Kd-xe9005 apps unavailable

[jackfitz1]

I have kd-xe9005 and for some reason when I go to the Google play store to install any tv apps including channel 4,itvx it states that they are not available for this device. Can someone please explain why?

Thanks Jack

[royabrown2]

@jackfitz1 

Any TV apps, or just those two?

As if I recall correctly, until 2020 those two apps were only available on the ‘YouView side’ of Sony Android TVs, and they came with YouView, not from the Play Store.

I assume you are on the ‘Freeview side’ of the set; if you switch to the YouView side, you should find them there.

If you, understandably, don’t want to be constricted by that, then your choice is either to look up Hoshsadiq on the web, and use his sideloading workaround, or source an inexpensive Roku Express 4K, or a rather more expensive Amazon Firestick, and use that to get these Players.

Plus many other Players you may like, and either can’t find on the Play Store, or want to go a fair bit faster than they do direct on your TV,

[jackfitz1]

Thank you for your reply. Firstly I always thought my tv is on youview but I am now not sure, so can you help me as to how I switch to youview just in case I am not.

[royabrown2]

@jackfitz1 

If you are on the Youview side currently, then you will have the blue EPG with the past week as well as the current one, and you will have All4/Channel4 and itv/itvX in your Apps, and you can select them, and they will play. Even though you can’t get them from the Play Store.

In fact, these two Apps should appear, even if you are on the Freeview side, and if you choose one, it should offer to take you to the YouView Side to play it.

But to switch directly, you will also find YouView under Home/ Settings/ Channel setup/ YouView setup, and there you can elect to move to the YouView interface. (Though note that if you have Satellite tuned, you will lose this on moving to YouView, so this is a consideration if you do).

And from the same place you can switch back. In either direction, it will offer for you to do a retune, but you can skip this if your tunings are up to date.

However, it sounds a bit like you can’t see these Apps at the moment, which I’ve only ever encountered as an issue on sets from later years. Is this the case for you here?