UPDATE: TVOS 17 Audio Issues Require Daily Reboot

Can confirm that 17.2 appears to solve the sound issues.

My setup: Apple TV HD, 1625A, with audio Amplifier and Samsung TV.

Still using Audio Output = Stereo and Audio Format = 16-bit.

Netflix, Prime, Apple TV+, Apple Movies, Apple TV, Crave: all appear to work permanently now; can pause, start, switch between streaming apps, return - audio continues to work.

Will have to retrain my Harmony Remote to perform Power On, but for now I just set the Apple TV to "never sleep".

To be fair, audio output now seems to be more reliable than in a couple of releases.

I was experiencing similar issues with intermittent audio on streaming apps(Hulu, Netflix, etc) and no audio on apps like YouTube and Spotify plus others. Navigation clicks on AppleTV 4K were also hit and miss.

Tried all kinds of changes to audio settings and multiple restarts , but on further testing the YouTube app via the Samsung TV app version, I noticed that it too was not producing any sound. Checked Samsung TV OS version. Performed update from 1401 to 1406.

Eurika! TV YouTube app has sound now. Moved to AppleTv and all apps are now producing sound.

Setup:

Samsung Q65

Denon AVR2808

Hope this helps!

I am only posting this on here since there ended up being two threads for this subject. I also posted this on the other one - but am hoping this one will peter out . . .

bit of an update

As so many have posted here - once TVOS17 was released there were myriad varying audio problems. In our case, it was audio drop outs (in YouTube, for example) where the sound would revert to the tv speakers momentarily, and then back to the iPodMini stereo pair. We have two current model Apple TVs; one using WiFi to the iPodMini pair, and the other “hard wired” through our sound system (both using Sony smart tvs). We had no problems at all with the hardwired system; only the WiFi to iPodmini setup had the audio drop outs.

Originally, at the time we updated both Apple TVs to OS17, and all our HomePods were still running 16. With all the various problems everyone was experiencing we were hesitant to update our HomePods to 17, or even update the Apple TVs to 17.1. However - three or four days back, we did update everything to current 17; that being 17.1 on the Apple TVs and 17.1.1 on the HomePod Minis. Since having done that, we have not experienced any audio drop outs on the Apple TV to HomePod stereo pair, nor any new problems elsewhere on either of our two Apple TVs.

Some had said the 17.1 did not fix the problem - and that is perhaps true for different sets of circumstances, but it did seemingly fix our audio drop out problem, at least for the time being (fingers crossed).

i had the same issue. After the updates I lost the ability to connect to the HomePods and to use the ARC settings for the tv. I had to restart and manually do the sound system every time. Eventually I reset the Apple TV and asked it to update. So had to lose all data and current settings. That reset it and it finally all started working again. The ARC settings finally came back and was able to fix the sound issue.

so you have to reset and erase all data. Then basically set up the entire system again. That fixes the issue.

Killweav,

I have 2 AppleTV 4k 2nd and 3rd Gen and today I noticed the same problem reported in this thread. I was not able to listen the sound through the Networked receiver on the home theater setup. (Apple TV, Projector, Receiver) My receiver doesn't do a good passthrough on Video, so I connected the HDMI direct to Projector and sound I used to do it by network.

After reading many of the answers in the thread, I decided to test the 2nd Gen to evaluate if it was working and despite of having the same Firmware version, I was able to listen in the Receiver through the network. So I decided to switch the models to continue enjoy it on the Home Theater. My surprise was it didn't work either.

The only difference between the setups was the 2nd Gen, on the test, was connected through WiFi while the Home Theater was a cable ethernet.

Voila !!! Making all units running WiFi are capable to send sound synchronized through network to the receiver.

It didn't happen before upgrading TO OS17, but at least now it's OK here. I hope it may help others.

Regards

Matches my experience as well.

1. Apple TV HD, 1080p was working correctly with TV OS 16.3 (Model A1625, 32 GB).
2. Executed full factory update last night (Oct 25, 2023), now running TV OS 17.1
3. Sounds is intermittent - worked on Netflix for a few minutes; then moved to another streaming app, then back to Netflix - no sound.
4. At one point during testing, the sound worked on the home screen to toggle between icons - but streaming services were still without audio.
5. No luck trying Stereo vs. Dolby 5.1 (Audio Format), not 16-bit versus Auto (Audio Mode).
6. No luck with changing languages (English, German, Italian) or subtitles (same languages) indicating the problem is not audio-channel specific.
7. Netflix, Apple TV, Apple iTune Movies, Apple iTunes TV all affected as well as other streamers (Crave, Prime)
8. Restarting repeatedly does not resolve the problem.
9. Turning the Apple TV off overnight did resolve the problem today.

