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Apple 4K tv throttling my Mbps download speeds

Anyone else find a fix for slow download speeds yet for the apple 4k tv gen. 2? Purchased two days ago, and already had 2 software updates but during initial setup I received a warning message stating that low internet connection spreed could impact streaming movies. This struck me funny as my ISP is providing over 200Mbps. I verify this every once in a while and reverified since receiving the Apple warning. I am connecting the Apple 4K TV via Ethernet cable, connected to LAN. All of my network hardware and wires including HDMI wires are all for HighSpeed…high bandwidth use. I used the Apple 4K TV and from within their App Store downloaded multiple internet Speedtest applications which all report between 28 and 38Mbps while connected via Ethernet into LAN. I took my laptop turned off Wi-Fi and connected to the LAN using the exact same Ethernet cable at the same location of the Apple 4K TV and ran the exact same tests from the same app developers and I am yielding 350 to 380Mbps and 5hen on Wi-Fi I just wanted a baseline and that returned 320Mbps Download Speeds.


I was never expecting the Apple 4K TV and my laptop to report the exact same download speeds but I do expect them to be within the same ballpark and to be honest I would expect Apple 4K TV to be well over 100Mbps and that just IS NOT THE CASE.


I restarted my Luxul router and Spectrum modem, rebooted Apple 4K TV and these Download speeds never increase.


I am able to stream movies and have not yet experienced issues but I only have a few hours of testing things out but I really want to mitigate this device from what apparently seems that it is throttling or bottlenecking my Download speeds….. I called tech support but they told me they feel I should not experience any issues and had no answers to this issue. They also voiced to me that Apple is not throttling but it’s just hard to believe that based on my testing pattern it’s clear that there is something within the Apple 4K TV that is preventing my from getting 300Mbps download speeds.


please help….anyone….. maybe I should just return this Apple device.

Posted on Jan 18, 2022 8:34 PM

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Posted on Jan 19, 2022 7:37 PM

So a couple of interesting facts or for me more frustrations lol… tonight I decided before I reset everything and reboot everything I wanted to try a few more tests both wired using the exact same Ethernet the ATV 4K is using and then Wireless and do this with three different laptops, the ATV 4K, and a Kodi Box running raspberryPi. So first all of the non Apple devices reported download speeds via wired in the 380Mbps, then on Wi-Fi 320Mbps, which again is exactly what I would expect as I am paying my ISP for that speed. Then I plug in the Ethernet back into the ATV 4K and ran the test and it’s results again the same as last night averaging 35Mbps. Then surprisingly I disconnected the Ethernet and connected to my 5g wireless signal and ran the test, that resulted in 390Mbps. How in the world does my Wi-Fi produce that speed within ATV 4K but then switching back to wired Ethernet connection it reports over and over low 30Mbps. I went back into my Luxul router settings nothing at all is jumping out at me mainly because I am not a Network engineer lol, but I made sure the QoS was disabled, the UpNp was disabled. I rebooted the modem and the router again just to make sure that was not it…..I connected to ATV 4K and while connected to Wi-Fi disconnected and forgot the network then rebooted and connected Ethernet. No matter what I tried the results remain the same download speeds of low 30Mbps. And I also retested my laptop on the same Ethernet after all the reboots of everything and got desired results 385Mbps. Sorry for the long post, but also reset and deleted everything within the ATV 4K then after set up I made sure not to share anything and not to download anything including screen savers etc. Still same slow download speeds while wired, but changed to Wi-Fi one last time and again reported 385Mbps. Very strange that the Gigabit Ethernet port is not producing the download speeds It should be and now I am just at a loss for what to try next.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 19, 2022 7:37 PM in response to Atesoro1

