HBO Max: Stream TV & Movies Negative Reviews

HBO Max: Stream TV & Movies App Complaints & User Negative Comments 2024

HBO Max: Stream TV & Movies app received 43 complaints, negative comments and reviews by users. Have you ever had a bad experience using HBO Max: Stream TV & Movies? Can you share your negative thoughts about hbo max: stream tv & movies?

HBO Max: Stream TV & Movies for Negative User Reviews

✓ Glitchy to the point of being uselessWe’ve used HBO Max for quite some time now with no issues. Seamless just like any other app and never had any complaints....until recently. One day we found ourselves unable to access any movies or shows on our TV with a prompt to “access HBO Max” but the button wasn’t clickable. Just completely unresponsive. After about an hour and a half of trying to troubleshoot(router reset, app reinstall, app update, signing into the mobile app, etc..) and going in circles with a useless customer service, we canceled the account under my girlfriends information and created a new one under mine. For some reason, this worked. Got charged twice in one month with this solution, but we were back in action. Here we are two weeks later and the app is so glitchy we literally cannot get through 20 minutes of a movie or show. It’ll randomly start looping a 10 second clip and all the controls stop working. Resetting the TV resets the app and it’s the only way to revert back. This was happening before when navigating the menu which was also super frustrating; but now I’m literally paying for a service that is unusable. Netflix and other steaming services work fine, but for some reason HBO can’t figure it out. Absolutely terrible service. They should fix these bugs and give their subscribers a month or two free of charge for the trouble, as I’m not the only one experiencing these issues..MitAshRayVersion: 50.35.0

✓ Excellent content, broken appHow are the HBO Max apps so uniformly terrible on every platform? Surely there exists a template for a functional streaming app. HBO has occasionally done it themselves on their previous apps. This app is just so slow. It constantly freezes, it constantly crashes. It’s more jittery than any of the other major streaming apps. There are delayed responses to my inputs, so my repeated attempts to make something happen result in the app registering a bunch of delayed inputs. I would accept a much simpler app with less features and a plain UI if it would just work. It could be the blandest thing in the world and if it ran smoothly it would be a major improvement and less of a stain on the HBO brand. Please clean this mess up so I don’t have to cancel my HBO Max subscription. It is as slow now as when it was first released, and that has been the case across both new and old devices and on both old and up-to-date operating systems. It is broken on wi-fi, it is broken on cell data. It’s broken on my tv, my desktop, and on all the different kinds of mobile devices in my household. Usually, even when streaming services are performing poorly on my tv, I can count on it being a better experience on iOS. With HBO Max it is even worse. What a waste of an excellent and massive library of content..DavidL88Version: 50.20.0

✓ TERRIBLE Buffering to the Point Where You Can Never Watch AnythingI never write reviews, but I bought this on accident because unfortunately if you start the process of making an account, it charges you through the App Store, rather than asking you to put card information in on a later step. So I figured I’d try it out for at least a month, and in the couple days I’ve had it, I can almost never actually watch anything. Even when it says my wifi strength is strong and every other streaming service I have works perfectly fine, this one does not. I can barely ever get stuff to start and the few times I actually can, I can never even finish an entire episode before it starts buffering again and fails to play. This has happened on my phone and on my smart tv and it also has happened in more than one place on different wifi connections. My smart tv and iPhone are also both up-to-date and I’ve tried restarting both multiple times. I’ve had a little more luck watching on my phone, but it is still a pain and I would much rather watch off of my tv. It’s disappointing because they offer some really good movies and shows, but in my experience I can’t even watch them, and looking at a large portion of reviews, many people have experienced the same thing with HBO Max..HfhhfhhhVersion: 52.20.0

✓ App embarrassing for HBO brandHBO has long been known for great content, but this app tarnishes their rep. There are so many issues I don’t know where to start. First off, it is extremely slow. This includes loading time but even just clicking any button takes about 10 seconds to do anything. For example, deleting a download takes forever and there is no indicator that it is doing something. Downloads are touchy. You can only download one show/episode at a time or they will fail. Then you can’t restart the download, you have to delete it, search for the show and try again. Several times I have tried to watch a download on a plane. If you aren’t connected to the internet you can get a message that you aren’t connected and it kicks you out of your logged in session. What is the point of downloads other than to watch offline? My last complaint is usability. Simple things like when you see shows you are currently watching there is no option to go to the landing page for the show. You can only resume the one you are watching. It is not a great experience to have to search for the show when the current episode is right there I front of you. When you compare the quality of the app to others this one falls way short..NotcoolenoughforagoodnicknameVersion: 52.15.0

✓ Yet another disappointed app userI am absolutely baffled at how terrible the HBO app behaves. Nearly every day, while trying to watch any show from one episode to the next, the app glitches and kicks an error message that the title cannot be played. Trying to cast to a smart TV is just as cumbersome. In order to watch multiple episodes I have to kill the app at the end of the episode and restart to watch the next. However, the app does not reload where I left off, it restarts the previous episode. Not to mention the app does not seem to save watched status across devices- I can watch episodes on my iPad and try to watch them later on my computer; pulling up the website on the computer also doesn’t recognize where I left off in an episode or movie. I have read several negative comments about attempting to scroll forward within the episode, and I can attest it does not work. While I can simply tap the screen along the timeline to select where I’d like the episode to resume... well, it isn’t helpful. Because I still have to kill the app and reload it to go to the next episode. The transition from HBOGo to HBOMax should have been seamless and user-friendly. For some reason they haven’t been able to correct the blunder with any subsequent update to the app..PordsVersion: 50.25.0

