Paramount+ Not Working? 149 Reviews Show Why (2026)

On July 28, 2026 we pulled the 300 most recent Paramount+ reviews from the US Google Play store. 149 of them, or 50%, were 1-3 stars.

Two numbers in that data set matter more than the rest.

The first is concentration. Of those 149 negative reviews, 118 were filed against version 16.16.0, the build CBS Interactive shipped on July 21. That is 79% of a week's complaints sitting on a single release, which is the shape of a regression rather than a slow decline.

The second is the gap between stores. Paramount+ holds 4.14 from 503,651 Google Play ratings, with 76,427 one-star ratings inside that average. On the App Store it holds 4.63 from 898,139 ratings. Same service, same catalogue, same month, and a rating gap that wide is not an accident of who leaves reviews.

We then read the recent App Store reviews to check it. They complain too, but about different things: live streams buffering during UFC events, continue watching losing its place, ads on paid tiers. Almost none of them describe the app failing to open at all. On Google Play, that is one of the largest clusters.

That is the finding this article is built around, and it changes what advice is worth giving you.

Quick Answer: Is Paramount+ Down, or Is It Your Device?

Paramount+ is not down. In the reviews we read, the severe failures cluster on Android hardware: the app opens to a black screen, force closes when you press play, or returns "we are having some technical difficulties" and never recovers. Reinstalling does not fix it, and multiple reviewers report the same account working perfectly on an iPhone or Apple TV in the same house.

If that is your situation, the useful move is not more troubleshooting. It is switching route, and reviewers name three routes that work. Those are at the end.

The Failure Clusters, Ranked by Frequency

Percentages are shares of the 149 negative reviews we read, matched by keyword and then checked by hand. They overlap, because most of these reviews report more than one problem.

1. Crashes, Freezing, and Buffering (21%)

The largest cluster, and the one that spans every device type.

This app is the worst streaming app. It will never play anything, it just spins until the message pops up the app isn't responding and crashes. I've updated both the app and my phone, doesn't matter kind of Internet, cleared my cache, and uninstalled the app...nothing works.

In 2026 it makes no sense that this app continues to crash over and over and over and over on Android. I keep reading through the reviews and all I see is Paramount, CBS, whoever this company is just apologizing. just fix the application.

force closes when you start a video. both on mobile and google tv

the app is unstable. when I play it on my TV it causes tv to turn off due to it using too much memory data. its the only app that does this.

This app also freezes on my LG tv. I will be cancelling this service. If you purchase this as an add-on in Amazon prime video it works fine.

That last quote is doing more work than it looks. It is one of several reports where the same content plays fine through a different distributor, which is the strongest evidence in the whole set that the problem lives in Paramount's own client rather than in the stream.

2. Playback That Will Not Start At All (18%)

Distinct from crashing. The catalogue loads, the artwork loads, the play button does nothing.

i can see what shows are there. However, nothing will play in the app. I have made sure that everything is up to date deleted app and reinstalled, nothing changes.

videos won't play. stock pixel 9, none of them will load on the phone.

I've been almost 2 months and the app won't load. It just gives a technical difficulty error message. I've uninstalled it multiple times and did the 3 updates.

I'm unable to watch shows on this app (South Park and Tony & Ziva, for example). The screen goes black for a few seconds and then goes back to the previous screen. My phone keeps telling me the app keeps stopping.

every time I want to watch a show it takes about 5 or 6 times of it saying oops the internet's having issues until I get the show to actually run

I can watch every intro add but as soon as it starts to play my selection. I get an error screen.

Read that second-to-last one carefully, because it is the most diagnostic line in the set. Ads play. The show does not. Whatever is failing is not your connection, since the ad stream reached the device over the same connection seconds earlier.

3. Android Devices Specifically (14% name one)

21 of the 149 negative reviews name a specific Android device or platform. Four mention Apple hardware, and three of those mention it to say Apple works.

