Apple TV Death after update?

Are you using iTunes 10 or 11? I encountered the same problem with iTunes 11 .. after recovering back to iTunes 10 it was ok.

Same problem here, Wifi works for 20 min then gone.!! 😮

Is Apple fixing this.?? 😟

The best thing to do...

Download AppleTV-Firmware from Apple here for:

Apple TV v2 – AppleTV2,1_5.0_9B179b_Restore.ipsw

Apple TV v3 – AppleTV3,1_5.0_9B179b_Restore.ipsw

Connect AppleTV with your USB-Cable to your mac (or PC).

Click Restore, but hold the "alt"-key than choose the downloaded Firmware. This works fine and after the restore is finished (like on the iphone), update it later.

This worked fine for me, no troubles anymore.

Rob

thx for the reply.

iTunes 11...but it's the apple tv unit that is dropping the Wi-Fi...once it drops, it doesn't pick up any wi-fi at all, i have to reboot to get it to recognize any wi-fi (mine, my neighbour, any network)

Looks like I spoke too soon!

Downgrading to 5.1 seemed to have fixed for me, but just tried watching a Netflix movie and WIFI disappeared after 20-30 minutes. Issue also happened again when I was playing some music from my Mac Mini's iTunes library. This is strange, as I was running 5.1 perfectly before the upgrade to 5.1.1.

The symptoms in summary:

- WIFI is lost after booting up the Apple TV (sometimes after 20 mins, sometimes after much less, i.e. random)

- Cannot re-establish WIFI connection or even detect *any* WIFI networks

- Rebooting temporarily fixes

Will try downgrading to 5.0.2 next.

I tried this solution. I could get right through to the extracting software, and then a prompt came up saying this device isn't allowed for this software build. (or something to that effect...)

PS, the 5.1.1. update is working fine since i've plugged a direct network connection via ethernet to the back of the apple tv...clearly a workaround until the apple folks fix the latest apple tv firmware. Don't think it is related to iTunes 11..

I have an ATV3 that I just got last Thursday, and it wouldn't connect with Wifi after the update. I tried to downgrade to 5.0.2, but iTunes wouldn't allow me to do that, I guess since this device was preloaded with 5.1. So, I installed 5.1. This resulted in no WiFi, and the ethernet wouldn't work. When the ethernet was plugged in, the device would "shut off" with a blinking light. If I unplugged the ethernet, the device would boot up normally.

So, I rebooted my router, and reinstalled 5.1.1. Thankfully, the ethernet worked so my little boy could get his shows on Netflix. But, no WiFi.

Yesterday afternoon, I tinkered with it some more. I unplugged the cable and tried to set up WiFi. No success. So, I started tinkering with some settings in my router. As I did, I did a force reset with the Apple Remote (down button+menu button until light flickers rapidly). When it rebooted, I went straight to the WiFi settings without going anywhere else in any menus. At first, no networks were listed, only "other." But the "wheel" started turning and every network imaginable came up on a list.

So, for me, a router reset, fresh install of 5.1.1, and force reset straight into network settings worked.

I haven't watched anything at length to see if I will lose the connection. Will follow up if I have any issues.

Update: I got home after work today, woke the ATV out of sleep mode and.... No wifi. Wouldn't find any network. So, I did a force reset with the Apple remote, and it automatically connected after restart. Go figure.

I'm now stuck on 5.0.2 after attempting to upgrade from 5.1 to 5.1.1.

My Apple TV (3rd gen.) was running 5.0. I tried several times to update to 5.1.1 from within the Apple TV UI. It failed every time. (Network connection was Ethernet.) The final attempt hung and bricked the unit.

I attempted to restore to 5.1.1 within iTunes 11. Every time, I got error 14 ("An unknown error occurred"). Thinking perhaps I had a charge-only micro-USB cable, I ordered a new micro-USB cable and waited for it to arrive. The same thing happened when I attempted the restore in iTunes with the new cable.

I next tried to restore to 5.1 within iTunes. The progress bar got halfway and then hung. This happens every time.

Then I tried to revert to 5.0.2 within iTunes. This restore succeeded.

I then tried several methods to update from 5.0.2 to 5.1.1 -- Ethernet, wireless, Restart then Restore, Reset > Restore. All failed with "An error occurred."

Again I tried to restore to 5.1.1 and 5.1 within iTunes. It failed with error 14 (5.1.1) and incomplete restore (5.1).

I then reverted to 5.0.2, and that restore again succeeded.

I noticed that the 5.0.2 .ipsw is about 80MB smaller than the 5.1.x files. Perhaps this has something to do with the restore failures on my unit.