✓ Woe is the user who forgets how bad this app handlesI recently purchased a subscription, ad-free, for hbo Max because I had one last year and I remembered all the great shows it had to offer, on top of realizing young justice was on hbo max which I had never seen but it is an amazing animated series. The first season handled fine honestly, not many issues that I could notice. But the second season is where it took a turn for the worst. The episodes would freeze on frames, not just buffering as the audio would keep going and upon rewinding it would freeze on the same frame and unfreeze at the same time no matter what. This was faulty app design. But no matter I said, I’ll download the episodes and they’ll play much better. Oh how naive and arrogant I was. You see, Hbo max will completely crash if you attempt to queue more than one episode for downloading at a time in too quickly of a succession. This means queuing up a season of the show for downloading is out of the question, as once the app crashes the downloads fail and you have to try again only to have it crash. Again. So woe be the user who remembers the glory days of hbo max but forgets the horrendous mistakes of its creators. TLDR: amazing catalogue, terrible app design.Baxterchic30Version: 52.40.0

✓ Awful app and serviceI got a one month subscription to watch a few shows that I can’t find anywhere else. It seemed like a good deal. I installed the app on my tablet, tv, and po home, and I can’t get the app to work well on any device. On the tv, the show will start, then about every 5-10 minutes will freeze and get stuck on a two second loop. Getting out of the app and back in doesn’t help either. On my tablet, I can only get to the loony half the time and when I do, I only get the option to download shows, not watch them. My phone is a bit better, but still very slow. For $15 a month, I expect to be able to watch something, not get so frustrated that I have to get out of the app for the 10th time in an hour show and hope that it doesn’t freeze again. I looked up some troubleshooting options on their help page and followed all the steps. Still not working. So I contact support and chat with an agent for 30 minutes. In that time the agent asked for my name 5 times and could not find my account during that entire time. The agent eventually just gave up. I feel stupid for paying for a month and only a week in, I can’t watch anything without serious playback issues or even get into the app half the time..Kshay12345Version: 50.35.1

✓ Apple TV App BROKENThe most current update to the HBO Max Apple TV app broke many essential features Apple TV users like myself had enjoyed in favor of them making their own video player. Can no longer ask Siri to repeat dialogue with captions (aka “What did he/she say?”), scrubbing is terrible to control, and the new Siri remote jog wheel feature is no longer available. Not to mention it’s impossible to access audio settings and content info during playback. HBO Max needs to go back to its old video player that actually integrated Apple TV features. Or better yet go back to being a full Apple TV Channel in the Apple TV App like it was when it was just HBO. I still use my HBO channel now even after it was taken off the lineup for those not subscribed as it has every feature that make it a joy to use over Max, even though it doesn’t showcase Max originals or Max-only content like Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. But I use it as much as I can because of higher bitrate, Picture in Picture, ability to download movies and shows for offline viewing, and a UI consistent with Apple TV+ and the other Apple TV App channels and content. Either make the HBO Max app back to the way it used to be, make it an Apple TV Channel, or lose subscribers. Right now this app is broken and unacceptable..John GregorioVersion: 50.30.1

✓ Great movies terrible appI love the amount of shows and movies HBO Max is. Totally worth spending money on, the problem I have is that it’s so slow and a nuisance when watching a movie or show and I get notification about streaming either with cellular data or WiFi. It’s so annoying having to go back and forth turning them on and off because of how it won’t stop changing it’s “mind” on my connection. Wish it was like Netflix more. Where it’s automatic on both ends. What’s also annoying is clicking in and out. I can’t exit the app with it still playing the movie. Another complaint is that the episodes aren’t laid out, have to retype the title to see again what is next or reading the description. It’s just super slow and is nowhere near how amazing the Netflix app is built. I hope it develops new downloads where it doesn’t create such a hassle trying to watch my shows and movies because it’s not worth $10 a month if all it’s gonna do is create problems and not allow me to watch movies on a smooth run. Also last thing, I hate how it’s so slow when I try to replay back. This goes the same for the website as well. Like Netflix has never given me this problem (I’m not complaining that Netflix is better but in comparison between app navigation, it is top tier) I like rewinding to watch best comical scenes and whatnot but Everytime I do on HBO I have to remind self to try and not do it or it crashes into this slow time warp. Please fix this!!.MelerzzVersion: 52.5.0.52

✓ Accessible but, AD is not updated regularly...As a blind person, I have issues with lots of apps. I don't usually complain if it's not something I really want to use. I have video on demand and use this service. I also have the app on my telephone. It is very accessible. I am grateful for that. I am also grateful for an audio description section. The only issue I have with this is, it's not updated like everything else. If I go to the movie theater, watch a movie with audio description headphones. Shouldn't that also be on the HBO Max platform? If I watch a movie or Series on the HBO Max app and the show or movie has audio description, shouldm't that also be on my video on demand? If something is released from the beginning with audio description, how is it not on every platform that provides that entertainment? This is unacceptable. If A film company or production provides you audio description when they release art to the public on all platforms, why don't the platforms use it? Oh yeah. I forgot. Blind people don't watch TV or movies or do anything else to be productive citizens on this planet. I feel disrespected by platforms especially, when I talk to customer service or send an email with feedback and nothing ever changes. Do your job or I'll go somewhere else and take my money with me.t.JoeyquirkVersion: 52.25.0