So a couple of interesting facts or for me more frustrations lol… tonight I decided before I reset everything and reboot everything I wanted to try a few more tests both wired using the exact same Ethernet the ATV 4K is using and then Wireless and do this with three different laptops, the ATV 4K, and a Kodi Box running raspberryPi. So first all of the non Apple devices reported download speeds via wired in the 380Mbps, then on Wi-Fi 320Mbps, which again is exactly what I would expect as I am paying my ISP for that speed. Then I plug in the Ethernet back into the ATV 4K and ran the test and it’s results again the same as last night averaging 35Mbps. Then surprisingly I disconnected the Ethernet and connected to my 5g wireless signal and ran the test, that resulted in 390Mbps. How in the world does my Wi-Fi produce that speed within ATV 4K but then switching back to wired Ethernet connection it reports over and over low 30Mbps. I went back into my Luxul router settings nothing at all is jumping out at me mainly because I am not a Network engineer lol, but I made sure the QoS was disabled, the UpNp was disabled. I rebooted the modem and the router again just to make sure that was not it…..I connected to ATV 4K and while connected to Wi-Fi disconnected and forgot the network then rebooted and connected Ethernet. No matter what I tried the results remain the same download speeds of low 30Mbps. And I also retested my laptop on the same Ethernet after all the reboots of everything and got desired results 385Mbps. Sorry for the long post, but also reset and deleted everything within the ATV 4K then after set up I made sure not to share anything and not to download anything including screen savers etc. Still same slow download speeds while wired, but changed to Wi-Fi one last time and again reported 385Mbps. Very strange that the Gigabit Ethernet port is not producing the download speeds It should be and now I am just at a loss for what to try next.

Jan 19, 2022 9:18 AM in response to Atesoro1

I can’t replicate your issue. I get the maximum speed of my plan with my ISP for my Apple TV 4K on ethernet, as reported by the Speedtest app on Apple TV.

If you think that there may be a hardware fault on your new device, then contact Apple about it, or the shop where you purchased it.

The device doesn’t intend to throttle. The 4K models have Gigabit Ethernet, so 200–300 Mbps should be no problem.

Jan 19, 2022 10:48 PM in response to Atesoro1

Well, it’s very curious that you experienced 390Mbps on your ATV4K via your phone’s Wi-Fi hotspot (I assume that’s what you meant by “5G”).


i googled your issue and quickly saw that yours is not a unique experience. Various MacRumors and Reddit threads and the top search result here on Apple discussions (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251394964 with 190ish “Me Too”s but no solution). You might read other threads elsewhere as I didn’t bother :-).


FWIW, I ran a speed test on my ATV4K and got what I would expect given my isp package (60Mbps).

Jan 19, 2022 10:43 AM in response to Urquhart1244

Fantastic, thank you for verifying that you are able to get your expected Download speeds within the Apple 4K TV. I agree that 300 to 400Mbps should be a none issue for this device especially when all Network hardware including the cables being used all support Gigabit Ethernet, and since I can prove I am getting my expected ISP plan download speeds from the same location using other devices this tells me that there must be a software or hardware glitch with the Apple 4K TV I just purchased (which happens) I just appreciate your time with verifying you were able to use the same device and pull your expected ISP Download speeds.

Jan 19, 2022 11:54 AM in response to Atesoro1

It’s a new device and things may be happening in the background. For example, by default it’s set to download those spiffy UHD/4K screensaver videos; maybe an update’s being downloaded, etc.


As you say, you’re able to stream movies and aren’t experiencing issues… I wouldn’t be surprised if streaming a video that’s currently being played is a prioritized network activity, but a 3rd-party speed test app might not be (considered a priority).


If it were me, I wouldn’t stress about it unless I actually experienced issues (but I probably would tinker with it until I figured out what’s happening :-). So, good luck with it and please let us know what you find.

Jan 19, 2022 3:08 PM in response to bgmeek

Ahhh maybe that is it, I will look at it again tonight. It is a new device and I did know that it would download those screensaver and something else (forgot at the moment) but would have thought I would notice or be made aware that the system was in process of downloading and then if that’s the case I easily understand the slowness due to competing resources. Good thoughts, thank you very much and will keep an eye out if this is the case. Any idea how long a new device takes to download all the new files? I know that’s a loaded question but wondering if it will download while in sleep mode, or assuming like I mentioned the network speeds for downloading via Ethernet should be >300Mbps. Thanks again for your thoughts.

Apple 4K tv throttling my Mbps download speeds

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