Problems with Remote App on iOS 4?

Question

Level 1

58 points

Problems with Remote App on iOS 4?

I have a new iPhone 4 and tried to use the Remote App in Connection with Apple TV. While I'am able to pair the remote app with Apple TV, I cannot use it properly. It works for a while, then it get's disconnected with a message that maybe a Firewall might be activated in the Router.

I have no problems with Remote App connected to my iTunes Library. I also tried it with a iPod Touch which is still on iOS 3.1.3, no problems to connect to the Apple TV from there as well.

Are there any known problems with iOS 4 and Apple TV?

Mac Mini 2009, MBP 2008, Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Jun 27, 2010 10:44 AM

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Answer 1

Chenks

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7,435 points

Jun 27, 2010 10:56 AM in response to MccoQy

can't say i've noticed any problems so far, and i used it quite a bit yesterday.

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Answer 2

MccoQy Author

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Jun 27, 2010 11:23 AM in response to Chenks

Thanks for your feedback. My last idea was to do a restart of the Airport Extreme now. Seems like that was the problem, now it works good and very smooth for the last 10 minutes, I will keep trying.

It is a known issue for me that the wifi-performance goes down when the Airport station is running for a few weeks without restart, but as the iPod Touch was working well I thought the problem must be something else...

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Answer 3

Dom_QC

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Jul 7, 2010 10:30 AM in response to MccoQy

Hi,

I'm having the exact same problem. I was using the App Remote with my Apple TV for a year without any problems. Since I've upgraded to IOS 4.0 most of the time it will not detect/connect to my Apple Tv.

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Answer 4

MccoQy Author

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58 points

Jul 7, 2010 11:48 AM in response to Dom_QC

Maybe a good opportunity to say that the issue is NOT fixed for me, even if it was looking better for a very short while. Additionally I noticed that I get disconnected from wifi very often when using the Remote App (and only when Remote App is running), I have to reenter the wifi password on the iPhone then.

I meanwhile restarted all hardware (all Apple Airport with newest Firmware), this didn't help, and the other device with iOS 3.1.3 has still no problems, so it must be an iOS 4 issue.

Any other ideas what I can check?

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Answer 5

MccoQy Author

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Jul 7, 2010 11:49 AM in response to MccoQy

See long post, problem is still there ...

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Answer 6

Chenks

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Jul 7, 2010 11:53 AM in response to MccoQy

MccoQy wrote:
so it must be an iOS 4 issue.

maybe for you, but isn't for me.
i have the remote app on my iphone4 and it's connected to 2 appletv's.
i don't experience any dropping of connection etc.

bear in mind that the iphone4 is now "n" wifi compatible (2.4Ghz), so could it be that the "n" part of your network is poor and thus why you only see the problem on the iphone4 ?

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Answer 7

MccoQy Author

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Jul 7, 2010 12:35 PM in response to Chenks

Chenks wrote:
maybe for you, but isn't for me.
i have the remote app on my iphone4 and it's connected to 2 appletv's.
i don't experience any dropping of connection etc.

May I ask what wifi hardware you use? It might be an wifi issue, but one which is only related with the "Bonjour" protocol which seems to be used for the Remote App. I found this thread which is older (iOS 3) but describing exactly the same problems:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2048555&start=0&tstart=0

bear in mind that the iphone4 is now "n" wifi compatible (2.4Ghz), so could it be that the "n" part of your network is poor and thus why you only see the problem on the iphone4 ?

At least it is not poor when using it from other devices or moving a lot of data in other Apps. It is all Apple Hardware (nothing older than 2 years), and maybe that's the problem. I never had network hardware which made so much trouble, as Apples Airport series. I wouldn't wonder if it is an incompatibility between a new wifi chip in the iPhone 4 and a older Revision of an Airport device. But I don't know how to check - is there a system.log on the iPhone which I can access somehow?

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Answer 8

Chenks

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Jul 7, 2010 12:38 PM in response to MccoQy

MccoQy wrote:
May I ask what wifi hardware you use? It might be an wifi issue, but one which is only related with the "Bonjour" protocol which seems to be used for the Remote App. I found this thread which is older (iOS 3) but describing exactly the same problems:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2048555&start=0&tstart=0

AEBS (dual-band) not the current model but the one previous to that, and i have no other WIFI networks around that are using the same channel, or are close enough to cause interference or degrade the signal.

