Nighthawk Anywhere Access won't turn on

Never had a problem with remote access to my R8000P via browser or the night hawk app until Netgear brought in access anywhere. As instructed I go into the nighthawk app when connected locally, go to the device, settings, access anywhere... I slide the toggle to green and get a spinning circle then a message saying "Anywhere Access enabled" but then the toggle switch immediately goes back to the off position. If i check access afterwards the app sat says no devices registered.
I've tried looking for firmware updates, rebooting, turning off "remote access" in the web interface in case this was conflicting. Nothing fixes it. And Netgear won't discuss it because my chat warranty expired despite the fact it's broken due to a new (and unnecessary) feature they introduced.
Any help gratefully received. Thanks