Can’t swipe to close apps

You shouldn’t have to close apps, unless they misbehave. Background apps should go in a sleep state, until they are activated again.

Switch quickly between Apple TV apps - Apple TV User Guide - Apple Support

• • On the Siri Remote, press the TV/Home button twice quickly.
  • In app-switching view, swipe left or right on the Touch surface of the Siri Remote to navigate to a different app
  • Swipe up on the Touch surface of the Siri Remote to force the highlighted app (the app in the center of the screen) to quit.

If you can navigate in all four directions on the Home Screen, then this should work too.

I had this issue as well. I was able to swipe in the menu just fine, but after the double click it would not lot me swipe between the open apps and it would not let me swipe up and/or close an app this way. It seemed that every swipe was received as a left swipe instead (no matter if up or right).

I solved the issue by connecting the apple TV via USB C to my MacBook. I opened and ran it in my itunes. After disconnecting it from the laptop and connecting the HDMI again the issue was resolved.

I have had this issue since the update as well. The workaround that I found is if you have an iPhone you can download the Apple TV remote app from Apple and the swiping works fine to close the apps the way it used to on the actual remote. It’s annoying in general to have to use another item to get it to work but that should help until they fix the bug hopefully 😊

Ok, found a solution or at least workaround. I powered it off completely from the cable. After turning it on again everything was back to normal. I can now swipe close the apps. I couldn’t do it even from the remote app on my phone and iPad.

Hi, you could follow the method shown below from Switch apps on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

Swipe up from the bottom to the middle of your screen and hold until you see the App Switcher.

Here are some photos

it is stuck here- I can click on home screen button and get back to the show I was watch or click on track pad and go to home screen I cannot access the other windows.

not sure if pictures posted in right order, but I hopefully this illustrates the issue

I have this issue too.

After double clicking the Home button, the scrolling left and right between apps is very jittery, and it's almost impossible to get it to swipe up to close an app, or even manage to select the right app just to switch between them.

This worked perfectly before updating to TV OS 13.

I've tried rebooting the Apple TV, but it's still the same.

I’m having the same issue....all of a sudden after updating. I tried switching remotes from a dead Apple TV4 (don’t get me started about that) and still the same issue.

Hopefully Apple is aware and is fixing the issue

I have the exact same problem. Trackpad works perfectly on the home screen, but after double-clicking the home button to enter the app switcher the trackpad stops working.

Unplugging and re-plugging the AppleTV resets it and fixes the problem, but it eventually comes back after some time.

@Apple, are you listening?

what Is strange is that I have 3 Apple TV’s - only one of them has this issue.

So, Apple- it is NOT that we need you to tell us HOW to close apps, but that we can not navigate to open apps (to select OR close them) when double hitting the home button.

I double hit the home screen and quickly can see all the apps, then it stacks all the windows and quickly pushes the stack to the left with home screen in top. I CANNOT scroll right (or left) it is stuck on home screen window. Not only can’t close an app, but I can’t even scroll through to select or see the apps I have open. Say I want to get back to where I was in an HBO movie and was watching CNN briefly, usually I would double click the home button and wipe/scroll through the apps back to my HBO movie, I can’t it immediately locks in on home window and now I have to go back to HBO manually. So I can’t just quickly go back and forth using this awesome feature anymore. I also like closing my apps so that I can keep all the apps/shows I’m watching in this quick access window.

because 2 of my Apple TV’s work fine, I think that there may be a sequence bug or conflict created by the last update. I have not checked to see what TvOS version is on all of my Apple TV’s to verify if all of them have been updated to the same version- but because they are all on auto update and are used daily, I am assuming this is the case.

Apple- we need an update, please, to fix.

Many people have clearly explained the same exact problem. Apple insists on telling us how to use the feature. We know how to use the feature. That is why we are reporting to you that the feature does not work. Do you get this? Are these answers from Apple just robot responses? The feature does not work. Hard resetting the unit will bring it back. It will stop working again shortly after that. How many people have to report the same exact problem before Apple has a useful response or at least an acknowledgment that the problem exists? What we get is absolutely nothing. And it’s not just this problem, this is pandemic across Apple and how it addresses user-reported problems. Steve, Tim has screwed your company up so bad.

I had this same problem and hard resetting it worked. Unplug the Apple TV from the main power source and leave unplugged for at least 6 seconds. I plugged it back in and was able to swipe between apps with no problem.

Apple are you testing this product? My Apple TV develops this issue every night since the last upgrade. I unplug it, and it resolves until the next evening. It is a colossal pain. We know how to use the app switcher. It isn't working! We really need a fix for this.

After the most recent tvOS 13.3.1 the swipe up to close apps fails to work intermittently. With the task list on the screen, swipe right or left scrolls the open apps, but the swipe up for the app in the current focus does not work reliably.

i can get it to work by going in and out of the app eventually. This is a pain for my Hulu Live TV, since that app is very unstable on Apple TV and freezes and has to be forced closed frequently. The swipe to close worked perfectly with 13.3 but there has been a regression in 13.3.1 that makes force closing very difficult.

Isn't it ridiculous that this happens with our appleTV every time apple has an update? I am so tired of having to unplug a device to get the thing to work. It's so DOS or Windows... reboot to get it to work the way IT'S SUPPOSED TO WORK. UGH. Thank you for posting the question! Yes, we have this issue too.