HBO Max has released an update that fixes the playback experience on Apple TV. The first update, designed to remove "a few bugs lurking to improve the streaming experience," had the opposite effect.

Basic functions such as fast forward, pause, and rewind were completely unusable, and as New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz noted, "It doesn't matter whether you use the Apple remote or the remote control mobile app. I don't know how anyone is going to see anything there," he noted.

We tested this on our end and found mixed results. Our streaming editor, Henry T. Casey, checked the above complaint and could find no real problems.

HBO Max was seemingly clueless as to how such a buggy update was released; when asked on Twitter how this came about, EVP and General Manager Andy Forsell said, "That's a multi-billion dollar question! I'm not sure," he replied. However, Forssell said, "The team is working on it, and we have fixes in place to address these issues. There are no excuses. We'll report back to you soon."

"I'm happy to report that we're working on it," Forsell said.

Fortunately, the company then resolved the issue in a second update by switching the video player used by the app; on Twitter, Forssell said, "The native player will be back soon. No excuses. The good intentions were there, but the execution was poor. We will learn from it." The official HBO Max Twitter account also posted an update:

"We've released an update to our Apple TV app, and while ensuring a quality experience for HBO Max viewers is our top priority, we missed the mark here!

Fossel also addressed the scrubbing issue on iOS, which should also be resolved in the update.

As The Verge notes, the update fixed the worst of the problems, but HBO Max users are still unhappy. A dedicated subreddit lists reports of buffering problems and subtitles switching to Spanish.

If you are affected by these bugs, update the HBO Max app for Apple TV so you can watch your favorite shows.

To update the app, either wait for an automatic app update to download or update it manually yourself if automatic updates are not enabled.