live TV › Where paused TV is kept
Refresh pause & rewind storage	While watching › Pause & rewind live TV › Refresh storage list
Reset playback learning	Picture & sound › Fix picture problems
Fusion
Switch to another playlist if playback fails	While watching › When a channel fails · Fusion › Switch service when a channel fails
Show feeds from your other playlists	While watching › When a channel fails · Fusion › Show copies from other services
Fill gaps in the TV guide	TV guide › Fill gaps · Fusion › Fill gaps from other services
Also use unmatched guide entries	TV guide › Fill gaps · Fusion › Fusion: also use near matches
Appearance & theme
Date & time language	Look & feel › Date & time
App text & layout size	Look & feel › Size & screen
Movie & show poster size	Look & feel › Size & screen
Group menu layout	Home & menu › How each section opens › Group list layout
Preview group on focus	TV guide › Moving around the guide
Channel logos	Look & feel › Channel logos
Channel logo size	Look & feel › Channel logos
Preferred logo source	Look & feel › Logo sources
Local logo folder	Look & feel › Logo sources
Refresh local logos	Look & feel › Logo sources
Clear local logo folder	Look & feel › Logo sources
Fix cut-off screen edges	Look & feel › Size & screen
Player overlay transparency	While watching › Player controls & clock › Player controls see-through
Time format	Look & feel › Date & time
Background motion	Look & feel › Colour theme
Colour theme	Look & feel › Colour theme
Create custom theme	Look & feel › Colour theme
Duplicate current	Look & feel › Colour theme
Reset to default	Look & feel › Colour theme
Menu & sections
Customise navigation menu	Home & menu › Menu entries › Order and rename menu entries
Navigation profiles	Remote & buttons › What buttons do › Button profiles
Startup screen and Home tiles	Home & menu › When TiviGlass starts › First screen
Show the Home screen	Home & menu › Home screen
Choose rows on Home	Home & menu › Home screen › Customise Home
Live recommendations	Home & menu › Home screen › Customise Home (the Recommended live now row’s own switch)
Live TV source	TV services › Which service each section uses › Live TV uses
Movies source	TV services › Which service each section uses › Movies use
Shows source	TV services › Which service each section uses › Shows use
Live TV opens to	Home & menu › How each section opens
Movies opens to	Home & menu › How each section opens
Shows opens to	Home & menu › How each section opens
Sports hub	Home & menu › Menu entries
Kids section	Home & menu › Menu entries › Show Kids in the menu
Search section	Home & menu › Menu entries › Search
Movies & shows section	Home & menu › Menu entries › Movies & shows
Apps section	Home & menu › Menu entries › Apps
Reminders section	Home & menu › Menu entries › Reminders
Hide sports spoilers	Home & menu › Menu entries › Hide sports scores
Reminder countdown	Home & menu › Reminders & alerts
Remote & buttons
Interface mode	Look & feel › Size & screen › Remote or touch layout
Button behaviour: Live player	Remote & buttons › What buttons do › Buttons in the live player
Button behaviour: Movies & shows	Remote & buttons › What buttons do › Buttons in movies & shows
Button behaviour: TV guide	Remote & buttons › What buttons do › Buttons in the TV guide
Shortcut keys	Remote & buttons › What buttons do
Back button while watching	Remote & buttons › What buttons do
Loop lists round	Remote & buttons › What buttons do
Seek step	Remote & buttons › Skipping forward and back › Skip length
Use Left/Right for seeking	Remote & buttons › Skipping forward and back › Left and Right skip
Use Up/Down for seeking	Remote & buttons › Skipping forward and back › Up and Down skip
Use RW/FF for seeking	Remote & buttons › Skipping forward and back › Rewind and fast-forward buttons skip
Startup sound	Look & feel › Sounds
Interface sounds	Look & feel › Sounds
Stop playback after	While watching › Sleep, screen & picture-in-picture › Sleep timer
This device
Setup checklist	Help & about › Finish setting up
Open TiviGlass when the device starts	Home & menu › When TiviGlass starts › Open TiviGlass when the box turns on
Play the last channel when TiviGlass opens	Home & menu › When TiviGlass starts › Start on the last channel
User-Agent	TV services › Connection fixes › User-Agent for all services
HTTP proxy	TV services › Connection fixes
Picture-in-picture on Home press	While watching › Sleep, screen & picture-in-picture › Picture-in-picture when you press Home
Send anonymous usage statistics	Help & about › Privacy & device log
Send crash reports	Help & about › Privacy & device log
Keep a diagnostic log	Help & about › Privacy & device log › Keep a device log
Notifications	Home & menu › Reminders & alerts
Check for updates automatically	Updates & storage › App updates
