How to log in with Xtream Codes on iPhone
Xtream Codes is not a service you sign up for. It is an API that many providers run, and it is usually the better way to connect: instead of downloading one enormous playlist file, the app asks the server only for what you are looking at. Categories load first, channels load when you open a category, and the programme guide comes down the same connection.
Find your three details
You need a server address, a username and a password. Providers usually send all three together, sometimes labelled "Xtream API", "portal" or "player API". The server looks like http://example.com:8080 — a host and a port, with no path after it.
Strip the address back to the host
This is where most logins fail. If you were given a long URL containing get.php, username= and password=, that is a playlist link, not a server address. Delete everything from /get.php onward and keep only the http://host:port part. The username and password from that same link are the ones to type in the fields.
Enter it and connect
Open Tivsy, tap Add Source, choose Xtream Codes, and fill in the three fields. Leave out any trailing slash. The app calls the server once to confirm the account is active and reports back what it found — live channels, films, series, or only some of them.
Browse rather than wait
Because nothing is downloaded up front, the library appears immediately. Opening a category fetches that category. Opening a series fetches its episodes at that moment, which is why a show's episode list can take a second to appear the first time.
How many devices your account allows
Almost every Xtream package sells a fixed number of simultaneous connections, and most sell exactly one. Tivsy asks the panel for that number as it connects and shows it to you — when you add the account, and afterwards in Settings, next to the expiry date. It matters more than it sounds. On a one-connection plan a second device still sitting on a channel is holding the only slot, and the first device gets "user or password incorrect", or a stream that stops after a few seconds. Nothing is wrong with the login.
Why the app pauses before trying another feed
When a channel fails and there is another address behind it, most players jump straight to the next one. On a single-connection account that is the wrong move: the old connection has not been released yet, so the panel refuses the new one and the channel looks dead when it was not. Tivsy reads your connection limit and paces the retry against it — a longer pause when you have one slot, a shorter one when you have room to spare. You notice it only as channels that recover instead of failing.
The first import takes longer than every one after it
Connecting asks the panel for everything: categories, live channels, films, and the whole season and episode tree for series. On a large subscription that is tens of thousands of entries and it can take a minute. It happens once. After that the catalogue lives on the device, browsing and searching never touch the network at all, and a refresh asks only for what changed. If that first connection looks like it has hung, it is almost certainly still counting.
Common questions
What does "user or password incorrect" mean if I am sure they are right?
Most often the server address still has a path on the end. The API expects http://host:port and nothing more. It can also mean the subscription lapsed, or that the provider limits you to one connection and another device is holding it.
Is Xtream Codes a provider I can subscribe to?
No. It is server software, so "Xtream Codes" describes how you connect, not who you connect to. Any provider running that software gives you the same three details.
Xtream or M3U — which should I use?
Xtream, when the provider offers it. It loads faster, updates itself when the provider changes the line-up, and carries the programme guide and series structure that a flat playlist flattens away.
Are my credentials stored safely?
They are kept in the iOS Keychain on your device and are sent only to the server you entered. Tivsy has no account system and no server of its own, so there is nowhere else for them to go.
It says my subscription expires on a date I did not expect.
That date comes from the panel, not from us — it is what your provider has recorded against your account. If it is wrong, the provider is the only one who can change it. If it has already passed, streams stop even though the login itself still works, which is the usual explanation for "everything worked yesterday".
Can I use the same account on my iPhone and Apple TV at the same time?
Only if your package allows more than one connection. Tivsy shows the number, so you do not have to guess: if it says one, the two devices take turns rather than sharing, and whichever started second is the one that fails. Providers usually sell extra connections cheaply, and it is the right thing to buy if the household watches in two rooms.
Connected but the guide is empty? Providers vary in how they expose programme data, and some need a separate XMLTV link. That is covered in the programme guide walkthrough.