How to get Disney Plus on Apple TV

You will not get the app on the Apple TV 3rd gen. The work around is by using an IPhone or IPad. On your IPhone or IPad download the Disney plus app and login in. Once logged in select a video to watch and play it on your iPhone or iPad. Once the video starts playing there will be an Apple Air Play button on the video window. Select the Apple Air button and a list of near by devices will pop up, select Apply TV. After you select the Apple TV under Air Play the video will begin to play from the device to the tv. Does that information help or would you like picture on how to perform this?

True, the Disney+ will not be installed on 3rd gen Apple TV but you can work around the issue. I downloaded the Disney+ app on my IPhone and IPad. Then I just used Air play to stream the video through my Apple TV. Works perfectly.

https://help.disneyplus.com/csp?id=csp_article_content&sys_kb_id=4c9e43591b058010a24eb8c11a4bcb82

Disney+ is supported on Apple TV HD (4th gen or later) and Apple TV 4K running tvOS 11.0 and later.

General Notes

• High-speed Internet is required
• HDCP and high-speed HDMI is required, with HDCP 2.2 required for 4K Ultra HD and/or HDR content
• For the best experience, we recommend using the most recent available operating system version

Unsupported Devices

• Apple TV 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation devices are not supported.

however:

Disney+ supports AirPlay between any iOS device and:

• Apple TV (running tvOS 11.0 or higher)
• 3rd generation Apple TV
• TVs compatible with AirPlay 2.

For optimal performance, we recommend installing the latest firmware available for your devices.

From AppleAdvisorMac

https://help.disneyplus.com/csp?id=csp_article_content&sys_kb_id=4c9e43591b058010a24eb8c11a4bcb82

Disney+ is supported on Apple TV HD (4th gen or later) and Apple TV 4K running tvOS 11.0 and later.

General Notes

• High-speed Internet is required
• HDCP and high-speed HDMI is required, with HDCP 2.2 required for 4K Ultra HD and/or HDR content
• For the best experience, we recommend using the most recent available operating system version

Unsupported Devices

• Apple TV 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation devices are not supported.

however:

Disney+ supports AirPlay between any iOS device and:

• Apple TV (running tvOS 11.0 or higher)
• 3rd generation Apple TV
• TVs compatible with AirPlay 2.

For optimal performance, we recommend installing the latest firmware available for your devices.

You can Disney+ via AirPlay on your iPhone or iPad to your Apple TV 3. It’s not an ideal situation, but it’s Disney’s choice, not Apple’s, to not support the third generation Apple TV’s. Disney also discontinued support for their Disney Channel apps on ATV 3s a few years ago.

Unfortunately you were told wrong , Disney + is an app that must be installed on the Apple TV. Only Apple TV 4th and 5th generations have the ability to install apps. Apple TV 3rd generations do not have an app store to download apps, therefore no ability to download the Disney + app.

I downloaded the DisneyPlus app on my iPhone XS Max and then used Airplay to connect to my 3rd Gen AppleTV. worked like a charm. Phone connected to my router via WiFi, Apple TV connected to router via Ethernet cable. It was quick and seamless and no hiccups, the quality was great (both sound and vid). Granted, this was at 5:00AM this morning and no other network traffic at my place, but even when everyone is home I've done this in the past (with other services) and it works without issue, if maybe a slight lag to start the show to buffer a bit.

I have a 3rd Gen Apple TV

when i logged into the Disney+ App on my iPhone it gave me the option to add Disney+ to the Apple TV App on the 3rd Gen Apple TV

i now can access Disney + through the Apple TV App on my 3rd Gen AppleTV

I am successfully watching “Lady and the Tramp” from Disney + through my AppleTV 3.

Turn on your tv and Apple TV 3 device, don’t go to the Apple TV app, just stay on the main page, launch Disney+ on your phone, tap in the upper right corner and choose AppleTV 3 and it played immediately, no buffering, great sound.

certainly not my favorite way, I would prefer to go through the app. But I’m still watching the movie while I’m typing this in a browser on my phone.

This privileged attitude from people is silly. The 3rd Gen Apple TV was released in 2012. There are TWO newer versions released since (and a new one coming shortly). Just in these last 8 years technology has moved forward so much. It makes sense for Apple not to dedicate a lot of resources to improving a product that is that old and out dated. And anyone saying “I hate Apple for this exact reason” is either ignorant to the world we live in or are being disingenuous to reality because EVERY tech company works in this exact same fashion. A fire stick or Roku from 2012 isn’t going to do the things that one from 2019 can do.

they could always buy a “Lightning to HDMI Adapter Converter” $15.00 from Prime. And run Disney+ for their iDevice (iPhone or iPad) directly into their TV.

