If you did not receive an activation code or activation link via an email, please contact your local station.  Be aware that you may be already activated. To confirm that you have activated your Passport account, go to PBS.org and sign in to the site with the same email address you used when you activated your account. If Passport is activated, you will see a small blue and white compass rose symbol next to your initial in the upper right corner of the website. As you search or browse the site, any video bearing that same blue and white compass rose symbol is a designated Passport video. If you do not see the blue Passport icon () next to your initial, you have not completed the activation process or you have not signed in with the same email address you used when you activated your Passport member benefit. You can use the Passport Lookup Tool to see determine which account you used when you activated your Passport.

If you've already made a donation but have not received an activation code, please review the following: Your local PBS station is still processing your donation. Most stations send a Passport activation email within a few minutes of submitting your donation, but if your donation takes longer to process you may not receive this email right away. The email arrived in your spam folder or you used a different contact email address when submitting your donation. Please check your inbox's spam/junk folder, or any other email inboxes you may own. You did not include a contact email when submitting your donation. If you also didn't receive an email receipt of your donation from your station, please contact your local station directly. You previously activated your Passport benefit. Check your benefit's status here by entering your contact email and submitting. To confirm that you have activated your Passport account, go to PBS.org and sign in as you did during activation. If your Passport is activated properly, you will see a small blue and white compass rose symbol by your name in the upper left portion of the screen. When you search through the site, any video bearing that same blue and white compass rose symbol are videos available to Passport members. If you do not see the blue Passport icon next to your name, you have not completed the activation process or you have not signed in with the same email address you used when you activated your Passport member benefit. Think of any other email addresses you may have used and try signing in with those until you see the blue Passport icon next to your name. If you are still having trouble, email support.

If your Passport is activated properly, you will see a small blue and white "compass rose" icon by your name in the upper left portion of the screen.  If this icon does not appear next to your name and your Passport benefit is not being recognized, please check the below possibilities and suggestions. In most cases, this problem occurs when you are signed in at PBS.org using a different sign-in account (an email address associated with a Facebook, Google, Apple, or PBS Account) from what you originally activated Passport with. For the quickest resolution, we recommend trying to sign out and sign back in with any other accounts you may have with PBS. You can also try entering your contact email address for your membership at the Passport Lookup page. This is the email address your station contacts you with and can use to look up your membership. For more information about the Passport Lookup Tool, please see our help page here. Change the Account Linked to My Passport Benefit If you've activated your Passport benefit but have multiple PBS accounts, only the PBS account linked to your Passport benefit will grant you access to Passport videos. If your access isn't recognized, you may be signed in with a different account. If you have accidentally linked your Passport benefit to an old account, or you wish to instead link your Passport benefit to a different account, you can change the account linked to your benefit using our Passport Reset Tool.

While PBS is pleased to offer online streaming for many popular programs, you may have noticed that some shows and episodes cannot be found on the PBS website and PBS app. Unfortunately, PBS is not always able to obtain the streaming rights for every program which has aired on PBS, which means we are legally unable to offer full episodes for online streaming at this time. This can include entire shows, specific seasons, or specific episodes of a program. Any program or piece of television on PBS is a piece of intellectual property (just like a song or a book). With any piece of intellectual property come certain rights and allowances for the creators, distributors, and consumers. Many of these rights include online video viewing stipulations. If a program is not available for viewing on pbs.org, it is because of the specific intellectual property rights associated with that show, and often, these rights vary from show to show. We must purchase streaming rights separately from television broadcast rights and we are not always able to obtain the streaming rights for every program, so our online content may be more limited than programs airing on your television. While Passport does allow us to offer more content for online streaming, we are unable to offer every program for online streaming indefinitely due to the aforementioned streaming rights. For some programs we do offer clips and previews as these are not as restricted as the full episodes and may be of interest to some users. While these episodes may be unavailable for free online streaming, we recommend visiting the PBS Store or a third party such as iTunes or Amazon Video if you are interested in purchasing episodes of these programs.

If you are searching for a PBS video but are unable to find it, there are a few possible reasons the video does not appear when searching for it: The video is listed under a different title. Please double-check the search term for any errors. The video has not yet aired on PBS and we are unable to offer it for online streaming until its broadcast premiere. PBS does not have the rights to offer the video for online streaming. For more information, please see below. More Information on Streaming Rights While PBS does offer hundreds of videos for online streaming, not every program that airs on your PBS station will be available for streaming. PBS must obtain the streaming rights separately from television broadcast rights for every program. In some cases, we are only able to offer full episodes for online streaming for a limited period of time, and then the episodes must be taken off of our site. Any program or piece of television on PBS is a piece of intellectual property. With any piece of intellectual property come certain rights and allowances for the creators, distributors, and consumers. Many of these rights include requirements for offering videos for online viewing. If a program is not available for viewing on pbs.org, it is because of the specific streaming rights associated with that show, and often, these rights vary from show to show, and can even vary from season to season for one show. While Passport does allow us to offer more content for online streaming, we are unable to offer every program for online streaming indefinitely due to the aforementioned streaming rights. You may encounter a show page where the full episode is unavailable for streaming but clips and previews are still listed. PBS does continue to offer clips and previews for some programs as these are not as restricted as full episodes, and many of our viewers are still interested in viewing these clips and previews. While these episodes may be unavailable for free online streaming, we recommend visiting the PBS Store or a third party such as iTunes or Amazon Video if you are interested in purchasing episodes of these programs.

