Something's not right? Start here.

Most likely: Nine times out of ten you're typing the wrong address, or the container isn't actually running yet.

Work through these in order:

1. Check the address. It's your server's name or IP address followed by :8080 — for example http://192.168.1.50:8080. It is not rebeliptv.com, and it won't work as https.
2. Use the machine's address, not 'localhost', unless you're sitting at that machine. From your laptop, localhost means your laptop.
3. Check the container is running. On a NAS, look at Container Manager or the Docker tab and confirm it says running rather than stopped or exited.
4. If it keeps stopping, open its logs — the reason is almost always written there in plain text on the last few lines.
5. If you changed the port in the setup guide, use that number instead of 8080.

Most likely: Something else on that machine already answers on port 8080.

Work through these in order:

1. Go back to the setup guide and change the host port to something free — 8090 or 8181 are usually safe.
2. Copy the updated file over your old one and start it again.
3. Remember the dashboard address changes to match the new number.

Most likely: On a fresh install it's usually still building your lineup — that takes a few minutes the first time.

Work through these in order:

1. Give it five or ten minutes after first starting, then refresh the dashboard. The first build has the most work to do.
2. Check that channels are actually switched on. In the dashboard, look at your channel list and make sure things aren't all disabled.
3. If you added your own playlist, check it loaded — a playlist that failed to download shows an error rather than channels.
4. If your sources aren't reachable where you live, open Settings → Sources and switch on 'Use Rebel IPTV playlist'. That pulls the feeds through our relay instead.

Most likely: Either the source behind that channel has gone down, or the app you're watching in can't handle the stream.

Work through these in order:

1. Try the same channel in the dashboard's built-in player first. That tells you whether the problem is the channel or the app you were using.
2. If it plays in the browser but not in your TV app, the app is the problem — try VLC to confirm, then check the app's own settings.
3. If it doesn't play in the browser either, try a different channel. One dead channel is normal; every channel dead points at your network.
4. Check your server can reach the internet. If lookups are failing, nothing will play.

Most likely: You're already playing as many channels at once as your server allows — it's four unless you've changed it.

Work through these in order:

1. Open Settings → Connect → Simultaneous streams and raise the number. Anything from 1 to 32 is allowed.
2. Remember what counts: watching the same channel on three TVs is one stream, because they share a single feed. Three different channels is three.
3. Don't set it higher than the connection behind your channels can actually carry — if you do, the source starts refusing instead, which is a much more confusing error.
4. You don't need to re-pick the channel. It starts on its own as soon as another one stops.

Most likely: A brief hiccup at the source. There's a setting built for exactly this.

Work through these in order:

1. Turn on Settings → Playback → Buffer live feeds and pick a few seconds. Your server then holds that much of the feed in hand, so a short stall drains the cushion instead of stopping the picture.
2. The trade-off: channels take about that many seconds to start, and you watch that far behind live. Start small — a few seconds usually does it.
3. If your server is on Wi-Fi, plug it into the network with a cable. This fixes more stuttering than any setting.
4. If it's one channel rather than all of them, that source is just weak — most channels have backups and will swap on the next reconnect.

Most likely: The app got your channels but never got the guide — and if you connected it as a tuner, that's expected, because the tuner can't carry one.

Work through these in order:

1. If you added your server as a tuner (Plex, Emby, Channels DVR, or Jellyfin's HDHomeRun option), that's the cause. A tuner hands over channels and nothing about what's on them, so you have to add the guide yourself as an XMLTV source pointing at your /epg address.
2. If you used the playlist instead, check the app is actually reading the guide address from it — Jellyfin does this automatically, but many players ask for the /epg address separately.
3. Tell the app to refresh its guide. Many only fetch it once a day, so it won't appear the moment you add it.
4. On a brand-new install, wait for the first full build to finish before expecting a complete guide.
5. If you've set an API key, the guide address needs it too: /epg?key=YOUR_KEY.

