Wifi keeps disconnecting on new Apple TV

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Wifi keeps disconnecting on new Apple TV

My WiFi keeps diconneting on my new Apple TV, and what's worse is the wifi network disappears off the list of networks and the Apple TV requires a restart to reconnect to the issue.

Software is up to date.

My old Apple TV never disconnected, I think I only restarted to do updates.

I have checked the following things:

interference - moved it closer to the wifi and any near by devices.
device bandwidth on router - nowhere near the limit on my router

Again my old ancient never dropped from this network, also all of my other apple devices are working on this network and never drop.

Apple TV 4K

Posted on May 25, 2021 1:21 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

CaptainMintTitanium Author

Level 1

13 points

Jun 4, 2021 1:40 AM in response to Michael Paine

I bought a 2nd Apple TV and the wifi works perfectly. I spoke to apple. It may be broken and should send it back. My guess is it may be overheating after being connected for a certain amount of time.

Anyway the 2nd Apple TV has been stuffed in the TV cupboard where the really old one has been for years and it's working perfectly. Hasn't disconnected from 5.GHz in a week.

Apple has said I can send back the broken one for a full refund and now mine is working great! So all is good. My advice to everyone is if you just can't get it to work on a 5.GHz wifi, and all of your other devices do, and you've tried all sorts of wifi stuff. It might just be that the unit is broken and needs replacing. Apple have been great swapping mine out, so I'll be very happy with my Apple TV now for the next five years i reckon.

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Answer 2

May 25, 2021 2:30 PM in response to CaptainMintTitanium

Given the steps you have already tried, the new ATV could be faulty - check the support options available.

There are some other troubleshooting steps to try, if you are able to change the wifi router settings. These are based on troubleshooting Homepod wifi problems but might help you:

Try changing the channels used by the 2.4mHz and 5.GHz bands (in case another device is causing interference on the default band)

Try disabling the 5Ghz band

Try assigning a static IP address to the ATV

Try disabling "smart connect" if your router supports this feature

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Answer 3

May 26, 2021 2:36 AM in response to Michael Paine

Thanks very much for your reply!

Try disabling "smart connect" if your router supports this feature

I turned this off a few months ago so things stopped connecting to the 2.4mHz network

Try disabling the 5Ghz band

This isn't really an option, I'd rarther have the old working apple tv than turn off my fast wifi, everything is on it, but thanks for the suggestion.

***Try changing the channels***

I had no idea this was a thing, it was deep in my router I was just using the 'standard user' interface with a few options. I've set up a second 5Gz network only for the Apple TV with a much higher number channel, I'm not sure what the number means but it's a lot higher and ..... good news a few hours of watching ATV and it's not dropped!!!

I don't know what any of this means, but my 5.GHz was at channel 40, and the new one is at 100(DFS).

So I'm not trying `Try assigning a static IP address to the ATV` whatever that means. I'll try that if it carries on failing.

I'll give it a good test for a week and see if it doesn't drop any more I'll come back and mark this as solved.

Cheers matey :)

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Answer 4

May 26, 2021 6:25 PM in response to CaptainMintTitanium

The router usually tries to pick an optimum channel that avoids "busy" frequencies. However it will not necessarily detect an intermittent interference like a microwave oven. It seems that you have this on channel 40 but not channel 100 (we hope!).

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Answer 5

May 27, 2021 3:03 AM in response to Michael Paine

It was on 40 and dropping about every 30 mins.

I'm trying it on 100 now, should I not be?

Can you explain what a channel is and what it should be pls.

I guess the key question is how is the new Apple TV different to all of my other apple devices and the old apple 4k tv that was in the same place?

I've had an Apple TV in the same spot since they looked like big mac minis, and never had any issues.

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Answer 6

May 29, 2021 3:16 PM in response to CaptainMintTitanium

A channel is like a radio station - it uses a certain frequency that the router and ATV are (automatically) tuned to. Other devices might use the same frequency or produce radio interference at this frequency. The router usually detects and avoids these frequencies if the interference is near-continuous but intermittent interference like a (rogue) microwave might go undetected.

Manually forcing the router to use channel 100 instead of 40 might overcome the interference. As you point out, this doesn't explain why a new ATV had problems when the old one worked well.

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Wifi keeps disconnecting on new Apple TV

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