FAQ
The short answers. Each one links to the page that goes into it properly.
Does IPTV Deck come with channels?
Section titled “Does IPTV Deck come with channels?”No. It is a player and nothing else. It carries no channels, films or series, and it provides none. You add your own playlist, Xtream Codes, an M3U link or file, or a MAC portal, from a provider you already pay for. A demo with sample channels is there if you only want to look around. Nothing in the app finds, sells or recommends providers, and support questions about them cannot be answered.
So whether you get ESPN, beIN, a sports package or any other channel depends only on what your provider puts in your playlist.
How do I add my playlist?
Section titled “How do I add my playlist?”With what your provider gave you: an Xtream Codes login (server address, username and password), an M3U link, or a MAC portal. A new install asks for it on its first screen; later it is Settings → Playlists → Add playlist on a phone and Settings → Playlists → Add a playlist on a television or a computer. On a television you can send it from your phone instead of typing it with the remote.
I use TiviMate. What carries over?
Section titled “I use TiviMate. What carries over?”Nothing is read from TiviMate: add the same login or M3U link and the same guide link your provider gave you, and the app builds the lists from them. Favourites and your channel order are set again. A backup made by Televizo is different: it brings playlists, favourites, hidden and renamed channels and guide sources in one go.
Two things TiviMate users usually look for, on a television: Back from the player returns to → TV Guide in Settings → Player, and categories that slide away while you browse the list.
Coming from Televizo · Using it on a television
Does it work with Stremio add-ons or debrid services?
Section titled “Does it work with Stremio add-ons or debrid services?”No. IPTV Deck plays Xtream Codes, M3U playlists and MAC portals from your provider, and films and series from your own Jellyfin, Emby or Plex server. It has no add-ons.
How do I put it on a Firestick?
Section titled “How do I put it on a Firestick?”It is not in the Amazon Appstore, so it installs with the free Downloader app, code 7083371. About two minutes, no computer. You need Fire OS 7 or newer.
Fire TV, step by step · when it will not install
Can I use a TV guide from somewhere else?
Section titled “Can I use a TV guide from somewhere else?”Yes, any number of XMLTV feeds, alongside the provider’s own guide or instead of it. The quickest way is the EPG URL field when adding an M3U playlist; afterwards it is Settings → EPG & Guide → Extra EPG sources.
Why is my guide empty?
Section titled “Why is my guide empty?”Usually because it has not finished downloading, or because the playlist has no guide address at all. Six more causes, in the order worth checking, are on the troubleshooting page.
Can the guide and the channel list fill the whole screen?
Section titled “Can the guide and the channel list fill the whole screen?”On a television, yes. The side menu folds to its icons as soon as you move into a screen, and in TV Channels and the TV Guide the category column slides away while you browse the list; Left or Back brings it back. Hide categories while browsing in Settings → General turns that off, and Side menu there hides the menu items you never use. On Windows and the Mac the categories always stay next to the list.
Screens with a category column
Can I put channels and categories in my own order?
Section titled “Can I put channels and categories in my own order?”Yes, on every device. On a television hold OK on a channel and choose Move in category, Move in favorites or Move in a group; on a phone press and hold a channel in Live with the list sorted by Provider order and drag it. Long lists are quickest in the account panel in a browser. Your order follows your account to your other devices.
Moving channels · Categories in your own order
Can I change a channel’s logo?
Section titled “Can I change a channel’s logo?”Not by hand. A channel’s logo comes from your playlist, and where the playlist has none, from the guide channel it is matched to. Prefer channel logos from the guide, in Settings → EPG & Guide, uses the guide’s logo even when the playlist has one, and Reassign EPG on a channel picks which guide channel, and so which logo, it gets.
Can I remove “UK:”, “[BE]” and the like from channel names?