Receive beta updates	Updates & storage › App updates
Check for new version	Updates & storage › App updates › Check for updates
Help & diagnostics
Find and fix a problem	Help & about › Fix a problem
Recent activity	Help & about › Fix a problem
Check everything now	Help & about › Fix a problem › Quick connection test
Start support session	Help & about › Get help
View device logs	Help & about › Privacy & device log › View device log
Save a support report	Help & about › Privacy & device log
Storage & reset
Open device storage settings	Updates & storage › Storage space › Open Android storage settings
Open device apps settings	Updates & storage › Storage space
Clear cache	Updates & storage › Storage space
Clear database cache	Updates & storage › Storage space › Re-download all channels & guide
Check data health	Help & about › Fix a problem › Check my saved data
Apps you may not need	Updates & storage › Storage space
Clear watch history	Movies & shows › Resume & history
Reset settings to defaults	Updates & storage › Start again
About
Version	Help & about › About TiviGlass
Join our Discord	Help & about › Get help › Ask the community on Discord

Older versions

Many TVs keep an older version for months, so a TV in your house may still show the old layout. On an older version, look here instead. The version number is under Help & about › About TiviGlass › Version on a new version, and Settings › About on an older one.

Old topic	Where its settings went
TV sources	TV services. Tidy all channel names and the other name clean-ups are on Channels & groups › Clean up names.
Account & Premium	Account & plan. Switch profile moved to Parental & profiles › Who’s watching.
Sync & backup	Sync & backup. Sync playlists now moved to TV services › Keeping up to date as Sync TV services from my account.
Parental & Kids	Parental & profiles.
Channels & groups	Channels & groups, which now also holds Merge duplicate channels, Favourites from every TV service and the order controls from the guide.
TV guide	TV guide, which now also holds Preview group on focus and the two Fusion guide settings.
Movies & shows	Movies & shows, which now also holds Continue where you stopped, Auto-play next episode and Clear watch history.
Recordings	Recordings.
Video & audio	Picture & sound.
Subtitles & captions	Subtitles.
Streaming & reliability	While watching. Resume and auto-play moved to Movies & shows, Merge duplicate channels to Channels & groups, and Reset playback learning to Picture & sound › Fix picture problems.
Fusion	While watching › When a channel fails · Fusion, and TV guide › Fill gaps · Fusion.
Appearance & theme	Look & feel. Group menu layout moved to Home & menu as Group list layout, Preview group on focus to TV guide, and Player overlay transparency to While watching as Player controls see-through.
Menu & sections	Home & menu. The per-section Live TV source, Movies source and Shows source moved to TV services › Which service each section uses; Navigation profiles moved to Remote & buttons as Button profiles.
Remote & buttons	Remote & buttons. Interface mode and the sounds moved to Look & feel, and the sleep timer to While watching.
This device	Split by what each setting is for: updates to Updates & storage; start-up and notifications to Home & menu; the setup checklist and privacy to Help & about; User-Agent and HTTP proxy to TV services › Connection fixes; picture-in-picture to While watching.
Help & diagnostics	Help & about.
Storage & reset	Updates & storage. Clear watch history moved to Movies & shows and Check data health to Help & about as Check my saved data.
About	Help & about › About TiviGlass.

Chapter 16

Troubleshooting

Work down the list — the fixes are ordered from most to least likely. If none of them help, run Find and fix a problem (how-to 65) before contacting support; it usually names the cause outright.

Problem	Try this
Sources disappear after syncing but are still on my account	Open Settings › TV services › Keeping up to date and choose Sync TV services from my account. While TiviGlass is open, website playlist and viewer-profile edits are checked on the existing foreground heartbeat (about every four minutes). A detected change queues a sync; background and offline devices may take longer. You can still choose Sync for an immediate attempt. D-pad Up and Down step through each source in order, including sources below the visible area; Left and Right reach that source’s action buttons. A fresh account sync can recover sources removed by an older sync error and reconnect their saved favourites and settings. If cloud sync discovers an old removal after that first pull, sync playlists once more. If sources keep disappearing, use Help & about to contact support before clearing app data or reinstalling.
