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JD2002 Author

Level 1

60 points

Apple TV 4K 3rd Gen — Boot Loop (SOLVED: It was the remote!)

Hi,

This is not a request for help — just a tiny bit of information gleaned from two hour’s work.

Background: I was having trouble with an app missing episodes. Rather predictably, the steps included reinstalling the app. To make sure everything was gone, I took the extra step of “remove app”, “force reboot Apple TV”. That’s where my troubles began — the device went into boot loop — front display flash, then off, then flash, etc.. just long enough for the Apple boot logo to appear on the screen each loop.

I worked through the usual diagnostic steps, disconnect power, reconnect, disconnect HDMI, etc. Nothing worked. I also found it odd that it didn’t drop into a restore boot after a few tries (and power disconnects).

Then I hit on something — a chance article commented on similar behavior when someone’s child had a little too much fun with candy and their remote control which caused the buttons to stick.

Know that this ATV (and remote) are only a few months old and we’re not candy and sugared drink aficionados, I still wondered if the remote might be the problem. So, it was either put the remote out of Bluetooth range or pop it into a Faraday cage — so into the microwave it went (off of course!).

I plugged back in the ATV and lo — it completed it's boot.

Going back to the remote, I removed it from the microwave and brought it back in range — and the boot behavior started again. Now I had a culprit. I took the remote and performed a reset (e.g. TV button + Volume Down) to restart it. The Apple TV came back from the loop and is now fine - remote included

This may well have been the edgiest of edge-cases — but I wanted to drop this into the forum in case someone else encounters it.

HW Info:

ATV Model: A2843 (128 GB)

tvOS: 17.1 (21K69)

Remote FW: 0x33

TV: Samsung QN85c

Sound: Samsung Q990c

-JD

HomePod mini, 17

Posted on Dec 4, 2023 6:32 PM

Top-ranking reply

w33zel

Level 1

9 points

Posted on Dec 28, 2023 11:01 AM

Have the same problem, my son had the remote in his hands pressing all the buttons for a while. Then my Apple TV reboot and stuck in a boot loop. It shows the Apple logo and then reboot over and over again.

I put the remote out of range and tried different hdmi cable, nothing works. 😩

Someone any idea what I can do?

Apple TV 4K gen 2 (2021)

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36 replies

joaco26

Level 1

14 points

Jun 18, 2024 11:58 PM in response to JD2002

Same happened to me with my ATV HD model, unpairing and pairing the remote helped me solve this issue.

imdebsen

Level 1

8 points

Dec 8, 2023 2:07 PM in response to JD2002

This was a life saver! Thanks a ton JD!

I wasted couple of hours trying to fix this annoying boot loop issue till I found your solution. I almost contemplated taking my Apple TV to Apple Store over the weekend.

Weirdest of a bug.. I hope Apple addresses this issue soon.

Dec 11, 2023 3:38 PM in response to JD2002

Absolutely ridiculous bug right here. Thank god this was the top result on DuckDuckGo to save hours of troubleshooting, I assumed the device was dead. Can confirm affects 2nd Gen 4K 2021 as well unfortunately.

jehuff

Level 1

8 points

Jan 5, 2024 8:38 AM in response to JD2002

Another "edge" case here. I don't know of anything odd happening to remote. Just found it could not control volume of JBL sound bar. Investigating things I found the Apple logo bootloop. This post saved me.

Reset the remote. (Didn't even know that was possible and could there not be at least one LED on this thing ?!?)

All good again with ATV.

Thank you!

ATV 4k 3rd generation

tvOS 17.2 (21K365)

JD2002 Author

Level 1

60 points

Jan 5, 2024 2:16 PM in response to JD2002

(Note: below text added to my open Feedback ticket with Apple)

Okay folks. There’s a problem here. I tried to turn on the TV (same one as in the notes) and the TV started continuously going into “Accessibility Controls” and was muting/unmuting continuously. Thinking it had to be something with the TV this time — I reset the TV, then placed the remotes (for the TV as well as the Q990 Atmos sound) out of range. No change. I disconnected every device (HDMI) and the behavior stopped — I reconnected the AppleTV and the problem started again. This time I put the Apple TV remote beyond range. The behavior stopped. I reset the remote (TV/Vol-) and once again — the behavior stopped.

Please go back and look at the responses to the referenced forum post.

SOMETHING IS WRONG with the 0x33 firmware — or in its interaction with tvOS 17.

THIS NEEDS TO BE INVESTIGATED!!!!!

JD2002 Author

Level 1

60 points

Jan 5, 2024 2:30 PM in response to jehuff

Glad it was of help to you. Coincidentally -- the entertainment setup in our family room (as referenced in my post) originally used a JBL soundbar (this was back on a previous TV and 3rd generation ATV) and on at least one occasion, I had to reset the remote for that very behavior -- it lost the ability to control anything using infrared commands.

Also of note -- take a look at my most recent post to the main thread today. This firmware issue seems to have multiple pathology (else we've a four month old remote that has hardware issues). I've updated my open ticket with Apple -- hoping to get someone's attention.

nsikorr

Level 1

8 points

Jan 5, 2024 3:00 PM in response to JD2002

Had a similar issue today. My 2020 Apple TV 4K suddenly rebooted and would then display the black screen requesting to use a nearby iPhone to restore it. Tried that multiple times but after each restore it would always display the black screen again.

Then after another restore I held TV + volume down on the remote for about 10 seconds. The ATV suddenly displayed a different recovery menu asking me to choose whether to restore, factory reset or reboot. Since the remote didn’t work anymore I pulled the power and after plugging it back in everything was back to normal incl. the remote working again.

I‘m using the new Siri Remote rather than the one that was shipped with the Apple TV.

viper01

Level 1

4 points

Feb 7, 2024 11:38 AM in response to JD2002

Exactly the same issue!! I even called support and booked in a slot with genius bar.

after moving the Apple TV to another room to re-test without having the remote it worked. The SECOND we brought the remote into the room it went into boot loop.

moved the Apple TV back into the living room, plugged it in, again it worked fine. When the remote came back in… boom, boot loop.

ive since paired an older remote as haven’t yet tried rebooting the faulted one and its all working fine!

Mar 4, 2024 4:39 PM in response to JD2002

Thank you so much for this detailed write up. I was having the same issue verbatim, and for whatever god forsaken reason, doing the ATV remote-restart/reset fixed everything and now the ATV works perfectly.

thank you!!!!

Apr 1, 2024 1:02 PM in response to JD2002

This issue has now happened to me with two unique remotes, both the USB-C and Lightning connector aluminum remotes. I ended up using TV+volume down to solve, as even unpairing the remote from the settings did not stop the boot loop. I’m just going to use the remote app on my phone until they resolve this software/firmware issue.

Apr 6, 2024 1:13 PM in response to JD2002

You saved me a trip to the Apple Store!!

Thank you for this post. It 1000% resolve my issue (putting the remote in microwave while ATV did it's restore). After, the ATV finally booted up successfully. I took the remote out the microwave and it was at 0% battery ...very odd, it did have a charge the night before. Plugging it into a charger and it reconnected to ATV and appears to be working fine. Perhaps the glitch in the remote caused the battery to drain.

May 18, 2024 8:13 PM in response to JD2002

Legend! put in the microwave and fixed! Followed by recharge of the remote. I think the remote being dead also had something to do with it. Can confirm that a series of buttons were unintentionally pressed after being sat on to cause the issue. Canceled my appointment at Apple.

What a beast. As a QA engineer, I have much respect for your edge case find and reporting in the thread.