Nimbus Controller not working on tvOS 14.5

So I was able to fix my problem. Here's what I did:

• Open the bluetooth menu on the ATV
• Put Nimbus controller into bluetooth pairing mode (does not show up in bluetooth menu on ATV)
• Put a pair of bluetooth headphones into pairing mode next to ATV (these DO show up in bluetooth menu)
• Select headphones on ATV and connect to them
• NOW the Nimbus shows up in the menu and I can connect with it. Controller works properly.

After that I can disconnect the headphones and the controller stays connected. Controller also automatically reconnects after sleeping and waking ATV.

No idea why this worked for me. Hope it helps others with the same problem. Also no idea if this is the fault of Apple or Steelseries, but it needs to be fixed. What's the point of an MFi certification program if the devices don't work as expected?

I finally got my SteelSeries Nimbus controllers working.

I did the following

turned off Bluetooth on all nearby iOS devices and turned off Apple TV

made sure both controllers were fully charged

pressed and held the WiFi button in until the entire row of four lights was blinking simultaneously

connected to each to my iPhone 12. On iPhone I changed the Bluetooth name of one of the devices to “nimbus 2”

Forgot each device on my iphone and then disabled Bluetooth on phone temporarily

rebooted Apple TV

pressed and held the wifi button again on the controllers

added them to Apple TV and as “nimbus” and “nimbus 2”

I found a solution to nimbus+ not connecting! This comes straight from SteelSeries customer support and it worked for me so I’m sharing it with everyone here.

Chubs (SteelSeries Customer Experience) 

Jun 1, 2021, 1:07 PM CDT 

Hello,

Thanks for reaching out! Try the following...

1: Disconnect and forget every Bluetooth connection in Apple TV

2: Charge the Nimbus+ for at least 10 minutes

3: Switch off Bluetooth of every iPad and iPhone

4: Put power off from apple tv and connect again

5: Then connect another Bluetooth device in Apple TV (a Bluetooth speaker for example)

6: Disconnect and forget this bluetooth device in Apple TV

7: Now the Nimbus should appear in the Bluetooth menu and you can connect

Let me know if this helps!

cheers!

hi. i appreciate your posting this as my son notified me that our original NIMBUS had also quit working today. i think you are right that the 14.5 tvOS update must have mucked with the existing bluetooth device connection. i was able to get it working again with the following:

1/ unpaired the device.

2/ completely unplugged my apple tv.

3/ plugged apple tv back in.

4/ re-paired the device.

Now it is working at the moment. Hopefully there won't be further issues.

Was in the same situation yesterday. Today the Steelseries Nimbis is working on my new ATV 4K 2021.

1. Disconnected and removed the Nimbus from all other Apple devices.
2. Switched ATV 4K 2021 on and tried to pair the Nimbus with the Bluetooth button pressed longer then 3 secs => it failed to connect.
3. Switched the HOLD button of the Nibus off - and on again. The Nimbus started automatically pairing by itself without me pressing the Bluetooth button. Now it is connected.

After some messing around I see that you can “fix” the issue every time by going into the Bluetooth settings and select “disconnect” wait a moment and then select “connect” (on the Nimbus device) and it works each time.

Hi, maybe you try what was proposed here earlier in this discussion , just try to pair another none Nimbus bluetooth device first, this may work and after this your Nimbus will be detected suddenly and will be listed in the list of devices to pair on Apple TV 4k. It worked for me. I tried that with a just simple bluetooth radio I have standing around here ... It could somehow be found immediatly, I paired it. After this I turned on the Nimbus+ and suddenly it was listed and I could pair it also ...

Try this: pair another none Nimbus bluetooth device first, this may work and after this your Nimbus will be detected suddenly and will be listed in the list of devices to pair on Apple TV 4k. It worked for me. I tried that with a just simple bluetooth radio I have standing around here ... It could somehow be found immediatly, I paired it. After this I turned on the Nimbus+ and suddenly it was listed and I could pair it also ...

I have the same Problem, which is pretty annoying but I'm able to resolve it... until the next reboot.

I have both: a new 2021 ATV 4k and the "old" model with the following behavior:

• If you reboot your ATV, the controllers connect and are listed as connected, but they don't work
• To resolve the issue: disconnect/unpair the controller
• Connect/Pair the controller again... and they will work until the next reboot

We use 4 controllers... and yes, it's annoying :-)

If you connect another blue tooth device first (not iPhone or iPad) like headphone or similar, you can then connect Steelseries Nimbus controller. It worked for me.

I had the same problem with my AppleTV 4K and Nimbus controllers.

I was able to resolve the problem by unpairing them and re-pairing them.

Hello, I am experiencing exactly the same issue as described in the main Question.

2 Nimbus bluetooth controllers connected ok, but totally unresponsive.

This is an Apple TV 4k 5th generation I bought in 2017 when it came out.

I discovered that unpairing and pairing the controllers again fixes the issue temporarily.

However, if Apple TV is restarted (System->Restart) or power is disconnected, when Apple TV starts, the issue happens again.

No connection issues, both controllers report as connected, but completely unresponsive.

This never happened before tvOS 14.5, so I guess this tvOS version introduced the issue ?

I think there are 2 Bugs:

1) Not Seen if the first device is a Nimbus on ATV 2021

2) connected but Not responding After sleep/reboot intoduced in 14.5 Not fixed in 14.6

workaround:

for 1) Connect another Bluetooth device First to your ATV (Bluetooth Headset/Keyboard…) After that the Nimbus could be found

for 2)

unpair/pair every Time

If you unpair and pair the controllers they work until you shut the controllers down and turn them on again.

Thanks for the earlier advice. I was able to connect my Nimbus to my iPhone and only after that I could connect the Nimbus to my new Apple TV. How peculiar. Yet at least it’s now connected.