Secure credential storage fails while adding a source	TiviGlass retries a failed encryption operation once with fresh secure-storage handles. If the error remains, reopen the app and retry. Contact support before clearing app data: deleting it can discard saved credentials. A persistent or invalidated device key needs investigation.
It says I’m offline, or a source won’t add, while a VPN is on	TiviGlass now treats any network Android says can reach the internet as online, including a VPN link, and it never refuses to try a request because of that reading: adding a source, the Test step and Sync TV services from my account always send the request and report what actually came back. If a test or sync still fails while a VPN is running, the message says A VPN is active on this device. Many providers block VPN exit addresses, so pause the VPN, try again, and if it then works, that is the provider’s block and not your connection. Find and fix a problem (how-to 65) lists the Network link it can see, including whether it runs through a VPN, so a support report arrives with that fact in it.
Xtream setup reports a web page, or quotes what your provider’s page says	The server answered with a web page instead of your account details. When that page says something, the Test and Add now quote it: “Your provider answered with a page that says: …”. Those words come from your provider, not from TiviGlass. Some panels answer a refused username or password this way, so if the words are about your login, check the username and password, ideally by entering them with Type it on my phone instead. Your own username and password are never repeated back: if the page echoes them, they show as <redacted>. If your address sent TiviGlass on to a different site, the message says “The address redirected to a page that says: …” instead, because those words may not be your provider’s. A Wi-Fi network that wants you to sign in first, such as hotel or public Wi-Fi, does this, and so does a server address that has moved. With no custom User-Agent set, the Test and Add have already tried a bounded set of User-Agents on the same answer and say how many they tried, so there is no need to run that again yourself. If they found a User-Agent your provider accepts but TiviGlass was holding off after the failed tries, it fills that User-Agent in under Optional details for you: wait about a minute and test again. Auto-detect next to User-Agent is suggested only when that recovery did not run, for example because you typed a User-Agent. A page with no readable words still says it returned a web page or an unsupported account response; check the exact provider address. In Self diagnostics the same answer shows as a warning under Provider reachable, never as “can’t reach your provider”. None of these messages means your internet connection is down.
A Stalker portal fails the Test	The Test shows what the portal, or the address, actually answered, with one line about what that means. It asks you to have your provider check the MAC only when the portal itself answered and refused this MAC. “The portal’s server is having trouble” is usually temporary, so try again in a few minutes. “No portal answered at that path” means a web server is there but no portal: check the portal address your provider gave you, including anything after the port. “Nothing answered at that address” means check it for a typo and check the port. When you type only a server and port, TiviGlass tries the usual portal paths, and if one of them is the real portal its answer is the one you see, not a 404 from a path it guessed. “TiviGlass is holding off from your provider for a moment” means several requests failed and this one was not sent: wait about a minute and test again to see what the portal answers. Adding or editing a portal gives the same message as the Test.
Returning from a custom guide group	Back restores the selected custom group in either group-navigation layout. In the horizontal layout it scrolls that group into view first; in the sidebar layout it follows the current selection.
TV sources disappear after account sign-in	Do not remove and re-add the sources. Older builds could leave locally added guest sources attached to the guest household while the new account profile looked in a different household; the channels often remained visible until restart even though Settings showed no sources. Current builds move the household and its source ownership together before completing sign-in, and repair an interrupted move on the next launch. Choose Keep guest profiles when asked. If the account was already affected and the sources do not return after updating and signing in once, contact support before clearing app data so the intact rows can be recovered safely.
Only one TV plays, or playback shows HTTP 458	Stop playback on the other TV, wait a moment, then retry. TiviGlass closes its live connection when it is sent to the background so it does not keep occupying a provider slot. If the TVs have separate provider logins, open Settings › TV services on each TV and confirm the intended source is selected; using the same server address is fine when the usernames are different. HTTP 458 is a non-standard provider refusal and usually means the provider still considers that particular line in use. TiviGlass retries one clean handoff, then stops rather than hammering the line or switching to a backup address that shares the same account limit.
