Has your Paramount Plus been freezing a lot recently? You try to watch the new Top Gun movie or catch up on the latest episode of Yellowstone, but the video keeps freezing every few minutes.
It’s frustrating not being able to stream properly, especially if you’re paying for a premium subscription. But thankfully, there are solutions for fixing a freezing Paramount Plus by adjusting your device, connection, and app settings.
Common Causes of Paramount Plus Freezing
Before jumping into fixes, it helps to understand what usually causes Paramount Plus to freeze in the first place. The most common culprits include:
Low-Powered Devices – Streaming high definition video requires a fair amount of processing power. If your device is older or budget-oriented, it may struggle with smooth playback. This leads to frequent buffering and freezing especially on LG and Samsung smart TVs.
Overheating – Today’s set-top boxes and game consoles generate a lot of heat. If your Fire Stick, DIRECTV, Spectrum or Dish Network equipment overheats from being in a tight space, performance suffers. Ventilation is key.
Slow Internet Connections – You ideally need at least 25 Mbps download speeds for 4K streaming. But even at lower resolutions, consistent buffering indicates your bandwidth is being maxed out.
Buggy App Issues – Like any piece of software, streaming apps can suffer glitches. An update may have introduced a freezing bug that needs patching.
Server Outages – While rare, it’s possible for Paramount Plus servers to go down entirely, preventing all users from streaming during the outage window.
Now let’s explore tips to address each of these common sources of Paramount Plus buffering problems.
1. Check Requirements for Your Device
The newer your phone, tablet, computer or television, the more likely it can smoothly handle Paramount Plus. But there are minimum device specifications you’ll want to meet:
Mobile:
- iPhone, iPad – iOS 12 or later
- Android Phones – Version 5 or later
Computer:
- Windows 10+
- MacOS 10.13+
- Chrome OS 78+
Television:
- Roku – Most models after 2015
- Fire TV – 2nd Gen Fire Stick or later
- Apple TV – 4th Gen or later
- Gaming Consoles – Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch
So first, check what device you’re trying to stream on. If it’s more than 5 years old or a more basic model, an upgrade could be worthwhile.
Clearing app data/cache can help slightly older devices cope better:
But upgrading to a newer device is the best long-term solution.
2. Check Device Temperature
Today’s streaming boxes and game consoles use a fair amount of energy to process 1080p and 4K video streams. All that number crunching generates excess heat that needs ventilating.
If your Fire Stick, Roku, or PlayStation overheats, the processor starts throttling itself to avoid damage. But this throttling also hurts video playback performance.
To avoid overheating problems, make sure your streaming device has open access to cool airflow.
Don’t:
- Place inside sealed cabinets
- Stack other electronics on top
- Block ventilation ports
Do:
- Give 1-2 inches clearance on all sides
- Use vertical stand to elevate
- Point a small fan to increase airflow
Also consider upgrading to a newer, more efficient model. The latest Roku Ultra and Fire Stick 4K Max use less energy and run cooler than earlier generations.
If you notice your device feels hot after streaming for a while, it likely needs better ventilation or an upgrade.
3. Check Internet Connection Bandwidth
No matter how new your Roku or Fire TV hardware, an overloaded internet connection can ruin streaming reliability.
Paramount Plus recommends a minimum of 5 Mbps bandwidth for smooth SD streaming and 25 Mbps for 4K HDR. But remember your actual speeds depend on how many devices are sharing your home network connection simultaneously.
It’s common for older Wi-Fi routers to bottleneck when multiple phones, tablets, computers, and TVs are connected. High bandwidth applications like video streaming suffer most from congestion.
To measure your true connection speeds:
- Run a broadband speed test on a wired computer
- Test with Speedtest.net or Fast.com
If speeds fall below 25 Mbps consistently, upgrading your internet plan or router may be worthwhile. Also consider connecting streaming devices directly to your router via ethernet for more consistent bandwidth allocation.
In the meantime, you can try temporarily pausing any other video streaming or large downloads before watching Paramount Plus. This frees up bandwidth in the short term.
4. Update the Paramount Plus App
Like any software application, streaming video apps need periodic bug fixes and performance improvements. New features can also introduce glitches accidentally.
When apps aren’t regularly updated, stream freezing and crashes become increasingly common over time.
Thankfully, updating a streaming app is fast and easy:
On Mobile:
- Open the App Store / Google Play Store app
- Pull down to refresh your installed app list
- Tap Update next to the Paramount Plus app
On TVs:
- Navigate to the Settings menu
- Locate System or Applications section
- Select “Check for updates“
Ideally, you’ll want automatic app updates enabled on your streaming device. But it’s still smart to manually check for updates after experiencing multiple stream failures.
5. Restart Your Device
Before digging deeper into troubleshooting, try the classic step of restarting your device.
A reboot clears any accumulated glitches and gives a fresh start. Like blowing dust out of a cartridge, it can get things functioning smoothly again.
To restart streaming devices:
- Roku – Go to Settings > System > Power > System Restart
- Fire TV – Go to Settings > My Fire TV > Restart
- Apple TV – Hold Menu and Home button until light blinks
- PlayStation – Press the power button for at least 7 seconds
- Xbox – Go to Profile & System > Settings > General > Shut down console
Also delete and reinstall the Paramount Plus app after rebooting to clear any cached data. Then launch the app and try streaming content again.
6. Check Paramount Plus Server Status
While rare, streaming providers do experience occasional server outages. Heavy traffic loads, data center issues, or website software bugs can all cause downtime.
When servers go down, absolutely no troubleshooting steps will get videos to stream properly. Instead, the app either fails to load content or displays error messages about the platform being unavailable.
Thankfully, you can check the current Paramount Plus server status easily:
- Navigate to Downdetector.com
- Search for “Paramount Plus”
- Check the chart for user reports
Major outages resulting in widespread buffering and errors will show large spikes in reports. You may also see users mentioning the problems on Twitter.
Unfortunately during confirmed downtime windows, all you can do is wait for Paramount’s engineers to restore proper operations. Sever outages don’t typically last longer than a few hours.
7. Contact Support If Issues Persist
Even after trying all troubleshooting tips, some setups experience persistent playback problems. If your video keeps buffering every few minutes, the root cause might be harder to pinpoint.
In these tricky cases, you’ll want to contact Paramount Plus support directly:
- Open parmountplus.com and login
- Scroll down and select Get Help
- Choose Contact Support and describe your streaming issue
The team can better diagnose any account, payment, or device-specific issues. Support agents also have visibility into any active platform problems.
If contacting support, be ready to provide:
- Device make/model
- Paramount Plus app version
- Link speed test results
- Frequency and length of buffer events
- Error messages if applicable
With more context, support can determine if the problems lie with your specific account configuration, internet connection, or if there’s a wider service issue needing attention from engineers.
Why Does My Paramount Plus Keep Freezing? Key Takeaways
To quickly recap, the most common reasons Paramount Plus keeps glitching and freezing include:
- Using an older, underpowered streaming device
- Hardware overheating from poor ventilation
- Internet connection too slow and overloaded
- Outdated Paramount Plus app with bugs
- Server outages and platform issues
Thankfully, troubleshooting steps like updating apps, restarting devices, checking server status, and contacting support can get your video streaming reliably again. The problem typically lies with device limitations, network congestion, software bugs, or backend outages.
Hopefully by methodically working through fixes, you can determine the core issue and resume binge watching Yellowstone, Star Trek Discovery, or whichever Paramount shows you love the most!
