Apple TV 3 UI freezing and then rebooting after pausing a video on Youtube

Hi all, there is a quick fix. If your ATV is version 3.1, grab a copy of the previous firmware here https://ipsw.me/download/AppleTV3,1/12H885.

The idea is to downgrade you Apple TV to v7.5 (Check your current installed firmware version by opening Settings, General, About. Ifyou're experiencing the YT pause-freeze problem, chances are you have v7.6 loaded.

Once you've got a copy of 12H885 (firmware v7.5 for ATV3.1), follow the steps below.

• Download the IPSW firmware as outlined above. If you have ATV3.2, you'll need to find compatible firmware.
• Unplug all the wires from your Apple TV and connect it to your computer via Micro-USB cable.
• Connect the power cord to your Apple TV and turn it on.
• Launch iTunes on your computer and wait for it to detect your Apple TV.
• Click on the Apple TV icon that appears in iTunes top bar. You’ll see two options below the device name and details. Eject Apple TV and Restore Apple TV.
• If using Windows, hold down the Shift key and then click on Restore Apple TV. If using a Mac, hold down the Alt/Option key and then click on Restore Apple TV button.
• As soon as you do that, a pop-up window will appear. Browse to where you saved the firmware file and select it. (The IPSW file).
• A confirmation message will appear, click on Restore to proceed.
• After doing this, the restoration process will start. It will take a few minutes. Don't disconnect the Apple TV while the restoration is in progress.
• Once it’s done, a new message will appear, telling that your Apple TV has been restored to the factory settings. Disconnect the Apple TV from your computer and return it to service
• Once it is powered up, it will go through some initialisation steps such as selecting language. You may also need to manually set the time zone.
• The most important step is to go into the Apple TV settings for Software Update and turn off auto updates. Otherwise you'll have to repeat the above steps.

That’s it! Once you are done with all these steps, it means your Apple TV has been downgraded to the v7.5 (or whatever other IPSW you choose).

Same here. Just updated to v.7.6 today and noticed that if I pause a video for more than 2 minutes AppleTV crashes and reboots. This happens every time.

I posted a video on YouTube reproducing the crash. Please let me know when it is fixed so I can remove the video. Here is a link:

https://youtu.be/4GZzWcHx6H0

All great workarounds. Unfortunately, this is not an Apple-sanctioned solution, an unofficial downgrade patch.

Talked to Apple Support yesterday after a week of no replies. They literally opened a web browser and googled a searched google.com for Apple TV 3. They want to wait on google to fix "their" app, which happens to be a locked component of the Apple TV 3 menu. As a customer, I want Apple to fix "their" broken device experience. Not exactly providing a motivator to upgrade to an Apple TV 4k.

Issue explained: https://tidbits.com/2020/09/28/third-generation-apple-tvs-suffering-from-apple-tv-software-update-7-6/

Example Video: https://youtu.be/4GZzWcHx6H0

Alternate Apple Thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251837222

Distraction Apple is leaning on Google for: https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/72724736?hl=en

@ ripchord, hmm, interesting (I'm in northeast USA). I started a new thread with a picture of the issue - I'll see if anyone else in my region is dealing with this/replies to it. Here's a link for anyone viewing this thread:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251902287

It definitely does... what a vacuum cleaner does... but if it's between that and waiting for Google to fix all of these YouTube issues, I'll just bite the bullet and upgrade. Our streaming services are dropping like flies from the G3 ATV!!

Thanks again for all of your help on these issues (and everyone else on the thread), you rock!

SOLVED: Problem with Youtube not responding when paused after software update to 7.6 FIXED!!!

Download Apple TV Software here: https://ipsw.me/product/AppleTV and make sure to choose your correct model since there are 2-models of ATV3 which are Apple TV 3 (2013) and Apple TV 3 ..... since I am not sure what model I have, I downloaded both but turned out my unit is ATV3 (2013) so I downloaded OS 8.4.3 (12H885) - 24th March 2020 - 878.18mb. No worries if you downloaded the wrong version as the system will prompt you if the .ipsw you are trying to install is not compatible (like what happened to me when I downloaded the ATV3 version only....)

Software Downgrade Process Using Mac Mini running Catalina 10.15.7 (19H2)

1. Disconnect ATV3 from TV including power cord.
2. Connect ATV3 to PC via Micro USB (ATV3) to USB (PC) and plug-in power cable to power source.
3. System detected my ATV3 and pop-up window appeared prompting me to restore.
4. Press and hold "alt option" key and click "restore".
5. Pop-up window will appear to select files to use. Go to "Downloads" and choose the .ipsw file you've downloaded earlier.
6. Choose open then ATV3 Software will start to restore with the downloaded version. Took me less than 5 minutes for restore to finish.
7. Disconnect ATV3 from PC and reinstall back to TV.
8. Run setup again and connect to your wifi network.
9. Test Youtube and play video, press pause if it works, GREAT! If not and problem persists, unplug ATV3 and repeat process.

Note: Make sure to use Micro USB DATA Cable since there are Micro USB cable that is used for charging devices only and not capable of data transfer.

These procedure I followed also using the link below:

https://kubadownload.com/news/downgrade-apple-tv-3/

SOLVED / UPDATED with hairy_kiwi's suggestion...

