UPDATED: It’s the big launch day for Warner Bros. Discovery‘s Max — and the newly revamped streaming service encountered some technical problems right off the bat. The company said the issues have been “minor” and were swiftly fixed.
On Tuesday morning, subscribers took to social media to complain that they were having problems logging in to Max, which is replacing the three-year-old HBO Max service. As reported by users, the issues spanned the Max website as well as mobile apps including iOS and connected-TV apps on Roku and Samsung TV.
Of course, there are bound to be some problems in migrating millions of customers over to a new streaming platform. The May 23 conversion from HBO Max to Max covers only the U.S.
“You must always anticipate issues on a tech rollout of this scale,” a Warner Bros. Discovery spokesperson said in a statement to PvNew. “We can share that only minor ones have emerged and were quickly remedied.”
Some subscribers said they attempted to log in to Max — only to remain stuck on the screen after clicking on the “Start Streaming” button. Another user tweeted that on Roku, they were able to watch a show but that the Max service froze if they skipped the recap.
“Though to its credit the Max app is much faster as it crashes more quickly than ever before,” Marc Istook, a morning news anchor at WFAA in Dallas, tweeted.
Though to its credit the Max app is much faster as it crashes more quickly than ever before. pic.twitter/fXBS93egyf
— Marc Istook (@MarcIstook) May 23, 2023
According to the company, a “large portion” of HBO Max subscribers will have their apps automatically updated to Max while in some cases, users will be prompted to download an updated Max app. The plan was that HBO Max subscribers would be able to log in with their existing username and password and have all their preferences migrated over to the new Max.
According to the company, Max is available on the same platforms as HBO Max, including: iOS (iPhone and iPad), Android, Amazon Fire TV and Fire Tablet, Android TV, Apple TV, Google Chromecast, LG Smart TV, Roku, Samsung TV, Vizio SmartCast TV, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, and web browsers (including Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge for Windows and Apple Safari).
Crazy how they pushed Max on us but it’s not working at all
— laurynn (@planetlaurynn) May 23, 2023
Is Max not working on the Roku?! @StreamOnMax
— Andrew Dustin Vargas (@andydv27) May 23, 2023
@StreamonMax tried login in today to the new app MAX it’s not working for Puerto Rico @LibertyPR and HBOMAX was supported for Puerto Rico has it been dropped? pic.twitter/MeITPVhGmW
— Jorge Gonzalez (@giorgiorafaelpr) May 23, 2023
Can you please forward this to the war room. pic.twitter/knsclaRdVW
— Dave Zatz (@davezatz) May 23, 2023
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