The picture freezes or buffers

Freezing, buffering, stuttering, the little spinning circle in the middle of a match — same problem, same list. Work through it in order. Nine times out of ten it stops at step 2 or 3.

1. Is one channel freezing, or all of them?

Switch to a different channel, ideally in a different country group.

• Only one channel — that channel's source is having a bad night. Try the same channel in another quality (most lists carry HD, FHD and SD versions), or watch it again in ten minutes. If it is still broken tomorrow, tell us the exact channel name and we will have it replaced.
• Every channel — it is your connection or your device. Continue below.

2. Restart properly

Not "close the app". Properly:

1. 1Close the app completely.
2. 2Unplug the TV or box at the wall for 30 seconds.
3. 3Unplug your router for 30 seconds. Plug the router in first, wait for the lights to settle, then the TV.

This fixes more buffering than every other step on this page combined, because it clears both the app's cache and the router's overloaded connection table.

3. Take Wi-Fi out of the equation

• If you can run a network cable from the router to the TV, do that once as a test. If the buffering stops, the problem was Wi-Fi, not us.
• If not: move to the 5 GHz network if your router offers one (usually named something like YourNetwork_5G). It is dramatically better for video than 2.4 GHz over short distances.
• A Firestick or box plugged directly into the back of the TV runs hot and throttles. Use the HDMI extension cable.

4. Increase the buffer in the app

• IPTV Smarters: Settings → Player Settings → set the player to *VLC* or *Exo*, whichever you are not using now.
• TiviMate: Settings → Playback → Buffer size → raise one step.
• OTT Navigator: Settings → Decoder → Buffer.

A bigger buffer means the channel takes an extra second to start and then plays without interruption.

5. Only in the evening?

Between 20:00 and 23:00 both your internet provider and the channel sources are at their busiest. If it is smooth at 15:00 and stutters at 21:00, the fix is almost always the buffer setting in step 4, or moving from Wi-Fi to cable.

6. Still buffering on everything, on cable, after a restart

Then let us look. Open the troubleshooter in your account — it checks whether your line is being used by more devices than your package allows, which produces exactly this symptom and is invisible from your side.

What does not help

• Buying a VPN "to make it faster". A VPN adds a detour; it only helps when your provider is actively blocking us, which looks like this, not like buffering.
• Reinstalling the app. The app is fine.