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Apple TV HD fails to complete Recovery Mode

My Apple TV HD suddenly stopped functioning and recommended I go to AppleTV Recovery. I have connected the AppleTV to my MacBook Pro (Catalina 10.15.4). It shows up on the Finder window. It is the stuck with "Your Mac is preparing to restore the software on this Apple TV" and under Locations, there is constantly spinning wheel - nothing has happened in the past 3 hours. I have internet speeds to 300 so that is not the issue. I have turned off antivirus, net barrier software etc.


Please advise.....

Posted on May 15, 2020 10:45 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 21, 2020 11:20 AM

Happy to hear it! I was using my newly restored Apple TV last night and thinking I was so glad I didn’t follow Apple’s advice to throw it away and buy a new one.


Hopefully others who experience this issue will find this thread and find it helpful.

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5 replies

May 20, 2020 7:07 PM in response to avalani

I had the same exact problem and called Apple support. They ran through all possible explanations for why I couldn’t restore from my MacBook Air. I had already tried all of their suggestions. Then they told me to buy a new Apple TV. Unsatisfied with that plan, and thinking that a new model is imminent anyway, I decided to wait to see if the restore would work again a week later. Tried again tonight - While the over the air update still wouldn’t work, I was able to successfully restore using an older firmware version from 2017 - the tvOS 10.2.2 (14W756) IPSW file (google it and you should be able to find it). Once you download that firmware to your Mac, it’s just a matter of holding down the Option key when you click Restore, then selecting that IPSW file. Mine worked within a few minutes. Then you can plug it back into your TV and update it back to the current software from there.

Apple TV HD fails to complete Recovery Mode

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