✓ Thoroughly broken apps & utterly inept customer serviceI’m not sure any elaboration is necessary but in case you want it: App failures run the gamut, from full crashes to any function you can think of “working” one day, completely wasting your time again the next, and back again whenever. Even when app functions are “working”, the app and all its functions are so poorly thought out it’s cumbersome to use at the best of times. The apps are so bad that if you make the mistake of contacting customer service they’ll quickly whine to you about how new they are so you should give them a break. HBO, the inventors of cable TV, who between HBO Go, Now, and Max have had well over a decade to give a hoot about creating a decent app and have so astoundingly failed to do so the only reasonable conclusion is that they just don’t care, that HBO wants you to give them a break because they’re the new kids on the block. But seriously, don’t even try contacting customer service if you wish to maintain sanity. Just cut and run. Anyone you speak with at any level is either ill-informed, ill-equipped, incapable, just doesn’t care, or any combination thereof. Edit: Don’t be fooled by “Warner Media responded to my review”. 100% of my dozens of attempts to resolve issues over the past months have proven that this company has absolutely no interest or ability to help in any way with any problem you might have.JD3825426Version: 52.35.1

✓ The worst streaming app ever, full of bugs and frustrating to useSeveral updates later and still completely broken. A developer response of “read the manual” doesn’t fix the technical issues with this app. I’m not exaggerating - read the other reviews - this is hands down the worst streaming app you’ll ever try using. More than a year after release it is still broken and full of bugs that make it awful. I use the app on an iPad to download and watch shows and movies while flying and it almost NEVER works properly: the show episode/movie will fail to play, hang with a black screen, or just repeatedly crash the app. Once it crashes, the app won’t let you do anything until you’re back on internet - great for those long 15 hour transpacific flights with no internet! On those rare times where it plays an episode, the next episode will then fail to play, oh well only 14 hours until we land. Land and turn on internet and the app will loop with various error messages about no internet until you force quit it. Start an episode/ movie and you have 48 hours to finish watching or you have to download it all over again - which you might not be able to do at your destination! Compare this completely broken app with the stellar apps from every other streaming provider and save yourself the HBO subscription fees!.IPhone user987Version: 53.20.0

✓ Really needs improvement...Fantastic content that's hard to watch on the HBO Max app. This app freezes on every platform. Especially AppleTV. My AppleTV is even hardwired to ethernet and no other apps have this issue. The AppleTV is up to date with the most recent update occurring yesterday. The app doesn't even let you get out of it without freezing and it has to be forced close every time I try to leave the app back to the home screen. It's been almost two months with no fix. Yesterday it crashed out of the app back to the home screen and then randomly had Spanish CC when I went back into it. Today anything you select to watch, all it does is show the three loading dots. Checked for an update there was none. Restarted the device, but it would still not play. I've already reinstalled the app several times, it really needs work. Today I actually switched to my cable providers app which links to available HBO content but plays it within their own app. The content played so smoothly on this app I was actually shocked. It's the only way I was able to watch the paid HBO content. The HBO Max app is frustrating to use and increasingly freezes. I thought with time it would get better, but it's only gotten worse..Wendilynn55Version: 50.25.3

✓ Amazing shows and content-But needs fixesThe show catalogue is one of her greatest I have seen in almost every streaming service out there. There are great shows to binge and great shows to watch slowly. Now the issues. This app has plenty. It is very buggy. I have watched on multiple different devices and the same bugs persist. Every once and a while you will get an error message or a poor connection prompt. It’s annoying but an easy fix, I just restart the page or relaunch the app. The biggest problem I have that I desperately hope gets fixed is the fast forwarding and rewinding function. Even the little 15 second rewinds are a pain to deal with. To rewind a minute took me two and a half minutes. I would press the rewind 15 seconds button and it would buffer and take me back 15 seconds then almost immediately return me to the time I rewinded from. I’d press it again and the error still persisted. I’d have to wait about 30 seconds between each time I pressed it to press it again which makes it impossible to go back and see something you missed. Please if some executive hears this, just fix this and your app will be amazing..This app is for money😡😡😡Version: 50.30.1

✓ HBO: How’s it Broken so OftenIf you rely on this app for downloads as I did then it’s not worth $15 a month. This app has constant glitches and bugs. I go out fishing so I rely on downloading shows or movies to watch while I’m gone because I don’t have service. There have been multiple times when I don’t have service that I can’t even access my downloads. When I was able to access them after 5-15 minutes they would not play at all, just a black screen. Another ridiculous feature is you are limited to 30 downloads! Netflix which is cheaper never has these problems and allows unlimited downloads. Another ridiculous and stupid feature, once you start watching a DL it is only available for 24 hrs. After using this app it is clear why Netflix is destroying the competition and have been for years. Who cares how big your catalog is if your app doesn’t function properly. There are times where I have service and still get play back errors to the point I have to close the app and reopen it multiple times. It feels like the app designers for HBmax are my parents, the people that couldn’t turn on a desktop computer when I was a kid! This app is VERY UNRELIABLE and I’m sick of reporting constant issues. I shouldn’t have to explain to app engineers how to build a properly functioning app..Austin SonVersion: 53.05.0

✓ Default Setting is Only Stream Over WifiI have experiences a lot of problems with this app. First it wouldn’t transition into background (in-picture) mode. It would just shut off whatever I was watching when I went to use another app (the other movie/TV app has never done this to me). Then it makes it incredibly difficult to browse a tv show’s catalogue if you recently watched an episode of that same show. For example, when I attempt to watch select episodes of South Park it’s a real pain to watch an episode from season 11 if I recently watched an episode from season 9. It will only let me watch the next consecutive episode in season 11. And then the app kept crashing. Full disclosure, I use a VPN and I am aware that this may conflict with geofencing of content limited to certain markets, etc. However, it seems that unless I disconnect the VPN prior to browsing on the HBO Max app, the app irreparably crashes necessitating deletion of the app, powering off/restarting my device, then redone loading the app. And also, the downloading of content to your device feature for future offline viewing does not work. Why? Because the app doesn’t work if your not online!!! I know I’ve been spoiled by other streaming services but there is no excuse for this bugginess. None..Arabic Language MajorVersion: 50.63.0

