Q: Apple TV (4th Gen) Extremely Slow on Network, Other Devices Fine

Other devices working doesn't rule out a network issue

Get a network report from istumbler or similar. Look for signal strength, noise, nearby networks

Try ethernet

Test on another network

I have exactly the same issue. It *****!

Everything works fine with the wifi (powered by AirPort Express), but the new Apple TV 4th generation is so slow. Oddly, if I changed to the hotspot sharing from my iPhone through LTE network, it's way faster. I even upgraded the software, but still, the same issue.

Well, you may say it's signal strength problem, nose, nearby networks, but the problem is, the previous generation Apple TV sit on exactly the same spot and using exactly the same Wifi network, so it doesn't make sense it will be this kind of slow.

I was really disappointed by the new Apple TV 4th generation. I doubt there is issues with their Wifi firmware or even hardware.

It doesn't matter what other device is working, that doesn't rule out a network issue. You are going to have to do proper troubleshooting

Surely it matters. for all other devices as they are working as expected, only new Apple TV 4th Gen not working, the only reasonable explain is there is a problem with the Apple TV itself. As an engineer, I would say the troubleshooting is to ensure all other known working devices works in that environment, so I get a certain level that there is something wrong with the device itself. Of course not 100% sure, but I would say I am 80% sure it's the Apple TV's problem, if I want I can even open Wireshark to see what's going on there with the packages, and write a blog about what I find. But I just don't have that kind of time.

Also, after googling around, I found tons of people having the same issue.

http://9to5mac.com/2015/11/09/apple-tv-tvos-software-update/

You can find some comments there.

Michael Perry (@Alticus):

I’m hoping it fixes the awful network bug that causes packets collisions all over certain networks and causing all devices on the network to slow down severely.

Michael Perry (@Alticus) :

@ikrupp215 @mikhailt There are SEVERAL threads on the new Apple TV forum – check it for yourself. So while YOU may not have heard of this bug, it doesn’t mean at least some of the millions of other customers who purchased an Apple TV has not experienced it. Additionally in digging through the tvOS beta 9.1 release notes it would appear that this entry in the networking section of the release notes is a red herring:

 

 

“Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) is now enabled by default on Ethernet and Wi-Fi. This is designed to reduce network delays and reduce packet loss.”

 

 

It would be no wonder why some networks with a lot of of clients (specifically 1Gbps clients) would have some issue depending on the makeup of the network. If ECN isn’t enabled by default (like it should be) then it could leave the door open to these kinds of packet collision mitigation issues. But hey you’ve never heard of it, so it’s not true right? So not true that this exact issue and symptoms are mentioned in Apples software update release notes. :rolleyes:

 

 

@richslin That is exactly what led me to start troubleshooting it and look for answers in the first place. Plex wasn’t working well no matter if I was on wired ore wireless then I tested it against other devices with the same app on my network to rule out it being an actual network issue. I then tested other apps like netflix and hulu and they are exhibiting the same symptoms so that also rules out it being an issue with the Plex app itself. As stated above though I believe it has to do with ECN not being turned on by default (which is odd but probably just missed in the initial aTV release) and they are fixing it in the 9.1 release.

 

So, to answer @BeavertonMac's question, I would say it's a bug of new Apple TV. Hopefully will be addressed by Apple soon.

It won't rule out a network issue, you would still be making an assumption. You will need facts to baclup that claim. A bug would be impacting the majority of users.

BeavertonMac wrote:

 

I have a brand new Apple TV with TVOS 9.0.1.  It will not exceed 5 Mbps on the network -- EVER.  It usually hovers around 3 Mbps.  Programs buffer when downloading for 5 - 20 minutes depending on quality.  It's abysmal.

How are you measuring the performance of the ATV4gen?

Given only the facts you provided (which aren't nearly enough) I'd guess the ATV is wireless and using 2.4GHz.  The first thing would be to use a wired connection and if that's fine then progress to standard Wi-Fi troubleshooting.