You should have received your Passport activation code or link shortly after becoming a member with your local PBS station. This activation code or link would have been sent to you immediately following your donation, or via email once your station processed your donation. Activation codes and links for the Passport benefit can only be used once. If you have already used your code or link, you do not need a new one. If you would like to check on the status of your benefit or request an activation link, please use our Passport Lookup Tool.  On the Lookup Tool, enter the email address you provided your local PBS station with when you became a member. If your PBS station has that email address on record and has a Passport benefit available for your membership, you'll receive an email response with an activation link and other information about your Passport benefit. If you do not receive an email, the provided email is not listed on a membership with any PBS station. Please try entering an alternative email address in the Lookup Tool, or contact your PBS station to inquire about your membership and benefits.

If you have received this message, it means that your Passport account has already been activated and, fortunately, you only need to activate once. To confirm that you are activated, please go to PBS.org and sign in with the same personal account you used when you activated.  If your Passport is activated properly, you will see a small blue and white "compass rose" icon by your name in the upper left portion of the screen. You may then search through the site, and any videos bearing that blue and white compass rose icon are available to Passport members only. If you do not see the blue Passport icon next to your name, you have not completed the activation process or you have not signed in with the same email address you used when you activated your Passport member benefit. Think of any other email addresses you may have used and try signing in with those until you see the blue Passport icon next to your name. You can also use our Passport Lookup Tool to check the account you need to log in with.

If you have activated your Passport with a different email than what is signed into the PBS app on your TV, please follow the instructions below. On a mobile device or computer, go to PBS.org and sign in with your Passport account. The Sign In option will be either on the left-hand side of the blue banner, or under the three lines on the right-hand side. After signing in, open the PBS app on your TV or streaming device. In the left-hand menu, select Profile or Settings, depending on the app layout. For Roku, Amazon Firestick, Apple TV, or Android TV the layout looks like this: For Samsung and Vizio TVs, the layout looks like this: After selecting Profile or Settings, select Change Account, then Sign Out. You will sign out of the PBS app on your TV. A new screen will appear prompting you to reactivate the app. Select Activate Now. You will then see instructions for activating the PBS app. From a mobile device or computer, go to PBS.org/activate and enter the code displayed on your TV.  Click Continue. You will then be prompted to sign in with your Passport account. Sign in with the account associated with your Passport. You will then receive a Success! screen indicating that your PBS app has been successfully activated. It can take up to 30 seconds for the screen to change on your TV.

If you would like to check if your Passport is expired, you can enter your contact email address in the lookup field at this page: http://www.pbs.org/passport/lookup Note: This tool is looking for the contact email address. This address may be different from the email you activated Passport with and sign in with. It may be an older email address you've used with your station in the past, or an email address belonging to another member in your household. In some cases your station may have never received a contact email address from you, in which case it will return no results found. Your Passport benefit should be tied to your membership with your local station. It should expire when your membership with your station expires. However, it is possible for a mismatch between the Passport benefit's expiration date and your membership expiration date. This can occur when your station is waiting on a recent donation to finish processing, or if a technical error occurred when your station updated your Passport's expiration date. Please contact your local station to inquire about your Passport's expiration date and request they update it. This will be a simple check between your membership records to find your actual expiration date, and then your station will manually update the expiration date on your Passport to match. To find the contact information for your station, visit your station's website, or use the lookup tool on this page: http://www.pbs.org/about/about-pbs/stations/

When you enter your four-word activation code at http://www.pbs.org/passport you should continue to a screen welcoming you to your new benefit. If you encounter an error message, it will usually be one of the below. Next to each error message is a description of why it occurred and how to fix it. "The Activation Code you entered is already activated. Please Sign In or contact support." Your Passport benefit has been previously activated, either by you or someone else in your household. Visit http://www.pbs.org and sign in with the account you used to activate Passport. "We're sorry, there is a problem with your activation code. To see if you have an account in our system, please use our Member Lookup." Please double-check your code for any misspellings or special characters. If your code looks correct, your benefit may be expired or disabled by your station. Visit the Member Lookup link and enter your contact email address for more information. "Note: Activation Codes are composed of four words separated by hyphens (example: WHEN-COURSE-HUMAN-EVENTS)." Please double-check your code is made up of four words with a hyphen or dash between each word.