I wouldn't wonder if it is an incompatibility between a new wifi chip in the iPhone 4 and a older Revision of an Airport device.

i would doubt that

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Answer 9

MccoQy Author

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58 points

Jul 7, 2010 11:22 PM in response to Chenks

Chenks wrote:

I wouldn't wonder if it is an incompatibility between a new wifi chip in the iPhone 4 and a older Revision of an Airport device.

i would doubt that

Why not, in the linked thread one solution was this support document:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1741

If you are experiencing an issue where you can't pair Remote with
iTunes or Apple TV or are having difficulty connecting to an iTunes
library or Apple TV that you've already paired with and connected to
before, review the troubleshooting suggestions listed in this article.
...
Update AirPort Base Stations
If using an AirPort base station, make sure to have the latest firmware
update installed on your base station.

So it was an firmware update which solved the problems in earlier releases!

And even if the network perfomance would be poor, it shouldn't happen that I have to reenter the wifi password as soon as I start the remote app. I have an older Netgear Router lying around, I will try to use this one to do some tests.

My open question: How can analyse network problems on the iPhone, are there any log files I can access somehow?

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Answer 10

Jul 8, 2010 8:58 AM in response to MccoQy

The problems you seem to be describing could quite easily caused by interference or a poor network as suggested by Chenks.

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Answer 11

kg6onn

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Jul 10, 2010 1:57 PM in response to MccoQy

I have had also problems connecting to my Airtunes network. I used to be able to use the remote app fine on the previous ios system, but on ios 4. The remote will sometimes connect after a long long time. Other times it will not connect at all and I get the "check your firewall error." I made sure my firewall was down and it still does the same thing. I am using 3 Airport Express units, with one of them being my main internet connection. I have tried resetting my Airport Express units with still the same results with the remote app. I am starting to believe it may be a software issue with either the remote app or ios 4 or both. But I am no expert so that is why I am posting here.

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Answer 12

tpakkala

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Jul 12, 2010 2:15 PM in response to MccoQy

This is clearly an iOS4 issue. How do I know it? Because I have two iPod touches, other one running iOS 3.1.3 and the other one iOS 4. The 3.1.3 version connects pretty fast and reliably to my iTunes libraries, the newly updated iOS 4 version on the other hand is not really usable, it fails to connect more often than it connects and even when it succeeds to connect it takes painfully long time.

Very much hope that Apple gets this fixed soon, this is a pretty bad bug for me, I was using remote app to play all my music at home via Mac mini set up especially for this purpose, and now it doesn't work with the latest and greatest of Apple software, too bad...

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Answer 13

tpakkala

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Jul 12, 2010 3:06 PM in response to tpakkala

An update to my previous post. This problem seems to bug only iPod touch 3G devices running with iOS 4. Just tried iPod touch 2G running with iOS 4 and it seems to be working fine.

Based on my testing it looks like the iOS 4 version that supports multitasking is the problem. And the problem seems to be in general related to finding (Bonjour?) services in local network. It seems to bug also apps like Air Mouse Pro and EyeTV, which points to direction that the problem really is in multitasking version of iOS 4 somewhere in (Bonjour?) service discovery.

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Answer 14

MccoQy Author

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58 points

Jul 12, 2010 10:48 PM in response to kg6onn

Thank you all for sharing your problems, that does make me feel not so alone anymore. Well, as mentioned in the beginning I have two devices, an iPod Touch and an iPhone 4. The iPhone touch was running smooth without any problems on iOS 3.1.3. I did an upgrade to iOS 4 recently, and immediately I had the same connection problems on the iPod Touch. So even if iOS 4 is not the problem (as it works fine for others), it is at least a big part of the problem.

I think it has something to do with the multitasking feature. If i kill the Remote App in the Background and start it again it works good for a while. Can you please try this and tell me if this also helps for you (at least for a short while): Doubletap the Home-Button, look for the Remote App, tap and hold the icon of the Remote App until it starts shaking. It now has a small "minus"-sign in the left top corner. Tap the minus sign and the Remote App is closed. Tap the Home Button again to close this mode.

Thanks!

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Answer 15

dearl

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Jul 18, 2010 6:11 PM in response to MccoQy

+Additionally I noticed that I get disconnected from wifi very often when using the Remote App (and only when Remote App is running), I have to reenter the wifi password on the iPhone then.+

I'm getting this too. I don't have an AppleTV, I'm just using my iPhone4 to control my iTunes library. If I leave the Remote App open and let the phone go to sleep on its own it seems to lose the wifi connection when I wake the phone up, and I have to reenter the wifi password (usually two or three times). I didn't think much of it until I saw your post.

I had the 'stay connected' setting set to on and I decided to turn it off to see if that made a difference. I let the phone go to sleep on its own with the Remote app going and then woke it up and the wifi connection remained. I'm not sure if I need to let it sleep for longer to really know one way or the other, but I think this is sort of interesting.

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