Funimation app completely broken, Cells at Work Code Black problem

Doctorkev

School Idol
I hate Funimation.

Their app completely fails to function for me on the PS4. Up until recently their Apple TV app functioned acceptably. Now it fails to stream anything. All I get is an empty black screen after selecting a show. I have no problems with any other services. Tried signing out, uninstalling, reinstalling, signing back in. OS is up to date.

I can still stream their shows on web browser but that isn’t much use to me if I want to watch on my TV, which I do.

Also, despite being listed as available here in the UK, attempting to play Cells at Work: Code Black via web browser or iPhone app triggers an error message - “sorry this video is not available in your country”. Why even list it then? Why is it unavailable when the standard Cells at Work show is available?

Why is this service I pay for so aggressively ****?

Anyone else have these issues?
 
I've never had an problems with the Funimation app on my PS4. Everything I've ever wanted to watch on it has played fine with no problems.
Wow, you’re really lucky. It has never worked consistently for me, despite uninstalling, reinstalling etc. Funimation’s Reddit is full of people all over the world with PS4 app problems. It‘s so weird how it seems to be such a random issue. I just don’t bother with it any more - it wasted so much of my time when I tried various solutions to fix it, and their customer service is worse than useless.
 
The app on the PS4 has been hit and miss since I first started using it. Sometimes it's fine, other times it just doesn't want to work. The FireStick one has largely been fine.
I can still stream their shows on web browser but that isn’t much use to me if I want to watch on my TV, which I do.
Try the PS4 browser! The Crunchyroll site works as I had to use it for something the other day, so I'm sure the Funimation one will.
 
I was able to watch Cells at Work Code Black fine on my PS5, which seems to be the same basic app at the moment. I hated it so won't be continuing but it shouldn't be a region thing unless it's somehow detecting your region wrong. As useless as their support team is, it might be worth checking as I had a region issue on my account at one point which was preventing me from making payments. Only their staff could see and fix it.

There are definitely other technical issues though, like videos randomly failing to load with a black screen (usually fixable by skipping to the next/previous episode), being unable to return to half-finished episodes without getting a black screen, videos not registering as completed so the 'watch next episode' shortcuts doesn't work, series being invisible to my watchlist (Heaven Official's Blessing doesn't show up in searches or the list!), series with the wrong subtitles loaded (one day we might be able to finish Kakushigoto...) and so on.

R
 
I was able to watch Cells at Work Code Black fine on my PS5, which seems to be the same basic app at the moment. I hated it so won't be continuing but it shouldn't be a region thing unless it's somehow detecting your region wrong. As useless as their support team is, it might be worth checking as I had a region issue on my account at one point which was preventing me from making payments. Only their staff could see and fix it.

There are definitely other technical issues though, like videos randomly failing to load with a black screen (usually fixable by skipping to the next/previous episode), being unable to return to half-finished episodes without getting a black screen, videos not registering as completed so the 'watch next episode' shortcuts doesn't work, series being invisible to my watchlist (Heaven Official's Blessing doesn't show up in searches or the list!), series with the wrong subtitles loaded (one day we might be able to finish Kakushigoto...) and so on.

R
I fiddled around with my phone and setting it to use my mobile connection rather than my home WiFi allowed me to access the show. Still hardly ideal though.

I get lots of those other problems you mentioned too. It really is the worst streaming service in terms of basic tech failings that I have ever used.

Also who did you murder to get your hands on a PS5? I’ve resigned myself to not even bothering to try to get one. Maybe I’ll wait until there’s a PS5 Pro...
 
It's a common issue with apps in general, as new hardware revisions come out older versions tend to fall behind and eventually abandoned. There's 3 versions of the PS4 system alone and now two versions of the PS5, never mind regional differences with the systems. Like take an original release Amazon Firestick now and try to use it, it's awfully slow on the current UI and many apps crash in it.

This is why my preferred method for watching streaming is a laptop connected via HDMI to a big screen, never have those app issues again. Although nothing really beats a physical blu-ray player for watching content.
 
Regarding the PS4 app, it's been a mess for a long while. Some of us were able to watch something out of it by changing the DNS settings on the console to 8.8.8.4 which somehow worked.

Funimation have revamped the app on Nintendo Switch which is reportedly much better overall, though it's currently geolocked and isn't available for the UK just yet. Saying that, they are apparently going to bring that new version of the app to PS4, PS5 etc in the future but there's no current timeframe.
 
In the end I got Code Black to work only by switching my phone to mobile data, starting the episode that way, then turning wifi back on and air playing to the apple TV instead... There must have been something about my home WiFi that Funimation didn’t like?

I could connect a laptop via HDMI, but if I wanted to do that, I wouldn’t have a PS4 or Apple TV with streamlined streaming apps that are supposed to make this easier... Also I agree that blu rays are ideal, but not if I want to watch a currently streaming show!
 
It's a common issue with apps in general, as new hardware revisions come out older versions tend to fall behind and eventually abandoned. There's 3 versions of the PS4 system alone and now two versions of the PS5, never mind regional differences with the systems. Like take an original release Amazon Firestick now and try to use it, it's awfully slow on the current UI and many apps crash in it.

This is why my preferred method for watching streaming is a laptop connected via HDMI to a big screen, never have those app issues again. Although nothing really beats a physical blu-ray player for watching content.
I have more problems with Funimation's website than I do with their Android app. It seems to be the backend of their whole platform that's the problem rather than anything device-specific.
 
The main issue I'm having atm is the queue. On Android it is out of date, on Xbox it is only showing the first 10 items.

The only thing I can do with it is rearrange the order through the website so that the stuff I want to watch is at the top of my list (not by drag/drop as that doesn't actually work, but by removing and re-adding shows until they're ordered correctly). Then that order eventually passes across to the apps. The iOS app seems to work the best out of all of the platforms available to me.

Also who did you murder to get your hands on a PS5? I’ve resigned myself to not even bothering to try to get one. Maybe I’ll wait until there’s a PS5 Pro...

I just bought one from Game's website on release day after two separate preorders fell through. It was surprisingly straightforward in spite of the chronic problems all of the shops have been having so I guess I got lucky! There aren't any games that I want for it yet so it was a bit of a pointless purchase but I wanted to treat myself and the media apps at least display by 'most recently opened' in the list now, rather than in the order of 'who paid Sony the most for premium placement in the list'. It's a shame that Funimation are dragging their heels so much on improving their platform. Crunchyroll did a flashy new app for the PS5 but that has a bunch of its own annoyances not present in the old version :S

R
 
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