IPTV guide (EPG) not showing? What to check

It's usually one of four things: no guide link, a link that doesn't return a guide, guide channels that don't match your playlist, or a guide that's out of date. Here's how to tell which, in any player.

Where a guide comes from

With an Xtream login, the provider's server hands over listings channel by channel, and there is nothing to enter. If a channel's guide is empty, the provider has no listings attached to that channel.
With an M3U playlist, the guide is a separate XMLTV file. The playlist can name it in its first line (url-tvg or x-tvg-url), or your provider gives you its link separately. With neither, there is no guide to show.

Most of the fixes below are for the second case.

1. The guide link is missing or wrong

Open the playlist in a text editor and look at its first line. A guide link looks like #EXTM3U url-tvg="http://example.com/epg.xml.gz".
If your playlist comes from an Xtream-style server, the same server usually offers its guide as xmltv.php, with your username and password in the link. Ask your provider for the exact address.
Paste the link into Safari. A guide either downloads or shows XML that starts with <tv>. A web page, a sign-in form or an error means the link is wrong or has expired.
In Vela, Account shows the TV guide link in use. Change TV guide link sets a new one, and Use the Playlist's Own goes back to the one the playlist names. A link has to start with http:// or https://.

2. The guide is compressed, or very large

Guides are big, so they're often served gzipped, ending in .gz. Some players can't open those and simply show nothing. Vela reads plain and gzipped guides. If another player stays blank on a .gz link, ask for the plain .xml one.

A full guide can run to hundreds of megabytes, and on a slow connection the first download takes minutes. While it works, Vela shows “Downloading the guide…” and then “Reading the guide…”. Let it finish before deciding it's broken.

3. The channels don't match the guide

A player has to work out which guide channel belongs to which playlist channel. The usual key is the playlist's tvg-id, which should equal the id of a channel in the guide:

In the playlist: #EXTINF:-1 tvg-id="news.example" group-title="News",Example News
In the guide: <channel id="news.example">

Common reasons they don't line up:

The playlist has no tvg-id, or an empty one.
The ids differ by more than capitals, such as a country suffix on one side only.
The guide is for a different line-up or region than the playlist.

Vela matches a guide channel whose id equals the playlist channel's tvg-id, ignoring capitals, or its tvg-name when it has no id. It also accepts a guide channel whose display name matches that, or the channel's own name, once both are tidied up. When none of that finds anything, Account shows “The guide has no listings for these channels.” The fix is the guide that belongs with that playlist; if the playlist is your own, correct its tvg-id values.

4. The times are off by an hour or more

Every programme in an XMLTV guide carries its time zone, as in 20261019200000 +0000, and a player converts that to your iPhone's time. When the whole guide is out by exactly one or more hours, either the guide labels its times with the wrong offset, or the iPhone's own time zone is wrong.

On the iPhone, check Settings > General > Date & Time, and turn on Set Automatically.
A guide that's right most of the year and an hour out after the clocks change has its offset written in by hand. That's for whoever makes the guide to fix.
Some players offer a manual shift. Vela uses the offset each programme carries and has no manual shift, so a guide that's labelled wrong needs fixing where it's made.

5. The provider's guide has gaps

Not every channel comes with listings, and some guides cover only a day or two. If one channel is blank and its neighbours are filled in, the guide has nothing for it, and no player can show what isn't there. Compare a few channels in the same category before changing anything.

6. The guide has gone stale

A guide covers a few days ahead, so a player that never fetches it again runs off the end. Vela fetches the playlist and its guide again every 12 hours unless you change that in Account > Library > Auto-refresh, and Refresh playlist and guide in Account does it straight away. The Listings row there shows how many programmes and channels the last read found, and when. The guide grid itself shows two hours back and a day ahead.

Still blank after all that? Write to us from the support page with the message Account shows under the guide.

Vela includes no channels or content. Use it only with a subscription or playlist you're entitled to use.