Adding a playlist says it is not a channel list	You have pointed TiviGlass at the wrong thing, and it stopped rather than importing it. The four common cases: a web page (a provider whose line has expired often serves its login or “account suspended” page with an otherwise normal response), a guide file (XMLTV guides are usually called something like `guide.xml` or `epg.xml.gz` and sit right next to the playlist — that one belongs in the EPG URL box, not the playlist box), a JSON response copied from a panel, or an .m3u8 stream link, which is a single channel’s video rather than a list of channels. Check the address or pick the other file. Your existing channels, favourites and history are untouched — a refused import never replaces what you already have.
Live format check meets a busy or unavailable server	A temporary server failure, request timeout or rate limit during the live format check does not make TiviGlass remember HLS as unsupported. Playback keeps the selected format and uses its normal error handling. If the problem continues, check the source in Help & about › Fix a problem.
No channels at all	Check the service is still connected in Settings › TV services, then press Update now for that service (how-to 2c) — if it comes back empty it will tell you why, such as a rejected login or an expired subscription. Update all TV services does the same for every service. If the profile you’re using has source restrictions, check those too.
App exits on HEVC channels or shows	Reopen TiviGlass. If the app closed while a hardware video decoder was running, TiviGlass looks at how it closed. When it can see the decoder crashed, it uses software for that format on this device for a week. When Android shows the app was closed for another reason, such as a force stop, Android freeing memory or an ordinary app error, it changes nothing. When there is no way to tell, it gives the format another go on the hardware decoder. That happens most on Android 10 and older, including every Fire TV Cube, because Android keeps no record there of how an app closed, and also after a power cut. Only if the app closes the same way again within a day (two hours if the TV restarted in between) does it use software, and then for 72 hours. Those 72 hours can end sooner: if full screen playback shows software cannot keep up with the channel’s own frame rate, TiviGlass goes back to the hardware decoder. If the format closes the app again soon after its protection ends, the next protection lasts a week. This protection applies to the guide preview and full-screen playback. If Android has no software decoder for the format, Software can use the bundled FFmpeg decoder when available. Software may still struggle with FHD 50 fps streams, and 4K decoded in software is not expected to play smoothly; try an HD, lower frame-rate or different-format feed, or another source. If a channel plays slowly while a week of crash protection is on, the full screen player says so: “This channel is playing slowly. HEVC is decoded in software until date and time because its hardware decoder crashed TiviGlass on this device. Try an HD or lower frame-rate version, or another source.” It names the format that crashed and the date the protection ends. That protection is right to keep: Reset playback learning keeps it, and it ends by itself on that date. The 72 hour protection rests on closes TiviGlass could not explain, so if the slow playback notice suggests Reset playback learning instead, the reset clears it straight away. On a player that is already open, the reset takes effect at the next channel change. You can change decoder settings from the main sidebar: Settings › Picture & sound › Fix picture problems, without opening the failing channel.
Channel won’t play	First, does it affect one channel or all of them? That single question splits two completely different faults, and getting it the wrong way round wastes the most time. Just one channel: try Switch source in the player, then set the Video decoder to TiviGlass decoder to see whether it’s a codec problem. TiviGlass retries a channel that won’t start several times before giving up, and tells you when it has stopped trying — if you see This channel isn’t loading, further waiting won’t help; press Back and open it again. Raising Reconnect attempts in Settings › While watching › When a channel stutters makes it keep trying for longer. Every channel: this is almost never your device, and changing decoder settings will not help. If the error says your provider refused this line, your subscription has expired, been disabled, or you have more devices watching at once than it allows — close the others, then speak to your provider. If the message quotes HTTP 403 specifically, there is a second possibility worth ruling out first: your own connection may be the thing being blocked. Several people have fixed exactly that by switching network or turning a VPN on, so try that before spending a morning with your provider. If the channels play in other apps on the same box, press Try player User-Agent on the Playback failed card when it is offered: it is the quick way to test one channel with a player’s User-Agent before you change any setting (see the notes under how-to 2). Note that your provider’s panel can still show the line as “active” while its servers refuse to send video, so “it says active” does not rule this out. If the message says your provider answered with a message instead of video, and quotes what it said, that is the clearest version of the same thing: TiviGlass looked at the first bytes of the stream and found a web page or a short notice rather than video. When that is the first thing a channel sends, TiviGlass stops at once instead of retrying. If the channel had already been playing and Reconnect when playback stops is on, it waits a moment and tries once more first, and stops if the same answer comes back. Whatever is quoted there came from your provider, not from this app, and no playback setting can change it. Other apps are being given the same answer. Run Find and fix a problem (how-to 65) to confirm: it reports the provider’s exact answer. Its top card then reads Your provider sent a web page instead of the channel and says whether TiviGlass already reconnected once by itself, or did not, for example because Reconnect when playback stops is off.