✓ Terrible App! Quality ContentHBO clearly has big budget capabilities, but this app isn’t it. It’s so buggy. It crashes all the time. The main issue seems to be downloading shows. If you’re lucky, one show will download. The download will fail a few times, but eventually it gets there. But NEVER try to download two shows at once. It will crash for sure. After you get the one show to download, that’s it. Every other download will fail and/or crash the app. I haven’t tried downloading a movie because a 60 min show takes all my patience. Next you have the caching issue… every time you move from a screen back to the previous screen it has to reload the whole page again. And it’s not fast about it. And last, offline is a struggle, but once you get the app to come to terms with being offline, it will get the job done. However, it doesn’t seem to sync back to my HBO profile, so when I go back to my AppleTV, it doesn’t register that I’ve already watched a few shows of a series. I need HBO iOS and AppleTV apps to be a lot better. Their app have always been terrible, but it’s gotten so bad that I’m now one of those people leaving a long ranting app review, screaming into the void, as if it’s going to help..TallerVersion: 52.15.0

✓ The app keeps getting annoying problemsAs I have said in the past the content is good in this service. But once again the app keeps having annoying problems. On my iPad every time I download movies to watch offline the app doesn’t play the downloaded content because according to the app I have no connection. The whole point of having movies on the Downloaded section is to watch them offline not have to look for a wifi spot to be able to play it. Its ridiculous. The app on the Apple tv is very slow. It used to be faster but now when you open the app not only you have to wait for the logo to go away, you have to wait another loading before choosing the profile you want to use, then when you go to search a movie is another loading time you have to wait. The pop ups in the middle of the menu whenever something new gets released is also a problem. Im paying for the premium “no ads” subscription, I should get an option to remove add pop ups on the menu and completely remove the first movie ad thats about to get released not just get a skip button at the beginning of a movie. Having a skip button doesn’t mean no ads. Thats falls advertisement..Dont waiste my timeVersion: 52.55.0

✓ The TV app barely functions wellThe Apple TV app has a myriad of issues. For those of us who need captioning and have our Apple TV set to caption as a default, this app ignores it. It also doesn’t have the ability to set captioning up as a default, which means I have to start captions every time I watch something. The interface is wonky. It doesn’t allow 10 second advances or rewinds with a button press, which means I have to stop playing the show and try to manually scrub back 10 seconds when I miss something. It is also incredibly difficult to get the navigation system to select the right option…so I’m having to fight to even select the caption option. I get how they may want to have their own custom interface, but trying to watch things on the app is so profoundly unpleasant that I constantly consider canceling my service. Update: glad they fixed the navigation, but I still have to start captions every episode. It’s like they don’t care about their customers who need captions to enjoy the programming. It doesn’t default to captions (even when Apple TV setting is on), there’s no way in the app to make it use captions all the time in the app itself, and I’m tired of having to continuously wrestle with the remote to get captions on..Jphy2k2Version: 50.30.1

✓ Cancelling Service Until Bugs Are Fixed*Update* I was contacted by an HBO+ app developer to provide information regarding which streaming device I am using. However, the links I was given to provide a response direct me to inactive webpages…..so….I guess I will respond here. I’m using Roku and have confirmed that I am using the most current version. Despite current update, issues described below have not resolved. The plus is that the content is pretty decent with new items being added weekly. The downside is that the app is so buggy you can’t stream anything! Slow to start, significant delays when navigating the Home Screen, slow to load lists…this app is beyond frustrating! Don’t even try to toggle between the different app features or fast forward/rewind a show or movie (if you’re lucky enough to get one to actually load). The app frequently crashes when trying to search or stream any content. I’ve been trying to stream content for several days now and the app crashes before the movie loads EVERY TIME!! I get so fed up that I end up moving on to a different streaming service. HBO announced an update 6 days ago that was supposed to resolve these issues but I have the most current version downloaded and still dealing with the same glitches. This app is an embarrassment to HBO and their app developers. There is no point in paying for a service I can’t use. Until I’m convinced the bugs are fixed, I’m cancelling my subscription..Hmmmmmm?????????Version: 50.45.0

✓ Great Service, Terrible AppHBO Max is a very good streaming service with a great array of options to watch. The app on iPhone, however, is absolutely terrible. Randomly glitches out in the middle of movies at the worst times, like action-packed endings of Harry Potter movies or in the middle of a Matrix-esque scene in Tenet. Sometimes when I watch the Harry Potter movies, they even start with the audio description mode as default, even though the audio says that it’s the original English audio. Watching TV shows is even worse. The episode select screen can only be reached by selecting the title of the show once and then clicking on it again from the first page it takes you too. All the buttons on the app’s interface are extremely laggy. Additionally, if you don’t fast forward or rewind in 15 second increments, you have no ability to do either of those. The slider can barely be touched and you’re finger slides off of it almost instantly. If you fast forward more than 3 minutes, the video keeps fast forwarding through the rest of the episode, and it doesn’t allow you to pause it, stop it, or even exit the window. It just freezes. Great service but the app is unenjoyable at best and downright awful at the worst..FalcoseVersion: 50.30.1

