Netflix app becomes slow on Apple TV

Like any browser with too many tabs open, Apple TV uses memory keeping unused apps open. Netflix is affected more than others for some reason. The solution that works for me is to close all apps you currently are not watching. On your Apple remote, double click on the Home button (looks like a TV) and you will see all of the open apps displayed (similar to an iPad). Swipe left/right to select the apps, then swipe up to close the app. Netflix should run normally.

Reposting here:

Like any browser with too many tabs open, Apple TV uses memory keeping unused apps open. Netflix is affected more than others for some reason. The solution that works for me is to close all apps you currently are not watching. On your Apple remote, double click on the Home button (looks like a TV) and you will see all of the open apps displayed (similar to an iPad). Swipe left/right to select the apps, then swipe up to close the app. Netflix should run normally.

Slow Netflix on Apple TV - fixed.

My Netflix took over 1 minute to start playing a selected item. My "My List" had 4 rows of items in it. After removing all but 5 from the list, the "play" response went down to a few seconds. On 18 Nov 2019, I notified Netflix of the problem and the fix at my end, so they should fix it at their end now instead of blaming Apple TV.

Quick update: So 2.5 weeks ago (Nov 20th) I followed some advice I learned about on this thread 1. I closed all the apps on my Apple TV, AND 2. I removed everything in "My List" on Netflix. That seemed to fix the problem for me. Before Netflix was almost unusable because it was sooo slow that I couldn't even browse their content at all. Now the app seems to be working at about 95%. It still gets a little laggy at times, but it's not really a problem.

I had about 20 app sessions open on my Apple TV, and I must have had 50-60 items in "My List" on Netflix.

That being said Netflix really should work without people having to do this kind of housekeeping.

Try turning off the auto-play previews setting from Netflix.com. I had this issue on my older Apple TV and after disabling the previews it became more responsive. Netflix hot loads every preview as you browse through your list and it seems that the preview downloads may be bogging down the UI.

Turning off Previews (through the Netflix Website) has worked for me.

Too bad that now it won’t even play a Preview when you click-through to a “Product-Page”. But, it is more than worth it for the “list-view” scrolling!

Going on 2 months now, and still smooth scrolling!

I HAVE THE ANSWER - Log in to netflix on your browser.. again the key thing is browser..

Go to setting and search for the playback setting.. once you find that UNCHECK the trailer playback... Save that..

back to your AppleTv.. restart the AppleTV.. and all will be fixed...

Done... Like me and worship me ok..

Another workaround is to double tap the Home button to show the App Switcher and slide up to kill the Netflix app. Starting it again will refresh the app a little faster than restarting the entire Apple TV box. Again, it's just a workaround and should be fixed by the developer.

It seems to me that the title graphics, program info and trailer clips keep loading concurrently as you scroll through the library. Eventually you have trailer clips loading for dozens of different shows even after you've scrolled past them, and they continue to load until the app grinds to a halt. This effect is made worse by a slow internet connection.

I’ve had the same issue, couldn’t find an answer anywhere until I’ve tried turning off an option to match frame rate under video settings.

This seems to have solved my issue, Apple TV is now locked into 60hz FPS and Netflix is scrolling without issues.

You have to

1. Go to Settings on the App
2. Sign Out
3. Restart ATV
4. Relaunch Netflix App
5. sign In.

That did it for me.

But now they need a “Play Preview” button on the Landing-Page for an Item.

With AutoPlay Previews OFF, it does seem to avoid the slowdown issue; but at the expense of ALL Previews!

The best compromise would be either AutoPlay the Preview on the Landing-Page once you click on an Item, or if you Long-Tap an Item in the Tile List.

Mine was doing the same thing with the menu. Mine also was soo laggy. Mine seems to be working ok now. Delete the Netflix app. Then go to settings, system, then restart. After it restarts re install Netflix. Did this yesterday and mine seems to be working good so far. Hope that works for ya. Hopefully it will stay that way. Lol.

I also changed the Netflix PC browser setting some time ago. The setting is called "Autoplay previews while browsing on all devices". I made sure the setting was off. The setting is not available in the Apple Tv app.

Some time last week the Apple TV Netflix app stopped showing automatic previews on my Apple TV box. I can now scroll 'My List' without any trouble.

Same problem here.

As several have already said, it definitly looks like a memory management issue.

Any operation that reduce the memory required by the app may improve it :

• removing items from your list
• disabling automatic preview
• last but not least: deleting unused profiles ; the issue started for me as soon as I created a fifth profile, and disappeared totally once I removed one of them.

However I find it is a shame to have such an bug with a widely used app, and be forced to reduce the perimeter of the features...

Have you tried using the app switcher? Press the home key on the remote twice, then swipe up to quit each app, including Netflix. The Apple TV seems to keep as open, even after restarting. Quitting all apps this way fixed the issue for me on my 4K ATV.

I had the same issue . Deleting the Netflix app and installing again fixed my problem .

On Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD highlight the app and hold down the Touch surface or Select until the app starts to jiggle. Then press the Play/Pause button and choose Delete . 

Now install the app again , issue should be fixed .