Section titled “Can I remove “UK:”, “[BE]” and the like from channel names?”The app already leaves a country or language code in front of a name out when it shows the channel,
so UK: BBC One HD reads BBC One, and it shows quality marks such as HD or 4K as a small label. Anything it does not
recognise, or a name you simply want different, you can Rename: hold OK on the channel on a
television, or press and hold it in Live on a phone.
Why do I need my own TMDB key?
Section titled “Why do I need my own TMDB key?”TMDB’s terms count a paid application as commercial use, which their basic licence does not cover. So no key of ours ships in the app. Yours is free and takes a few minutes. Without it the app still works; you just get the provider’s own titles and posters rather than plot, cast and related titles.
How do I get subtitles when the stream has none?
Section titled “How do I get subtitles when the stream has none?”Connect your own OpenSubtitles account, then search from the subtitles sheet of the player: the subtitles button in the bottom bar on a phone, the Subtitles pill on a television. Subtitles that are inside the file need no account at all.
OpenSubtitles · Subtitles, audio and volume
How do I move everything to a new TV or phone?
Section titled “How do I move everything to a new TV or phone?”Scan a QR code. It carries your playlists with their provider passwords, which playlists you had open, and your category choices. Everything else arrives through sync on its own.
Are my provider passwords safe?
Section titled “Are my provider passwords safe?”With end-to-end encryption on, your synced data is encrypted on the device before it is uploaded and there is no key on the server, so playlist logins cannot be read there.
The separate switch Keep my passwords in my account is a different thing: it is convenience, it uses our key, and the app says so where you turn it on. A new account starts with it on, an older account keeps what it had, and without an account nothing is sent anywhere.
Encryption and the recovery code
Can I hide the adult categories from a child?
Section titled “Can I hide the adult categories from a child?”Yes. Give your own profile a PIN, then lock those categories. A Kids profile, and any profile without a PIN, never sees a locked category anywhere: not in the lists, not in search, not on the home screen, not through a link.
Profiles, PINs and locked categories
Can a profile be limited to some playlists?
Section titled “Can a profile be limited to some playlists?”Yes. From a profile that can open every playlist, open the other profile in Settings → Profiles & PIN and untick the rest. That profile cannot see or switch to them, and a reminder pointing at one of their channels will not open it.
Which playlists a profile can open
How many devices does one account cover?
Section titled “How many devices does one account cover?”Four devices of any kind on any Premium plan: phones, tablets, TVs and computers in any mix. The Family Devices add-on adds four more, so up to eight. The most recently seen devices hold the slots.
How long is the free trial, and do I need an account?
Section titled “How long is the free trial, and do I need an account?”Four days, everything unlocked. Android, Android TV, Fire TV, Apple TV and LG and Samsung TVs let you try it without an account; an iPhone, an iPad, Windows and the Mac ask you to sign in first. The trial counts once for your account and your devices, so a second device does not start it again.
I paid, but a device still says the trial ended
Section titled “I paid, but a device still says the trial ended”Sign that device in to the same IPTV Deck account you bought with: a purchase follows the account, not the store. Then choose Restore on a phone, Restore purchases on a television, or I’ve paid — check again where you paid in the browser.
Is it free? What does it cost after the trial?
Section titled “Is it free? What does it cost after the trial?”The four-day trial is free with everything unlocked. After it the app needs Premium: monthly, yearly or Lifetime, paid once. There is no free version, and no plan has more features than another; they differ only in how you pay. A purchase follows your account, so it unlocks your other devices too, whatever store it came from.
How can I pay? Card, BLIK, bank transfer?
Section titled “How can I pay? Card, BLIK, bank transfer?”Through Google Play or Apple where the app came from their store, and otherwise in the browser, where the checkout takes a card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. You can also buy in the browser when a store purchase fails: on IPTV Deck’s page or in the account panel, signed in with the same IPTV Deck account. There is no payment by bank transfer or BLIK straight to us.
Why was I charged more than the price I saw?
