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Sky has sent a text message to subscribers with its award-winning Sky Q with essential advice following the devastating outage last week that saw at least 30,000 viewers unable to watch live television.
Newer Sky Glass and Sky Stream boxes were unaffected by the downtime, since the issue appears to be directly related to the power-saving Standby Mode built into Sky Q, which left thousands staring at a blank screen when trying to watch live television and on-demand.
Sky Q boxes have two standby modes, either Active or Eco. The latter consumes the smallest amount of energy and is designed to kick in between 2.30am and 5:45am.
It takes a few minutes to wake-up the Sky Q box from this state, while Active is designed to be a faster boot-up and allows recordings to continue to take place in the background.
On the status dashboard for its services, Sky has acknowledged that some Sky Q viewers will continue to experience issues without taking the steps outlined below. In its latest bid to reach as many people as possible, the UK broadcaster has sent out a text message to Sky Q viewers
SKY TV PRESS OFFICE | GBN
Within a few hours, Sky engineers resolved the glitch that caused thousands of set-top boxes to switch themselves off, leaving subscribers staring at blank screens. However, some Sky Q continues not to work as expected. Sky quickly issued advice to all impacted Sky Q owners to reboot their hardware.
And now, the satellite company has sent those same instructions directly to Sky Q owners in a text message. The SMS, first spotted by the team at the Daily Express, reads: "We're extremely sorry if you experienced issues with your Sky Q services recently. These issues have been fixed. If you're still having trouble, please switch off your box at the mains for 30 seconds, then back on. For mini box issues, also reboot the main box."
If your Sky Q is still not behaving after the outage on May 15, it's worth following the steps outlined by the engineers at Sky. If that doesn't work, it's worth calling the customer support team.
Sky Q viewers were sent instructions to reboot their set-top box via a text message
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While the advice might seem overly simple — “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” is almost a cliché at this point — this act can often be more effective than it sounds.
Power-cycling, the technical term for the simple act of turning a device off completely and then on again, often works wonders across a wide range of electronics, from routers and laptops to smart TVs and set-top boxes like the Sky Q.
Why does it work so well? Over time, small glitches, memory leaks, or minor software bugs can build up, especially if a device has been running for days, weeks, or even months without a restart.
These issues can cause sluggishness, connectivity problems, or odd behaviour like menus freezing or remote controls becoming unresponsive.
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Power-cycling forces the device to shut down completely — wiping its short-term memory (RAM), closing stuck processes, and refreshing internal components. It's like giving your device a clean slate, without touching your saved data or reinstalling anything. Think of it as rebooting your brain with a good night’s sleep. It doesn’t fix everything, but it solves a surprising number of problems.
Since Sky engineers have issued a fix — or rolled-back the problematic software update behind the glitch — power-cycling your Sky Q box today has the benefit of forcing the operating system to check for updates while rebooting.
Sky Q was first announced back in 2015, but remains on-sale as the last set-top box from the UK broadcaster with a physical hard-drive and that relies on a satellite dish to beam live telly SKY TV PRESS OFFICE How to Power-Cycle Your Sky Q Box
If your Sky Q box is still suffering from the Standby error and you're unable to watch live television or anything stored in your Recordings — a proper power-cycle could be just the fix. Representatives from Sky have issued the following advice across social media, on its forums, and now, via text message.
Here's a quick step-by-step guide:
Step 1: Turn off your Sky Q box
Press the standby button on your Sky Q remote or on the front of the box itself to power it down. Wait until the light on the front turns red — this confirms it's in standby mode.
Step 2: Unplug the box from the mains
Locate the power cable and unplug it from the wall socket or power strip. This is key — simply putting the box in standby doesn't fully reset it.
Step 3: Wait at least 30 seconds
This brief pause gives the internal memory time to fully clear and ensures any residual power in the circuits is discharged.
Step 4: Plug it back in
Reconnect the power cable to the mains and switch the socket back on.
Step 5: Wait for the box to reboot
You’ll see the Sky Q box go through its startup sequence. Give it a minute or two to fully boot up. The front light will go green when it's ready.
Step 6: Turn it back on
Use your remote to turn the box back on. You should now be back in business — and hopefully, whatever issue you were experiencing has been resolved.
