Apple TV Death after update?

@vapiarius,

Can you report back later to tell us if 5.1 is ok with home sharing and AirPlay mirroring?

The problems describe here have nothing to do with the actual update procedures, but 5.1 is killing the networking connection after the update.

I'm glad I found this thread, but I don't know if anyone can help me. I was watching Columbo on Netflix on Sunday. Suddenly, the AppleTV 2 stopped working. When I say stopped, all that I saw on the main screen was the Computers and Settings icons. I tried ethernet and wireless, but I couldn't get anymore icons.

Then, after I unplugged it and plugged it back it, it just completely died. It doesn't turn on anymore.

Am I just out of luck?

It sounds like others have been restoring to the old software, but I can't do that if it won't even turn on, right?

Thanks

That just happened to me about a hour ago. Went to watch a show off my itunes library and it said home sharing wasn't on, it was. Said password and name were wrong, it then went black. Couldn't get past the same screen. Made an appointment at Apple store.

After a month without my ATV and following this thread avidly, I made an appointment at my local Apple Store. After a brief explanation of the problem I was met with a quizzical look and advised that it was very unusual for something to go wrong with the ATV unit. I referred them this very forum and showed how many people were having the same issue as myself and was again met with a quizzical look -- unfortunately due to the lack of knowledge of the forum!

Long story short, they replaced my ATV2 with another ATV2 that they had to order in specially. The next issue I have is that it's running on 4.4.4 and I would like to put the safest version of iOS onto it without using the automatic update... Just ordered myself a MicroUSB cable from AMAZON for £1.50 ....

I think I would laugh at this whole debacle if it wasn't so avoidable - and frustrating.

I can get the file to save to my desktop and extract but have no luck executing it. when I am in iTunes with the appletv3 connected, I used the options feature with the restore but there is no file in the folder with the ipsw extension that the restore looks for. Please let me know what I am doing wrong! I have 2 appletvs to fix for a school.

My cable arrived from Amazon today. I bought (as described in Amazon) an AppleTV2 MicroUSB cable, comments from other buyers verified this cable to be good. Connected the AppleTV to my VAIO, it was recognised as an Apple Device and the drivers subsequently were loaded. However, the device did not appear in iTunes. I have tried all combinations of connections but no use. Does anyone know if there has to be a certain version of iOS on the ATV before it's recogised by iTunes? The version I am currently running is 4.4.4 ...

I can get the file to save to my desktop and extract

The ipsw is not an executable file.

Open itunes and connect your ATV to the computer, opt-click (OS X) or ctrl-click (Win) the restore button, select the ipsw file you downloaded. That's all.

LoLyfe wrote:

No, I have an AppleTV 2 - does this mean I'll have no luck putting the version I want manually into the device then?

Yep, you can restore ATV2 to 5.0.2 via iTunes as well. There is no need for the power cord. Just use the micro usb cable you have.

BTW, the latest iTunes is 10.7, why are you still using 4.4.4?

Hello Guys,

I "had" the same problems for 2 weeks, today i unplugged everything, router, atv, everything and waited a few minutes and try my atv on my MAC with a ethernet cable.. no change here

BUT, when i put everything back in place, it worked normal.. i don't know what it was..

Sorry for my bad English (i am from Europe!)

Good luck to all, i go know and finally watch a movie.. 😁

Has anyone found that the new Apple TV update has screwed up their entire network? When my ATV is plugged in neither my laptop(windows) or my Ipod Touch will connect thru airport. After rebooting everything and reconecting the whole network including ATV, Laptop, and Ipod all lose the network within 5 minutes..... Unplug the apple TV and all these issues go away....

I had the same experience with an ATV 3 .

I applied the update from the ATV upgrade software screen, once the update was complete I had a blank tv and blinking light on the ATV.

After trying to restore the ATV with usb cable and iTunes a number of times , I had no change.

I could remove the ethernet cable and get back to the ATV menu successfully, but neither wireless nor ethernet networks would work. I would just get the blank screen, even though I was able to ping the ATV successfully with the ethernet cable plugged in.

Thanks to instructions in this post I was able to download the 5.02 version and using the shift key on the restore button successfully install it.

Thank you for the help getting my Apple TV 3 back up and running !

I've also downgraded to 5.02 via mini USB and it worked for a few days, however now my ATV3 can no longer find my Airport Extreme (2nd gen) wireless network at all. All of my other devices (3 iPhones iOS5, 1 MacBookPro OSX10.6.8, 2 iPad's iOS5, and an updated playstation use the network as usual. Any suggestions?

For me, the process of upgrading and downgrading had also killed the WiFi signal on my ATV3. It could no longer hold a wireless connection for more than a few minutes as soon as I started streaming. So I ended up taking my ATV back to an Apple store for an exchange.

Barry8905 wrote:

After I did the update, it removed most of my icons like vimeo and youtube and netflix...only left me with home sharing and setting....How do I get those back anyone know?

Use the USB restore option, the automatic update on ATV is flawed.

Andyrooz wrote:

well, i just changed the IP address on the apple TV (changed the last digit up 1), reset everything, and voila. All fixed!

That probably will only works if you use static IP addressing.

For most users, dynamic IP is used and it is the default option, in that case, the IP address on the ATV is assigned to it by the DHCP server on the router.