So last night we're sitting in the living room watching Netflix, and all of a sudden it disappears, like the app crashed or something. What makes it really strange is this: the Prime Video (Amazon) app did the same thing. If I go to the menu and try reactivate either, it will go to a grey screen for about 30 seconds and then back to the menu. Other apps on the TV (Sling, Youtube, SiriusXM, etc.) continue to work fine. I can pull up either Netflix or Prime on my phone or laptop and they work fine there, so it's not a subscription problem. I dread having to call Sony tech support. Has anybody seen this happen before?

I didn't see what brand name you TV is. I have a Samsung, if you go to Source, and select TV or HDMI, then, then back to Netflix, will it work?

https://community.sony.co.uk/t...to-play/td-p/2410510

There are some troubleshooting guides on the net, maybe look and see what’s offered.

Look for a software update in the menu, apply then do a hard reboot.

That may help.

It's a Sony Bravia, 13 months old.

Is it running Android TV for the "smart" bit?

If so: Try going into the menu and find out where you can force quit apps, then force-quit both of them. Or just reboot the TV.

Networking connection issue?

Nope, it's not a network connection issue. Other apps on the same TV work just fine. Yes it is Android TV. I tried the Force Quit bit last night, followed by Start, to no avail. I've been avoiding doing a reset out of concern for losing all of my view lists and whatnot, but just realized that those are maintained on Netflix/Amazon's sites and not the device, so I'll go ahead and try that.

Well, sourdough44's link led to a lengthy thread about a sort of similar problem from three years ago. I got about halfway though it and it only depressed me. Talk about incompetent tech support! Anyway, on a hunch I turned the TV off and unplugged it for a minute and then turned it back on and voila. Everything's there now as it should be. Maybe it's an Android thing, I've had to do a hard reboot on my phone a couple of times, although not for this particular problem. Anyway, thank you guys for the pointers, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's not just a temporary fix.

On our Samsung, press/hold on the power button on the remote will 'reboot' & typically resolves issues like this.

Frequently, problems like this, that can be solved by a reboot of the device, are caused by processes that have a memory leak.

We have to reboot our tuning adapter -- a device supplied by BrightHouse that sits between the incoming cable signal and our TiVo -- a couple of times a month.

Smart phones, tablets, computers, etc. that get "stuck" and are cured by a reboot are other examples of this software problem (memory leak).

See if you can connect to the internet with your tv, go into it's menu, and do a software update. It sounds to me like Netflix and the other did an update that aren't compatible with your tv's older software.

So did what we suggest doing (updating TV software and hard reboot) work or not?

A hard reboot (power cycle) cleared it up and it hasn't reoccurred since. There's been a notice about a software update sitting in the menu for a little while but I haven't got around to running it yet. You'd think that after all the years of running Windows on computers, I'd know to try a restart earlier in the troubleshooting process.

Personally, I'm not a fan of smart features embedded in the TV itself. I still think its faster and better to use a Roku player (or Fire device) for your smart functionality. I've found them to be both faster and more reliable than relying on the same functions in the TV.

Sometimes my Vizeo, like this morning, just changes the input to a different input. It is always one that nothing is on at the time.
I guess smart tvs are not all that smart.

I don't have a smart TV, but my cable box does this from time to time. And it likes to "boot" at random times, usually in the middle of something I'm watching where critical stuff is happening.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
I don't have a smart TV, but my cable box does this from time to time. And it likes to "boot" at random times, usually in the middle of something I'm watching where critical stuff is happening.

flashguy

I told my brother, when I finally cut the cable and ditch Spectrum TV, I'm going to take my cable box out to a friend of mines property and blow a hole through it with my Benelli before returning it to Spectrum.

unplug the tv and reboot it. That will fix things.