✓ Your app is super annoying and buggy Contant is five starYour Contant is five star but it brings it down to one star in a matter of moments because of the frustration of your app I just finally got logged back into my app when suddenly the next day the thing logged me out on its own and would not let me log back in again this is happened so many times it’s getting to be very annoying fix your app fix your app fix your app fix your app fix your app fix your app fix your app fix your app fix your app fix your app fix your app fix your app fix your app is this repeat annoying you’re probably not even reading these reviews most likely but if you are your app is much more annoying than saying fix your app over and over again and stop logging people out every five minutes and stop locking people out so they have to reset their passwords over and over again if I could I’d report you to apple if I knew how and to AT&T which I still could not that I think they’ll probably do anything about it they’ll probably say they can’t do anything on their end. Again I say please fix your app everybody here seems to be having the same problem why don’t you listen to them read your reviews increase your customer service by fixing your app.Zip1331Version: 52.40.0

✓ Content is great, app is embarrassingI really thought that with the amount of money hbo has made with their top notch programming, that their app developers would also be top notch. I was wildly disappointed. I really hate to say this but this must be the worst streaming app I have ever used! So glitchy to the point that I sometimes give up watching on the platform because I’m annoyed of how long it takes to load. And forget about trying to fast forward or rewind. Not only is it slower than MOLASSES on my tv, but on my iPad, it will just continue to rewind/fast forward unless you touch another part of the screen. You should be able to double tap the screen and ff/r. How isn’t that an option? The other day, I tried casting from my iPad to my tv and the audio would only play every other half second. Like what???? Also, why does my brand new tv not have an hbo max app, but my tv that is 4 YEARS older have it? And the only way for me to use the app is through my shield device AND THE APP DOESNT EVEN LOAD. Like I’m truly just baffled. I really really really love the content but the app just makes me hate watching the shows because I get so frustrated trying to operate it. Please fix! P.S. just discovered that watching hbo on my nvidia shield is even worse than on any other platform. Sound is only heard every other half second. Nvidia has even tried contacting hbo with no luck!!! I really can’t fathom the multitude of problems with a streaming service!!.RinadeeVersion: 50.40.0

✓ Unbelievably buggy, especially for downloading content and playing it offlineThis review is not about the content on HBO Max but about the app itself. This app is slow to respond and load which is a bit annoying. But it is unbelievably buggy and almost unusable when trying to download content. Once you manage to download your content without the app crashing or stalling out, trying to play your downloaded content often leads to an error about not having a connection. Isn’t that the point of downloading content… so you can play it offline….? This issue is particularly frustrating to have once you’re already somewhere out of cell range and thought you’d be able to watch something you downloaded only for it to require an internet connection. This seems to be an issue that HBO Max is aware of because they have a series of steps to go through to try and resolve the error on their website. But even that doesn’t work half the time. I’ve even tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app with no luck. Once in a blue moon the HBO Max gods smile upon you and you can watch your downloaded content. But holy — for one of the big streaming services to have an app this bad is mind boggling..Matt FergodaVersion: 52.45.0

✓ Bugs and stressI love watching the shows on this app, but it is really annoying that you can’t skip to a scene that you want to watch. I know that HBO has had a lot of problems with playing the show, and I know that their trying to fix it but it’s just insane that you can’t skip to a scene. I understand that the feature exists but it doesn’t listen too were you want to skip to in the show. When ever I click 9n the line at the bottom and try to head to a new scene it takes so long to get there. I’ve tried over and over to leave the app and rejoin but the bug won’t go away and that makes it impossible to watch the show and relax at the same time. Another thing, the show doesn’t even let you skip the 15 seconds, when I click on that button I ether get sent right back to the beginning of the scene I’m watching or It takes too long and waits till the scene is over to fast forward by 15 seconds this makes watching HBO Max on my iPad impossible. I might as well use my tv but my iPad is what I use more often. This isn’t fair and I think HBO should hire a better team so this new and serious problem can be fixed as soon as possible..12 bestVersion: 50.25.0

✓ App Failure on Smart TVWhenever I boot up the app not only am I confronted with a laggy interface but a incompetent system for which to look up episodes of a show Im watching. To put it in perspective, I fell asleep watching jujutsu kaisen and ended on episode 5 but the show kept going until episode 8. Not a problem right? I can just click on the recently watched and look up the episode I was last on. But no, not only does the app keep playing episode 8 but in order to go look up the episode list I have to click play and then the back button. Why can’t the clicking on recently watched just take me to the show menu. Thats a nitpick I know but when I am at the show’s episode list th app immediately crashes and takes me back to the roku menu thus having to restart the process all over again laggy interface and all. My problem is that not only is the interface a bit tedious but now it seems to be just plain broken. Giving the app a 1 star until the crashes and lag are fixed. The other issue is just feedback. Funimation has the same terrible system for looking up shows last watched and its very annoying too. Just a comparison. Hope you listen to the fans here hbo because your catalog is great but your now becoming a meme for terrible app interface..MattoomusVersion: 50.30.1

✓ Good content but app interface is super buggyThis application is so frustrating on both my LG TV and phone, they have good shows and movies but the app interface and the app itself is terrible. Just navigating the app feels like a chore, it’s almost as if they are trying to hide their movies and shows from you. Their interface makes it so you have to search for specific titles or genres categories for all the content to show up properly, while other streaming apps display a large variety of content for you to look through as soon as you open the app. Sometimes it will close randomly while I’m watching a show or movie or the app itself freezes as soon as I open it and I either have to wait 5-10 minutes or delete the app and re-install it to get it working again. Not to mention skipping and going back is always laggy and not smooth like on other streaming apps, they really need to fix this interface, because the content is good, but in terms of service of the app itself, it’s terrible. I expect better from HBO, they are miles behind in terms of quality of service, from other streaming apps.BubbaG62727Version: 52.35.1

