Apple TV 3rd generation wont activate/airplay

By the way @rkaufmann87 I went to the troubleshooting airplay page and it was no help. There is such little information on it. Is all the software up to date and have you turned it off and on again. Yes. Next.

Please start by using the steps in Troubleshooting Airplay.

I have exactly this problem too. I actually had a different problem I was trying to fix. My audio and video would glitch on the ATV but was fine on the MacBook Pro. So I was trying to sort that issue out by moving my WiFi router next to the TV so I could cable up all the devices to reduce any WiFi noise. In doing so I couldn't get the ATV to connect to the network over LAN cable so tried doing a full factory reset and now have this problem. I have logged back in and set up my iCloud but because the activation has failed it won't show up on my MacBook as a mirroring device any more. Plus it will still only connect to the internet (network test) over WiFi it just won't obtain an IP address from router even though my smart TV and my Fetch TV box are both set up on LAN cabled connections and both stream OK. The Apple TV just sits there on a 169.... IP address.

I also tried full reset again the Apple TV did the reset, did the software update then when I touched my iPad on the apple TV to set it up automatically it complained it couldn't find the network so i had to enter the network name manually then it went to the main menu, showed that my email address was against the iTunes store but still the activation had failed. When on the about screen it is possible to click enter or up to get different information to display but there is never a way to get activation to retry.

It's as though Apple have just gone "Don't support this any more so not accepting any new activations" Just a way to force you to buy a new device.

But that thread is closed so can't reply. The thing that's different for me. I don't have iTunes as I have up to date Mac OS with Apple Music. What I did find when I logged in to the MacBook tonight is that my AppleID was showing a message saying I needed to log in to continue to use certain services. So when I did and it completed and took me back to my Apple ID preferences, I looked at my payment and delivery section and it had apple pay as my payment method as opposed to any cards and prompts me to update payment details in the App Store. I went to the app store and checked my payment details and under Apple Pay it had the correct 4 digits of my active debit card but I did have to sign in again to view that. I also noticed under the AppleID preferences it had all my devices listed which I'm logged in to and the Apple TV is listed under there, but it doesn't mention anything about activation failure, just model, serial number and want software it's got on it.

So I'm still no closer to fixing the activation issue.

I have the same problem ever since I reset my Apple TV Gen 3 as per Apple’s troubleshooting recommendations. So I called support to find out why Activation “Fails”. The tech I spoke to told me that Apple engineers are aware of the problem and are working on it. He had no estimated time when the problem would be fixed, and that there is “Nothing” I can do until Apple make the necessary repairs. He also said that Apple consider the Apple TV Gen 3 “ A Vintage device”, so I am assuming that it is very low on their list of priorities & Gen3 users will be waiting a long time if ever for a fix.

Found this thread.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252985860?login=true

Didn't work. There also doesn't appear to be any way to start activation again once it has failed.