It says the device could not verify your provider’s secure certificate	TiviGlass checks the secure certificate every provider address shows, and a channel that fails that check says so in plain words, on the Playback failed card and on a Multi-view tile. “This device could not verify your provider’s secure certificate”: check the date and time in your TV’s own settings first. A clock that reset after a power cut makes every secure address fail at once, and it is the one cause you can fix yourself. If the date and time are right, the provider’s certificate may be expired or invalid, and only your provider can fix that. An older box (Android 6 or 7, or one with an out of date certificate list) is not the cause on its own: TiviGlass adds the Let’s Encrypt certificate roots it is missing. “This address answered with a certificate for a different site”: the provider’s address may have moved or been blocked. If you saved backup addresses for the service (how-to 2a), TiviGlass tries them when the one in use stops working; otherwise ask your provider for a current address. Retrying the same channel straight away will not help with either message.
External player is selected but TiviGlass opens	Check Settings › While watching › Play in another app › Use the other app for: Movies & shows only deliberately keeps live TV and catch-up inside TiviGlass. If the scope already includes live TV, read the message shown by the player. It names an inactive Premium entitlement or says the selected app could not accept that stream; the selection is kept so another compatible stream can still open there.
Stuttering or buffering	Press S for the stats overlay. An emptying buffer means the connection; a low frame rate means the device. Set Use less data to Automatic to protect adaptive streams after repeated stalls, and raise Buffer size for a deeper cushion — on films and shows this helps most, because on live TV nothing can be held further ahead than your provider sends it. Devices with less memory offer fewer Buffer size steps, and the largest step shown is the largest that device can actually hold. On live TV, Try another copy of the channel also rotates to an available duplicate feed when a stream stalls without returning an error. A single-rendition feed whose bitrate stays above the available connection cannot be made buffer-free by any player.
The guide group list is empty or only shows a few choices	Your channels are almost certainly fine. If you have hidden every group, the group list says All your groups are hidden; choose it, then Show all. To bring hidden groups back at any other time, open the options on All channels and choose Show hidden groups under Cleanup, then Show all. You can also use Settings › Channels & groups › Undo hiding. If a group filter is removing groups, the Live TV sidebar and horizontal pills show a recovery action. Press “Show N filtered groups” (or “N groups filtered · Show all”) to disable the active filters. The same controls live in Settings › Channels & groups › Groups. If no recovery action appears and the row is empty, your playlist did not send groups: an M3U list carries them as `group-title` or `#EXTGRP` tags and some lists have neither, while an Xtream line means the provider returned no categories — try Update all TV services. Everything still appears under All channels, and you can build your own groups from Custom Groups.
Search finds some of a brand but not the rest	Look at the group heading first: it counts every match, and a group only shows the first twelve until you press Show all. Different channels are listed before repeat copies of one, so “ESPN 2” and “ESPNEWS” come before a second and third copy of “ESPN” — but a provider carrying a brand dozens of times can still run past twelve. Next, check the line under the results: if some matches are in channels or groups you have hidden, it says how many, and Edit in Channels & groups on the group brings them back (how-to 13). If a name is still missing after both, your provider does not carry it — a brand’s sister channels are separate channels, and lines differ in which they include.
The guide is too small, or too crowded	Go to Settings › TV guide › How the guide looks. Guide text size makes the channel names, programme titles and times bigger or smaller; Guide row height decides how many channels fit on screen. If it is programme titles being cut off rather than the text being small, that is a different control: Time shown on one screen, which makes each programme wider by covering less of the schedule at once. Both are free, both affect the guide only, and they can be combined — large text with compact rows still works, because a row is always made tall enough for the text size you chose. If you want everything in the app bigger, that is App text & layout size under Settings › Look & feel › Size & screen instead; changing both at once compounds them, so try one first.
No guide data	Opening the guide fetches it by itself the first time each session, so give it a moment before doing anything. If your playlist has nothing to download a guide from, it says so in a line above the channels: No guide source for this playlist. Otherwise go to Settings › TV guide › Guide listings, read the line saying how many channels have listings, and add or reorder TV guide sources; then choose Update TV guide. For a single wrong channel, hold OK on it and choose Match listings; for many, use Match listings under Missing listings.
