It’s the weekend and you’ve got a long train journey to endure but thankfully, there’s some Premier League action on Sky Go that will see you through the journey. Or so you think until you try and log on to the app to find that it won’t open. This a situation that many of you will face but don’t worry the resolutions are often straightforward and fast.

In this article, we will look at the most common causes for the Sky Go app not opening and teach you how to stop this from happening. Before starting, it’s worth noting that Sky Go is only available to customers who have an active Sky subscription so if you don’t have one of those then forget about using the app – you’ll need a Sky Q subscription (thought Sky Q has issues itself too!).

Sky Go app won’t open – The quick fix for mobile

The most common reason for the Sky Go app not opening is due to a loading issue that causes either a black screen to appear or a screen that appears stuck or frozen. This is often due to bugs within the app that can only be resolved by forcing a reset or restart of the app. There are a number of ways to fix this:

Force the app to close down and reload it. To do this on an iOS device you need to go to your home screen and swipe up from the bottom of the screen. This will bring up a screen which will show you all the apps which are currently open behind the scenes on your device. Find the Sky Go option and swipe up on it to force close the app down. Now open Sky Go back up again and see if it’s working properly.
Delete the app and re-install it. To do this on an iOS you need to hold down the Sky Go app icon on your your phone’s home screen and then select ‘remove app’ on the drop down menu that will subsequently appear. Once it’s deleted you can then head to the app store to re-install it. This will act as a full reboot of the app and will more than likely get it working again if option 1 fails to work.
Restart your phone. This should be the last resort and only considered if you’ve exhausted all other options – not because it’s dangerous to your phone or anything but just because it’s the most time consuming option. To do this on an iOS device hold down the button on the right hand of your phone at the same time as one of the volume buttons and then swipe right when the option to turn your phone off appears. After 30 seconds or so press those same two buttons again to turn it back on.

There are other reasons why Sky Go might not be working for you. Let’s take a look at them and explain how to get around them.

Connectivity issues

Although you don’t need an internet connection to watch Sky TV, you absolutely do need one to be able to use Sky Go. If you don’t have a strong internet connection then the app quite simply won’t work so if the app isn’t working it’s worth checking if you are connected to the internet. There are two ways in which you can do this:

To connect to Wi-Fi on your iOS device then go to settings and click ‘Wi-Fi’. On the subsequent screen, make sure you slide the bar next to ‘Wi-Fi’ so that it is highlighted green. Your phone will then search for available networks which leaves it up to you to then select which one you want to connect to.
To connect to mobile data on your iOS device then go to settings and click ‘mobile data’. On the subsequent screen, make sure you slide the bar next to ‘mobile data’ so that it is highlighted green. From here, your phone will search and then connect you to a 3G, 4G or 5G server.

We would advise you, where possible. to connect via Wi-Fi because using your mobile data to stream live television will drain your monthly usage and potentially cost you money.

Servers

Sometimes, the issue may be entirely out of your hands and could be a server issue at Apple (if you are using an iOS device) or at Sky. To check if the Apple’s servers are down then visit this website, and to check if Sky’s servers are down then visit this one.

If their servers are down then unfortunately there isn’t a great deal that you can do other than wait for them to be fixed. Luckily, both Sky and Apple are usually pretty quick at getting these issues resolved so you shouldn’t have to wait long. Keep checking the aforementioned websites for updates.

Sky Go App Not Working On Windows 10 (Desktop)

Sky Go is an app that allows users to stream Sky content on a Mac, iOS and Android but also on a Windows desktop too – if you’re having trouble with the app on Windows, then there are a couple of things that you can try. The app requires an internet connection to work and you can use its services on up to four devices though, so make sure you’ve not exceeded your limit.

Step 1: Turn off firewall

A firewall is a security measure that protects your networks, it screens traffic and blocks certain things that go against rules within the firewall such as viruses and hackers. Firewalls can either be software or hardware-based. Software is a programme installed on your computer to protect you, so when we talk about firewalls in this sense, that is the version we mean.

Firewalls can block things that aren’t intended to be malicious and as such require permissions to be altered or turned off so your computer can access them. To turn off your firewall:

Press the ‘Windows’ key and ‘S’ to open the ‘Search’ utility.
Type ‘Firewall’ into the search box.
Go to ‘Windows Defender Firewall.’
This will open the ‘Control Panel.’
Choose to turn ‘Windows Defender Firewall’ On or Off, This will open the settings to the defender.
Select the option ‘Turn Off Windows Defender Firewall.’
Click OK to continue.

Step 2: Install a clean boot of Windows

A clean boot is a process that boots windows with minimal services like drivers and startup programmes so you can see if something is interfering with a programme you are trying to run like sky Go. Some programmes conflict with Sky Go, clean booting can remove conflicting third-party apps. To clean boot your computer you can use the following guide:

Go To ‘Run.’
Select ‘OK.’
This will open the ‘System Configuration utility.’
In the ‘General’ tab, go to:
Selective Start-Up > Load System Services > Use Original Boot Configuration
Deselect ‘Load Start-Up Items.’
Choose ‘Hide All Microsoft Services’ in the Services tab.
Select ‘Disable All.’ Then ‘Apply and OK.’
Restart Windows to see if this has fixed the issue.

Step 3: Remove Cisco VideoGuard

Cisco VideoGuard is an encryption service that is used for video broadcasts. If you have some kind of TV streaming app downloaded onto your device then chances are you have Cisco VideoGuard on your device too. This service can interrupt the app you are trying to run and it isn’t essential, you can remove it by following this set of steps:

Press the ‘Windows’ key and ‘R.’ this will open the ‘Run’ box.
Type into the run box > appwiz.cpl.
Click ‘OK.’
Go to the Cisco VideoGuard option and select ‘Uninstall.’
Click ‘Yes’ to continue.

Final Step: Reinstall the Sky Go app

Now the Cisco VideoGuard is uninstalled go to ‘Sky Go.’
Select ‘Uninstall’ on the Sky go app.
Click ‘Yes’ to continue.

To finish the process you need to delete the subsequent files for VideoGuard Player and for Sky Go.

Go to ‘File Explorer.’
Open this folder in file explorer, the path you take is:
C: > User > [User Folder] > AppData > Local > Cisco.
Go to the VideoGuard file and select to delete it.
To open the next folder you need to delete take the following path:
C: >User > [User Folder] > AppData > LocalLow > Cisco.
Go to the VideoGuard file and select to delete it.
Open the Roaming folder using the following path:
c. C: > User > [User Folder] > AppData > Roaming.
Inside this folder select any and all Sky go or Sky folders and delete them.
Go to the ‘Downloads’ folder in File Explorer.
Select all SkyGoInstaller files and delete these too.
Empty the recycle bin to get rid of all the files permanently.
Restart your computer.
Then go to the Sky Go app and download it for Windows.
Follow the reinstall instructions and restart the app to see if this has now fixed the issue.

Sky Go usually is very good in terms of bugs, there aren’t that many. So if you are having problems where your app is not working with any luck now you have managed to fix it with one of the methods above. Make sure to enable your firewall again if you go back to browsing the internet to avoid any potential threats on your computer but otherwise hopefully now you are good to go.

Conclusion

The Sky Go app is a superb app for Sky TV customers who want to be able to stream live tv while on the move and when it’s down it can be a cause of great annoyance. We hope that our multiple solutions are able to get you back online quickly but if they can’t then we’d advise you to get in touch with Sky for further support. Please feel free to check out the rest of our website for more troubleshooting articles.