New Apple TV 2 stuck Activating setting date and time

Thank you for the information about the time server. I enabled this on our Windows Server 2012, in DHCP, and it seems to have fixed the problem.

This happened to me as a result of some ATV update on recent days where both my ATV's got bricked! (stuck in apple logo), here's what I had to do:

1. I had to buy a micro USB cable at Best Buy, Insignia brand for $15.00, beware of the cheap crap on ebay, did not work for me.
2. I restored both ATV's using iTunes, no problem.

Now for some reason one ATV activated and set its time date fine without issues, but the second one, which is either an earlier or later version of the ATV 2nd gen. got stuck on activating, and if I skipped it it became pretty much useless since I could not log into iTunes apparently because of not registering a date and time.

This is what finally solved it:

I accessed my router through my wifi (typing the 192.168.....Google it for instructions), I immediately noticed the router had a firmware upgrade available which I proceeded to install, I did not have to reset anything, no passwords or nothing, it took less than 5 minutes and then I rebooted the router, something I had not done in months.

When I restarted the ATV after being done with the firmware upgrade on the router, it worked! I recovered my ATV, it activated and set its date and time in a snap. My theory is that with the Apple update comes compatible Wifi firmware that goes out of touch with the older routers, which explains why some of the posts indicate the solution (or problem) was in fact the router, I would suggest try firmware upgrades before jumping into buying a new router unnecessarily, it may take just a few minutes to figure out and if that does not work, then consider the router upgrade.

Please note: Don't forget the reboot (BTW, unplugging router for 30 seconds and plugging back in may not be considered a "reboot".)

I hope this may work for some of you, good luck! 🙂

I have an AirPort Extreme (6th Gen Router). I found the issue was resolved by going into AirPort Utility > Select Base Station > Edit > Internet > Internet Options. From there, I selected IPv6 to be configured automatically and enabled IPv6 connection sharing.

Great! thanks for the tip, it works!

Sounds incredible but it is truth. This works perfect. I have 3 Apple TV 2nd generation, all of them stuck activating setting date and time, and after restore them from iTunes and connect them to my iPhone everything works fine. Now I have all of them connected to my wifi again and working without any issues. Anyway, Apple TV 2nd generation are slow if you compare with 3rd generation.

THank you.... Thank you.... Thank you!! I was getting MADDDDDDDDD at my TV!! ❤️

I called Apple when this happened to me (stuck on finding date and time). They had me look at my Airport Extreme via the Airport Utility (Applications/Utilities). Highlighting the router and clicking on the Edit button. My router was in "bridge mode" and needed to be in DHCP/NAT mode. This solved the problem. The issue is that the Apple TV could not get out to the internet, it could see the router but not get out. The Apple tech said the Airport Extreme gets set up this way if it is connected to your ISP's equipment which is also a router, and the Airport Extreme is just bridging your equipment to the vendors router which is giving out the IP addresses. But it is only giving one IP address to your APExtreme and the Apple TV needs another. After making this change there was a warning on the image of my router (a red circle with 1 in the center). He had me clear this error - which was saying my router was in a "double DHCP/NAT" mode. This is saying both my router and the router upstream might both be doling out IP addresses, but this should not be a problem. The rest of my internet devices are still all working. So I thought I would post this as another thing for people to look at. If not for this glitch with my APExtreme the set up would have gone very well.

I had to go in and change my firewall to allow the network time protocol port 123 to be accessed by my appleTV, everything worked well after I did that, Thanks for the tip.

This worked for me. I had my new apple tv on. Turned off my modem, waited a couple minutes...turned it back on. Apple TV now works. 🙂

Thanks to Technophobe1 I was able to complete my installation.

I spent the entire weekend accessing websites and forums. I tried every recommendation without success (*.com on bottom portion, changing password, etc). I thought it was a network problem and tried to find out if there were particular ports that needed to be open, but doing the iphone HotSpot was easy and seamless.

Definitely these forums help! This is why I felt compelled to write this note.

Brilliant, very clever, thank you. I used my iPad in same way! After so many wasted hours, such an easy fix!

Something else to try..... I tried everything in this thread, but didn't have a mobile device to use as a hotspot. So I just tried connecting the ATV directly to my cable router with a hard wire, and it immediately got the time and date info it needed, and initialized. Swapped it back to the usual wireless connection, and everything works.