Apple TV 3rd gen YouTube freezes when pausing video

Updating now... and yes it appears to work as it should.

Why did it take so long to fix?

> I'VE DONE THAT TOO, BUT IT AUTOMATICALLY INSTALLS THE LATEST SOFTWARE ON ITS OWN.

After downgrading ATV to the previous firmware and running ATV - do not connect via Wi-Fi to your router - hit Menu(Back) on the Apple remote - to continue the start up process. Then go to Settings - General - Software Updates and set Update Automatically to Off. Then go to General - Network - Wi-Fi and enter your router parameters.

If you connect ATV via a LAN cable, do not plug it in until disabling Software Updates, then plug it in.

in other words, do not let ATV to connect to the Internet before disabling software updates))

Wow. 8 pages of mere "Level 1" posters actually diagnose and solve the problem for the OP. It's a bug introduced by an Apple TV firmware upgrade. It's not YouTube or needing a reset. How can a "Level 10" poster be so wrong, double down and lash out at people with a problem? There should be an unhelpful button or filter.

It is very good to know the [relatively easy] firmware downgrade procedure solves the issue of youtube-hang-when-pause. To circumvent unwanted update even when Automatic Update is turned off, I see two easy solutions:

(a) (i) Delete all of the wifi ID's and Pwd's; (ii) use physical hardwired ethernet cable which, by the way, works much faster and is not interrupted around walls, corners, and neighboring devices; (iii) unplug network cable when done watching Apple TV, just like when you switch of TV and other A/V systems and turning off the lights.

(b) (i) keep wifi turned off (disabled) when not in use; (ii) when want to use Apple TV, go to Settings and turn ON wifi; (iii) when through with Apple TV, turn OFF wifi.

I would be very surprised if tvOS knows how to turn its wifi on by itself when asleep. If this is the unlikely case, one could set up a second router only for the Apple TV, and simply unplug that router or switch OFF its power; routers power-up much faster than does the tvOS kernel.

There’s a thread over at Google about this and it finally got a official response.

https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/72724736?hl=en&msgid=80633586

Not much but it’s a start.

Also set the Sleep After to 15 min.

Finally, after installing latest update, it works!

ONE CAVEAT OR RECOMMENDATION. I TRIED TWO MICRO USB CORDS AND NONE OF THEM WORKED ON EITHER MY IMAC OR MAC BOOK PRO. THE APPLE TV, WAS NOT RECOGNIZED BY EITHER COMPUTER, BECAUSE OF FAULTY CORDS. BE SURE TO FIND A CORD THAT WORKS. EVEN IF YOU HAVE BRICKED YOUR DEVICE, IF YOU HAVE A GOOD WORKING AND SOLID CORD, YOUR COMPUTER WILL RECOGNIZE THE DEVICE. THE THIRD CORD WAS THE CHARM.

I bought a basic ROKU for CDN $40. It works and does not have the Apple TV software bugs. However I do really prefer the Apple TV interface, so hoping Apple gets this fixed and I can return to the Apple family.

I have the same problem. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video work fine, though. This problem is really annoying! I haven't found anything about this on YouTube either.

EXACTLY MAKES NO SENSE. IT'S A APPLE TV ISSUE AND NOT YT. IT STARTED WITH APPLE TV UPDATE.

Apple TV software 7.6.1 was released in the last few days and (drum roll please)... does not fix the issue. : (

No updates for years(?) then we get 7.6 they breaks YouTube and 7.6.1 that doesn't fix things.

I have the same problem with our Apple TV gen 3. I have tried the following:

1. restart the modem
2. connect the Apple TV through cable
3. reset the Apple TV

None of these work and still YouTube freezes and crashes when I pauze a video. It doesn’t matter what type of video it is, I tried a range of different ones.

Here is a workaround as provided by BMfromV:

1. Download the old version of the firmware. For me it was the version from 24th March 2020 (I took it from https://ipsw.me/product/AppleTV). Be careful in choosing your version of Apple TV!

2. Connect the Apple TV to the computer via a micro-usb cable.

3. Restore the downloaded firmware (for more details https://www.imyfone.com/apple-tv/downgrade-apple-tv/).

4. Disconnect from computer and connect to TV.

5. All data is lost and you need to configure everything from the beginning