“but Apple should just fix this”. Apple is working on Gen 6, that’s where their budget for Apple TV is focused. You think that they should dedicate resources to fix this one minor inconvenience, which means rebuilding their test lab to support the old software that is on the 3rdGen (that 6Gen software won’t work to test 3rd Gen)....because it is not just some simple act to update and release software...some one has to code it....they have to thoroughly test any changes they make before they release it...because if they don’t and there is some flaw that occurs...these same people whining about this app missing will throw a huge tantrum that the device itself is working or that there was some security hole in the software and they were hacked and robbed.

Disney+ on my iPhone 10 screen mirrored to my 3rd Gen AppleTV works fine enough for me on my main TV. yes, it is not ideal. But it works. Some people have made note that this setup I described is not working for them, that Disney+ isn’t working but other things can mirror without issue. I would assume that the Router is not configured correctly that it passes some traffic but not all.

burningjoe1 said and I agree:

"This privileged attitude from people is silly. The 3rd Gen Apple TV was released in 2012. There are TWO newer versions released since (and a new one coming shortly). Just in these last 8 years technology has moved forward so much. It makes sense for Apple not to dedicate a lot of resources to improving a product that is that old and out dated. And anyone saying “I hate Apple for this exact reason” is either ignorant to the world we live in or are being disingenuous to reality because EVERY tech company works in this exact same fashion. A fire stick or Roku from 2012 isn’t going to do the things that one from 2019 can do.

they could always buy a “Lightning to HDMI Adapter Converter” $15.00 from Prime. And run Disney+ for their iDevice (iPhone or iPad) directly into their TV.

“but Apple should just fix this”. Apple is working on Gen 6, that’s where their budget for Apple TV is focused. You think that they should dedicate resources to fix this one minor inconvenience, which means rebuilding their test lab to support the old software that is on the 3rdGen (that 6Gen software won’t work to test 3rd Gen)....because it is not just some simple act to update and release software...some one has to code it....they have to thoroughly test any changes they make before they release it...because if they don’t and there is some flaw that occurs...these same people whining about this app missing will throw a huge tantrum that the device itself is working or that there was some security hole in the software and they were hacked and robbed.

Disney+ on my iPhone 10 screen mirrored to my 3rd Gen AppleTV works fine enough for me on my main TV. yes, it is not ideal. But it works. Some people have made note that this setup I described is not working for them, that Disney+ isn’t working but other things can mirror without issue. I would assume that the Router is not configured correctly that it passes some traffic but not all."

You can mirror play from your phone to an older Apple TV. I couldn’t download the Disney+app to the Apple TV because it’s older, but I can mirror play it beautifully. It’s a good work around compared to buying a new Apple TV.

First off, I too am bummed that Disney+ wont work on a Gen3 AppleTV. Airplay works just fine, so if anyone in your hosuehold has an iPad or iPhone, it will still be just fine.

However, the Gen3 AppleTV was released in 2013. Gen4 AppleTV was released in 2015, dropping the price of the Gen3 to $150. Then in 2017, the Gen5 AppleTV (the 4K one) was released in 2017, dropping the price of the Gen4 to $150 and discontinuing the Gen3 completely.

So if you paid $150 for a 3rd Gen AppleTV that was discontinued in 2017 and since Disney+ was announced in Nov 2018. you got robbed.

I too have a 3rd Gen and was under the impression when I signed up for Disney+ several months ago it would work on the 3rd Gen. not the case , I just spoke with Apple support and Disney+ is only available on 4th Gen or newer.

My post is accurate, I suspect you may misunderstood something. Please remember Apple TV 3rd generation and 4th generation are completely different boxes. The 3rd generations have apps hard wired into them, there is no app store and the code is different that what is used on Apple TV 4th & 5th generation machines.

This is not about right and wrong, it's about software technology and having the right hardware to run the software on. I will give you an example. My current iMac is a 2011 iMac, the last version of Mac OS that machine will ever run is High Sierra 10.13.6, why because it simply does not have the hardware necessary to run Mac OS 10.14 or 10.15. So if I want to run 10.15, I need to buy a new Mac. It's that simple, nothing to whine about I just have old hardware that does not support current software.