Section titled “Why was I charged more than the price I saw?”On the website, Lifetime and Family Devices are priced before VAT or sales tax, and the checkout adds the tax of your country before you pay. In Google Play and the App Store the price already includes it.
How do I switch from a subscription to Lifetime?
Section titled “How do I switch from a subscription to Lifetime?”Buy Lifetime, then cancel the subscription where you bought it. The stores do not count what is left of a subscription toward a one-time purchase, and buying Lifetime does not stop the subscription: it keeps renewing until you cancel it.
Moving from a subscription to Lifetime
I am paying for two subscriptions
Section titled “I am paying for two subscriptions”That usually means one was started in a store and another in the browser. Each one is cancelled where it was bought: Subscriptions in Google Play, the subscriptions of your Apple account, or the link in the receipt email of the browser checkout. Keep one; Premium stays while one is active.
Can I set it up from a computer?
Section titled “Can I set it up from a computer?”Yes, in the account panel at iptvdeck.zssoftware.eu: playlists, categories, profiles, settings of each device, integrations and your subscription, with a keyboard. Your devices pick up the changes.
Does it run on LG or Samsung TVs?
Section titled “Does it run on LG or Samsung TVs?”On LG TVs with webOS and Samsung TVs with Tizen from 2021 on, from the TV’s app store, where it is listed for your TV. They have no downloads, multiview or casting, and only Samsung records; an LG TV plays the recordings of a computer that records for your other devices.
Is there an app for Roku or Hisense (VIDAA)?
Section titled “Is there an app for Roku or Hisense (VIDAA)?”No. There is no IPTV Deck for Roku or for TVs with VIDAA, such as Hisense. On such a TV, an Android TV or Fire TV device plugged into it runs IPTV Deck.
Is there an app for Linux?
Section titled “Is there an app for Linux?”Yes, from version 1.8.6: one AppImage file for 64-bit PCs from zssoftware.eu/linux, which keeps itself up to date. Allow the file to run and open it; a usual desktop needs nothing else installed. If it says it needs FUSE, see When the AppImage does not open.
Volume boost does nothing on my Samsung
Section titled “Volume boost does nothing on my Samsung”Samsung’s own audio processing sits above the app’s and can flatten it. The steps are also decibels rather than percentages, so +3 dB is genuinely a small change.
Why do films take so long to start?
Section titled “Why do films take so long to start?”Before the first frame the player has to fetch a large piece of the file from your provider, so the wait is mostly your provider’s speed. No buffer setting changes that, because the buffer decides how much is held, not how fast it arrives.
Why does a second stream fail with 403 or 509?
Section titled “Why does a second stream fail with 403 or 509?”That is your provider’s connection limit, not the app. Most accounts allow one or two at a time, and a multiview cell, a download or a recording each use one. If two of your devices share an account that allows one stream, the one that lost it stops and says the streams are in use; Try again takes it back.
A channel or film will not play
I hear sound but the picture is black
Section titled “I hear sound but the picture is black”Switch the player engine for what you are watching: Player settings → Player engine on a phone, Options → Player engine on a television, or the green button on an Android TV or Fire TV remote. If the other engine shows the picture, make it the default in Settings → Player. On an iPhone, iPad and Apple TV with the engine on Auto, a channel does this by itself after a few seconds.
Why does it keep buffering?
Section titled “Why does it keep buffering?”First tell whether it is everything or one channel, and live or a film. When everything buffers, it is usually the Wi-Fi, the provider’s evening rush, or two of your devices sharing an account that allows one stream. A live channel that stops for a moment again and again: Buffer size Large in Settings → Player, or Live stream format HLS if it happens as the connection dips. A film that stops in the middle: Buffer size Large. A film that stops every few minutes and shows its start again: turn Fetch films over several connections off. Joker in Settings → Help can look at your settings and change the right one for you.
