AppleTV 4th Gen bad WiFi

Question

AppleTV 4th Gen bad WiFi

The ATV has poor performance at random times of day.

There are roughly 10 devices on the network. I have tested dropping all devices and Netflix randomly slows and buffers. It performs fine for most of the day. Dropping doesn't always occur at one time of day. I have played three HD streams simultaneously over WiFi and it performs fine. In fact, at the period where the stream fails on AppleTV, it runs fine over my Macbook and other devices fine, simultaneously at the same moment. I have also verified putting the devices at the same location of the AppleTV at the same moment the stream buffers and it performs fine. I have verified with new and old devices alike.

I have a few theories why it might be an issue for myself and the thousands of people who are affected. The first is that Apple is intentionally rate limiting to either pressure to upgrade or push out competitors. The second one is that the AppleTV 4th gen is barely able to handle an HD stream and maybe there's a background process occurring simultaneously killing the buffering performance. The third is that the WiFi chip isn't up to task and maybe there are even more people and devices overloading the channels, but this wouldn't explain why no other devices I own are exhibiting this behaviour, since many are outfitted with only N devices.

Has anyone out there been able to resolve this persistent issue?

Edit: note that I recently factory reset and upgraded to ensure a clean slate after the problems began.

Posted on Feb 23, 2021 9:37 PM

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Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,488 points

Feb 24, 2021 9:17 AM in response to slippery-fische

It is possible you are a candidate for a Mesh network. You mentioned your network currently supports about 11 devices however what we don't know is the layout of your home. About 2.5 years ago, I had an issue with my Apple TV 4K getting dropped signals, in my case the wireless router was at the opposite end of our 2500 sq. ft. 1 story home. We tried using an extender for the Apple TV but that failed so I ended up investing in a Mesh network, the one I got was the Google Mesh but there are lots available now. After installing the Mesh network my Apple TV has been extremely stable and we even now get Wi-fi on the back patio and in the garage where we never used to.

It is just something to consider. Read up on Mesh networking and see if your home may be a candidate. As we add more and more internet and wi-fi devices these all take a toll on our old networks and to enjoy these devices we need to have a robust network.

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Answer 2

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,488 points

Feb 23, 2021 10:15 PM in response to slippery-fische

Both of your theories are silly and make zero sense. Your issue is likely either an network issue in which case I'd recommend:

1. Restart Modem.

2. Restart Router

3. Unplug Apple TV from Power for 2-3 minutes – re-plug in and retest.

or its a more bandwidth issue on your current network. Is your current network a Mesh network?

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Answer 3

Feb 24, 2021 8:59 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Thanks for getting back.

As I pointed out, this occurs regardless of whether other devices are on the network and I am able to play the exact same stream from other devices new and old on the network at the same moment of time from the same location.

I have done the resets, including power cycling many times before.

No, I do not use a mesh network. I have a fairly new TP-Link Archer C7, which supports AC, and I keep both channels open and distribute devices across the bands based on bandwidth needs and distance. (ie. further devices use the 2.4ghz band) I do not use any prioritization in the router configuration. It is updated to the latest firmware.

I'm not sure why you think the theories are ridiculous. If you've ever put your iPhone on low power, you see performance boosts both in battery use and in running applications because many services are disabled or reduced such as notifications, so apps don't occupy as much memory or swap threads as often.

Unfortunately, I don't have the length of cat5e or cat6 to route to the living room from the office to test if it's specifically the WiFi. Since the issue is sporadic through the day, it's difficult to reproduce. It happens most days for about two hours with varying levels of performance degradation -- from absolutely awful, remote-throwing quality of buffering every minute to once every fifteen minutes.

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AppleTV 4th Gen bad WiFi

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