Missing seasons or episodes	Open the show and choose Reload episodes above the episode list. This asks the owning TV service again immediately. If the request fails or returns no episodes, previously saved episodes remain available. Reload cannot add episodes the service does not supply.
Movies or Shows is empty	Give it a couple of minutes first — the library loads itself after you add or switch to a playlist, and the screen says “Loading your movie library…” while it does. On a large provider the first load genuinely takes that long. If it still says No movies yet, press Load movies (or Load shows) on that screen, or use Refresh movies / Refresh shows in Settings › Movies & shows. If it says No movies in this playlist, that playlist simply carries no library — M3U lists and live-only lines often don’t — and your channels and guide are unaffected.
Refreshing movies or shows doesn’t change anything	Look at the message the refresh gives you, because it now names the cause rather than always blaming the connection. “Your provider refused this connection” is usually your plan’s simultaneous connection limit: close other players or devices using the same line, wait a minute and press Refresh again. It has a second cause worth knowing about, and the message names it too: some providers accept one particular User-Agent and refuse everything else in exactly the same way, so if one saved service keeps being refused while your others are fine, edit that service, open Optional details, and press Auto-detect next to User-Agent. “Your provider rejected your username or password” means the login, not the network. “Couldn’t reach your provider” genuinely is the network or the server address. “TiviGlass is holding off from your provider for a moment” means several requests to your provider failed, so TiviGlass backed off and did not send this one. Wait about a minute and try again. If it keeps coming back, requests to your provider are still failing: when you are adding a service, testing again after the wait shows what your provider actually answered, and that is the thing to fix. A refresh that worked tells you the new total, so if the count and the Updated date under Movies and TV Shows both stay put, the refresh did not complete and the message says why.
Some channels show no programme name	TiviGlass matches your channels to the guide by their provider guide ID first, and by name when that ID is missing or doesn’t line up — so a channel your playlist calls “UK: Sky Sports Main Event HD” still finds a guide that calls it “Sky Sports Main Event”. Run Update on that playlist after adding or reordering an EPG source so the matching runs again. If a channel is still blank, the guide feed itself may carry no schedule for it — that is the provider’s data, not a setting. Where two guide channels have near-identical names TiviGlass deliberately leaves it alone rather than guessing; pick the right one with Match listings. If the channel’s own name is very short — a provider that calls a channel “T2” rather than “Tennis Channel 2” — there is not enough of a name to match on, and Match listings says so rather than offering a guess. Search for a programme you can see on the channel instead, or copy the guide from a channel that already has it.
Wrong or missing logos	Change Preferred logo source in Settings › Look & feel › Logo sources, or supply your own with a local logo folder (how-to 49). A single channel can be fixed via Channel corrections.
Audio out of sync	For this channel or title, open More → Sound → Sound timing and choose Earlier or Later. Default follows this TV’s setting again. To change the TV’s default, use Settings › Picture & sound › Sound › Adjust sound timing.
A movie or show is silent or dialogue is missing	Open More → Sound → Fix sound in the player, or choose another audio track. If needed, try Surround sound → Off in Settings › Picture & sound. The repair message distinguishes stopped playback from a selected audio track; a selected track alone cannot confirm sound through your TV or speakers. Keep a setting that works for your output.
No sound on live channels (movies and shows are fine)	Settings › Picture & sound › Sound › Surround sound → Off, then restart the channel. Live channels often carry Dolby audio that a stereo-only TV or speaker — including any Bluetooth speaker — can’t play, so the picture runs in silence. For the channel you’re on right now, Fix sound in the player menu does the same thing immediately. TiviGlass also retries supported audio with its bundled software decoder before it ever gives up and keeps the picture playing without sound. Diagnostics reports route problems as Speaker / audio output.
A show freezes on the first frame with no sound	The picture stops after a frame or two and seeking just says playback is struggling — usually on films and box sets rather than live channels. Some TVs and receivers report that they accept Dolby audio and then don’t actually play it, and because the picture is timed off the sound, the video stops too. Set Settings › Picture & sound › Fix sound problems › Audio passthrough to Off, decoded on this box and start the episode again. You keep surround sound — TiviGlass simply decodes it itself. TiviGlass also detects this on its own and switches over automatically, so it should only ever happen once; if you later connect different equipment, passthrough is tried again.