Observations:

a) the Apple TV OS takes much longer to boot (e.g. 2X). My Logitech Harmony Remote waits 8 seconds, then turns on the audio amp and Samsung TV (HDMI slaves must be turned on after HDMI masters, like Apple TV). Have observed the Samsung TV and my audio amplifier turning on now *before* the Apple TV - e.g. the Apple TV still booting). Have to sequence these manually now.

b) I share the opinion of others that the (lack of) app updates are partially at fault here. How can I possibly get audio for a few minutes in Netflix, but then no audio in other streamers seconds later? Hard to believe that the unit could be overheating so quickly. My Apple TV case remains cool to the touch.

c) However, some fault with the OS as well. Once I lose sound in the streaming apps, navigation sounds do not return when navigating the home screen, indicating that some audio setting remains locked. Speculation: apps not cleaning up a thread?

e) One accidental observation: tried changing the audio amp Surround Sound settings; then I turned the amp speaker enable button off and on again - and lost sound that did not come back until after much restarting and toggling of configs again. Once again - the audio handler in the TV OS should gracefully handle such changes from the amplifier without falling down.

I was finally able to resolve my "Dolby Atmos" issue by doing a complete "Reset and Upgrade." I did a reset when I upgraded to tvos 17 but not an upgrade, that did not fix the issue. However, doing the reset and upgrade did resolve everything, just a lot of work getting all my apps woking again.

To avoid the daily reboot, try setting the Apple TV to never sleep:

Settings —> General —> Sleep After —> Never

This helped me, has been stable without need for reboot for four weeks now.

running Apple TV HD Gen 3. Running 17.2, Audio set to Stereo, not Dolby 5.1

for me it's dolby 5.1 and atmos streams that cause the problem. try forcing audio mode to stereo. that works for me. hey, it's better than crickets.

Workaround to Route Audio Through Apple TV 4K (3rd Generation)

If you're encountering audio issues with your Apple TV 4K (3rd Generation), especially on tvOS 17.0, here's a workaround to enable audio through alternate Apple devices on the same network:

Steps:

1. Power On: Ensure your Apple TV is turned on.
2. Navigate to Control Center: Hold down the "TV/Control Center" button on your remote
3. Access Audio Options: Using the Clickpad, swipe to the "Audio" option and select it by clicking the Clickpad.
4. Choose Alternate Speakers: Under the "Speakers" option, select an alternate audio output from devices that are on your network. Note: This may include other Apple computers or an additional Apple TV, but not all devices like iPhones might appear.
5. Mute Alternate Device (Optional): If you selected another device's speakers, (e.g., MacBook Pro), considers muting the audio to only hear audio from the Apple TV.
6. Dual-Selected Speaker Options: Ensure "TV Speakers" remains selected while an additional "Speaker" is selected as well.
7. Play Content: Navigate to the content you'd like to watch or listen to and you should have the ability to have audio stream through your TV's speakers. I have had limited time to test this, yet it has worked with my streaming applications as well as Apple TV shows and movies.

With these steps, you should be able to hear audio through your Apple TV 4K (3rd Generation), bypassing the need for updates from streaming providers.

Me too. Had to downgrade to stereo from DD just to get sound to work at all. When I called Apple they were clueless and said they weren't aware of any issues. As soon as I signed in here, I see numerous posts about it. How can they release a version with such a glaring bug? Oh wait, you want audio with your TV service...?

I don't have the exact problem, but do have the problem where if I have Dobly Atmos selected as audio when available then when an app is streaming in 5.1 audio Apple TV 4k (2022) will not automatically switch to 5.1 audio. All I can get it the video. If I change audio to 5.1 then all apps stream video and audio, but only in 5.1. I spent an hour or so a couple of weeks ago with apple support but could not convenience them that tvos 17 was to blame. They had not had any issues noted. Prior to tvos 17 the Apple device (2022) would play the appropriate audio when the setting was on Dobly Atmos.

My recommendation is buy a cheap Fire TV 4k stick and wait for Apple to finally discover the issue and patch it.

As a follow up to my last comment. I did a complete "Reset and Update" and after getting all my apps reconnected everything worked great for 1 day. Now it is back to the same issue if audio setting is set to "Dolby Atmos" audio does not play 5.1 automatically, must change audio setting to 5.1 in order to get audio to play. When I do that naturally will not hear any "Dolby Atmos." So, still Apple TV 4k 3rd generations is still just a paper weight.