SkyQ Download Failed Item Unavailable

[JTeague]

I went into network settings and gave my Sky Q box a static IP then set the DNS to the primary Vodafone DNS server listed in my router settings.

I tried dowloading a bunch of sky box sets and instead of Download Failed Remote Network Problem I had a few that just said Download Failed.  It was a lot less failures than before and downloads seemed to be a bit faster.  

Lets see how it goes.

[Jimbo1Cam]

I've not been able to download anything at all for the last 48 hours, whereas before it occasionally worked.

I wish Sky would officially confirm post 964 as a workaround. I'm reluctant to try it until they do.

[Bazzybear]

I recently had a similar issue (my internet is BT) where I was getting failed downloads or the "item unavailable" message and they told me to change the DNS server to 8.8.8.8 on  my Q box. It did seem to partly fix the issue although they did tell me to do this on all boxes (I've got a Sky + box in the other room) to fully fix the issue. As the menu paths and options are different, though, I cant work out what exactly I need to change on the Sky+ box. When I contacted them to ask them, they said they were no longer offering advice on this issue until they had investigated the issue. In the meantime playback and recording now no longer work on the Sky plus box. Can anyone help? Sky say they dont have a timeframe for this to be fixed and to contact them in a few days. I'd say their advice has made the situation worse for me, and now they cant fix it.  Could I try changing the "IP Address of this sky box" on the Sky plus box? Is this the same thing as the DNS server? Or will that just make things worse?Thanks. Richard.

[grog+arson]

@Jimbo1Cam Sky will never admit there is a problem or endorse anything we do here, as we could then hold them liable, as its stands and as far as they are concerned, this is just advice from other customers. ☹️

[grog+arson]

@Bazzybear Hi, I would suggest changing the DNS on your Sky Q box to one appropriate for your broadband provider as highlighted in post 964, as the generic 8.8.8.8 and 1.1.1.1 addresses seem to only work for a small period.

It's been a little while since ive had a Sky+ box, but if you google 'changing dns on a sky+ box', there are a number of hits, help.stream via.com seems to give instructions on how to get to the DNS setting. Interestingly, they also say that changing the DNS improves the download speed. 😊

[Carousel2]

This is obviously a huge issue with Sky and its customers,  We have been trying to download Lost Girl series 2 and 3 with patchy success.  Sometimes it works, more often not!  We get as far as 12% download, then it fails.  Spent an hour on the phone with a Sky advisor (working from home in Bulgaria!) and we still have the same problem as everyone else.  Come on Sky....please try and sort this in time for Christmas .  Can’t bear the thought of access to terrestrial channels only - ugh!

[grog+arson]

@Bazzybear I would suggest that you follow the instructions ion post 964, and set your DNS to something more appropriate for your broadband provider as the 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1 addresses seem to stop working after a short period of time. I'm with BT and have picked an address from the list and its been working for around a week now.

It's been a long time since ive had a Sky+ box, so i cant remember exactly where the DNS settings are, but if you google 'changing dns on a sky+ box' there are instructions, help.streamvia.com seems to go through the steps required, but there are others. One thing to note that is interesting, they are pretty much all saying that when the DNS is changed, download speeds increase significantly.

Hope this helps.

[DavidMunro]

How do you search for post 964? They aren't numbered from what I can tell (viewing on a mobile). Can someone repost the content from post 964?

[TazG666]

I had a download get to 99% last night and then say the usual message. Changing the DNS works off and on, and will work for one episode then fail again. I've been trying to download dexter, which is being removed from sky on 31.12.21.

I had a message from a sky employee asking me a mass of questions, so they are watching this thread. So I'm saying this in hopes they read it, sort it or you'll be losing a 20 + year customer. Sky is useless to me without the demand service. It is not free like people claim, most of the content is from our paid subscription. 

Its been about 3 weeks now and nothing has changed, customers haven't been updated or offered any glimpse of a resolution. I don't know about anyone else, but this is starting to really make me angry and question what I'm paying for?

Sorry, rant over!

[Skull+Treaty]

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@SecretBob wrote:

@Twigman @Bantges71 

It's easy to be confused about this, in simple terms

IP Address = the unique address your computer has on the network/ internet

DNS = Domain Name System which is basically a big directory listing that tells computers what IP address domain servers have.

For example, a DNS look up for sky.com = 90.216.128.5. That is the IP address that your browser will then try to connect to when you type www.sky.com or https://sky,com in the browser. You may be redirected to other IP addresses / servers by the sky server, but the initial query will point you there.

Your SKYQ system has a DNS setting, this is the DNS server that it uses to do a DNS lookup everytime your sky system wants to download something. It appears that some of the BT DNS servers do not know where to get the information, or have been pointed to old servers that no longer host the data.

To resolve this, you can change the DNS setting in your SKYQ system.

1. press the home button

2. in the left hand menu, scroll down and click settings 

3. click Network Connection

4. click Network Setup

5. click on edit

It will give you a list that contains

ip address

subnet mask

router

DNS server

scroll down to DNS server

Make a note of the current setting e.g. 192.168.1.254 (which is the hub address not a DNS server)

change the setting to 1.1.1.1

click confirm

power the box off at the wall

after 30 seconds, power the box back up again

Your downloads should start working from then. If you still have issues, it could be that you didn't change/ save the DNS settings correctly. You should follow the same instructions above to check and see that it has retained the new setting you made. Alternatively, you can try using a different DNS server instead of 1.1.1.1, you can use any one of these servers, I've tested this working with Google, Cloudflare and two random BT addresses.

Provider/ISP DNS servers

Google (Public DNS)

8.8.4.4

8.8.8.8

Cloudflare DNS (Public DNS)

1.1.1.1

1.0.0.1

OpenDNS (Public DNS)

208.67.222.222

208.67.220.220

BT Broadband DNS

62.6.40.178

62.6.40.162

194.72.9.38

194.72.9.34

194.72.0.98

194.72.0.114

194.72.65.68

194.74.65.69

I hope that explains it a bit more simply, and resolves the issue for you.

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@DavidMunro - post 964

[Nickilicious]

Thank you for the advice re 1111 DNS change. Working now 

[grog+arson]

@TazG666 Try another DNS IP address for your broadband provider if there is one as i found issues with the first BT address that i picked, but the one im using now is fine.

[LGUser]

I suggest you go find post #964 and go back 3 pages and read forward from there. Read all messages. There's some good help in there.

[grog+arson]

I believe its on page 64

[Skull+Treaty]

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@grog+arson wrote:

I believe its on page 64

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Page 64