Most likely: Your server thinks it's in a different timezone to you.

Work through these in order:

1. Check the timezone in your configuration file. The setup guide fills this in from your browser, but if you set the server up from a different country it may have guessed wrong.
2. Set it to your own timezone — for example Europe/London or America/New_York — then restart the container.
3. If the times are out by exactly a whole number of hours, this is always the cause.
4. If only some programmes are wrong, that's the source's own listings being off, not your setup.

Most likely: Almost always one Jellyfin setting: "Auto-loop live streams".

Work through these in order:

1. In Jellyfin, open your tuner's settings and turn Auto-loop live streams OFF.
2. With it on, Jellyfin re-encodes every channel instead of playing it as-is. The re-encode can't keep up with a live feed, so it falls behind and the picture stops.
3. While you're there: turn off 'Allow fMP4 transcoding container', and turn on 'Allow stream sharing' and 'Read input at native frame rate'.
4. One trade-off with auto-loop off: after your server restarts or updates itself, pick the channel again to resume.

Most likely: It isn't meant to find it by itself — your server doesn't announce itself on the network, so you type its address in.

Work through these in order:

1. Check the tuner is switched on: Settings → Connect → Act as an HDHomeRun tuner. It's on by default.
2. There's no address to copy — you type in your server's own address and port, the same one you open the dashboard with, in the form 192.168.1.50:8080.
3. In Plex, open Live TV & DVR and click 'Don't see your HDHomeRun?', then enter that. Emby and Channels DVR have the same 'add manually' option.
4. When it asks about guide data, point it at your EPG address. The tuner only supplies channels, so without this you'll get a lineup with no listings.
5. If your server and the app are on different Docker networks, use an address the app can actually reach — the same Settings page has a toggle for using the container hostname.

Most likely: You've set an API key, so the addresses need it on the end.

Work through these in order:

1. Find your key in the dashboard under Settings → Access.
2. Add ?key=YOUR_KEY to the end of both addresses — so the playlist becomes …/playlist?key=YOUR_KEY and the guide becomes …/epg?key=YOUR_KEY.
3. If you didn't mean to set a key, you can clear it in Settings → Access and use the plain addresses.

Most likely: Almost every app wants the same two, and they're both listed in your dashboard.

Work through these in order:

1. Open Settings → Connect in your dashboard. Everything you need is on that page.
2. For TiviMate, IPTV Smarters, VLC or OTT Navigator: give it the playlist address, and the guide address if it asks for one separately. Kodi needs its PVR IPTV Simple Client add-on first.
3. For Jellyfin, Plex, Emby and Channels DVR: either route works. The playlist is simplest on Jellyfin and Emby, which have an M3U tuner built in.
4. On Plex the tuner is the easier route, because its playlist path needs a Plex Pass. Add the server by its address and port, then point the guide at your EPG address.

Most likely: The one-click updater needs a setting that's switched off in your configuration — or you're already on the newest version.

Work through these in order:

1. Check you're not already up to date. The button only appears when there's actually something newer.
2. Go back through the setup guide and choose 'Yes — keep it current automatically'. That adds the line the updater needs.
3. Replace your configuration file with the new one and start it again.
4. You can always update by hand instead: pull the newest version and restart. Nothing is lost either way.

Most likely: Usually a source changed at the other end, which is out of your hands but rarely permanent.

Work through these in order:

1. Restart the container. This clears a surprising number of temporary problems.
2. Check whether it's everything or just some channels. A few channels dropping is normal churn.
3. Update to the newest version — source changes are often already fixed there.
4. If a whole source has stopped working where you live, try relay mode in Settings → Sources.

Most likely: Your data wasn't being kept outside the container, so it went when the container was replaced.

Work through these in order:

1. Check your configuration file has a storage line keeping the data folder. The file our setup guide generates always includes it.
2. If it's missing, add it, then set your channels up once more — it'll survive from then on.
3. Updating through the dashboard button or through the setup guide's file always keeps your data.