Play/pause button not working Apple Tv 4K

Hello everyone I hope all is well. I wanted to replace my old AV receiver, so I bought a 4K AV receiver and plugged the 4K Apple TV directly into it and all the problems with the pause and audio is gone. I know you shouldn’t have to buy a 4K AV to fix Apple TV issues. The only issue is sometimes when the AV is off and I’m watching the Apple TV through pass through the problem is back, only sometimes it’s crazy. All the Receivers today have night listening so not a big deal. If anyone has questions I will answer the best I can. Stay safe everyone!

Apple support said they had not heard of any update issues...

btw, remote on ipad to control the pple TV acts the same way, so it must be in the apple TV, not the remote.

I’m having the exact same problem starting a few days ago and only with Apple content, Disney+ works fine.

if I try to pause an Apple movie with the Siri remote on a 4th gen Apple TV HD, nothing happens, it just keeps playing.

If I use the remote app to pause it works but then it won’t play again.

If I then quit the movies app, reload it and try to resume the movie it errors out.

Playing from the start works but then can’t pause again or using the app, skip forward and play doesn’t work either.

I've tried re-pairing the remote and restarting the Apple TV, nothing works....

+1 here

I thought I was going crazy but it sounds very similar to what all of you are describing. Various home sharing content works fine - other files won't play, some will start playing but cannot pause or otherwise lock up the "Computers" app when attempting to pause or play. All of the file permissions and config are identical and many of the ones having problems are relatively small files while massive ones play fine. It has been difficult to pinpoint the source of the issue. Strangely it's just the Apple TV devices in the house - iOS devices on my network can stream all of the home sharing content with no problems.

2 x Apple TV HD 4th Gen on tvOS 14.3

1 x Apple TV 4k on tvOS 14.3

OMG! THANK YOU! This has been driving me nuts! Thought I was losing my mind. I have two ATVs, one HD and one 4K. One is in a stereo set up and the other in an Atmos theatre set up. Only the stereo setup was affected. So after hours of troubleshooting, switching out HDMI cables, network cables, wifi settings, reset TV to factory settings, reset ATV, changing resolutions, HDMI settings, etc., I decide to swap the ATVs. I pulled the ATV out of the theatre setup and put a n the stereo room and vice versa and to my utter astonishment, the bloody thing still didn’t work in the stereo room but the one that wasn’t working was now working correctly in the theatre room. Been pulling my hair out until I found this thread. I had isolated it to the ATV once I swapped the ATV rooms, was the only variable at that point but I would never have guessed or thought to change the output to stereo. How incredibly random of a glitch to affect play/pause playback.

Thanks again!

Apple... take note and please address in a software update!

No One Had Notified Apple About This Issue Until About 3 Weeks Ago When I Talked With Them In Support. Apple Doesn't Monitor This Community Forum So They Were Unaware. They Know Now That In The Update That There Is An Error In The Dolby Code. Until Now This Is The Only Fix That Solves The Pause/Play Issue.

Wow - finally found this thread

when I pause 4K/hdr content my device freezes up. Sometimes there’s even a glitch on the scrubbing line. I’m forced to exit the COMPUTERS app and to re-open it.

Im playing 4K HDR content from my MacBooks iTunes library. Used to work seemlessly - but have had difficulties as of late.

Took my AppleTV to the store for a diagnosis. They ended up giving me Just a new AppleTV 4K and after I updated it to 14.2 (mistakenly - like an idiot) all my problems came back!

Sorry to hear it but glad that more people are catching on. Homesharing is not so popular unless your really in the ecosystem - that’s why there’s not too much attention on this specific issue.

Ive been leaving beta updates on in the hopes Apple releases a patch. But until then I’m relying on Plex to do the job on my Apple TV.

All my other devices stream fine.

Lately it seems like 90% of my home sharing files won’t play via computers app. PLEASE LOOK INTO THIS APPLE.

A lot of the files that do not work via homesharing to my Apple TV 4K (Computers app) - WILL work on my older Apple TV 3rd gen.

Some still don’t but that may be due to some files and distance from router. However my Apple TV 4 seems to be handling files more poorly.

hope there’s a fix soon

Glad that is worked! I know a lot of people are still discovering this problem so I’m certain they will also stumble across these posts.

I feel your pain. I actually got Apple to replace my unit when even their technician found an issue when playing content. Accidentally updated my unit and bang, the issue occurred again.

I even signed up for Plex and funnelled my content through there for a while. But it was a truly bizarre experience.

Hey Apple! When I called - no one in support had any clue what I was talking about. Gotta speed it up and scan these boards full time!

Does anyone have this issue when connected to a 4K amp/receiver?

My Apple TV is connected to tv, but the issue stops when I connect it to my none 4K amp.

so I can get surround sound but no 4K picture or a 4K picture and no surround sound

I didn’t speak to anyone from Apple about this. I found the bug. I found a fix for it. I wrote the fix here.

I thought updating my Apple TV would fix the issue. It didn’t.

I thought updating my software to the very latest version (Second letter of Greek alphabet) would fix it. It didn’t.

They removed my original post because it included the second letter of the Greek alphabet.

We can only hope Apple’s Software engineers are aware of the issue now and a proper fix is in the works for a future software update.

Apple TV tvOS 14.4 doesn’t fix the home sharing computer app! Still can’t pause and only getting stereo sound! How hard is it to fix, the Apple TV HD doesn’t have this problem, only 4K version. Apple are you reading these post on your website of customers giving feedback, because only customers are responding to my post not you! I appreciate all the help from the people on the form, thank you.