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