THIS APP IS TRASH! I CAN'T WATCH STRANGE NEW WORLDS ON ANY OF MY ANDROID DEVICES! MY APPLE DEVICES IT WORKS SUPERB! ANDROID DEVICES IT LOADS THEN STOP!

app straight up doesn't work on Android. don't bother downloading, it's been like this for months. last time it worked for me was April. doesn't matter how many times you reset or uninstall.

worst streaming service. won't play any shows on any device that runs any Google OS. Chromecast, Android phones, nothing works. just shows a black screen or crashes and is completely useless.

I'm on a Google Pixel 10 Pro XL. The app doesn't play any movies or TV shows, streaming or downloaded, and crashes my device... Edit: It's been a month.

also doesn't work on my pretty new, stock google tablet (in addition to the pixel phone 9)

though i love the app on the tv and on my iphone it doesnt work on my android. it works on websites when i search it up to.

The app won't even start. I have a slightly older device, an S20. It can still run all the other streaming apps, but paramount+ will not start or load on this.

App does not work on both my Samsung & Google phones.

The devices named are not old and they are not obscure. Pixel 9, Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL, current Samsung phones, stock Google tablets, Google TV, Android TV, Chromecast. The one older device in the list, a Galaxy S20, is reported as running every other streaming app fine.

This is why the store rating gap matters. A 4.63 on the App Store and a 4.14 on Google Play, on the same service in the same month, is consistent with what these reviewers are telling you directly.

4. Ads on Plans People Already Pay For (15%)

No troubleshooting step touches this one, and it is the second-largest cluster.

it's crazy that with a paid subscription you now have to watch more ads than the actual time in the show.. and that's with the paid subscription.

literally has a 1-2 minute ad come up like every 5 minutes, plus a new ad each time you pause.

I literally pay for Premium and why isn't it letting me skip the ads before the shows. wtf. shows the skip button but it doesn't work

They're jacking up the volume on the commercials to try and force you to go ad free. 6 minutes of ads for a show thats not even 20 minutes.

before every episode there is a paramount + ad. canceled my subscription.

This app sucks. everytime I press pause the Geico ad comes up and doesn't come off when I replay my video.

Two different complaints are stacked there and it is worth separating them before you upgrade a tier to solve it. The volume of advertiser breaks is a tier question. The promotional spots for Paramount's own originals, and the pre-roll that shows a skip button which does not respond, are reported on the paid tier as well.

One reviewer found a genuinely strange interaction worth flagging: "I can't use the app while my router's native ad blocker is on. I pay for an ad free experience, why are ad blockers a problem when you, presumably, aren't showing me ads?" If you run DNS-level ad blocking on your network, that is a real thing to test.

5. Cancelling and Billing (12%)

I have been trying to cancel service and am unable to do so.

the process to unsubscribe is atrocious. will never resubscribe just for how difficult the process was. I lost my device that subscribed so it was near impossible

They charged my card and I can't even log in. tried everything, even uninstall and reinstall. It says I have active subscription but won't let me past the sign up page.

I don't know why they took my payment twice this month

first its freezing all the time, which is annoying. but nit nearly as annoying as the 20 dollar a year increase all of a sudden.

The lost-device report points at the thing most people get wrong about this service, and we come back to it in the last step.

6. Downloads That Demand an Internet Connection (7%)

The app gave me an error message saying I can't play my downloaded movies without an internet connection. That makes sense...

What's the point of downloading if it's going to require an Internet connection?

I got an error saying I needed to be online to use the app, despite me trying to watch a downloaded episode

This one has a real explanation rather than a fix. Downloaded titles carry a licence that the app re-checks, so a download is playable offline for a window, not forever. What reviewers describe is the check firing when it should not, which is a bug, but the underlying behaviour is by design and no setting removes it.

7. Live Events, UFC, and Big Brother (6%)

Paramount+ now carries UFC, and the live path draws its own complaints.

how every single time a ufc fight is on the live stream buffers over and over to where we have to get off the app and back in. ESPN never had this issue.

error code 6015 when trying to watch ufc

I'll give stars back when UFC events are replayable in full. Half a year in, if I miss an event live, I get a 60 minute recap

live feeds on big brother won't play i have to continuously uninstall the app and install it back

fix your xbox app it lags 20 seconds behind phone app for live events

The full-replay complaint is not a bug and cannot be troubleshooted. Several reviewers expect a complete event replay and find a highlights package. Plan around that if live events are your reason for subscribing.

