topic Blue Progress bar has disappeared in Sky Stream

Blue Progress bar has disappeared

AndyP6 — Sun, 11 Feb 2024 13:28:25 GMT

I am still a fairly new subscriber to Sky Stream and have found the service ti be generally very good.

However, we currently have one annoying issue...

Having saved a few series to our Playlist, e.g. The Repair Shop, we have been watching an episode or two each evening when nothing much else on TV.

For example we have been watching series 11 and can see when going back to that series the following day all the episodes we have previously watched have the blue progress bar underneath them.

Very useful so we can see what episode we have already watched in a series, and can easily pick-up where we left off and carry on watching the series.

However, all thgose blue progress bars have now disappeared/expired and so all our previous viewing history if lost. Hence, it can take a few attempts to find an episode we haven't previously watched in a series.

Why does this happen after a week or so, and can it be fixed?

Is there a setting somewhere we can change so that these blue progress bars never delete/expire?

Seems odd that Sky introduce this very useful feature of being able to see at aglance what you have previously watched, only to then have your viewing history disappear every week or so.

Re: Blue Progress bar has disappeared

Fothergill1 — Sun, 11 Feb 2024 14:53:59 GMT

@AndyP6 You have discovered one of my pet hates with the streaming platform the disappearing progress bars. Like you I find they stay in place for only about 7-10 days.

Unfortunately there appears to be nothing one can do about it. I have been complaining about this for the past 18 months and there is still no fix for this but I am aware that Sky are looking into it. Unfortunately it does not appear to be at the top of their priority list.

When you select a programme you will see some buttons saying Continue and remove series etc. Sometimes after the progress bars have disappeared the continue button is correct and shows you the next episode. If that's not the case it's down to guessing and trial & error.

Re: Blue Progress bar has disappeared

AndyP6 — Sun, 11 Feb 2024 15:09:28 GMT

Thanks very much for the reply. At least it's nothing I'm doing wrong.

Annoying that Sky haven't found a solution in 18 months.

Initially it looked like a good feature that you could see your previous viewing history, but becomes rather pointless if it resets every 7-10 days.

I could just about accept it if they reset after roughly every 3 months or so, but 7-10 days makes the feature pointless when you could be switching between different TV shows days/weeks apart.

I guess until Sky get a fix sorted I'll have to jot down what episodes I've watched on a note pad. 😀

Re: Blue Progress bar has disappeared

Fothergill1 — Sun, 11 Feb 2024 16:01:50 GMT

@AndyP6 Definitely not anything you are doing 😀

This won't help with the Sky content but if the progress bars have dropped off playlist programmes which are viewed through Apps then going into the actual App will often show you the next episode to view. BBC iPlayer and Discovery + are good examples (the progress bars seem to remain indefinitely).

Re: Blue Progress bar has disappeared

MarkGoldsmith — Sun, 11 Feb 2024 16:14:26 GMT

@Fothergill1 wrote:
@AndyP6 Definitely not anything you are doing 😀

This won't help with the Sky content but if the progress bars have dropped off playlist programmes which are viewed through Apps then going into the actual App will often show you the next episode to view. BBC iPlayer and Discovery + are good examples (the progress bars seem to remain indefinitely).

That is indeed a good tip by @Fothergill1 . Strangely i've noticed the progress bars within ITV X don't always seem to be correct either. i.e i've watched a show from ITV X by starting it from Sky's continue watching rail, completed it so it disappears from Sky's continue watching,but bizarely the ITV X app seems to think i haven't watched that epsiode.

I resort to try to not be watching too many shows at once - that way its a lot easier to remember which episode i'm on and also helps to get through my active shows a lot quicker 😀

Re: Blue Progress bar has disappeared

AndyP6 — Sun, 11 Feb 2024 17:37:40 GMT

@Fothergill1 This won't help with the Sky content but if the progress bars have dropped off playlist programmes which are viewed through Apps then going into the actual App will often show you the next episode to view. BBC iPlayer and Discovery + are good examples (the progress bars seem to remain indefinitely).

Thanks for the tip. Will look at doing that.

Re: Blue Progress bar has disappeared

ClarkH — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 10:32:20 GMT

Sky need to get this fixed. This is an unacceptable poor customer experience. I can go back years on Netflix and it still shows me the last episode I watched. It's not that hard! Especially if it's been outstanding since day 1.

