HBO Max Not Working on LG Smart TV: 12 Simple Fixes

HBO’s streaming service has too much binge-worthy content for you to get stuck dealing with a broken app. In this article, we’ll detail the easiest fixes for when HBO Max is not working on LG smart TVs.

1. Make Sure Your LG TV Is Compatible With HBO Max

The HBO Max app works with most LG smart TV models from 2018 or later. These TVs all run LG’s webOS 4.0 or later. You’ll find the full list of compatible models in the table below.

LG TV models that work with HBO Max
43NANO75UPA	43UN6955ZUF	43UP7000PUA
43UP7560AUD	43UP7670PUC	43UP8000PUA
43UP8000PUR	50NANO75UPA	50NANO77ZPA
50NANO80UPA	50UN6955ZUF	50UP7000PUA
50UP7560AUD	50UP7670PUC	50UP8000PUA
50UP8000PUR	55NANO75UPA	55NANO77ZPA
55NANO80UPA	55NANO85APA	55NANO90UPA
55UN6955ZUF	55UP7000PUA	55UP7560AUD
55UP7670PUC	55UP8000PUA	55UP8000PUR
60UP8000PUA	60UP8000PUR	65NANO75UPA
65NANO77ZPA	65NANO80UPA	65NANO85APA
65NANO90UPA	65NANO99UPA	65QNED90UPA
65QNED99UPA	65UN6955ZUF	65UN9000AUJ
65UP7000PUA	65UP7560AUD	65UP7670PUC
65UP8000PUA	65UP8000PUR	70NANO75UPA
70UN6955ZUC	70UP7070PUE	70UP7570AUD
70UP7670PUB	70UP8070PUA	70UP8070PUR
75NANO75UPA	75NANO80UPA	75NANO85APA
75NANO90UPA	75NANO99UPA	75QNED90UPA
75QNED99UPA	75UN6955ZUD	75UN9070AUD
75UP7070PUD	75UP7570AUE	75UP7670PUB
75UP8070PUA	75UP8070PUR	82UP8770PUA
86NANO75UPA	86NANO85APA	86NANO90UPA
86NANO99UPA	86QNED90UPA	86QNED99UPA
86UN9070AUD	86UP8770PUA	NANO80
NANO81	NANO85	NANO90
NANO91	NANO97	NANO99
OLED48A1AUA	OLED48C1AUB	OLED48C1PUB
OLED55A1AUA	OLED55A1PUA. OLED48A1PUA	OLED55B1PUA
OLED55C1AUB	OLED55C1PUB	OLED55G1PUA
OLED65A1AUA	OLED65A1PUA	OLED65B1PUA
OLED65C1AUB	OLED65C1PUB	OLED65G1PUA
OLED65R1PUA	OLED77A1AUA	OLED77A1PUA
OLED77B1PUA	OLED77C1AUB	OLED77C1PUB
OLED77G1PUA	OLED77ZXPUA	OLED83C1AUA
OLED83C1PUA	OLED88ZXPUA	OLEDB8
OLEDB9	OLEDBX	OLEDC8
OLEDC9	OLEDCX	OLEDE8
OLEDE9	OLEDGX	OLEDW8
OLEDW9	OLEDWX	OLEDZ9
OLEDZX	SK8000	SK8070
SK9000	SK9500	SM8100
SM8600	SM8670	SM9000
SM9070	SM9500	SM9970
UK6090	UK6190	UK6200
UK6300	UK6500	UK6570
UK7570	UK7700	UM6900
UM6910	UM6950	UM6970
UM7100	UM7170	UM7300
UM7370	UM7570	UM8070
UN6950	UN7000	UN7070
UN7300	UN7370	UN8500
UN8570

If your TV can’t run HBO Max natively, you can your only real options are to replace the TV or add a streaming stick. Obviously, a streaming stick is a cheaper and easier option.

You can play HBO Max on any TV (smart or otherwise) by adding a Fire TV Stick or a Roku streaming stick. Both are easy to use and have all of the major streaming apps. Unless you already have a preference, I’d go with Fire TV largely for the Fire Stick Alexa voice controls.

2. Power Cycle Your LG TV

Often, app problems are caused by random TV software glitches. As with most software problems, the best solution is to turn it off and back on again.

The easiest way to restart LG TV apps is to restart the entire TV. However, when you hit the power button on your remote, it doesn’t actually turn off the TV. Instead, it sends it into standby mode, which won’t force a restart of your active app.

1. Unplug your TV from the power outlet.
2. Hold down the power button on your TV (not on the remote) for at least 60 seconds.
3. Plug your TV back into the wall outlet.

Now try the HBO Max app again. You may want to keep these instructions handy; a good restart solves a lot of TV bugs.

3. Check Your Internet Speed

Slow internet can often cause buffering issues with HBO Max and other video and streaming apps. In extreme cases, your internet may be too slow or unreliable to even connect to the HBO Max servers.

You can do an internet speed test on your computer or phone. Make sure the device you are using is on the same network as your TV. For your phone, that also means turning off mobile data and connecting only to Wi-Fi.

