How to fix Peacock TV when it keeps freezing

The Peacock TV app is your route to some of the best TV shows ever produced. “The Office,” “Downton Abbey,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and even the entirety of the former WWE Network call Peacock home. Hours of great TV await you, assuming you can get the app to work as it should.

Freezing and buffering issues are common for many Peacock users. Every stutter and stop in your show ruins your carefully crafted TV experience, which means you need to find a solution. This article presents several solutions for the Peacock TV freezing issue.

Solution 1 – Check your internet connection

Peacock’s internet requirements aren’t particularly extravagant, as the app requires a 3Mbps connection for standard streaming. Live events and ultra HD streaming require at least 8 Mbps. Still, it’s possible that your Internet connection is to blame for the constant freezing and stuttering you’re experiencing.

Checking your internet connection may reveal that the Peacock app is not the problem, so follow these steps to check and potentially resolve the issue:

1. Using a device that is connected to the same network as the device running the Peacock app, run an internet speed check using a service like Ookla Speed ​​Test.
   
2. If your connection is lower than Peacock’s requirements, try disconnecting some of the devices that are currently using your Wi-Fi. Run another speed test to see if speeds improve.
   

If you don’t see any improvement after removing multiple devices from your Wi-Fi network, there is likely a problem on the part of your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Contact your ISP’s customer support team to discuss the issue.

Solution 2 – Restart your router

Your router is like the engine room of your home Wi-Fi connection. If that engine room starts to malfunction, it will be harder for devices to stay connected to the Internet. The good news is that a quick reboot is usually the way to resolve annoying router-related issues:

1. Turn off your router, either using the pin reset built into some devices or by unplugging it from its outlet.
   
2. Wait at least 30 seconds.
   
3. Turn your router back on and wait for it to reboot.
   
4. Reconnect to your Wi-Fi connection and try Peacock again.

This reset allows you to reboot your router (removing it from excess electricity) and create a new connection to your ISP’s servers. Hopefully, that combination of power cycling and a new connection will give you the bandwidth needed to keep the Peacock app running.

Solution 3 – Manually restart the app

A problem with the app itself could cause freezing, with crashes, errors, and similar issues occasionally forcing you to restart Peacock manually. Restarting “refreshes” the app, giving it a chance to restart all of its processes, essentially wiping the slate clean for Peacock to try again.

The process to manually reset varies depending on your device. For example, those using iPhones to watch Peacock can do the following:

1. Go to “Applications.”
   
2. Select the Peacock app from the list and tap “Force Stop.”
   
3. Press “OK” in the dialog box and the application should close.
   
4. Restart Peacock to see if it works better than before.

Again, the exact process varies depending on your device, although most should allow you to manually stop and restart your Peacock app.

Solution 4 – Restart your device

Sometimes the problem affecting your Peacock app lies neither with the app nor with your internet connection. Your device may be the culprit. As any good IT technician will tell you, a simple restart is usually enough to fix problems with the software you are using.

Before restarting, try closing any programs or apps that are running in the background on your device. An overload of other apps could cause Peacock to have to fight for device resources, and killing those other apps could free up those resources for Peacock to use.

If that doesn’t solve your Peacock freezing issues, restarting your device is like creating a blank slate where you add Peacock as the first and only app running after the restart.

Solution 5 – Check Peacock Servers

Peacock streams from external servers located throughout the United States. Sometimes a problem with the server your app instance is accessing could be the reason why Peacock keeps freezing.

Follow these steps to check how Peacock is doing on the server side:

1. Go to fall detector and click or tap the magnifying glass icon.
   
2. Type “Peacock” into the search bar and press “Enter.”
   
3. Check the chart to see if other users have reported outages on Peacock.
   

If the graph shows that hundreds (or even thousands) of people have reported problems at the same time that you experienced them, you can assume that there is a problem with the servers. Unfortunately, waiting for the problem to be resolved is often the only solution.

Solution 6: Sign out and sign back in

Often the simplest solutions work wonders. Signing out of the Peacock app is very similar to performing a manual restart because signing back in creates a new instance of the app. If a bug or crash caused your freezing or stuttering issues, this simple fix “resets” the app so it can try to run properly again.

Signing out is simple:

1. Navigate to “Account,” which you should see in the top right corner of your screen.
   
2. Select “Sign out.”
   
3. Close the app, reopen it, and sign in again when prompted.

This solution may not work if the app freezes so much that it crashes and you can’t access the logout option. In that case, a manual restart by force stopping the application may be your only recourse.

Solution 7 – Update the Peacock App

If you have an outdated version of the Peacock app running on your device, you may have difficulty connecting to the Peacock servers, resulting in freezing issues. Updating the app can solve that problem. Plus, you benefit by getting the latest version of the app (with the UI and security updates they may bring), making updating a win-win situation.

The method you use to update depends on your device, although most offer the option to check for an update through the app store you use to download Peacock. Other devices, like Amazon’s Fire Stick, allow you to update through the device itself:

1. Highlight the Peacock app and press the “Menu” button on your remote.
   
2. Go to “Manage” and then “More information.”
   
3. Click “Update.”
   

The Fire Stick then manually checks for an update and then runs the update or tells you that your app is updated. Again, these steps vary depending on your device.

Solution 8 – Delete and Reinstall the App

While you throw your “Hail Mary,” deleting the Peacock app erases most of the data stored on your device, along with the app itself. Reinstalling creates a new version of the app (and one that’s completely up to date) so you can try again.

Please note that removing Peacock means you won’t be able to log in when you reinstall. Make a note of your username and password so you can log back in once the app is working again.

Break the peacock freeze

App instability is always annoying, especially when you’re engrossed in a program only to have a freezing or buffering icon get in the way of your enjoyment. The fixes described help if there is a problem with your device, your internet connection, or with the Peacock app itself, at least helping you get to the root of the problem.