It plays, then stops to buffer
A channel buffers in IPTV Deck but plays in another app
Section titled “A channel buffers in IPTV Deck but plays in another app”Try the other player engine first, as above, then another version of the channel with Versions. Close the other app while you test: two apps on an account that allows one stream take it from each other. For live channels that stall when the connection dips, Live stream format in the playlist’s details can help.
It buffers here but plays elsewhere
The picture is zoomed or squeezed. Can I force 4:3 or 16:9?
Section titled “The picture is zoomed or squeezed. Can I force 4:3 or 16:9?”Yes, in the player. On a phone the picture button in the bottom bar offers Fit, Fill, Stretch, 16:9, 4:3 and 21:9, and a pinch zooms. On a television, Windows and the Mac it is Quality in the player’s row of buttons, then Aspect ratio and Zoom under Picture. With Remember zoom & aspect ratio on, in Settings → Player, the choice is kept separately for live channels, films and series.
Can I pick the picture quality, such as 1080p instead of Auto?
Section titled “Can I pick the picture quality, such as 1080p instead of Auto?”Yes, when the stream comes in several qualities. On a television, Windows and the Mac choose Quality in the player’s row of buttons and pick one in the Quality group, next to Auto. On a phone and tablet it is Quality in Player settings, the gear. It works on Android, Android TV and Fire TV with the built-in player, on the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV with the built-in player and AetherEngine, and for live channels on Windows, the Mac and Linux. VLC and LG and Samsung TVs offer only Auto. The next channel or film starts on Auto again.
Is there a button for the last channel?
Section titled “Is there a button for the last channel?”On a television, yes: the yellow button on an Android TV or Fire TV remote, a remote’s own last-channel button, or Options → Last channel in the player. On Android TV, Fire TV and LG and Samsung TVs, Settings → Player → Remote buttons can give Last channel to another button.
Can I pause and rewind live TV?
Section titled “Can I pause and rewind live TV?”On Android phones, tablets, Android TV and Fire TV, yes: turn on Live TV buffer in Settings → Player, called Timeshift from version 1.8.6. Version 1.8.6 brings it to the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Windows, the Mac and LG TVs. On a channel with catch-up you can also start the programme on air from its beginning.
Can IPTV Deck open by itself when I switch the TV on?
Section titled “Can IPTV Deck open by itself when I switch the TV on?”On Android TV, Google TV and Fire TV it can open when the device starts: turn on Open IPTV Deck on start-up in Settings → General → Start-up, then Allow display over other apps, which the app asks for; without it Android does not let an app open by itself. The power button of most TVs and boxes only wakes them from standby, and then they show whatever was on screen before, so the setting comes into play after the device lost power or installed a system update, see When you switch the TV on.
On Windows and the Mac, Run in the background in Settings → Recordings starts IPTV Deck when you log in, in the notification area or the Dock.
What the app can also do is play a channel of your choice when it opens: choose Play when the app opens in the options of that channel.
What “channel on startup” does
Can my favourite channels or Continue watching show on the TV’s home screen?
Section titled “Can my favourite channels or Continue watching show on the TV’s home screen?”Yes, on Android TV and Google TV: Settings → General → Android home screen puts Continue watching and your favourite channels in rows of their own next to your other apps. On Apple TV, from version 1.8.7, the top shelf above IPTV Deck in the top row shows your recordings, what you were watching and your favourite channels. Fire TV’s home screen does not show rows from apps.
Can I turn off the logo when the app starts?
Section titled “Can I turn off the logo when the app starts?”No, because it is not an intro. The logo stays while the app opens your playlists and settings, and Home replaces it as soon as it is ready. A large playlist or an older box keeps it on screen longer.
Can it record, also on Apple TV or an NVIDIA SHIELD?
Section titled “Can it record, also on Apple TV or an NVIDIA SHIELD?”Yes. Android phones and tablets, Android TV boxes such as the SHIELD and Fire TV record in the background, and once you allow exact alarms they start a scheduled recording with the app closed. An iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Samsung TVs record while IPTV Deck is open, Windows and the Mac while the app runs. LG TVs do not record themselves, but they play the recordings of a computer that records for your other devices.
