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Plate 8 · HBO Max

HBO Max and the six-digit code on the screen

The HBO Max app on a TV prints HBOMax.com/signin and a six-digit code, with a square code as an alternative. The name has changed twice — to Max in 2023, back to HBO Max in 2025 — and an older address, hbomax.com/tvsignin, now opens an error page.

Revised 28 September 2026Reference entry

HBO Max is the entry where old addresses matter most, because the service has been renamed twice in three years and its printed address moved with it.

The current app prints HBOMax.com/signin and a six-digit code. Third-party pages still repeat the older hbomax.com/tvsignin, and that address now opens an HBO Max error page — read live in the course of preparing this entry.

What an HBO Max TV screen prints: HBOMax.com/signin, a square code and a six-digit codeOn a phone or computer, openHBOMax.com/signinand enter the code shown here123456or scanSample screen — not a real code
Plate 8 · The HBO Max app on a TV offers a square code to scan and prints HBOMax.com/signin with a six-digit code. The six-digit shape is stated on HBO Max’s own page; the digits shown are a sample.
What the page at auth.hbomax.com/link showsauth.hbomax.com/linkSign in to HBO Maxthe 6-digit code from the TVNexthbomax.com/signin forwards to auth.hbomax.com, the sign-in host of the same name
Where HBOMax.com/signin leads: the sign-in host auth.hbomax.com, which asks for the six-digit code and the account. The heading and button are drawn schematically; HBO Max’s own page says the page asks for the six-digit code from the TV.

Identification

  • Printed address

    HBOMax.com/signin — forwards to auth.hbomax.com, the sign-in host of the same registrable name. The older hbomax.com/tvsignin now shows an error page reading that the link is not working.

  • Code shape

    Six digits, stated by HBO Max itself.

  • Other routes

    The square code on the screen; on some devices, a sign-in from the HBO Max app on a phone connected to the same Wi-Fi; on a TV provider’s box, signing in through the provider.

  • The page asks for

    The six-digit code and the HBO Max sign-in — an e-mail address and password, or the choice to sign in through a TV provider, which hands over to that provider’s own page.

  • The page never asks for

    A payment to sign a TV in. A subscription is bought in the account or through a provider; the code page carries no card field.

  • Where the device is listed

    Under devices in the HBO Max account settings, which is also where one is signed out.

  • Runs on

    Smart TVs, streaming players, games consoles and TV provider boxes.

What happens on each side

HBO Max’s own page describes two ways the TV app connects: a phone camera pointed at the square code, or opening HBOMax.com/signin and entering the six-digit code from the TV. The typed address forwards to auth.hbomax.com — a sign-in host under the same hbomax.com name — which asks for the code and the account. The jump from HBOMax.com to auth.hbomax.com is the same company moving the viewer to its sign-in server, exactly as Google and Roku do.

The account side has more than one door. An HBO Max subscription bought directly is signed in with an e-mail address and password. A subscription that comes with a cable, satellite or broadband package is signed in through the provider: the HBO Max page offers a choice of provider and then hands over to that provider’s own sign-in page, which returns the viewer to HBO Max once it is satisfied. Either way the six-digit code is HBO Max’s, and the provider never sees it.

The renaming explains the dead address. The service launched as HBO Max in 2020, became Max in 2023, and returned to the HBO Max name in 2025; the current app prints HBOMax.com/signin. help.max.com now forwards to help.hbomax.com, and the pre-2023 hbomax.com/tvsignin — still widely reproduced on pages that were never updated — answers with an error page. A printed address that opens a genuine HBO Max error page is a sign that the page repeating it is old, not that the viewer has been misled about who owns the name.

HBO Max’s page also mentions a route with no code: on some devices the app on a phone that is already signed in, and on the same Wi-Fi network as the TV, can sign the TV in. This is a local shortcut between two HBO Max apps and uses no address at all.

Easily confused with

  • Addresses that split the name (hbo-max-signin.example, hbomax-tv.example, hbomaxcom-signin.example). The registrable name is hbomax.com; auth. before it is HBO Max’s sign-in host, not a different owner.
  • Pages promising to restore a sign-in at hbomax.com/tvsignin for a fee. That address is simply retired; the current one is HBOMax.com/signin and it costs nothing.
  • A code page with a field for card details next to the six digits. Billing for HBO Max lives in the account or with the provider, never on the code page.

Range

Devices on which this code sign-in appears, as named on the service’s own pages:

  • Samsung, LG, Vizio and Sony smart TVs
  • Roku and Fire TV
  • Apple TV
  • Google TV and Android TV
  • PlayStation and Xbox
  • Xfinity and other provider boxes