If your Sky Q box won’t work or turn on, is stuck on standby, or slow to respond, here are a few checks to carry out.

Check for a fault with the Sky Q remote

Press Sky on your Sky remote and check that the LED light at the top of your Sky remote flashes.

If the light doesn’t flash, there’s a problem with your remote. Our Sky Q remote troubleshooting guide will help you get back up and running again.

If your remote does flash, press Home. The standby light on the front of your box should now turn green.

Light on your box still red or amber? Try pressing the standby button on the front of your Sky Q box. If the light now turns green, there’s a problem with your remote. If the light stays red or amber, continue with the troubleshooting steps below.

Check for ventilation issues

To keep your box well ventilated:

• Avoid placing the Sky Q box on a carpet or in an enclosed space, such as a closed cabinet. Allow at least 10cm of space above and on all sides of the box vents.
• Don’t stack other devices on top of, underneath, or beside your Sky Q box.
• Keep the box away from heat, such as vents on TVs and electronic devices, radiators and direct sunlight.

Restart your Sky Q box

1. Switch your Sky Q box off at the mains.
2. Check that both ends of all cables are securely connected.
3. Switch your Sky Q box back on at the mains.
4. Wait for the on screen instructions to disappear then press Home on your Sky Q remote.

Check your standby settings

When your Sky Q box is installed, it’s set to Eco. This is the recommended setting as the box consumes less energy by going into low power mode between 2.30am and 5:45am.

Bringing your box out of Eco mode will take a few minutes and if you try to use your Sky Q Mini box before 5:45am, you may experience connectivity issues. To stop this, you’ll need to switch your standby setting to Active or None.

To change your standby setting:

1. Press Home on your Sky Q remote and select Settings, then Setup.
2. Select Preferences, followed by Standby mode and select the setting you want.

Please note: All boxes should be on the same energy saving settings.

Recovery procedure

If you have an issue with a Sky Q Mini, you’ll need to contact us for more help.

1. Switch the Sky Q box off at the mains.
2. Hold down the standby button on the box, then switch it back on at the mains.
3. Keep the standby button held down until you see alternating red and amber lights on the front of the box. This will start a software update. If the lights don’t show after 30 seconds, repeat steps 1 to 3. If it still doesn’t work, book an engineer visit.
4. The update can take up to 15 minutes, then the box will turn off and go back to a single red light.
5. Your box will perform a reboot.
6. After the on screen messages have disappeared, press Home on your Sky Q remote to switch your box back on.

If the screen freezes on Updating software Step 1 of 2 instead of going to the start up screens as expected:

1. Switch the box off at the mains, then back on.
2. When you see the hello start up screen hold in the standby button on the box, and you should see Updating software step 2 of 2.

Most features will work straight away, but some can take up to 5 minutes.