✓ Love HBO, but frustrating appI’ve been a subscriber of HBO for years and I love HBO. I love the overall content, but since the new HBO Max app has rolled out, it has been one of my worst streaming experiences ever. I am a subscriber to multiple media streaming services and none of them do what HBO Max does. I use Chromecast to stream and after about 15 minutes into a movie or show I’ll get the “circle of death” as I like to call it. The app is trying to buffer, but instead of doing it once or twice, it continues to buffer for about every five minutes after that until the movie or show is complete. At first I just thought maybe it was my Internet or Chromecast but it’s been doing this for weeks now. It is definitely a fault or bug within the app and it is by far one of the most frustrating things to experience as a customer. Every time an update comes out for the app, my phone automatically pushes the update through and the non-stop buffering still continues to happen. I have no idea what to do but I know for a fact, if it continues to keep happening, I’m going to no longer be an HBO subscriber because it’s just not worth the frustration. With all the technology experts out there and all the money/resources that Warner has, I’m really surprised that this bug has not been resolved. I’ve read through other app reviews and it seems like I’m not the only person that’s experiencing this. Please fix this so you don’t lose anymore loyal customers..Krissyb77260514Version: 50.16.0

✓ GlitchesI normally have no trouble with HBO max, but recently it’s been on the Fritz on multiple devices. I use hbo max on my Apple TV, my computer, and my iPad and they all have been giving me inside all troubles. First, it hasn’t been letting me click on the up next episode and skip the credits. It only pauses the show, no matter where I click in the up next box, it doesn’t recognize there’s a button. I also have very choppy streaming today, the show previews on the Home Screen stream fine but the second I clicked on a movie it, first it started me 30 seconds into the movie, which I’m guessing is a glitch that has to do with how hbo shows and movies start with a preview of something else. Then when it seems like the movie starts playing it was starting and stopping every second. And there also should be a setting where if you turn on captions for a specific episode on hbo for Apple TV, you just have captions on for all of your movies/episodes, because I’m sick of missing the first couple of minutes of what they’re saying because I don’t realize the captions aren’t on. I shouldn’t have to turn them on every 45 min when a new episode starts..BugthebuilderVersion: 50.30.1

✓ Great content, terrible interfaceUpdate 6/4/21 With every update I hope for a better app, but no! This is the worst-designed streaming app of all the streaming apps I have on my iPad or Apple TV! How is it that HBO can’t figure out what all the other App developers can - make a streaming app that is consistently good across platforms and devices AND have excellent content? Now closed captioning doesn’t work on the Apple TV version, plus figuring out a way to restart an episode from the beginning is only doable on a random basis. Plus I’m constantly having to restart the entire Apple TV to get just HBO MAX to work. None of the other streaming apps (and I have nearly all that are available) require restarting the entire Apple TV. Ever! C’mon, HBO, get your act together and give us a bugless, smoothe operating app, worthy of your quality programming. I’m so fed up with this clunky app I’m actually thinking of canceling my subscription! No ability to turn off auto play, getting back to episodes in series and wanting to restart episode (it can be done but only after wasting time hunting through the app for the main listing of all the episodes in a series)...I get tired just trying to explain it. HBO, there’s just no excuse for so bad an app. Fix it!.TasaPNWVersion: 50.30.0

✓ Service is awesome but app is BADIf this were an overall rating of just HBO Max, my stars would be different. The movie and show selection is fantastic, and with any other means to view, it works totally fine. This review is for the IOS Application which needs a HUGE upgrade. I’m unable to do very basic functions in the app that, this late in the game, shouldn’t be an issue. When I try to rewind an episode or movie, it only allows me to click and drag small chunks at a time. Even then, sometimes the control gets frozen and it just rewinds all the way through without allowing me to even exit the content. I have to force a shutdown of the app and try again. Any time I have to rewind, I question whether it’s worth the hassle and prefer to lose the scene or whatever I was hoping to watch. I also can’t even select “Next Episode” without it all freezing as well. It’s very buggy and the amount of forced shut downs of the app is pretty ridiculous. HBO is one of the original programming beats of the entertainment world, and with how established it is, it shouldn’t have such fundamental issues with its mobile streaming app. Do better, guys! You can do it! Thank you!.JasmaniandevilxVersion: 50.25.0

✓ Paid for a year subscription, doesn’t work, can’t get a refund?I love the catalog on HBOmax, as it just has so much to offer. However, I’m incredibly frustrated with this platform and their incompetent customer service. I made an account, and purchased the yearly subscription, which amounted to $105. I log in on my device to stream, but a message pops up saying the title I wanted to watch was unavailable with my current subscription. So I go to my account settings in the app and it says I have no active subscription, after I JUST shelled out over a hundred dollars. The app then asks me who my provider is, even though I don’t have one. I contact customer service for a refund and they say they cannot locate my account. I send screenshots and records of my purchase made to HBO, and they keep asking me for alternate emails and zip codes that may be associated with my account and payment method. I have not heard back from HBO, and I don’t think I’ll be getting my money back. DO BETTER HBO!!!!!!! Update: i have tried contacting HBO support to receive a refund for my UNUSABLE SERVICE and have jumped through multiple hoops, provided them the SAME information a million times and I still have heard nothing from them. HBO support team is utterly USELESS and completely incompetent..AmethysthartVersion: 52.50.0

