The fix sequence, in order
First decide which kind of broken you have: one app misbehaving while others work, or every app failing together. One app = fix the app (steps 3–4). All apps = fix the TV (steps 1–2 and 5).
Restart the TV properly
Pressing the remote’s power button only puts a smart TV to sleep — the apps stay frozen exactly as they were. Unplug the TV from the wall for a full 60 seconds, then plug back in. This is a real reboot, and it alone fixes an enormous share of app problems.
Confirm the internet is actually there
Open a website on your phone on Wi-Fi (not cell data). If the whole house is down, the TV is innocent — go to our router restart guide. If the house is fine but the TV says no connection, see TV won’t connect to Wi-Fi.
Update the app and the TV
Old app + new TV firmware (or the reverse) is the classic crash recipe. Update the broken app in the TV’s app store, then update the TV itself: Settings → Support/About → Software Update. Smart TVs that never get updated accumulate exactly these problems.
Clear the app’s cache — or reinstall it
Samsung: Settings → Support → Device Care → Manage Storage → select the app → View Details → Clear Cache. Fire TV: Settings → Applications → Manage Installed Applications → the app → Clear Cache. Roku and LG: no cache button — delete the app, restart the TV, reinstall it. Deleting and reinstalling works on every brand when in doubt.
Check the clock, then the nuclear option
A TV with the wrong date quietly fails every secure connection — apps load to black screens or endless spinners. Make sure the TV’s date/time is set to automatic. If literally nothing else has worked, a factory reset rebuilds the software from scratch — it wipes your logins, so it goes last.
Sometimes the TV is just too old
Streaming services quietly drop support for older smart TVs every year — one day the app updates and your model is no longer on the list, or it vanishes from the store entirely. No setting fixes that. The escape hatch is cheap: a current streaming stick or box in an HDMI port replaces the TV’s entire app platform with one that still gets updates. The picture quality is the panel’s job, not the apps’ — a 10-year-old TV with a new stick streams as reliably as a new TV.
Which stick? We keep an honest comparison in our best streaming device guide — and if the TV is wall-mounted, the stick and its power cable can disappear behind the panel completely.
Loading fine but buffering? Different disease
Apps that open and play but keep pausing to spin are not broken apps — that is a bandwidth problem between your router and the TV. It has its own guide: fix streaming buffering, including the one cheap cable that cures it permanently for wall-mounted TVs. And if the TV drops off Wi-Fi entirely in the evenings, you may be in a classic Bakersfield stucco dead zone — that guide is here.
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More guides: Streaming keeps buffering · TV won’t connect to Wi-Fi · Best streaming device
Quick answers
Netflix works but YouTube doesn't (or the other way around).
One broken app among many working ones is an app problem, not a TV or internet problem. Update it, clear its cache, or delete and reinstall it. If it is still broken, the app's servers may be having a bad day — check on your phone before blaming the TV.
Every app is broken at once.
All apps failing together means the TV's connection or system is the problem: restart the TV properly, confirm the internet works on another device, check the TV's clock, and update the TV firmware. The apps themselves are rarely all guilty at once.
An app disappeared from my TV's app store.
Streaming services drop support for older TV models every year — when an app vanishes from your model's store, it usually is not coming back. A $30–$50 streaming stick in an HDMI port brings every current app to that same screen, and gets updates for years.
Will a factory reset log me out of everything?
Yes — a factory reset wipes every sign-in, Wi-Fi password and picture setting. It is the last resort for a reason. Have your streaming passwords ready before you do it, and note your picture settings if you have tuned them.
Apps load but video keeps pausing to buffer.
That is a speed problem, not an app problem — a different fix entirely. See our streaming buffering guide: it covers the Wi-Fi, the router and the one cable that often solves it for good.