topic Re: Viewing card no longer active in Sky Q

Viewing card no longer active

Aegris — Sun, 18 May 2025 15:03:03 GMT

I've had Sky Q since January with no real issues so far, but I'm after turning the TV on today and was met with the message "Your viewing card is no longer active" and can't watch anything either live or recorded.

I was watching TV just fine last night and turned the box off as normal. Weirdly I got a text this morning around 10am from Sky with the following message:

"We're extremely sorry if you experienced issues with your Sky Q services recently. These issues have been fixed. If you're still having trouble, please switch off your box at the mains for 30 seconds, then back on. For mini box issues, also reboot the main box."

Wasn't sure what that was about because I hadn't been experiencing issues and assumed it was a mass message about something else, but could it be related to this?

I've taken the card out and reinserted it, paired the card via the system info/setup menu and restarted the box by disconnecting it from the mains but still getting the same error message.

Re: Viewing card no longer active

TonyG5 — Sun, 18 May 2025 17:03:01 GMT

The official Sky message you received is relevant. Let’s dive in on some potential solutions:

Complete advice from Sky as per official message. (I appreciate you have done this). Remember to wait at least 5 minutes for services to return.
Log into your Sky account online and check your billing and subscription status.
Check the status of the Sky Q box in the menu system. It’s under settings. You should confirm you have a tick against satellite signal and network connection.
Check service status for Sky on your area. Here is the link:
Check your services | Service Status | Sky.com

Re: Viewing card no longer active

Laing1 — Sun, 18 May 2025 19:08:31 GMT

@Aegris wrote:

I've had Sky Q since January with no real issues so far, but I'm after turning the TV on today and was met with the message "Your viewing card is no longer active" and can't watch anything either live or recorded.

I was watching TV just fine last night and turned the box off as normal. Weirdly I got a text this morning around 10am from Sky with the following message:

"We're extremely sorry if you experienced issues with your Sky Q services recently. These issues have been fixed. If you're still having trouble, please switch off your box at the mains for 30 seconds, then back on. For mini box issues, also reboot the main box."

Wasn't sure what that was about because I hadn't been experiencing issues and assumed it was a mass message about something else, but could it be related to this?

I've taken the card out and reinserted it, paired the card via the system info/setup menu and restarted the box by disconnecting it from the mains but still getting the same error message.

@Aegris I have escalated this to sky

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The link below explains how the escalation process works

https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Did-you-know/Escalating-a-post-to-a-Sky-expert/ba-p/3711147#M1014

Re: Viewing card no longer active

Addie15 — Mon, 19 May 2025 07:31:07 GMT

Hi there! Thank you for escalating this. We have sent an invite to @Aegris.

Re: Viewing card no longer active

lsteph0 — Mon, 19 May 2025 10:41:31 GMT

Hi, we're still having the problem this morning, the main box says "please insert the viewing card face up".

We have reset the box as per on line advice but no change and followed all other instruction but with no luck.

The problem started Sunday afternoon and we called and got help to resolve it though the issue started again late evening.

Is there anything we can do to rectify this via on-line?

Thanks

Re: Viewing card no longer active

Aegris — Mon, 19 May 2025 16:06:39 GMT

Thanks @TonyG5 @Laing1 @Addie15 for the replies - I've rectified the issue in a roundabout way:

When the Sky Q box was being installed, the engineer asked if I'd been sent a new viewing card which I hadn't at that point, but he said it would work fine with the existing card from the Sky+HD box being replaced.

About a week after the box was installed I received a new viewing card in the post - the wording on it made it sound like it should've arrived before the engineer, so I contacted Sky and they said I can just continue to use the old viewing card as the new one wouldn't be enabled and there was probably no need to hang onto it.

Luckily I'm a hoarder and kept it anyway! I figured it was worth a try to swap in the new card, went through the pairing procedure and it started working straight away. Tried it yesterday and it's still working today so fingers crossed it stays that way. Still baffled as to how/why the other one would just stop working out of the blue 4 months later though.