Depending on your ATV3.x version, grab a copy of the previous firmware (v7.5) here:

AppleTV 3.1 (A1427)

https://ipsw.me/download/AppleTV3,1/12H885 is firmware v7.5 - Filesize: 878.31 MB - Identifer: AppleTV3,1

AppleTV 3.2 (A1469)

https://ipsw.me/download/AppleTV3,2/12H885 is firmware v7.5 - Filesize: 878.18 MB - Identifier: AppleTV3,2

The idea is to downgrade you Apple TV to v7.5 (Check your current installed firmware version by opening Settings, General, About. Ifyou're experiencing the YT pause-freeze problem, chances are you have v7.6 installed.

Once you've got a copy of the appropriate firmware, follow the steps below.

• Unplug all the leads from your Apple TV and connect it to your computer via a micro-USB data cable.
• Connect the power cord to your Apple TV and turn it on.
• Launch iTunes on your computer and wait for it to detect your Apple TV.
• Click on the Apple TV icon that appears in iTunes top bar. You’ll see two options below the device name and details. Eject Apple TV and Restore Apple TV.
• If using Windows, hold down the Shift key and then click on Restore Apple TV. If using a Mac, hold down the Alt/Option key and then click on Restore Apple TV button.
• As soon as you do that, a pop-up window will appear. Browse to where you saved the firmware file and select it. (The IPSW file).
• A confirmation message will appear, click on Restore to proceed.
• After doing this, the restoration process will start. It will take a few minutes. Don't disconnect the Apple TV while the restoration is in progress.
• Once it’s done, a new message will appear, telling that your Apple TV has been restored to the factory settings. Disconnect the Apple TV from your computer and return it to service
• Once it is powered up, it will go through some initialisation steps such as selecting language. You may also need to manually set the time zone.
• The ***final important step*** is to go into the Apple TV settings for Software Update and turn off auto updates. Otherwise you'll have to repeat the above steps.

That’s it! Once you are done with all these steps, it means your Apple TV has been downgraded to the v7.5 and the pause function in YT should be working again.

Hi,

I followed all your steps but no pop-up window appeared at the following step so I couldn’t get to browse to my saved firmware and select it. It kept going without that option and Apple TV was acting the same as before. I think iTunes automatically downloaded the latest update without asking me.

• As soon as you do that, a pop-up window will appear. Browse to where you saved the firmware file and select it. (The IPSW file).

1. System detected my ATV3 and pop-up window appeared prompting me to restore.
2. Press and hold "alt option" key and click "restore".
3. Pop-up window will appear to select files to use. Go to "Downloads" and choose the .ipsw file you've downloaded earlier.

Just updated my 3rd gen AppleTV (A1469) to 7.6 today and am having the same exact issue. Notified YouTube through their "AppleTV Feedback" but I'm not holding my breath on anything coming out of that. Hate to go through the downgrade process - hoping Apple or the Community can come up with a fix or workaround.

Yes, I downgraded to v.7.5 myself yesterday and I plan never to upgrade again just because Apple asked me to.

AirPlay is not really a workaround, since you are running YouTube on a different device and you are using AppleTV simply as a wireless HDMI cable. You can also use your Xbox or PlayStation for YouTube and it wouldn't be a workaround either.

Hi ripchord, thanks for the reply and the link to the firmware. I found the firmware for my/the AppleTV 3.2 (A1469) from the same place you found it for the 3.1 (A1427) - apparently it IS a different version than for the 3.1. Here's a link: htthttps://ipsw.me/download/AppleTV3,2/12H885

I know it isn't difficult to do, but as Bward71 pointed out, it is effectively a full reset and involves disconnecting/reconnecting everything from my entertainment setup - not the end of the world, just a pain. And with my luck they'll release a patch a day or two after I go through the trouble!

Anyway, I probably WILL do it later today anyway. I'll come back and post my results for the community. Thanks for the help!!

Can confirm that the firmware for AppleTV 3.2 (A1469) found here: https://ipsw.me/download/AppleTV3,2/12H885 works to restore version 7.5 following ripchord's instructions above. I am once again able to pause a video in the YouTube app without any issues. It's pretty quick and painless. The worst part is restoring all of your settings and signing back in to all of your services, but it's worth it to restore the functionality.

Apple Support Community to the rescue, once again! Thanks again to ripchord and everyone else for all of the help! Keep up the great work!

Who knows when or even if Apple will get around to fixing this. Not sure how much of a priority the functionality of these older AppleTV models are to them.

That being said, the downgrade/restoration to tvOS 7.5 is pretty quick and painless, even if it seems somewhat daunting. Don’t be afraid! Ripchord’s instructions are spot-on and it works perfectly.

And we’re always here to help!

Glad to help out :)

@jkcymbal. I think it's a YouTube (Google) problem. Apple just supplies the hardware and Google is responsible for the software. The pause function works in other ATV apps in OS7.6, it's just YT with the problem.

Be sure to turn off auto update after this. It is automatically set to "ON" after the downgrade. Refer to my earlier post, or just add this step to the procedure...

* The most important step is to go into the Apple TV settings for Software Update and turn off auto updates. Otherwise you'll have to repeat the above steps.

Cheers, ripchord.