You’re going to need speeds of at least 3–4 Mbps for standard streaming and 5–8 Mbps for HD. If your speeds are slower than that, you’ll need to:

• Check for sources of interferences (e.g., too many walls between your router and your TV).
• Restart your router (see the next section).
• Contact your internet provider to see whether there are network problems or whether you need an upgrade.

4. Restart Your Router

Often, the problem is with your local Wi-Fi network rather than your TV or the HBO Max app.

Rather than try to debug every potential network problem, it’s easier to just restart your entire network to see if that sorts everything out. You’ll generally want to do this once a month or so anyway to keep your network functioning at its best.

Before proceeding, make sure that nobody in your home is actively using the internet. This process will shut down all network and internet connections for roughly five minutes during the reboot.

Okay, let’s get started.

1. Unplug the power cable from your router and modem.
2. Wait 30 seconds.
3. Plug the power cables back in.
4. Wait a few minutes for the modem and router to boot up.

Once your TV connects to the network again, try to run the HBO Max app. If your network speeds were slow when you tested them, this is also a good time to run another test. Restarting your router will often boost your speeds for a short while, but it won’t fix every underlying problem.

5. Update Your LG TV Firmware

Just like app updates, firmware updates will often fix your TV app problems for you.

LG smart TVs have an auto-update feature, but you can also manually force a firmware update. This shouldn’t be necessary, but it is nice to have in case the automatic update is turned off or fails without telling you.

1. Press the Settings button on your remote.
2. Go to All Settings.
3. Open the General tab.
4. Select About this TV.
5. Click Check for updates.
6. Once the update is installed, power cycle your TV following the instructions above.

Once the firmware is updated, try the HBO Max app again.

6. Reinstall the HBO Max App

Reinstalling the app will clear its data, fixing many app-specific issues. You could clear the cache manually, but this method is easier on LG TVs.

To reinstall HBO Max, you’re going to need to delete the app and then reinstall it.

How to delete the HBO Max app

1. Press the Home button on your remote.
2. Navigate to the HBO Max app.
3. Select and hold the app icon.
4. Click the trash bin icon above the app.
5. Press Yes in the pop-up to confirm.

How to reinstall the HBO Max app

1. Press the Home button on your LG TV remote.
2. Navigate to and select the LG Content Store.
3. Select the search icon (magnifying glass) in the top right of the screen.
4. Enter HBO Max in the search box.
5. Select HBO Max from the search results.
6. Press the Install button.

Now try the HBO Max app again. You’ll need to enter your log-in information, as it won’t carry over from the previous install.

7. Accept LG’s User Agreements

Some of LG’s features and apps don’t work until you accept all of the license agreements.

1. Press the Settings button on your remote.
2. Go to All Settings.
3. Open the General tab.
4. Select About this TV.
5. Click User Agreements.
6. Make sure Accept All has been selected.

8. Check Your TV Location Settings

Most streaming content and some whole streaming apps are restricted by where you are in the country or world.

HBO Max and other streaming apps have their own ways of checking your location. However, they sometimes verify that info with your TV, and LG TVs have their own location setting.

1. Press the Settings button on your remote.
2. Go to All Settings.
3. Open the General tab.
4. Select System.
5. Click Location.
6. Change the zip code to your current location if it’s not correct.

9. Turn Off Your VPN

Those of you that don’t use a virtual private network (VPN) can ignore this step. If you don’t know what a VPN is, you’re probably not using one.

Most video apps and streaming services try to block VPN traffic. If you’re running a VPN that HBO Max has managed to block, you likely won’t have access to your streaming content. The easiest way to test this is to turn off the VPN and try the connection again.

10. Try HBO Max on Another Device

We’ve covered nearly everything we can try on your TV itself. Before resorting to our most drastic option, let’s see how widespread the problem is. Try opening HBO Max on your computer or any other device on your network.

If HBO Max works on your other devices but not your TV, it’s time to contact LG support.

But if HBO Max isn’t working on any of your devices, the problem may be with your HBO Max account or with HBO’s servers.

11. Check HBO Max Server Status

You can use Downdetector to check whether other users in your area are having problems with HBO Max. Most of the time, HBO Max outages are local and quickly fixed.

If you can’t find anything on Downdetector, it’s probably time to contact HBO Max support for more info. They’ll have more up-to-date information than I can provide in this article.

12. Factory Reset Your TV

Since we’ve tried all of the easy fixes, it’s time to try one last option: a factory reset. This will erase all of your TV settings, including those for your HBO Max app. By erasing all of the settings and app data, though, it might fix your streaming app problems.

1. Press the Settings button on your remote.
2. Go to All Settings.
3. Open the General tab.
4. Select Reset to Initial Settings.
5. Click OK to confirm.

Now, try running the HBO Max app one more time. This should have fixed nearly any software or firmware issue that could have been preventing HBO Max from running on your LG TV.

What’s Next?

LG’s webOS offers a lot of control over your streaming apps, which is great when HBO Max or YouTube stops working on LG TVs. When HBO Max doesn’t work on Vizio TVs, there’s very little that you can do. But extra power, as always, comes with extra problems.

LG TVs have a lot of advanced features that I love, but they also have their share of bugs. Aside from app-specific issues, sometimes the LG TVs disconnect from Wi-Fi. But that’s a problem for another day.