Okay, so the other day I wanted to binge-watch “House of the Dragon” on HBO Max before the new season came out. I figured I’d download a few episodes to my iPad for a long flight I had coming up. Easy peasy, right? Wrong.
The Struggle Begins
I opened the HBO Max app, found the show, and… no download button. I was like, “Huh? That’s weird.” I’ve downloaded stuff on Netflix and Disney+ a million times, so I know how this usually works. I tapped around, thinking maybe I was just missing it, but nope. Nothing.
So, first, I made sure my app was up-to-date. I went to the App Store, checked for updates, and… it was the latest version. Okay, scratch that.
Troubleshooting Time
Next, I thought, maybe it’s my iPad. Maybe I needed to restart it. You know, the classic turn-it-off-and-on-again trick. So I did that. Powered it down, waited a few minutes, powered it back on. Opened HBO Max… still no download button. Feeling a bit frustrated at that point.
I figured maybe the problem is on my subscription, and I checked my subscription plan. Turns out I was on the basic, ad-supported plan. I remembered reading somewhere that you might need the ad-free plan to download. it is a bummer, but downloads are only available on the ad-free plan.
The Solution
I hopped onto the HBO Max website, went to my account settings, and upgraded to the ad-free plan. It was a few bucks more a month, but hey, gotta have my dragons on the go, right?
After I upgraded, I went back to the app on my iPad, and bam! There it was, the glorious download button. I tapped it, and the episode started downloading. Success!
So, the moral of the story is, if you can’t download on HBO Max, double-check a few things:
- Make sure your app is updated.
- Restart your device.
- Check your internet connection.
- Most importantly, make sure you have the ad-free plan! That was the key for me.
It was a bit of a hassle, but now I can happily watch my shows offline. Hopefully, this helps someone else avoid the same frustration I went through!