A software update isn't going to fix a network issue, which you haven't ruled out. Other people may be having issues but it is working for most. At the very least you should try Ethernet, you can also take it to another network (or Apple) for testing

Victor Lin wrote:

 

Surely it matters. for all other devices as they are working as expected, only new Apple TV 4th Gen not working, the only reasonable explain is there is a problem with the Apple TV itself. As an engineer, I would say the troubleshooting is to ensure all other known working devices works in that environment, so I get a certain level that there is something wrong with the device itself. Of course not 100% sure, but I would say I am 80% sure it's the Apple TV's problem, if I want I can even open Wireshark to see what's going on there with the packages, and write a blog about what I find. But I just don't have that kind of time.

The preferred tool would be tcptrace not wireshark.

ECN and friends are for Internet connections not local connections and unless the path to and the remote Internet server both support ECN it doesn't matter if it's turned on in your local device.  Apple is including it in iOS 9 and OS X 10.10.3 (and greater) to encourage the Internet gateways (e.g. your ISP) to honor and use the ECN bit -- which mostly they don't.

Should Apple try and anticipate and compensate for almost every network misconfiguration?  Well maybe they should but in this case the onus probably does fall on the "end" user. If an update "fixes" this problem it will be a coincidence.

Extremely simple testing will isolate this problem.

Same issues. Have an older gen atv sitting right underneath the new gen afg and switching thru my hdmi outputs one is buffering while the other is almost finished loading an entire movie. Plus I'm testing speeds from apple's iPhone 6plus, iPhone 5, iPod 5th gen, an apple notebook and a bunch of other non Apple devices. My new atv is literally popping up with issues in every app I use from Netflix and Hulu to nbc and cbs. While the speeds in my network test over 55-60mbps on all but one device in my home(atv4) I'm wondering why the new software that JUST downloaded days ago didn't provide a hotfix to this packet loss issue. Trust in about to just disconnect this thing and get a full refund. I didn't spend $150 to have something that works 10% as well as the older version sitting right in front of me. So, troubleshooting my network thru packet sends and receives from a Ethernet link direct in the router wirelessly to a device shows a loss of -0 while the measurement of packets sent and received don't differ. I kinda think atv4 has a big issue and it's not my fault. Checkmate Apple. The next move is yours.

I can also confirm that the 4th gen Apple TV is virtually unusable compared to my 3rd gen on the same network. I'm using Ethernet and can't get the 4th gen to play any videos properly over iTunes Home Sharing. My iTunes library is served up by an iMac on the same Ethernet network. I tried to show some expensively-transferred home videos to my family over Thanksgiving and it was a train wreck. Nothing but stalled video and spinning progress indicators every few minutes. Every single video started up and stalled within 2 to 4 seconds. So embarrassing... So today I replaced the 4th gen with my old 3rd gen. The network settings are exactly the same but the older ATV plays the same videos just fine. Heads need to roll at Apple!

Problem: Apple TV4 will only cache up to 5 mins ahead and then pause the playback to cache more.”  from this article Re: Caching issues etc - AppleTV 4th Generation

I have the same problem with my Apple TV 4.  I spent 90 minutes on the phone with two different tiers of Apple support and they finally decided to send me a new device. Unfortunately, the problem persists, even when I plugged the apple TV directly to my brand new iMac.

Notes:

• Same issues when i try to view from the Plex app.
• Same Issue whether it is my HD media or Apples HD media (Just bought & downloaded "The Godfather" from Apple) Queues like the apple 3 used to when streaming from the internet but my downloaded movie stalls over my network.)  So it doesn't seem to matter if movies were created by me or Apple

At the time I’m writing this, over 350 views on your post but I cannot find any other posts on the net about this.

You never reported back regarding troubleshooting so hopefully you found your configuration error.

But for people that happen upon this thread the Air Video HD (AV HD) app has a speed test.  There may be other local net speed test apps but for the moment app discovery is a bit of a trial.  As a single data point AV HD reports 80Mbps wired, which is pretty good for a 100 Mbps device, and 190 Mbps using 802.11ac Wi-Fi