Netflix app becomes slow on Apple TV

Sounds like their support guy was making up stuff when he didn't know the real answer. I have an old Roku (way less powerful processor than the ATV) and a cheap $40 Android tablet. The Netflix apps on both of those devices have no issues and run faster than on my ATV.

Their Apple TV app is buggy on ATV4, and they don't seem to care or their engineers can't figure out the issue. Only if more people had the issue would they probably prioritize a fix.

You might be right, but I found it odd that all the other streaming apps I have don’t have any lag issues (ESPN, Spectrum, History, Disney+, Prime, etc.) Since it’s localized just on the Netflix app, that’s why I was thinking it was their issue. From what I understand about streaming, what the Netflix support person said seemed like the most plausible explanation.

Oh, it's no doubt their issue. I just meant their explanation made no sense (as an app developer), since the Netflix app on other devices does the same thing (preloads previews), and yet doesn't have the same problems.

The responsiveness of a UI should take priority over preloading previews. If their engineers don't know that, they should be fired. I have a feeling it's just a bug they can't figure out or haven't even looked into.

Same issue. 4th gen Apple TV. The longer I use Netflix, the slower it gets. It’s all the time, too. There is never a time when I’m using Netflix and it doesn’t start to slow down. It’s horrible and it’s only the Netflix app. Incidentally, it’s also the only device it’s occurring on; this issue is non existent on my 5th gen.

Is Netflix lacking a QA team? How are they not aware of this issue? I stopped using Netflix entirely on that 4th gen ATV because of how unusable it is.

I'm using the Apple TV 4K and the only problem I had when streaming TV shows was in Netflix. The streaming was slow and viewing was gritty! Try updating your playback settings in Netflix. It's not a perfect fix, but I did notice a difference. Under your account, go to playback settings >streaming,>and update to "high." It's not a perfect fix and I still have some of that gritty screen, but streaming was a bit better.

I have the same problem. Had for a long time. It is now more than 6 months since first comment on this. I will also add that the Amazon app is equally slow. I am guessing it is a shortcoming of Apple TV itself, either too little RAM or too slow shifting data between non volatile storage and RAM. That or poor management of resources in the apps themselves.

I have the same problem with Netflix constantly slowing to a crawl in its UI. The problems do not happen at all in Prime, Hulu, or any other apps -- just Netflix. Tried reinstalling Netflix but the problem just returns again after the UI is used again for a few minutes.

Bit the bullet and bought an Apple TV 4K and the problem went away. It sucks that Netflix seemingly chose to ignore all the ATV Gen 4 people out there. I honestly can't wait for more streaming options to flourish so that either Netflix improves their customer support or I can satisfyingly jump ship to a competitor.

Not sure what qualifies as large. I have about 40 items in my list.

Even on the ATV 4K, Netflix is slightly slower than other apps, but it's not like ATV 4th Generation.

Also, the large "My List" issue might be something else. On ATV 4th Gen the app was unusable. Scrolling down the page or across sections got progressively slower after the app started -- even with nothing in My List.

Try increasing your list to 200 items, say, and spend 10 to 20 minutes scrolling around in it. It sounds like the 4th Gen problem you had is different from this problem as reported by others.

I'm pretty sure that the Netflix app is buffering many short segments of video into memory on a persistent basis, causing the processor to thrash trying to manage memory. Boundary conditions like this often find their way through QA. And in large semi dysfunctional organizations like Netflix and many others, problems like this are never corrected. I'm thinking of cancelling Netflix because of the aggravation combined with them slipping as a content provider generally.

What you say could be true. But most people here were having the issue even without a large My List.

I had the issue that everyone here described: namely the app gets progressively slower the longer you use it (regardless of My List size). Removing the app from the background, or reinstalling it or restarting ATV, momentarily helps but then the app gets slower again.

I'm not saying that the size of My List couldn't be a problem even on ATV 5th Gen, just that on ATV 4th Gen there was a much bigger issue with the app.

I get the problem very quickly just starting to scroll the rows of movies in this fashion:

first row: see through. Is okish.

next row: see through. Tiny bit slower.

next row: see through. Slightly slower.

next row: see through. Slow.

next row: see through. even slower

next row: see through. Really sluggish. Everything loads like molasses.

next row: now you really have to wait about 3-5 seconds before it even updates anything.

seems like **** poor memory management to me, but what do I know?

I’d say that the people at Netflix has done a poor job if people have to delete their wanted films to be able to use their app... now that Disney is breathing them in the neck, they should strive to at least make their app a good experience to use.