Can my computer record for my phone and TV?
Section titled “Can my computer record for my phone and TV?”Yes, a Windows PC or a Mac: turn on Record for other devices in Settings → Recordings on the computer. On the phone, tablet or TV choose the computer under Record on in Settings → Recordings, and Record sends the recording to it. Its recordings play under Recordings on every device on the same home network, LG TVs too. The computer has to be on when a recording is due.
A computer that records for your other devices
Where are recordings and downloads saved, and can I get the files?
Section titled “Where are recordings and downloads saved, and can I get the files?”On Android they go to IPTV Deck’s own space on internal storage, which only the app plays from, unless you pick a USB stick, an SD card or a network folder: Settings → Storage on a phone, Settings → Recordings and Settings → Downloads on a TV. Pick one of those to take the files to a computer. Windows and the Mac save to any folder you choose.
On an iPhone and iPad, from version 1.8.6, Settings → Storage can save them to a folder you choose in the Files app, such as iCloud Drive, or to a network folder, and a finished download has a Share button for AirDrop, Files or another app. Apple TV keeps them inside the app or saves them to a network folder.
Casting says my Samsung TV does not support it
Section titled “Casting says my Samsung TV does not support it”Casting needs Chromecast built in, and most Samsung TVs, like many other TVs, do not have it, so no app can cast to them. Install IPTV Deck on the TV itself, then send what you watch to it from your phone under Your TVs and phones in the same sheet.
Can I make the text and menus bigger or smaller?
Section titled “Can I make the text and menus bigger or smaller?”On a television, Windows and the Mac: Interface size (70% to 150%), List size and Menu size in Settings → General. A phone or tablet follows the text size set on the device itself.
Sizes on a television and a computer
Can I change the colours?
Section titled “Can I change the colours?”Yes, in Settings → Appearance: themes with their own background pictures, light or dark colours, and the accent and background colour.
How do updates arrive, and what am I running?
Section titled “How do updates arrive, and what am I running?”On phones, tablets and Android, Fire and Apple TVs most releases arrive over the air and the app offers them on startup; Windows, the Mac and LG and Samsung TVs get new builds. The bottom of Settings → About & legal on a phone, or Settings → About on a television and a computer, shows the version and the active update id, which is the only unambiguous way to say what a device is running.
I updated, but nothing changed
Section titled “I updated, but nothing changed”An update the app has downloaded is put in place the next time IPTV Deck really starts. Pressing Home only sends it to the background, where a TV box can keep it for days. Close it fully and open it again: on a Fire TV, Settings → Applications → Manage Installed Applications → IPTV Deck → Force stop.
An update that changed nothing
Why does my iPhone or Apple TV get a new version later?
Section titled “Why does my iPhone or Apple TV get a new version later?”A new build waits for review at Google Play and the App Store, which takes from a day to about a week, and each store, and each platform, is reviewed on its own. Fire TV and Windows do not wait for a store, so they usually have it first.
When a new version reaches each device
Can I test new versions early?
Section titled “Can I test new versions early?”Yes. Android phones, tablets and TVs join Google Play’s internal test with the email address of their Google account; an iPhone, iPad or Apple TV joins through TestFlight. Write to us to be added. Fire TV and Windows have nothing to join, since they get each version as soon as it is out.
Something is broken. What helps most?
Section titled “Something is broken. What helps most?”The exact message on the screen, your device and platform, the version and update id from Settings → About & legal (phone) or Settings → About (television), and what you did in order. Never send your provider password or recovery code.
Is there a Discord or Telegram group?
Section titled “Is there a Discord or Telegram group?”No. The community is on Reddit, r/iptvdeck, with questions, requests and the news of each release. Anything with your login in it belongs in an email to us instead.
