FireTV Stick Unlock Not Recognized

[SSyl 0]

Hi,

I purchased the unlock for Emby for my FireTV Stick on October 2nd, 2020. It's been working great since about two weeks ago.

Since two weeks ago it's not letting me playback anything. I've tried to restore the unlock, but after a few seconds it says "Unlock not purchased". If I try to purchase the unlock again, it brings up the confirmation screen at which point I choose to purchase the unlock and it simply freezes for a good 10 seconds before the app restarts. I've also tried purchasing Emby Premier in the app (mostly to see if it would work) and nothing happens. When you choose the option nothing comes up to purchase it or anything.

I logged in/out of my account on Emby, reinstalled the app, and udated the server

Just to make sure it wasn't some sort of issue with my Amazon account, I made an in app purchase through a different unrelated app and it worked just fine.

I also have a second FireTV and it has the exact same issue.

I attached an image showing both the app download as well as when I paid for the unlock.

Thanks,

Syl

 

[ebr 14942]

Hi.  You are sure the account has no purchase restrictions on it?  Which stick is it and running which version of FireOS?  Also, what is the exact version number of the app in the settings page?

[SSyl 0]

Hi ebr,

I'm positive that there are no sort of purchase restrictions on my account. I even purchased a random in-app purchase from a different app just to test and it worked just fine.
Fire TV Stick 4K
Fire OS 6.2.7.7 (NS6277/3025)
Emby 1.8.54a Expired

Thanks for your help!

 

[ebr 14942]

And you are positive the stick is logged into the same Amazon account with that purchase?  Can you see both the Emby unlock purchase and the test purchase from the other app in the same account?

Can you try the restore unlock and then immediately send a log from the app?

[SSyl 0]

I'm positive it's the same Amazon account. Just to make doubly sure, I checked and the in-app purchase I made earlier on a different app shows up on my Amazon account, the same one I used to purchase the unlock. It's also happening on both of my Fire TV sticks which are both logged into my same account.

On top of that, part of the problem is I can't even attempt to purchase the unlock (for testing purposes since I already own it) or Emby Premier when I try. It completely hangs when you click to unlock it or try to subscribe to Emby Premiere. So even if it was a different account, it should be letting me purchase it.

I just sent two logs using the button in the app. The first log is after I try to play content and then go to restore the purchase. That just says "Unlock is not Purchased".

The second log I sent is when I try to unlock the app and it hangs indefinitely. I'm not sure if the log will have all the info, since I have to hit the back button multiple times for it to stop getting hung-up on the Unlock screen and at that point it seems like the app restarts itself.

Either way, both logs are sent. Let me know if you need anything else. I can also record a video from my phone showing what happens if that'll help explain the issue better.

 

Edited December 15, 2020 by SSyl

[ebr 14942]

Do you have any kind of VPN or other network configuration that might be blocking access on those devices?

[SSyl 0]

I have a PiHole as my DNS server that does a network wide block on certain hostnames (particularly blocking telemetry).

I just temporarily disabled it and it did allow me to restore my purchase! So that part is figured out.

What's odd though is my Chromecast with Google TV (which is just Android TV) works just fine and has never had these issues. So that leads me to a few questions:

1. I've had the PiHole setup for a couple years now. So I'm not sure why it would just all of a sudden cause issues with Emby, unless Emby received an update that added some telemetry that's on one of my blacklists.

2. What's the hostname/domain that Emby for FireTV is trying to reach when I try to restore the purchase/make purchases? I can go ahead and whitelist it so it doesn't happen in the future (and I'm sure it'll be helpful for other PiHole users in the future).

3. Why is it only Emby that had this issue with purchases and not other Amazon apps? Are you adding third-party telemetry on those purchases/checks on top of Amazon's own?

Thanks for getting the issue resolved and I'm looking forward to the answers to my questions.

[ebr 14942]

Hi. We are just using Amazon's API to interact with their store so I cannot really answer the question about why our app would be any different than others.  There was a recent update to that API that could be why you saw a change in behavior though.

The other Android boxes are using an entirely different API and talking to an entirely different place (Amazon vs. Google).

Does that catch all your additional questions?

[SSyl 0]

That works. I'll watch my network log when I try to make the request and see if I can find what's getting caught by the PiHole.