Is apple looking to make the AppleTV gen 3 obsolete?

Question

Is apple looking to make the AppleTV gen 3 obsolete?

The Gen3 ATV fails to connect to any of my iPhones as a remote (6S, XS, 12). Each iPhone is running the lastest supported iOS. The ATV has been restored and software is also up-to-date. However, linking any phone to the ATV fails at the point when I enter the code: either the phone generates a new code as soon as the previous one is 'done,' or the 'done' function does nothing. It appears that Apple has dropped this feature from the tvOS for this generation. Same issue on two devices and down to only one original remote. Multiple support threads discuss this issue with the only suggestions being to restart/restore/unplug all possible connected hardware and peripherals and try again, but it doesn't work. So, is this feature for this product disabled intentionally? And if so, is this a sign that the hardware will soon be unusable as well?

Posted on Jan 6, 2022 9:04 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 7, 2022 9:23 AM in response to Old_Apple_Device_Users

Old_Apple_Device_Users wrote:

If you bought the hardware when it came out, it's 9 yrs old. It wasn't discontinued in production until late 2016. The point is that Apple still lists the ATV gen 3 as supported hardware. As such, the expectation is that all original features and functionality should continue through the supported timeframe.

I'm not suggesting that this possibly 9 yr old hardware magically support 4k resolutions (that's silly), just that it should support original features and functionality (that's not silly). It used to work, then they broke it.

We pay the premium for Apple products with the expectation that they don't lose functionality while still being supported. I have HD era hardware that is older than this product that continues to function as advertised. If they stop supporting ATV gen 3 and want to clean up the remote app to stop supporting legacy hardware in future iOS/app updates, that would be understandable. But to just casually not address issues with "supported" hardware is not.

The Remote App widget in Control Center however is not an original feature of the 3rd generation Apple TV. This is a completely new feature in new iOS versions. It's not something that used to work and now doesn't. In fact the Widget did not originally even support the Apple TV 3rd generation at all. It was only when Apple retired the actual App, that they added the functionality to it to support the 3rd generation Apple TV. So it's not completely unlikely that the new widget may not be working correctly due to a glitch or an uncaught issue rather than an intentional action on the part of Apple.

So I again, report the issue to Apple via the feedback page and they may be compelled to fix it.

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Answer 2

Jan 6, 2022 9:23 AM in response to Old_Apple_Device_Users

Technically the hardware on a 3rd gen Apple TV is 9 years old at this point. It's not that is being purposefully being made obsolete, its that by its very age its getting there on its own.

I doubt Apple is doing this deliberately, yes the widget has issues connecting to 3rd gen Apple TVs, but do you honestly think Apple higher ups sit around a conference table and say, "We will make the new remote widget in control center not really work correctly for 3rd generation Apple TVs "mua ha ha ha!". That's just silly.

You can tell Apple about it at: Feedback - Apple TV - Apple

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Answer 3

Jan 6, 2022 12:57 PM in response to Phil0124

If you bought the hardware when it came out, it's 9 yrs old. It wasn't discontinued in production until late 2016. The point is that Apple still lists the ATV gen 3 as supported hardware. As such, the expectation is that all original features and functionality should continue through the supported timeframe.

I'm not suggesting that this possibly 9 yr old hardware magically support 4k resolutions (that's silly), just that it should support original features and functionality (that's not silly). It used to work, then they broke it.

We pay the premium for Apple products with the expectation that they don't lose functionality while still being supported. I have HD era hardware that is older than this product that continues to function as advertised. If they stop supporting ATV gen 3 and want to clean up the remote app to stop supporting legacy hardware in future iOS/app updates, that would be understandable. But to just casually not address issues with "supported" hardware is not.

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Is apple looking to make the AppleTV gen 3 obsolete?

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