8. Continue Watching and Progress (3%)

Small by count, loud by tone, and one of the few clusters that shows up on both stores.

Never keeps our place in a show, or even a season, making us have to guess and check to get to where we were

it never remembers what episode im on

why are they hiding the 'continue watching' section??? It's actually kind of wild how many screens I have to click through to get to the thing I was most recently watching.

What Actually Helps

Ordered by how many of the reports above each step addresses.

Step 1: Clear Storage, Not Just Cache

On Android, go to Settings, Apps, Paramount+, Storage, and use Clear storage rather than Clear cache. This is the step that separates a corrupted local state from an actual client bug, and it is heavier than the reinstall most reviewers tried, because uninstalling does not always remove the app's data directory. You will need to sign in again afterward.

If the app still opens to a black screen after that, stop troubleshooting. Nothing in 149 reviews fixed it from inside the app, and the next steps are worth more of your time.

Step 2: Test Whether It Is the App or Your Account

Open paramountplus.com in a mobile browser and sign in. Several reviewers found the web player works on the exact device where the app fails: "it works on websites when i search it up to."

If the web player streams and the app does not, the fault is the Android client, your subscription is fine, and no amount of resetting the phone will change it.

Step 3: Change the Route, Not the Settings

This is where the review data is genuinely more useful than a support page. Reviewers who got Paramount+ working did it by changing how the stream reaches them:

• Through Amazon Prime Video as a channel add-on. Reported by more than one reviewer as working when the standalone app does not: *"If you purchase this as an add-on in Amazon prime video it works fine."*
• On Apple hardware. Multiple reviewers report the same account playing normally on an iPhone or Apple TV while failing on their Android phone or Google TV.
• In a browser. The web player is the fastest test and often the working fallback.

You do not need to like this advice for it to be the correct advice. If you subscribed to watch one show and the app will not open, the route matters more than the principle.

Step 4: Turn Off Network-Level Ad Blocking to Test

If your router or DNS provider blocks ads network-wide, disable it for one playback attempt. One reviewer traced their total failure to exactly this, and it is a five-minute test that either explains everything or rules itself out.

Step 5: If You Are Cancelling

This is where the billing structure matters. Paramount+ can be billed through Paramount directly, through the App Store, through Google Play, through Amazon, through Walmart+, or bundled by a cable provider. Deleting the app cancels nothing in any of those cases, and the reviewer who lost the device they subscribed on hit the hardest version of this: your subscription lives where you bought it, not where you watch it.

We wrote out the store-side steps, including how to check whether a subscription you believe you ended is still billing, in how to cancel Paramount+.

What This Is Not

Three things people blame that these reviews do not support.

It is not your internet. Reviewers repeatedly confirm every other streaming app works on the same connection, and the reports where the ad plays but the show does not rule the network out on their own.

It is not your device being too old. The devices named are current Pixels, current Samsungs and stock Google tablets. The single older phone in the set runs every other streaming service fine.

It is not a dead service. Paramount+ has 10M+ Google Play installs, a 4.63 App Store average, and hundreds of thousands of satisfied ratings. What the recent reviews describe is a client quality problem on one platform, not a company that stopped working.

The Verdict

Paramount+ is not down, and for a large share of these reviewers it is not fixable from their end either. The evidence points at an Android client that fails in ways the Apple client does not, concentrated in the build shipped on July 21, and the honest advice is to test the web player first and switch route second rather than reinstall a fourth time.

If ads on a paid tier are your actual complaint, no step above changes anything, and the only real lever is which tier you are on and whether the content is worth it at that price.

For current sentiment rather than our snapshot, read the newest 1-star reviews on the Paramount+ review page, check the code-computed trust summary at is Paramount+ legit, and compare the iOS complaints, where the total-failure reports thin out and the ad and live-stream clusters remain.

Related reading: Hulu Not Working? documents a lockout in the closest competitor, What Peacock Premium Really Costs breaks down the ad-tier arithmetic, and ESPN vs NFL vs NBA vs Peacock vs Paramount+ ranks the sports streaming category by complaint volume.