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New Apple TV 4K acting as router and giving out IPv6 (ULA) addresses

I run a strictly IPv4 network as my ISP does not support IPv6 and some devices in my network still not ready for it. On my router I have disabled it on kernel level, so there is no way IPv6 is able to get into my network, or so I thought. Since about a week ago I started noticing that my computer and iPhone started getting IPv6 unique local addresses (ULA), so nothing on the internet, but still. They were in the range of fd94:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx. I immediately went to the router and double checked all the settings, IPv6 was seemingly still disabled and the IPv6 ULA-Prefix was also empty. I tried some different settings, but I still kept getting an IPv6 address on my devices.


It seemed to me that a device inside my network was giving out these addresses, but which one? I started by removing all cables one by one from the switch and noticed that I did not receive an IPv6 address when the cable to the TV (and related devices) was unplugged. Checking further I noticed that the new 2021 Apple TV 4K was the culprit. Unplugging it made my whole network clean of IPv6, replugging made them receive IPv6 ULAs again.


I tried resetting the Apple TV multiple times, but this did not solve the problem. I also set it up without logging into iCloud, not using any previously saved settings. After resetting the Apple TV, the IPv6 address range it was giving out only changed (from fd94:... to fd53:...).


To be completely sure that it is not my own router I tried two different routers, with IPv6 disabled, but to no avail. When the Apple TV was not plugged in I only received an IPv4 address, but when it was plugged in I also received an fd53:... address (see the following images).



Is this a known bug? And is there possibly a solution to this? Or is my new Apple TV faulty? Some devices in my network cannot handle IPv6 (ULA) addresses, so I can basically not have this device connected to it (unless completely isolated in a VLAN).


I am currently running the latest version of tvOS 14.6. Updating from 14.5 to 14.6 went fine. I also tried using "Reset and Update," to possibly clean install the software, but I received an error message saying "Apple TV can't download the latest update right now. Try again later." This might be tied this same bug, where the Apple TV possibly tries to check for an update on an IPv6 server, but has no possible connection to it.

Apple TV 4K

Posted on Jun 1, 2021 8:01 AM

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Posted on Jun 1, 2021 9:40 AM

The thing is that none of my 50 devices on the network get or choose an IPv6 ULA when the Apple TV is not plugged in. Some do get a Link-Local fe80::/10 address, but no fc00::/7 ULA. When the Apple TV is plugged in, suddenly every device chooses an ULA in the same range as the Apple TV. When the Apple TV is reset, the range changes. Definitely the Apple TV is the cause of this all. My router has an option to distribute ULAs and I disabled it on purpose. Any device except the router should not be able to just randomly distribute ULAs around. Imagine that every device in the network distributes a different range, that would be a disaster.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 1, 2021 9:40 AM in response to Urquhart1244

The thing is that none of my 50 devices on the network get or choose an IPv6 ULA when the Apple TV is not plugged in. Some do get a Link-Local fe80::/10 address, but no fc00::/7 ULA. When the Apple TV is plugged in, suddenly every device chooses an ULA in the same range as the Apple TV. When the Apple TV is reset, the range changes. Definitely the Apple TV is the cause of this all. My router has an option to distribute ULAs and I disabled it on purpose. Any device except the router should not be able to just randomly distribute ULAs around. Imagine that every device in the network distributes a different range, that would be a disaster.

Jun 14, 2021 6:09 AM in response to Urquhart1244

I think I know the answer. The new Apple TV 4K supports the new Thread network protocol (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thread_(network_protocol)), which is IPv6 based. Since my network did not have IPv6, the Apple TV created an IPv6 network itself, so the devices on the network would be able to communicate to each other via Thread and to the Apple TV.

Jun 1, 2021 9:28 AM in response to florisbdr

Apple TV is not giving out IP6 addresses. Devices may generate those for themselves, or get one assigned from a DHCP server.


It is not a bug (it is very much intended this way for modern IP6-ready devices), and it may not need a ‘solution’. Devices can have an IP4 address and an IP6 at the same time (even multiple). The IP6 address can be self-assigned in a unique way, when not retrieved from a DHCP server (e.g. your router). If the router wants to communicate using IP4 addresses, then that will be used.


my ISP does not support IPv6

- They’ll go the way of the dodo. They should have been on top of this a decade ago.

- Not important, if your router uses IP4 exclusively, or can do the network access translation between IP4 and IP6.

New Apple TV 4K acting as router and giving out IPv6 (ULA) addresses

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