Reminders don’t appear	The countdown shows inside the app, so first check Reminders is on in Settings › Home & menu › Menu entries. Notifications only matter for reminders that arrive while TiviGlass is closed — see the status line under Home & menu › Reminders & alerts (how-to 39).
Recording fails	Read the line under the failed recording in Recordings first — it says what went wrong. A network share reports the reason in the same words the Test button uses, so “Authentication failed”, “Share or folder not found” and “Host unreachable” each point at one setting to correct. If it says the drive recordings are saved to is almost full, TiviGlass stopped on purpose: it needs more than about 320 MB free to start a recording and stops at about 256 MB, keeping everything recorded so far. Free up space, or choose another location in Settings › Recordings › Where recordings are saved. Otherwise check free space and the Recording storage limit, and lower Maximum simultaneous recordings if your provider limits connections.
Two programmes overlapped and only one recorded	Check the stored reason first. If it names Maximum simultaneous recordings, the attempt reached TiviGlass’s recording limit, which starts at 1. The entry says Not recorded, and its timer under Scheduled explains the limit too. Select Change recording limit beside the entry to open that setting. Raise it to 2 or 3 only if your TV service permits enough connections — watching live uses another connection — or move one of the programmes. To see a clash coming, look for Clashes with another timer under Scheduled before the day arrives.
A recording is marked Partial	The recording was cut short, usually because the connection or the drive dropped out, or because the TV force-stopped or restarted TiviGlass part-way through. Everything captured up to that point is kept and plays normally; the label just tells you it isn’t the whole programme. If the programme is still on air, TiviGlass resumes it on its own — usually within about ten minutes — and carries on into the same file. You do not need to open the app, and you do not need to be there. The minutes between the interruption and the next check are lost, so a recording cut short may have a gap in it, and a window with less than a minute left is not reopened. A recording that had already reached its planned end when TiviGlass was stopped or restarted is saved as complete, with a note saying so, never as Partial or Failed. Simply leaving the app, or swiping it away, does not cut a recording short; if long recordings keep stopping part-way, exclude TiviGlass from battery optimisation in your TV’s app settings.
A recording says Empty or Failed and won’t play	Read the stored reason under the recording first. A provider refusal, interrupted capture and storage failure need different remedies. A Partial recording with usable video remains playable; a failed attempt with no usable bytes cannot play. Changing the simultaneous-recording setting does not repair a missing file or restore folder access.
A recording file exists but will not open	Read the access message. A missing file, denied folder access and an unmounted drive have different remedies. For denied access, select the same folder again in Settings › Recordings › Where recordings are saved › Recording storage. An unsuccessful storage check no longer blocks a playback attempt or treats an unknown file size as an empty recording. Keep the file and its recording entry while investigating.
Selecting a recording does nothing	It has no video in it to play — select it and TiviGlass now tells you why. See the row above.
A scheduled timer never ran	Check the top of the Recordings screen: if it warns about exact alarms, allow Alarms & reminders for TiviGlass in your TV’s app settings, or timers can’t start themselves while the app is closed. Allowing it fixes the timers and reminders you have already set straight away, with no restart needed. If long recordings stop part-way through instead, exclude TiviGlass from battery optimisation in the same settings screen.
Edges cut off on screen	Settings › Look & feel › Size & screen › Fix cut-off screen edges.
Holding Back closes the app, or holding OK opens nothing	Both are the same thing, and it is almost always the remote rather than the app. Check whether you are using your TV’s own remote instead of the one the box came with. Those buttons reach the box over the HDMI cable, which cannot say “still holding” and sends the press again and again instead, so one long press used to arrive as several separate ones: Back walked back through the guide, the menu and finally out of the app, while OK never registered as a hold at all. Current builds recognise this and treat the repeats as one press, so you should not need to change anything. Two things to know: on that remote, two Back presses in quick succession count as one, so leave a short beat between them if you meant both; and the box’s own remote was never affected, so it is a fair comparison if you want to check. If it still happens after updating, assign any spare button to Options for the focused item under Settings › Remote & buttons › What buttons do (how-to 51) and tell support which TV and box you are using.
Zapping feels sluggish	Settings › While watching › Changing channels › Delay before switching channels, then surf freely — only the channel you land on is tuned.
A Stremio title has no sources	Open Addons on that source (how-to 27c) and confirm at least one stream addon is installed and switched On — Cinemeta supplies catalogues only. Rows marked NEEDS DEBRID need a supported debrid key or Put.io OAuth token saved on the source.
