Apple TV: Stations Missing from Collection

[FTS]

I opened the Pandora account on my Apple TV and don’t have any of my defined stations. I’m a paid subscriber. Instead, I was offered about five choices of pre-selected stations. No ability to logout/login, create a station, only thumbs up/down and skip.

Moderator Edit: Edited title for clarity

[AdamPandora]

@FTS Please try the following troubleshooting steps:

"Soft restart" the app:

1. Open Settings.
2. Select System.
3. Then select Restart.

"Hard restart" the app:

1. Users with Aluminum or White Apple Remotes can restart the app by holding down the Menu and Down buttons simultaneously. Let go when the light on your device flashes.
2. Users with Siri Remotes or Apple TV remotes should hold down the Display and Menu buttons simultaneously. Let go when the light on your device flashes.

If you're still having trouble, make sure you have the latest update of the Pandora app by going to the App Store, searching Pandora and selecting Update if you see it.

If Pandora still doesn't work, please try uninstalling and reinstalling the app as follows: Go to your home screen and click and hold the Pandora icon until it starts wiggling, then click Play/Pause to delete the app.

Next, open the App Store, search for Pandora, and click the Get arrow.

Let me know how it goes.

[GAnderson09]

Happens all the time.  The pandora app for Apple TV is absolutely Atrocious

[NevadaDad]

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@FTS wrote:

I opened the Pandora account on my Apple TV and don’t have any of my defined stations. I’m a paid subscriber. Instead, I was offered about five choices of pre-selected stations. No ability to logout/login, create a station, only thumbs up/down and skip.

Moderator Edit: Edited title for clarity

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I am experiencing this exact issue. If I haven’t used the pandora app in a few weeks on my 4th Gen Apple TV, when I open it I get the screen described by original poster. No ability to log in, exit, reset, etc. Only remedy is to uninstall and reinstall - followed by logging in when the freshly reinstalled app comes up for the first time. A real hassle. It acts like my login credentials are not “sticky” after about 2 weeks but gives me no option to log in. Would really like Pandora support personnel posting here to actually duplicate the issue and offer a legit solution instead of just “reboot and let us know how it works out.”

[AdamPandora]

@NevadaDad I've sent your feedback over to our engineers. This information is really valuable, and helps us determine what might be happening.

We really appreciate your patience in the meantime!

[NevadaDad]

Thanks Adam!

[PinoBello]

The answer is not useful.  There is no Sign-in option visible. The application opens with Create a Station and the remote does not provide access to one by swiping in any direction.  Clicking menu exits the app.

[TannerPandora]

@PinoBello Sounds like you're running into trouble.

I checked your Pandora account and see that you've previously logged into Apple TV devices. Have you been recently logged out and are trying to log back in?

Have you tried any troubleshooting steps before reaching out? If so, can you let me know which steps - I don't want to suggest anything you may have already tried.

Thanks!

[johnmnagy]

I'm recently having the same problem.

After days or weeks of normal Pandora use on my G4 AppleTV, I'll find that when I launch Pandora, I get the page described above, Create a Station, and my stations aren't there, it's like a fresh start. But there is no path I can find from there to log back in. All I can do is search or create. Rebooting makes no difference. Trying again a day later makes no difference. Only by deleting the Pandora app and re-installing gets me to where I'm allowed to say who I am... then all is fine for days or more. This never happened in the last 2 years until a few months ago. I've been through this now 4 times. It's not fun.

[AdamPandora]

@johnmnagy I'd recommend checking for updates on the device. Go to your Apple TV Settings, select System, go to Software Updates, and click Update Software. If there's an update, download and install it. During the update, the status light might flash slowly. Don't disconnect or unplug your Apple TV until the update completes. Then, try Pandora again.

If that doesn't help, please try a few standard network troubleshooting steps:

• Try connecting directly via an ethernet cable rather than wirelessly (if you have this option on your device), and see if that helps.
• Try rebooting your modem and router and restarting the device.

Let me know how it goes.

