I just lost the use of 3 Gen 3 Apple TVs

Question

Tontor Author

Level 1

4 points

I just lost the use of 3 Gen 3 Apple TVs

All at once, AppleTV Gen3 cannot edit/restore/restart... nothing, just useless all of a sudden. ?!?

Posted on Sep 3, 2023 12:00 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

turingtest2

Level 10

279,601 points

Sep 4, 2023 7:16 AM in response to Tontor

Have you tried changing the battery in the remote? Is there any output on your TV at all? Have you checked power and video connections? Sorry, reread the title, three have gone down at once? That is odd. Have you tried power cycling your router? Are you using your ISPs DNS settings? Sometimes these can be slow to update and it can pay to use public DNS instead, e.g. Google's servers at 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, or Cloudflare's at 1.1.1.1.

tt2

Reply

Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

279,601 points

Sep 4, 2023 5:45 PM in response to Tontor

Guest Wi-Fi normally prevents devices on your network from talking to each other, which will undermine Home Sharing and AirPlay. I'd be tempted to focus on the router first rather than the Apple TVs. You want to make sure that your Wi-Fi network isn't using guest mode, client isolation, wireless security or any similar feature that prevents peer to peer traffic on your network. Older devices may still have difficulty connecting to the iTunes Store due to changes in security protocols so is possible that signing out of your Apple ID was a mistake. I've got an Apple TV 3 in a box somewhere that I could break out tomorrow and test.

tt2

Reply

Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

279,601 points

Sep 5, 2023 6:29 AM in response to turingtest2

Hmm, I feared there might be issues. I found a thread last night confirming iTunes Match was supposedly end of life on Apple TV 3. After putting a new battery in the remote I signed out of my Apple ID for iCloud, and although it looked like I could sign in again, complete with a successful 2FA challenge and response (complicated by the remote treating up as enter semi-randomly) this is what happened next:

Which isn't promising. My iCloud account works perfectly well across my other devices. Odd that in this day and age the support link is given in http:// rather than https:// form. 🤔

Another clue to Apple's lack of interest in ATV3 is that the Photos section still refers to Photo Stream, which went EOL back in July.

tt2

Reply

Answer 4

Tontor Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 4, 2023 12:03 PM in response to turingtest2

Hi thx for the reply. The remotes work fine, and I do get the AppleTVs up on the monitors. What then happens is it won't connect to the wifi. It says 'wrong password' and there are no options for re-entering a password, nor forgetting wifi so I can have a do over.

I set up a guest wifi and logged in, go to Computers and it says turn on Home Sharing. Home Sharing is on everywhere (all appletvs, and desktop). I have turned it off, and then back on, resigned in... resigned in to iCould, iTunes... I have Reset, and even Restored (which updates the software) them all, and nothing is able to let me re enter the wifi password. And after setting up the Guest wifi, I am not even sure that will make a difference.

I also plugged the AppleTVs into my laptop, and ethered them right into the router (the big new white Verizon box). I tried Restoring the AppleTV from the finder on my laptop, and from the iTunes Store, and they both get only to 12.0kb, stall for a few minutes and I get a 'can't do it, corrupt data' message. I even went into the Router and it's not on WPA3, but on the WPA2/WPA3 flexy setting.

I have 2 4K AppleTVs that work fine, but the 3 Gen3s all do these exact same things during each step. And all of them worked fine up until literally just now. I had run one Gen3 connected to Home Sharing and played my music off my desktop from the Gen3>TV>Stereo just like a week or so ago.

But I am not finding anything like this on the googles...?

Reply

Answer 5

Tontor Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 5, 2023 9:54 AM in response to turingtest2

I had a feeling the ATV3s had just been left behind since I had 3 go out together, and so suddenly. I just found it weird that there wasn't anything on the googles to back it up, the forums tend to light up about something like this. I never got that notice above, I was able to sign back in fine. But no opportunity to forget the wifi, nor edit/reenter the passwords?

And iTunes Match has been around a while no? I wonder why this literally went bad within the last month or so? All my stuff is mac, no pc/windows.

And fyi, I was able to airplay thru my iPad>Gen3s (and also just iPad>Roku TV airplay). It's just a weird extra step, and controls (changing playlists etc) had to be on the iPad (pause/play/stop worked thru ATV remote).

Thx for all your help!

Reply

I just lost the use of 3 Gen 3 Apple TVs

Similar questions