Apple TV 4K Keeps Cutting Out - How Do I Fix This?

Spent over an hour on the phone with Apple the other day and they ended up escalating it because none of the troubleshooting did anything…

Their suggestions were:

• connect directly to the modem with Ethernet one tv/tv box and see if the issue goes away - may point to network issue
• sign out of all tv boxes, App Store, iTunes, etc, then sign into just one and see if the issue goes away
• sign out and go back to factory settings on all tv boxes, sign back in and see if the issues go away
• power off all electronics in the house, turn on one tv, see if the issue goes away - may point to interference issues

None of their suggestions addressed why it was happening just to shows on Apple TV channel but not youtube, Netflix, other third party apps…

The only other things that came out that I’ve also experienced in the last month (time period when the channel issue started), is being signed out and asked for sign back in more often… Sometimes more than once a day, when previously I only had to sign in after signing out… I can watch shows on Apple TV from channels I’ve subscribed to through Apple, but the corresponding third party app won’t let me ‘restore purchases’/recognize that I have a subscription, ex Paramount+… No idea if it’s related but on the list of odd things that started this month…

They’re calling me tonight to follow up… Fingers crossed…

As far as I could gather from my troubleshooting, I've narrowed down the problem to three potential causes of this issue.

1. The issue only shows up when I have the video outputting at 4K. When I switch the display to 1080p SDR or HDR, the problem goes away forever. After switching from 1080p to 4K, the problem shows up less frequently in the beginning and then starts occurring more often. However, it also appears that the HDMI cable is not a problem here as I have used everything from the most expensive to the cheapest cable (i fact, every single cable available at my local retailer) and the problem is still there.
2. The problem seems to be specific or at least, highly probable with Sony TVs in particular. I have tried the same apple tv with Samsung TVs without any such problems. on the other hand, another apple tv 4k of the same kind also shows the same problem with my Sony TV. Neither ATV4K shows any problems with the Samsung.
3. From looking at different forums, it appears that the problem is more common in <2019 Sony TVs.

I'm pretty sure that this is at least in part, a Sony problem. However, Apple is equally at fault for charging so much for a product and still not making sure that the device works well on all the widely used 4K devices, especially form one such as Sony.

I have been able to solve this problem on my own ATV4K after a lot of troubleshooting. There is a small compromise but it is working for now.

My setup:

Sony 2018 55” 4K TV which supports HDR10 and HLG. ATV4K connected to HDMI3 which supports 4k HDR/HLG and Onkyo receiver connected to HDMI2 which supports ARC and 4K HDR/HLG. ATV connected using HDMI certified ultra high speed 2.1 cable and receiver connected using HDMI 2.0 cable.

My Troubleshooting:

1. I tried switching my ATV4K with another same gen ATV to see if it was my particular ATV which was faulty which was not the case. The other ATV showed the same issues.
2. I used the fastest available HDMI cable to avoid any bandwidth bottlenecks. Used an HDMI certified one as an extra measure. Again, did not change the situation.
3. Tried the two ATVs on a different brand (Samsung) TV while also checking that the wifi range was similar for both TVs. Samsung TV showed no such problems. Then hooked up the ATV to a friend’s Sony TV form 2017 and had similar problems.
4. When hooked up to ATV HD instead of ATV4K, all three TVs worked without any problems. It appeared that the problem was specific to ATV4K and Sony TVs together.
5. Then Tried upgrading to a higher internet speed in case that was a problem, although that was probably not the cause since my current speed supported multiple 4K streams without significant buffering or lag. As expected, did not mitigate the issue.
6. My final attempt was to check if it was a problem with the port itself. I changed ATV4K output to HDMI2 and disconnected the receiver temporarily. Playing videos no longer caused any cut-offs.
7. My receiver doesn’t support or at least, doesn’t detect standard HDMI as an input method, so I later hooked the receiver to the TV using optical cable. Still supports 5.1 audio, although at slightly less audio quality. I ran a video for 7 hours with this setup and noticed no cut-offs whatsoever.

