Why a guide goes wrong
The guide comes from a separate data feed that your player downloads and matches to each channel. It can go wrong in four ways:
- It hasn’t downloaded yet, or the last download failed.
- Your device’s clock or time zone is wrong, so programmes appear at the wrong times.
- The guide link is missing, which is common with M3U playlists.
- A channel doesn’t provide guide data at all.
Fix an empty or out-of-date guide
Refresh the guide in your player
- TiviMate: Settings → EPG → Update EPG.
- IPTV Smarters Pro: use the refresh option on the Live TV screen, or Settings → EPG → Install/Refresh EPG.
- SmartOne and Smart IPTV: restart the app; if you use an M3U link, check the guide link is added on the player’s website.
- MAG box: restart the portal from the settings menu.
Give it a few minutes on a large subscription.
Check the time and time zone
Set your device to automatic time and the correct time zone (for example Europe/London). On Fire TV: Settings → Preferences → Time zone. On Android TV: Settings → System → Date & time. On Samsung: Settings → General → System Manager → Time. On LG: Settings → General → System → Time & Date.
Add the guide link if you use M3U
With an M3U playlist, the guide usually needs its own link. Paste the TV guide link from your welcome message into the player’s EPG settings (or on the player’s website for Smart TV apps), then refresh. With an Xtream Codes login, the guide loads automatically. See M3U playlists explained.
Set the guide to update automatically
Most players can update the guide daily. In TiviMate, set the update interval in Settings → EPG. A guide that’s never refreshed runs out after a few days.
Fix a guide that shows the wrong times
If programmes are consistently an hour early or late:
- Check the device time zone (step 2 above), including daylight saving.
- Look for an EPG time offset or time shift setting in the player and set it to 0.
- Refresh the guide.
The full walk-through, including daylight saving and the playlist’s tvg-shift, is in EPG showing the wrong time.
If only some channels are out, and by different amounts, tell us which. The schedule data for those channels may be wrong.
Speed up a slow guide
On older sticks and Smart TVs, a seven-day guide for a large channel list can make menus sluggish:
- Hide categories you don’t watch, so the player stores less guide data.
- Load fewer days if the player offers the option; two or three days is plenty for most people.
- Clear the player’s cache and restart.
Catch-up and the guide
Catch-up works from the guide: on channels that support it, you select a programme that has already aired and it plays from the start. If catch-up isn’t showing, check your player supports it (in TiviMate it’s a Premium feature) and that the guide has loaded for that channel. See IPTV catch-up explained.
Still stuck? Contact us with your device, player and a photo of the guide screen.