My apple tv keeps saying setting date and time

Welcome to the Apple Community.

Assuming this is not the first time you have used your Apple TV

• You might try restarting the Apple TV by removing ALL the cables for 30 seconds.
• Also try restarting the router.
• If the problem persists, try a restore, you may want to try the previous procedures several times before doing this.

If this is a new Apple TV, it may also be that your network router is not allowing access to the timeserver, check that your router allows access over port 123.

I had the same problem. Several times the Apple TV stayed stuck trying to setting date/time. I have three Macs and I think the automatic internet setting was the problem. I changed to manual the internet settings on Apple TV and it's working until today.

I have the same issue - after about 8 months of using ATV all of a sudden shows started stopping and starting and having trouble playing. In the past I would restart the ATV and it would clear the problem.

Now I have restarted several times and finally reset it two times. Each time I made certain that I had a good network connection.

BTW - I had also removed power and etc.

I guess when Steve Jobs died so did the Apple reliability...sad.

Had similar issues with my ATV2 not being able to set the date and time. I tried resetting, restoring, restarting and all would seem to get stuck at the setting date and time. I finally uplugged it and plugged it straight into my MacBook Pro with the micro usb cable (didn't even need the power cord). Through iTunes I clicked on Restore. iTunes took over and did a complete restore including a firmware update. Then when it finished it said to plug it back into the TV. When I did it asked me to set the language, set the wifi network and password (the usual startup stuff) and voilà! It works again.

Hope this helps.

This vexed me for a long time. Now we finally have a fix!

All credit goes to Ed Gainer, our Network Admin.

:::

Version update 5.2.1 (6025) seems to have changed the way its searches for time. According to the Apple website’s list of ports used by Apple, the time protocol NTP would normally communicate via TCP or UDP. This was the case in previous versions, but when the update for 5.2.1 was introduced, the Apple TV displayed a “Searching for Time and Date” indicator upon restart. The only remedy was to select “Menu” on the Apple Remote. At that point, the main menu now only displayed “Computers” and “Settings” options. All the icons for other online content options such as YouTube, HuluPlus, Vimeo, etc. were missing.

After running a packet trace the ports, NTP (123), DNS (53) and ports 49152 – 65535 were used in booting the Apple TV. After some trial and error it appears that the Apple TV is searching for the time via the NTP protocol through UDP. When port 123 was opened in the firewall over TCP/UDP it still did not communicate. The solution was to specifically indicate the NTP protocol over UDP. Keeping the NTP protocol specified via TCP is also recommended.

The resolution to this problem was to create a service group for Apple including the following services.

Additionally, it is recommended to include these services in the group to encompass all of the Apple products in your environment.

I don't know a lot about routers and I don't understand how to implement this solution. Should I call Verizon? I logged into my router but all the different settings left me baffled.

It does seem like a router problem because if completely reinstall the ATV software, I can get the thing working again.

try this:

use your iPhone, iPad or another mobile as a mobile hotspot, and connect your ATV to your device using it´s carrier, this solved my date and time setting issue.

This worked for me... After working great using DHCP for many months, I also got the "setting date and time" issue. Configuring a static IP address seems to have resolved it.