✓ Download to play later: Only in airplane mode?!The latest update has broken a very basic and needed feature. If you download anything on wifi to watch later (to save your cell data), the only way you can view the download is by putting your phone in *airplane mode*. Even turning off wifi and cell data isn’t enough because the app complains you don’t have an internet connection to *stream* the *downloaded* video! Why do we have to render our phones useless in order to watch something specifically designed to be watched when we have limited (or only costly) internet access???? Edit: the response was a joke. It sent me to their help form. I got an email response offering to resolve “only allows playback of downloads on wifi to view later” and a link telling me how to download for later viewing. It then sent me over to chat help to resolve my issues trying to stream content. There was little response from the first ‘person’ about trying to stream on a different device. Then after explaining the issue yet again, a new ‘person’ came onto the chat and offered to help me stream my downloaded video while in airplane mode(??). Again, this last update has rendered the app useless. I hope playback is possible in future updates..MsCarolynVersion: 52.35.0

✓ Love HBO, App needs workLet me start by saying I haven’t had a major issue with HBO on my Apple TV (yet), which is the only reason this isn’t one star. Like many on here, my issue is not with HBO. They have great movies and shows, quality original content, and opening day streaming all for a very reasonable price. Easily should be given a five star review if it worked as intended. My issue is with the app. Constant buffering plagues every title I attempt to watch, unless I download it first. Unfortunately the download function is… underwhelming to say the least. If (and it’s a pretty big if in my experience) you can get a movie to download, it does it at speeds that my iPhone 4 would have scoffed at. It doesn’t seem to matter what my internet source is, it’s just slow. More often than not however the download seems to suffer an error and has to start over. It suffers an error if your screen turns off, if you leave the app, if you have a minuscule data hiccup, if you switch screens on the app instead of just watching the tick mark slowly fill up… and sometimes it’ll still have an error even if you diligently prayed to the data gods for every pixel that filled up with that purple molasses. TLDR; Buffering issues if you stream and a download feature that doesn’t really work..Sesshomaru1187Version: 50.30.1

✓ Download function is broken and has been for months.I love HBO’s content, and I was very excited when it was announced that the app would allow downloads for offline viewing. However, I was very disappointed to discover that while you can download videos, if you try to watch them in airplane mode (say when, I don’t know, flying on an airplane), the app will let you watch for a while then suddenly freak out and become trapped in an endless loop of error messages as it repeatedly tries and fails to contact the server. This problem has been present for months and it appears no effort has been made to fix it. Additionally, the app does not keep accurate track of how many videos you currently have downloaded. There is a global limit for the account of 30 downloaded videos, and if you want to download beyond that you are prompted to delete unwanted videos to stay below the limit. However, when you delete a few videos, the app continues to give you the same error message saying you can’t download more than 30 videos, and does not permit you to download. The content on HBO is really great, but I primarily only have time to consume it on flights. It is frustrating beyond belief that this app gets so close to the desired feature a d then totally falls flat on its face in the execution..InuchanVersion: 50.8.0

✓ Different User, Same ExperienceFirst I will agree with almost all the other comments. The content is awesome. It’s a big catalog with a wide range of selections. That is why I’m giving it 2 stars instead of 1. The App is SUPER glitchy, buggy, inconsistent, etc. In my experience, no other streaming app takes this long to load. It’s not even close. Once it’s open and you select something be ready to not touch anything. Not sure what the developers were going for here, but if it was to create the movie theatre experience then maybe they aren’t as far off as I thought. If you want to pause it to use the bathroom or get snacks, want to scrub it back to replay something you missed, or stop the movie to watch something else, be prepared to spend extra time. The app rarely, if ever, responds to the first touch of anything and if you try to press it again, it will either buffer or get stuck. I have read some of your responses, so before you respond and tell me it’s my router or internet connection, I’ve checked it and it’s working just fine. But I don’t want to complain too much since a ton of others have already said what I’m feeling. I will go back to the positives and that I am able to watch content on here that me and my family enjoy. If it was a free service I would be leaving 5 stars and a big thank you. But until that happens this is the best I can do..Crashing innVersion: 50.25.3

✓ DownloadsIf I download an episode or movie, it says it will expire in 29 days. If I don’t watch it in a couple days, I have to renew it. The issue is that renewing doesn’t work majority of the time. This is a pain because I download stuff so I can watch when I get to areas without service. I shouldn’t have to check everyday to make sure it hasn’t expire 4 weeks early. Edit: This is in response to the reply by the developer. It doesn’t matter what you have written on some website. I download a movie or a show and it says it will expire in 29 days. A few hours later it changes to start counting down from 72 hours or something like that. If it’s only good for 3 days, why say 29 days? That’s an issue on your end that needs to be fixed, not send me somewhere where it explains how it should be. The app should be right from the start. But then when I tell it to renew my download, it makes it look like it did by having the movie or show under my downloads and not grayed out or having the exclamation mark over the picture. So the renew feature also needs to be fixed. For giving me the runaround, I’m taking my rating down to one star. The next step, deleting and canceling my subscription..Plaid11Version: 52.20.0

✓ Great content/terrible appThe content this streaming app has already and is coming up with is phenomenal in all levels, which makes the following all the more painful. The app is slow, buggy, and glitchy. I can’t watch this app on my Vizio tv because it’s always freezing, glitchy and the audio desynchronizes. All of this at random times. I wish it was just certain shows, but unfortunately I haven’t found a movie or show in which it doesn’t happen. I used to think it was my internet or my tv, but it’s the only streaming app that gives me these problems. I wish it was only happening in my tv, but it also happens in all my devices, although in my phone and iPad it happens less. I end up hailing to download the shows in my phone or iPad to then watch them. However, the download doesn’t always work either; sometimes downloads have unexpected errors and I have to try 5 times to get a show or movie downloaded. I have some feedback about the interface too, but there’s no point in focusing on that until all of these bugs are fixed. Actually, there is one interface note that I don’t think should wait until the bugs are fixed, the fact that when you’re done watching an episode or movie and want to rewatch it, instead of starting over (because you’ve finished it) it goes back to where you left off in the credits. Really?.Caterpillar27Version: 52.15.0