[johnmnagy]

Thanks but no. I'm an IT guy and already tried all that repeatedly. The AppleTV is fully updated. The unit is connected with a hardwire gigbit ethernet. All other apps and services are functioning and streaming perfectly. I'm signed in on everything else. It's JUST PANDORA doing this, and as you can see from the multiple less detailed but same reports by others, this isn't a fluke one-off ID10T issue.

[AdamPandora]

@johnmnagy I've gone ahead and passed your feedback along to our engineering team so they can further investigate.

Thanks for your patience in the meantime!

[johnmnagy]

As you pass this to engineering, please ask them what in god's creation would inspire them to make a start page that cannot be escaped and has no means of signing on. This is a essentially a dead end trap page, once it appears, game over. I can't imagine such a flawed page, regardless of what might trigger a log-out. I'd include the page image, but your forum prevents me on a permission issue. The top of the page is white, with "CREATE A STATION" large and centered. Below in the white it says "Create your own personalized radio station from artist, genres, and songs." Then a dark entry field with a blue PLUS sign and "Type and artist, genre, or song" The lower half of the page is dark shaded with "BROWSE STATIONS" above a set of five large genre images, at the moment "Today's Country", "Today's Hits", "60's...." "90's...." and "Classic Rock". There are no other options. Any attempt to search or start any song does work, but with no way out, no way to log in, just a dead end. Insane.

[johnmnagy]

I figured out how to share the image... via google images.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/THYoZLymwqrabRwB8

[johnmnagy]

I have news on this issue... In previous fails, I've deleted the app and re-installed, and all was fine after a log-in. This time when I went to delete, I decided to try "offload" choice instead (avoided before because there is no indication of what that might mean). I noted that the Pandora app remained in my menu, so I clicked it. The icon changed briefly to a clock/progress icon, then Lo and behold, I'm back in the app normally, with my stations and all, without having to log in. MORE INTERESTING YET, the "stations" I selected while apparently logged out and unable to access my account APPEAR IN MY COLLECTION OF STATIONS ON MY ACCOUNT. This means that while trapped in the apparently new-user dead end screen, I was still attached to my actual account...

This work around is much faster and easier, but who would guess? And why?

I hate to bring up another issue - but since I have your ear and apparently have earned your attention:

Again only on APPLETV, I -always- find that after a few song skips, the play/pause does not work. The audio will glitch slightly when I press PAUSE, but continues to play. No way to stop it other than to load some other app with audio to override the Pandora audio, then return to Pandora where pause works... until I skip some more songs. Every time. Note that I like to exit to the AppleTV screen saver while Pandora continues to play, so I like to use PAUSE when I want to know what the song is... the name will appear in the upper right corner when I pause. Until pause fails. Then all I get is a 1/4 second gap in the playing song each time I try to play/pause. Absolutely repeatable, has been this way since I first started using APPLETV several years ago.

If you need beta testers, I've done that for about a dozen software companies (some big ones) in the past. Just ask. I know how to corner an issue.

[NevadaDad]

This is precisely the issue I experienced and reported on this forum. The only fix was to uninstall/ reinstall. Not cool.

[johnmnagy]

Next time (and it probably won't be long), try using OFFLOAD instead of DELETE (it's the option right below the DELETE confirmation). See if that works for you as it did for me today.

[NevadaDad]

I will try “offload” next time it happens. That has worked for me with other apps that freeze up on AppleTV. But the pandora issue seems to be fundamentally different than a freeze-up so I hadn’t tried that.

In my experience with some other companies, no matter how meticulously you document the problem, there is strangely no appetite for them to fix it. Happened to me a few years ago with some WEMO smart plugs I bought. Hopefully, that won’t be the case with Pandora.

[AlyssaPandora]

Thanks for the updates and for providing that helpful feedback about your experiences, @johnmnagy @NevadaDad.

We've shared this with our engineering team on your behalf. We'll follow up with you if we need any additional details.

Thanks for your patience in the meantime! 🎧

[jasonp019]

Hello, void.

I'm reaching out for assistance because the last two times that Apple TV did a tvOS update my Pandora lost my login information and presents a generic startup page to create a radio station.  Each time that happens, I have to delete the app, re-download it, and then log in again.'

Very frustrating.

Does anyone have a solution / fix?  Is Pandora tracking this issue?

Thanks!

--Jason