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Apple TV 3 error -3906

Trying to connect the new Apple TV 3 wirelessly to a router (Fritz!Box 7390) on its 5GHz channel, but we keep getting error 3906 after entering the passkey. With other words, the Apple TV recognizes the router, but isn't able to go past the step of entering the router's wireless passkey.


Router set to DHCP, mac address filtering (tried both on and off), encryption with WPA + WPA2 (not Enterprise), infrastructure mode, authentication: WPA-PSK, WPA2-PSK, data encryption: TKIP, AES-CCMP.


Router was reset, Apple TV was reset, several times the both.


Every Mac in the house connects to the same network without a whim, but the Apple TV 3 persists in an error 3906 message.

Apple TV 3-OTHER

Posted on Mar 27, 2012 4:16 PM

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15 replies

Mar 9, 2017 9:59 PM in response to bostonian128

I know this is going to sound crazy but.... there are these lamps that it seems everyone has lately. They are like a brick or rock of salt.


Natural Himalayan Salt Lamp. Hand Carved with Elegant Wood Base. Includes Bulb, 5 to 7 Inches, 4 to 7 Pounds https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M66BHMY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_B9JWybNPZ2P5H


It is supposed to be good for something I just can't remember but NywY my wife bought like 4 of them and put them all over the house. Oddly enough, one of them in my daughters room was right next to her atv3 and I could not figure out why all of a sudden her atv3 stopped working.


After resetting everything multiple times I said that maybe the few ppl on this forum are having interference issues are on to something. I moved the Atv but nothing happened. It was not until I shut off AND unplugged this stupid rock thing did the atv start working again.


Just in case this is an issue for someone and needed to know this.


Hope this helped.

Mar 28, 2012 6:37 AM in response to Damian Smith1

Thank you for the response.


Our Macs use the same 5GHz signal and some of them are considerably further away from the router. They however, have no issues with it.


The Fritz!Box we're using has a built-in scanner for networks and it shows that our 5GHz channel is the only one it receives in the area. On the other hand, it receives well over twenty SSIDs on the 2.4GHz band.

Mar 29, 2012 9:47 AM in response to macinsane

Anyway, we've been trying to get the Apple TV 3 to work on a 5GHz channel many times. The ATV3 was placed near the router, to limit the chances of an insufficient signal. The router was reset to factory defaults, to prevent our settings to be the cause. Wireless security was disabled, different channels were selected, but we keep getting this highly informative error 3906 message.


Just to try the ATV3, it was connected to a 2.4GHz channel. Since iTunes is the only means to watch the latest movies, we tried to find some titles we were interested watching. However, we didn't find any of those titles, which are readily available through other channels, or on DVD and BluRay.


The other thing is iCloud, which we definitely don't want to use. The ATV3 doesn't allow playing from our own cloud/server, which is ridiculous.


Again, Apple made a product that is especially beneficial to Apple, but not to us.


Bottom line is, that we'll send the ATV3 back to Amazon and see if there's a better product available.

Nov 3, 2012 7:39 AM in response to macinsane

I think I have solved this by moving the device a few feet away from a Powered HDMI splitter that I have fairly recently started using. Seems to be some interference from something. I have gen 1 and gen 2 and they both have recently developed this issue in this location, but are fine in another room. MAC address filtering on or off didn't make a difference to me. Interestingly, my wifi range has dropped recently too, coinciding with this issue and my car remote does not always work outside my house too now. As if there us a jammer in town. Weird.

Apr 30, 2016 6:22 AM in response to NavyMark

You wouldn't believe it. I have worked it out!!


I had read that it was recommended that the IPv6 be turned off but you can't do that in the WiFi TCP/IP settings now. The only options are to change them to "automatically", "manually" or "link-local only".


So then I thought I'd check my router settings through the Airport Utility. I discovered that two of my three Airport Express devices had Enable Access Control checked. When I went in there, the Timed Access Control had an "Unknown" device changed to "No Access". Once I turned off the Enable Access Control the Apple TV started working over the WiFi again without issue.


This must be a glitch or something because I can guarantee I hadn't changed any Access Control for any devices.


Very very pleased with myself!!

Nov 22, 2016 10:40 PM in response to macinsane

I know it's years later but I just got this error message after moving the ATV next to my Apple Time Capsule/Wireless router. After reading some of the entries below regarding moving the ATV away from the HDMI hub that came with the Samsung TV - it turned out that it was not the HDMI hub but the proximity to the Time Capsule. Interference problems can be maddening. I hope Apple reads these forums and gives us the story behind what's going on because moving the ATV worked. So what's up with that Apple? Time for an added sensor to detect proximate signals and have an error code for that - it can't be that expensive and it enhances the brand.

Apple TV 3 error -3906

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