✓ Love the content, but the app leaves much to be desiredI really like the content on HBO Max. They have great original shows and movies as well as a lot of popular releases. My only grievance lies with the app. Across all platforms (Xbox, iPhone/iPad, Samsung TV) I consistently receive messages saying the content cannot be played (often times while the show or movie continues to play). I do everything short of uninstalling and reinstalling the app because that can be a massive inconvenience (not trying to do that while exercising, for example), and often I continue to get the error even after multiple restarts. Also, the UI is not the best - it takes some trial and error to figure out how to get to the point where you can choose a season of a show for example. There are also some other, more tolerable issues such as when l download things and try to play them it says I’m not connected to wifi (the whole reason I download is to watch off wifi as I assume is the case for most), long load/buffer times or just randomly logging me out. Again, highly recommend the content and this review would easily be 5 stars if the app itself didn’t need as much work as it does..MigsmanVersion: 50.25.0

✓ A MessThe content of HBOMax is nearly unrivaled. There’s tons of great stuff here, but unfortunately I just cannot for the life of me figure out why their app development is such a mess. On iPhone, scrubbing isn’t smooth, interface requires a lot of back and forth and the overall user experience just is lacking for a service that’s meant to be such high caliber. Which brings me to the newest Apple TV update. It’s basically unusable. If you want to do anything besides press play, forget it. Scrubbing will take you back to the beginning of your show, or maybe to the very end, or somewhere kind of random in between. It has a complete mind of its own after you’ve touched the remote. No jump back or forward. And just a mess if you want to put subtitles on. I’ve also noticed occasionally that three loading dots will randomly pop up while watching (even though it doesn’t seem to be buffering). What’s more confusing is that this tvOS app seemed to be working just fine until the latest update. It seems as though the QA and testing process was completely skipped for Apple TV. There’s no way that if it was, this version would have been released. It’s truly a shame that HBOs A+ content is being tarnished by these bad delivery methods..PocketxVersion: 50.30.1

✓ Solid selection, but very glitchy at timesApp is great when it decides to do what it’s supposed to. I download a lot of shows because of lack of service in some areas so I can still watch stuff on the app. Well often times I open the app and it will say “no service try again”, which of course It’s right I don’t have service but the problem is it gets stuck on that screen and won’t let me get to my downloads. Sometimes opening the app in airplane mode helps and sometimes it doesn’t. Also have issues with some of my downloads just disappearing from my downloads list, often times even episodes of shows I just downloaded the night before. Naturally it’s frustrating to go to use the app and watch a show I downloaded the night prior only to find that it’s not in my download list. I’ve even had it where a show wasn’t in the list and then after several times of shutting down the app, restarting my phone, and then all of a sudden some of the stuff I downloaded will all of a sudden appear. I constantly keep the app and my phone updated so I all I can gather is that the app is just very buggy. So like I’ve said the app is great when it decides to work. On a side note, not to be totally negative,when connected to wifi the app does seem to work as intended with no issues..PepeSilvia121Version: 52.45.0

✓ Crashes and doesn’t work offlineThe selection of stuff on the app is great. However, the download function is pretty much useless because if you try to watch something you’ve downloaded while offline, it gives you an error telling you to check your connection. This is garbage because that is the ENTIRE POINT OF DOWNLOADING SOMETHING TO WATCH OFFLINE... It also needs to be able to pickup where it left off downloading if it loses connection. Whether the reason for being offline a flight, or for the military folks I know that download things to watch when they have WiFi, this needs to be fixed. Another issue, back to downloads, I downloaded the new Mortal Kombat movie last night. I tried to watch it and spent 2.5 plus hours with the app crashing every time I tried to get it to play. I even attempted removing it and downloading it again and it still didn’t work. I tried it today, and it still didn’t work. I don’t know if anyone will actually read this or not, because I read a lot of very angry threads last night. However, I truly hope that they are wrong and you do care about fixing this. You cannot understand how much of a moral boost it is for those military folks to be able to catch new movies, especially right now, when they can get WiFi. Please fix this..Buck2560Version: 50.20.0

✓ Love HBO, HATE the appEveryone loves HBO’s content. There’s no debating this. What I can’t figure out is why, for such a premier service, the app (for iPhone specifically) is so terribly infuriating. My single main complaint is a big one, because it affects my experience almost every time I watch something. THE FAST FORWARD/REWIND BAR FUNCTIONS ARE THE VERY WORST OF ITS KIND. On literally every other streaming service out there(even the most obscure ones), if you tap the screen to bring up the playback options, the time bar can be used to seamlessly drag to wherever you want to continue watching from. It’s likely one of the very most commonly used features of any streaming app. On the HBO Max app, if you aren’t able to sit and watch every movie/show/episode uninterrupted from start to finish, forget about it. Attempting to move back/forward to any point in the show creates enough frustration that I’m convinced it has led to many broken phones. This MUST be fixed. And SOON. Based on the research I’ve done on this issue, many others are displeased with these functionalities(and others) of your apps. PLEASE get this issue resolved ASAP so I can get back to actually enjoying my experience while using one of my very favorite streaming services. I’ve just about reached my limit on how long I can deal with it. This is my final plea. HELP!.AlwaysChillyVersion: 50.25.0

HBO Max: Stream TV & Movies works most of the time. If it is not working for you, we recommend you excersise some patience and retry later or contact HBO Max: Stream TV & Movies.