My 2nd Generation Apple TV functioned perfectly until the recent upgrade. Immediately following the upgrade, the unit would start, but not respond to the remote. I tried "Menu+Left" and "Menu+Down". The latter occasionally restarted the unit, but upon restart it was again non-responsive to the remote. Following the directions in the online manual, I purchased a micro USB cable and connected the unit to my MacBook Pro, then attached the unit's power cord and plugged it into the outlet. The unit appeared in iTunes as did a button to click to restore the unit to factory settings. Every time I clicked the button a dialog box appeared advising that the device could not be found. Researching the Apple Forum I located and downloaded "AppleTV2,1_5.0.2_9B830_Restore.ipsw". The software would not load until I disconnected the power cord from the Apple TV unit. The unit appears to be functioning correctly.

Yep, to restore AppleTV via the micro USB cable. ATV2 do not need a power cord, only the ATV3 needs it.

I was stuck on step 1 of 2 for about an hour. While reading about this topic I saw the issues with the network and tried to connect using remote on my iPad. It connected and I was able to play a song even though the screen still said it was updating. Backed out of the appleTV in the remote app and reselected the appleTV. At this point the appleTV rebooted and started step 2 of 2. It now seems to be working. BTW, I'm hard wired and not wireless for the appleTV.

Update on my position. Ethernet and wifi used to work on 5.0.2 but then ethernet stopped working, wifi continued OK; unit requested Ethernet cable to be plugged in even though it was already connected. No change after usual suggestions, forced reset etc, or when updated to 5.1 and 5.1.1. Took the unit to the Genius Bar at a London Apple Store last week and they agreed to replace it. New unit updated no problem to 5.1.1 and Ethernet and wifi both now working. Can only assume from the various threads on this forum that there has been a large batch of faulty units.

verdi1987 wrote:

I'm now stuck on 5.0.2 after attempting to upgrade from 5.1 to 5.1.1.

My Apple TV (3rd gen.) was running 5.0. I tried several times to update to 5.1.1 from within the Apple TV UI. It failed every time. (Network connection was Ethernet.) The final attempt hung and bricked the unit.

I attempted to restore to 5.1.1 within iTunes 11. Every time, I got error 14 ("An unknown error occurred"). Thinking perhaps I had a charge-only micro-USB cable, I ordered a new micro-USB cable and waited for it to arrive. The same thing happened when I attempted the restore in iTunes with the new cable.

I next tried to restore to 5.1 within iTunes. The progress bar got halfway and then hung. This happens every time.

Then I tried to revert to 5.0.2 within iTunes. This restore succeeded.

I then tried several methods to update from 5.0.2 to 5.1.1 -- Ethernet, wireless, Restart then Restore, Reset > Restore. All failed with "An error occurred."

Again I tried to restore to 5.1.1 and 5.1 within iTunes. It failed with error 14 (5.1.1) and incomplete restore (5.1).

I then reverted to 5.0.2, and that restore again succeeded.

I noticed that the 5.0.2 .ipsw is about 80MB smaller than the 5.1.x files. Perhaps this has something to do with the restore failures on my unit.

The Apple Store replaced my Apple TV. The Genius suspected the flash storage was failing. When I got the replacement unit home, I tried to update it via iTunes on Mac. I ran into the same issue I had with the original unit. I could update to neither 5.1 (hung midway) nor 5.1.1 (appeared to complete but failed). However, I could always restore to 5.0.2 without issue.

I first used the firmware .ipsw downloaded directly from Apple via Firefox. So I decided to try to have iTunes download the firmware. (I had to revert to iTunes 10 to get iTunes to download it due to a bug in iTunes 11.) The download completed, but iTunes reported that it was corrupted. I did this twice, and it was reported as corrupted both times.

Then I decided to download the 5.1.1 .ipsw with Safari. Lo and behold, iTunes successfully restored the Apple TV with the Safari-downloaded firmware.

The file sizes from all three download methods (Firefox, iTunes, Safari) were identical, but I did not diff them to validate that they were truly identical.

I suspect there was absolutely nothing wrong with my original Apple TV.

Now I have the 5.1.x issue of Ethernet not working with Hulu Plus, Photo Stream, etc. It is astounding that Apple put out 5.1.1 without the Ethernet fix.

Like others, I have struggled with the both the previous 5.1 and the new 5.1.1 update. Wifi works relately well, but ethernet was knocked out.

I do however think I have found a solution which definitely points to a software based issue.

My solution is as follows:

1. Restore the device using micro USB direct via Mac and do a full restore and update.

2. Instead of allowing the network settings to go to normal instead change the DNS server to use Google's DNS generic server of 8.8.8.8 - all of your other auto network settings should be fine.

3. Setup your Apple TV as per normal entering all your details for iTunes Match etc.

After doing the above, I seem to have no issues anymore using ethernet.

Without doing the above, connection via ethernet is slow or simply does not work without using wifi to sort the connection out at some point. Using my DNS trick however seems to complete sort the issue out and does not require any wifi input at all.

My take on the whole saga - seems apple has stuffed up the DNS side of things in their last two software releases and at least seems to have put my mind at rest that the last two software releases have caused no lasting hardware damage. To be honest, I was really surprised the solution above worked and hope my little trick works for others.