Virtual channels, guide desync

[Brain_Conley]

Switched from a Shield TV to Apple TV recently, overall I like the Apple TV better than the Shield for my use, and Channels in particular runs very well on it. However I'm encountering one weird issue where the guide data for my virtual channels (in Channels) is not accurate. Like whatever it says is currently playing is not correct. It'll say X movie or Y episode is playing but if I switch to that channel, something else is playing. If I check the guide data on my PC (my server), the PC has the accurate guide data, but my Apple TV does not. So they are becoming desynched somehow. I am able to solve this by restarting the Apple TV, but it's fairly annoying to have to do that every time.

Is there any way to force the Channels DVR app to reload the guide data?

[dschaper]

@Brain_Conley

I am able to solve this by restarting the Apple TV, but it's fairly annoying to have to do that every time.

I've noticed the same on iPad. You don't have to restart the entire ATV box though, double click the TV icon button on the remote to go to the app carousel display, bring Channel to the front view and swipe up to exit the app. Still a bit of a pain but way quicker than a full reboot.

[cyberskier]

Timely post for me, as I just noticed this yesterday, too. Is this an occasional thing that a force close of the app corrects, or is it something that will be happening regularly?

[Brain_Conley]

@dschaper

I've noticed the same on iPad. You don't have to restart the entire ATV box though, double click the TV icon button on the remote to go to the app carousel display, bring Channel to the front view and swipe up to exit the app. Still a bit of a pain but way quicker than a full reboot.

Unfortunately this isn't a 100% solution for me. We use two remotes with the Apple TV, my wife gets the Siri one (which I actually kind of dislike), I am using a third party RCA remote. The third party RCA remote does not emulate the TV key whatsoever, so I have no way to close channels without restarting the Apple TV.

edit:

Figured out a solution, I set the RCA remote to a random setting, then went through the Apple TV setup to learn a new remote, and this allowed me to map the TV key. In the native Apple TV mode, none of the keys map to the TV key, which is weird, but at least there is a workaround. Problem solved.

[kylegordy]

I've been experiencing the same issue for years with all my virtual channels on Apple TV. I have to force quit the app every time I use the channels to ensure the guide updates. This situation annoys me, but other family members don't understand how to do this and complain that the 'movies are wrong.'

Has any progress been made to address this issue? I otherwise love Channels; it's our most-used app on most days. Fixing this pesky bug would make the app on Apple TV perfect in my opinion.

@tmm1 Please let me know if I can assist in any way. Thanks!

[tsheley]

I am having the same issue. Anything I can do to assist let me know.

[swindmiller]

I have had this same issue for a while now and it is my ONLY complaint. Channels works flawlessly except this issue. I do know that I can force close the app and upon a re-open everything is fine but I have to do this daily and my family does not seem to ever remember to do this.
If there is any way to fix this or get around it, I would be grateful. Virtual Channels has changed everything for us and is a fantastic addition but is frustrating to use on the Apple TV.

[maddox]

hey everyone, we'll be looking into this.

It's a tough one as it seems the only way to reproduce it is to sit around and let time go by so the guide has updated many hours over.

[kylegordy]

Awesome, I really appreciate y'all looking into it

I have to force close the Apple TV app at least every morning, if not every evening, to get the virtual channels guide to be accurate again. This is the case on every Apple TV I own. If I can help with any debugging, let me know.

Thanks again!

[tmm1]

Could you submit diagnostics?

@eric

@jamesrw Could you go onto the latest Testflight beta, reproduce the issue and then immediately submit diagnostics?

If you could take a photo of the screen of what you were intending to play and then what happened when you did play, it would also help us understand the series of events.

I think I have an idea of what's going on, but this will make it easier to track it down.

[tsheley]

I just submitted diagnostics for this issue. After submitting Diagnostics and going back to the guide it was correct so I couldn’t grab a screen shot. It was channel 10022. The guide said it was Samaritan that was on but it played Transformers: Rise of the Beast.

[swindmiller]

Just curious if this was fixed or not. I see a fix for another Virtual Channel issue in the release notes but not sure if it’s this one or not.

I had a release from Feb that definitely has the issue but just updated to the latest from the App Store. Let me know if submitting my logs from the Test Flight would help or if this is fixed now.

Thanks,
Scott

[tmm1]

It might be fixed, let us know if it's still happening

[swindmiller]

Thanks, it did happen again. After that I switched to the Test Flight and waited for it to happen again and it did. I submitted my logs at 9:29 pm EST and emailed a video to [email protected] of what is happening and then me force closing the app and reopening it to show the correct guide data for the Virtual Channels. Let me know if the video does not play, I had to convert it down to email it.

Thanks,
Scott