A Premium feature is off	Settings › Account & plan › Your plan: confirm the plan, then Refresh plan. Entitlement is cached for offline use, so a TV that has been off the network for a long time may need one online check.
Two TVs disagree	Settings › Sync & backup › If sync goes wrong › Replace the cloud with this TV on the TV that’s right, then Sync now on the other.
Favourites, groups or settings have gone missing	Settings › Sync & backup › If sync goes wrong › Roll sync back to an earlier day, then pick a saved copy from before it happened and confirm Restore. If the list of copies cannot be loaded it says so and offers Try again. It applies to every TV on the account, and the state you are on now is kept so you can change your mind.
My settings went back to their defaults by themselves	Look in Settings › Help & about › Fix a problem › Recent activity for Settings were reset. If the settings file on this TV is damaged, TiviGlass resets it once rather than failing to open, and tells you there. Settings saved to your account or to your profile are put back automatically where available. A few things on this TV start again: you are asked to Review and accept the terms again, TiviGlass relearns which decoders work well on this box, cloud sync is switched back on if you had turned it off, and parental controls and Kids mode are off. The entry says when those two were on; turn them back on in Settings if you use them. Nothing makes you set a PIN. Scheduled cloud backups pause so the reset settings cannot replace your last good backup: choose Back up now, or restore from your backup, to start them again.
A TV never picks up changes from the others	Open Settings › Sync & backup on that TV and read the status line under Sync between TVs — it names the reason (signed out, plan expired, can’t reach the server) rather than failing silently. Sync now retries immediately.
Cloud sync says the snapshot is too large	Your local customisations are kept. Automatic uploads wait an hour after a size refusal, and the same warning is not repeated every few minutes. Sync now can retry immediately. Check the last error in Sync & backup and contact support if it persists; do not reset groups or delete sources to silence it.
A custom group stays empty or cannot load	Try again in a custom group reloads its saved membership. Check that its channels and TV sources are still available. A local read failure offers a retry while keeping your saved membership and any channels already displayed; it does not require resetting the group or refreshing the provider.
The same TV source appears many times	Open Settings › TV services › Keeping up to date and run Sync TV services from my account while playback and recording are stopped. TiviGlass combines confirmed copies of the same account source, keeping your favourites, history and saved choices. Each affected device repairs its own list; signing out is not required. Do not delete the copies individually, because deleting a source also removes it from your account.
Groups you hid on the website long ago are still hidden	The website now edits live favourites; the former channel hide/rename editor remains removed. Hides made there before it was removed are still applied. Unhide them on the TV: for whole groups, Settings › Channels & groups › Groups › Show or hide groups, switch the filter to Hidden and press OK on each group, or use Show all; for channels inside a group, Show, hide or rename channels — the TV’s change is the newer one, so it wins and stays.
App feels slow or odd after an update	Settings › Updates & storage › Storage space › Re-download all channels & guide. As a last resort, use Reset playback learning in Settings › Picture & sound › Fix picture problems.

Sports Hub customisation is available: open Sports Hub → Customise Sports. Choose which sports appear and their order, follow your teams, and hide scores. Every change is saved as you make it. Guide data and saved reminders stay available.

Things TiviGlass does not do. Written down because looking for a control that has never existed costs more time than any bug on this page. If something below is what you were after, you have not missed a setting and there is nothing to switch on.

What people look for	Where it actually stands
Casting to another TV, Chromecast or AirPlay	TiviGlass cannot cast to another device, and there is no Cast button in the app. It plays on the TV it is installed on. Because it is one APK for TV, phone and tablet, the usual answer is to install it on the device you want to watch on and sign in to the same TiviGlass account.
Picture-in-picture	There is no picture-in-picture mode you can open from inside TiviGlass. The one exception is leaving the app: on a box that supports it, turn on Settings › While watching › Picture-in-picture when you press Home and what you are watching carries on in a small window when you press Home. Multi-view (Premium) is the nearest thing inside the app: it plays several channels side by side.
Choose groups, for browsing several groups together	Choose groups was removed in 2.2.9. If Live TV opens on your Last used group and that was a Choose groups selection, the guide opens on All channels instead and tells you once. To keep channels from several groups in one list, favourite them, or put them in a custom group (Premium, how-to 11).