Conclusion:

Current setup is ATV4K connected to ARC HDMI2 port and receiver connected with optical cable. With this small compromise in audio quality, I was able to watch a full episode of Loki in 5.1 surround audio without a single cut-off or dropped signal. Significant upgrade from the previous anxiety causing and brunt-of-all-jokes expensive setup which worked like a $200 Walmart TV.

Next Mission: Get HDR to not look like gray s**t on my HDR10/HLG supported TV.

Hello ClarkKent77,

We see that you're having some trouble with your Apple TV cutting out randomly. We'd be happy to help!

Do you have access to another TV? If so, for testing purposes, could you please connect the Apple TV to that and see if this same thing happens?

If so, could you also try connecting the Apple TV using another HDMI cable if you have one available? Does the same thing happen with that new cable?

Cheers!

Hello!

Based on what you're experiencing, at this point you'll want to reach out to Apple Support directly. They'll be able to look in to this further with you and see what options are available.

You can reach out to them here: Get Support

Take care!

Also seeing the same issue. I had the Apple TV model that was newest before this one and swapped it out, using the same HDMI cable and Vizio E65-E1 display. Video cuts out sporadically for 1-2 seconds then resumes. Just tried a restart. Will try more settings.

I’m having the same problem on both both tvs with both an old ATV box and the newest one… Everything’s updated, signal strength is good, etc… Will be fine for days then problems, then clears up, then problems again…

Same exact issue with an Apple TV 4k (new one)

im connected to an onkyo which outputs to my tv.

the only change I made was swapping out an nvidia shield for the Apple TV. Now nothing but random cutouts.

even though the cables are fine with the shield I’ve tested 3 different ones anyways. Both between onkyo and tv and onkyo and appletv.

have disabled match frame and range. Have restarted appletv. Restarted router (even though I’m hardwired).

at first thought it was a kids YouTube thing. Nope. Happens during Netflix as well. (Presumably everything else at this point)

running out of ideas.

you'd like to think so considering they require your icloud/appleid to log in. Theyre as official as it gets. I assume on some level apple employees at least peruse.

Though in all fairness this issue or some variation of it has been going on for literally years. That's because it gets confused with CEC issues and folks not understanding how match framerate/dynamic range work. Also the odd legitimate cable issue makes its way in.

Any people with the capacity to move this up the ladder or provide insight or help assume it stems from the former and they drive on through.

I'm close to swapping back to my nvidia shield. Even with apple tv's shortcomings (mainly bitstream/dts and lack of usb) I purchased this due to wanting to add another device to the apple ecosystem for ease of use/conformity.

So far its been anything but and the pro's are not outweighing the con's largely due to the random disconnecting.

As a follow up…. My friend and his wife came over to watch Loki with us. He asked how I liked the new appletv, I mentioned it has a few issues.

About half way through the show it had cut out about 6 times, I stopped the show and switched over to the Nvidia shield and haven’t hooked up the appletv again since. My friend was shocked that Apple would put something out that had such bad hdmi stability issues.

Hoping for a software update to fix this.

Yea, ive done everything I can to stop the absurdity. Ive disabled CEC on the appleTV and it still does it. Twice this morning while my kids are watching kids youtube POOF turns tv off then back on. As a last ditch effort im going to spend some more hours of my valuable time resetting/reconfiguring the apple tv but im not holding my breath.

Tried different icloud accounts. Tried disabling airplay. Tried different cables. Tried CEC on or off. Even tried increasing the DHCP lease time in case it was somehow web related. All I havent done was reset the whole thing.

So far all that has worked is using the nvidia shield.

CEC is consumer electronics control. It’s a protocol that allows devices to control one another, often to a detriment.

without something like a universal remote it can be helpful but in this case for people with this problem it certainly needs to be disabled as part of the process of elimination.

as for nvidia shield. It’s nvidias set top box. In all honesty it’s superior in just about every way apart from not being tied to apples ecosystem and the interoperability that provides.

I see several posts is this thread that are the same issue as I’m having: the video for Apple TV cuts out for a few seconds, seemingly at random. For me this has been a recent development. I’ve had this Apple TV, internet connection, modem, router, and Samsung tv for several years. Was thinking about replacing the Apple TV with the latest version, but that doesn’t seem to have helped others. At times this is just unwatchable.