If you had HBO MAX with a separate DIRECTV Stream Shim account, your HBO MAX recently stopped working.

If you had one of these Shim accounts, you were one of the first people to get free HBO GO, which became HBO MAX. The following plans are affected:

• AT&T Unlimited Plus
• AT&T Unlimited Choice
• AT&T Unlimited Choice Enhanced
• AT&T Unlimited Plus Enhanced

With DIRECTV now a separate company, and HBO being spun off to Discovery, AT&T is cleaning house with all the free accounts. They clearly only want to pay Discovery for people actually using it, and they don’t want to pay DIRECTV for a bunch of $0 Shim accounts.

Credit goes to /u/ZootZephyr for finding the solution.

Step 0: Open a web browser. Do not use Brave. Even with shields off, Brave(ry) is not for this task.

Step 1: Log in to HBO MAX. This is your hbomax.com account – not your DIRECTV Stream or myAT&T account.

Step 2: Go to Account -> Subscriptions. It will say something to the effect of, “your subscription has expired” – which it thinks so – because the DIRECTV Stream Shim is discontinued.

Step 3: Click Learn More. You will be given a myAT&T Login. Use the myAT&T account attached to your Unlimited Plus/Choice plan.

Step 4: Look in the center of the screen. The HBO MAX panel now has a new Activate Now button, that it did not previously. Click it. It will confirm saying HBO MAX is now active.

Step 5: Log out of HBO MAX. Log back in to HBO MAX. If you do not have access, clear all cookies and cache from your browser, and do it again. Do not use Incognito window or Private Browsing.