Re: Blue Progress bar has disappeared

Fothergill1 — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 11:12:49 GMT

@ClarkH fully agree this is one of my major issues with the Sky streaming platform. I have 2 post above on the subject. The other issue being removing unwanted programmes from the Continue Watching rail. If they would just find a solution to these two problems I would be 99.9% happy with the Sky streaming experience.

Re: Blue Progress bar has disappeared

MarkGoldsmith — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 11:35:03 GMT

@Fothergill1 wrote:
@ClarkH fully agree this is one of my major issues with the Sky streaming platform. I have 2 post above on the subject. The other issue being removing unwanted programmes from the Continue Watching rail. If they would just find a solution to these two problems I would be 99.9% happy with the Sky streaming experience.

I recently did a bit of testing on this to see if it would eventually disappear from the contine watching rail and it does (not sure on the exact timeframe but it was about 28-30 days).

Although it would be nicer if you could just remove it, however if you just don't watch the show it will either fall off the continue watching rail once you have loads of shows on it, or eventually remove itself after around the month period. I don't find it that annoying as the shows that i stop watching will end up on the right side of the rail so i'd have to actively scroll right to see them

Re: Blue Progress bar has disappeared

Fothergill1 — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 13:52:34 GMT

@MarkGoldsmith You are correct that the unwanted programmes will ultimately end up at the right hand side of the rail and eventually drop off but from experience this can sometimes take many months. I had a programme "Colin from Accounts" stuck on my rail for about 5 months and then one day it simply disappeared (my guess at the time was the streaming rights had expired).

Also, the items will only drop off the end of the rail when you have more than 20 programmes listed but if this number drops below 20 they start reappearing.

Other platforms, for example Netflix and Apple TV, have a very simple way of removing items. This keeps the rail relevant and uncluttered with programmes you don't want.

This has annoyed me ever since I moved to glass/stream nearly 2 years ago but I don't lose any sleep over it. I appreciated that for most people it probably isn't an issue but it is certainly something that regularly crops up on the forum.

Re: Blue Progress bar has disappeared

MarkGoldsmith — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 18:36:43 GMT

@Fothergill1 wrote:
@MarkGoldsmith You are correct that the unwanted programmes will ultimately end up at the right hand side of the rail and eventually drop off but from experience this can sometimes take many months. I had a programme "Colin from Accounts" stuck on my rail for about 5 months and then one day it simply disappeared (my guess at the time was the streaming rights had expired).

Also, the items will only drop off the end of the rail when you have more than 20 programmes listed but if this number drops below 20 they start reappearing.

Other platforms, for example Netflix and Apple TV, have a very simple way of removing items. This keeps the rail relevant and uncluttered with programmes you don't want.

This has annoyed me ever since I moved to glass/stream nearly 2 years ago but I don't lose any sleep over it. I appreciated that for most people it probably isn't an issue but it is certainly something that regularly crops up on the forum.

Interesting you had shows on there for several months. Unless its a newish thing that came in one of the recent updates over the past 3 months, i've certainly not had any shows on the rail that i haven't watched for longer than 30 days, and i've always kept the CW rail under 12 items so i know its not falling off due to the number of shows on the rail.

I've noticed it happening for a few shows ( and its the license causing the shows to disappear as they are still available on Paramount + and Prime Video where i was watching them from) over the past 8 weeks.

Re: Blue Progress bar has disappeared

Fothergill1 — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 20:19:28 GMT

@MarkGoldsmith I can't remember how long ago "Colin from Accounts" was broadcast but would guess about a year ago. I recall I was not the only person who had a similar problem with this programme.

Re: Blue Progress bar has disappeared

MarkGoldsmith — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 10:30:32 GMT

@Fothergill1 wrote:
@MarkGoldsmith I can't remember how long ago "Colin from Accounts" was broadcast but would guess about a year ago. I recall I was not the only person who had a similar problem with this programme.

Thats just a permanent reminder for everyone to make sure they pay their accountants 😂

Re: Blue Progress bar has disappeared

Martin+Cassidy — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 17:29:40 GMT

Although slightly longer than 7-10 days, I've experienced this. The blue progress bar denoting viewed content dissappears for me after about a month.

I've actually been in touch with Sky support about this, and provided them with some lengthy notes on what I had watched, and at what point that bar vanished.

They have yet to even acknowledge the existence of this problem, let alone suggest any kind of solution.

Re: Blue Progress bar has disappeared

Fothergill1 — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 17:53:10 GMT

Hi @Martin+Cassidy Unlike other streaming services the Sky progress bars only remain in place for a few weeks. To say this is annoying and inconvenient is an understatement but I have not seen any sign that Sky will be reviewing the situation.