Q: AppleTV 3 Needs Daily Reboot to Play Home Sharing Content
-
by Winston Churchill,Nov 14, 2014 4:42 AM
Winston Churchill
Nov 14, 2014 4:42 AM
in response to TheSneadOne
Level 10
(103,745 points)
Apple TVWelcome to the Apple Community.
Intermittent problems are often a result of interference. Interference can be caused by other networks in the neighbourhood or from household electrical items.
You can download and install iStumbler (NetStumbler for windows users) to help you see which channels are used by neighbouring networks so that you can avoid them, but iStumbler will not see household items.
Refer to your router manual for instructions on changing your wifi channel or adjusting your multicast rate.
There are other types of problems that can affect networks, but this is by far the most common, hence worth mentioning first. Networks that have inherent issues can be seen to work differently with different versions of the same software. You might also try moving the Apple TV away from other electrical equipment.
The following article(s) may help you.
Troubleshooting Wi-Fi networks and connections
Wifi Diagnostic Software (for Mac users)
You may also find some help on this page, where I’ve collected some of the more unusual solutions to network issues.
Another potential source of your issue maybe some sort of issue with the HDMI connection, have you tried another cable or TV.
-
Nov 14, 2014 5:15 AMby TheSneadOne,Thanks very much for replying!
I do not believe interference to be an issue due to the following:
1) The problem is consistent, not intermittent and is always fixed by restarting the AppleTV.
2) A second AppleTV (a 2nd gen version, thus without the recent OS update) in the home is running wirelessly and does not have this issue.
However, I will follow the suggestions and will also attempt to link the Mac Mini running iTunes to the network with a wired connection to rule-out wireless problems. I shall report back any findings.
Also, I'm not sure how the HDMI or the TV cable can affect home sharing.
-
by Winston Churchill,Nov 14, 2014 8:25 AM
Winston Churchill
Nov 14, 2014 8:25 AM
in response to TheSneadOne
Level 10
(103,745 points)
Apple TV
I can see you have your own ideas about this, I'll leave you to pursue them.
-
Nov 14, 2014 10:05 AMby TheSneadOne,Apologies if I have offended or sounded snarky with my reply. No ill-will intended, only true thanks for your reply and your suggestions (which will be tried as stated). I was only trying to convey a logical deduction that interference would a) cause havoc across the entirety of my network and b) not be solved by resetting the wired network device (as no transmitter/emitter/reflector would appreciably change). The deduction could of course be flawed due to a lack of understanding or false assumption somewhere in the chain and I am certainly open to that possibility. My hope was that probable early elimination of a common problem could spur the kind folks here donating time/knowledge to suggest other possible solutions/experiments.
Again, thank you for your help thus far, and apologies for my poor previous reply.
-
by Winston Churchill,Nov 14, 2014 10:34 AM
Winston Churchill
Nov 14, 2014 10:34 AM
in response to TheSneadOne
Level 10
(103,745 points)
Apple TV
I may have misread the winking smiley to your final comment. I certainly wouldn't rule out a dodgy HDMI connection as the cause of anything when a restart is needed to resolve something. However I suspect it is something else. You don't say if this has always been like this or just started or what.
I also suspect that the Apple TV isn't reading your library when this happens but rather a cached version and hence when you try to play something, it can't find it, because that content isn't where your cached version expects to find it. (you could test this by changing something in your library to see if it's reflected on your Apple TV.
-
Nov 14, 2014 11:07 AMby TheSneadOne,My apologies for that smiley and statement in general. Poor form on my part.
I shall indeed attempt a swap of the HDMI cable (I'm currently using a Amazon Basics cable to attach to an LG Plasma display). The problem first started occurring consistently after the Apple TV 7.0 update. There had always been occasionals restart, but they were weeks or months apart rather than several hours and I do not remember them being linked only to home sharing playback. We also changed our internet service provider around this time (DNS issue maybe?). All other parts of the system have otherwise been constant.
Here's my homework list of things I shall try tonight:
- HDMI swap
- Apple TV network patch cable swap
- Switch the Mac Mini to a wired network connection
- Switch the Apple TV to wireless network connection
- Analyze the network and nearby networks with iStumbler
Thanks for the time and help thus far! I shall report back my findings.
-
Nov 16, 2014 7:35 AMby jetbootjack,I have similar problems.
A 2009 Mac Mini running Yosemite and the latest version of iTunes connected via Ethernet to an Airport Extreme, 3 Apple TV's (all running latest updates) also connected via Ethernet (there are switches between the devices).
The ATV's stream Netflix, Now TV, YouTube, plays/streams all purchased content from the Movies or TV stores and all other services without a bit hitch.
But e en though you can browse the iTunes library running on the Mac Mini - every day at some point I will get a endlessly spinning icon on a show or movie - restarting the ATV from the general menu and the content will, once selected play just fine.
This afflicts all all my ATV daily.
Streaming the same content to iPads etc works 24/7 via homesharing.
Could it be something in the latest ATV software, or a quirk in the latest iTunes?
Prior to the most recent updates my system never displayed these issues.
Any ideas grearly appreciated!
sTeVE
-
Dec 3, 2014 8:48 AMby SHSguy,I have the exact same problem. Tried moving the router and computer directly next to one another and still no result. So interference is not the problem. System: Brand new iMac, Apple TV 3, Yosemite. I honestly think they brought out Yosemite way before it was ready. Use to be you bought Apple for the ease of use but that has been gone now for a while.
-
Mar 19, 2015 4:43 AMby rr2k,Same problem here and it has been worse in the last couple of months so I suspect is update related. It's gotten a bit better just recently, so maybe partially fixed. I have ATV3 wired to a Time Capsule, which is wired to the iMac. If I reboot the iMac, I always have to reboot the ATV3.
-
Mar 20, 2015 10:46 AMby tdawgmd,this is related to the 7.1 update. I never had this problem before that and now mine loses the 2 iMacs it connects to after sleeping. It requires an unplug/replug and then it sees them again. Mine is run over ethernet so it certainly has nothing to do with interference. Until the 7.1 update it never happened.
-
Aug 31, 2015 2:42 PMby mcandre,My Apple TV has a similar problem. It can play its own streaming services like Netflix or YouTube without issue, but if I want to stream from my phone, tablet, or laptop, I have to manually pull the power cord out, and plug it back in, every single day, to get apps to see the Apple TV on the network.
* Google Play Music* Spotify
* Beamer* VLC + AirPlay mirroring
* Apple TV 3
* iPhone 6, iOS 8.4.1
* iPad mini pre-retina, iOS 8.4.1
* 13" mid-2013 MacBook Air, Intel Haswell core i7, Mac OS X 10.10.5
* Belkin AC 1200 Wireless router serving 802.11g and 802.11ac bands
* LG TV
Sometimes I give up on my Apple TV and switch to Chromecast, but honestly both of these set top boxes crap out after a few months, frequently becoming unresponsive and invisible to stream-capable apps. I'd use a Roku, as it's a more stable product, but unfortunately it doesn't have any third-party mobile app support or Mac/Linux mirroring options I need.
I hope the Apple TV fixes these issues and has a price drop. For $200, I could buy 5 Chromecasts and sell the worst 4.
