Apple TV update 5.1 broken?

I had the same problem. Unplug the power and HDMI cable from your Apple TV. Plug the USB to your computer and a mini-USB to the Apple TV. Then plug the outlet back to the Apple TV for power. Open iTunes on your computer. The Apple TV should appear on iTunes under Devices. If it appears - restore Apple TV. It takes about 35 minutes. Once completed unplug everything and connect Apple TV back to your TV set. Good luck.

Same problem here.

I did get it to work by turning off and on home sharing on my pc, then turning it off and on in the ATV and chose login with a different apple ID (and entered the same one with the password). My thought is the update corrupted the password for the home share on the ATV.

Apple TV, last generation, updated to latest firmware update at end of September and after update it came to a screen showing the iTunes logo and a picture of a cable below that. I could not move past that. Solution next:

Problem solved by buying a cable that is male regular USB on one end and other end is a male micro USB connector. The Apple TV has a female micro USB connector. First opened up iTunes on my PC then connected my Apple TV to the PC's USB input. I had my ethernet cable plugged into the Apple TV too, but no other cables besides that. The iTunes on my PC recognized the connected Apple TV and immediately gave me the menu option to Restore it (Restore puts on the latest firmware). I had my PC's iTunes do the Restore of the Apple TV. At the end of the process my PC's iTunes told me it had successfully completed the Restore of the Apple TV and advised me to disconnect the Apple TV from my PC then connect it back up to my TV set. All went well.

Apple store sells a small USB cable kit that has 3 short cables in the box, one of which is the micro USB to regular USB. Otherwise get your micro USB to regular USB cable at your computer store.

Hi Janet.

I had this problem for ages too, and got no help from Apple.

I managed to fix it though. Not saying this will work for you, but it's worth a try.

For clarity, I have an Apple TV 2 updated to the latest system - 5.1 And I am using my late 2009 27" iMac (running Mountain Lion) to generate wifi from it's built-in card. I was fine with Home Sharing until 5.1, when it stopped working.

Anyway, I fixed it.

I went into System Preferences on my iMac. There, I clicked on 'Sharing', and then again on 'Internet Sharing', so I could go into 'Wifi options' down in the corner. When there, I clicked on the 'Security' dropdown. 5.1 means it only lists WPA2 Personal. But if you hold the option key and click the dropdown, you have a choice. I changed mine back to what it was before - 128-bit WEP. Then I entered the password, clicked 'OK', and re-checked the 'Internet sharing' box.

Now my Apple TV can see my iMac. It still seems a little slower when initially loading a film or TV programme, but it's reliable.

Let me know if this works, or if you have any questions. Good luck.

I was having a wifi issue with my ATV2 after updating to 5.1: the ATV saw my wifi networks but refused to connect. I noticed it said DHCP NULL in Settings, so I manually set an IP address and then tried connecting again to my wifi. This worked, as my ATV2 with 5.1 is now on the Internet and seeing my iTunes library.

Hello all.... sorry I've not communicated this sooner. On my first Apple TV box, when I updated it to 5.1, I had the streaming problem described. I could NOT watch a show..... I ended up doing a reset of the unit through the setup menu. It reset the system (still on 5.1) and has worked fine since. When I updated my second box, it had no issues. Don't ask me why, but this worked for me. It's certainly easier than trying to downgrade versions...... hope this helps.

OK, here are some updates:

I tried downgrade to 5.0.2 and then upgrade back to 5.1, still my WiFi was not connecting on both versions.

So I took it back to Apple store and exchanged it for a new one under warrenty, now my ATV is running again.

I won't upgrade to 5.1 for now until Apple fix the bug.

I have an Apple TV 3. 5.1 didn't really affect me much, as I use a Wi-Fi connection, but after updating to 5.1.1, I could no longer connect to Netflix, and couldn't get Hulu Plus to work either (although it did let me set up an account; one I quickly deleted). I tried these with ethernet, and they worked, but ethernet is impractical for me. I had to downgrade to 5.0.2 to get things working again. Instructions on how to do this are at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4387125?answerId=20008613022#20008613022

It seems 5.0.2 is still a signed update, and the downgrade went off without a hitch.

I reported this issue to Apple.

Resetting via connecting directly to Mac via USB and resetting via itunes worked for me also.

It still loads software version 5.1(5201) So I'm still unsure why a reset via the Apple TV didn't work.

I had a similar problem. When streaming from a PC initiated by the Apple TV, I just got a waiting symbol in the middle of the screen. It also seemed to take around 5 goes to sign in to the iTunes – kept getting a message that the password was incorrect. It worked streaming when initiated from the PC and from iCloud from the PC.

I think I have found a way around though not ideal. Do a complete restore of the Apple TV. Then sign in. Then stream a movie from iCloud – this initiates a legal page that you need to accept. Then go back to the Apple TV and stream a movie from the PC – this takes around 5 minutes the first time. After that it seems to be a bit quicker – though it seems a little random with sometimes it going back to a 5 minute wait.

I had to connect the apple tv through a micro cable to itunes and download the 5.1 update. This worked but then I had to go in and reset all of my passwords. This is a big problem!!

Never mind, I found the instructions here:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread/4387125?answerId=20008613022#20008613022

called apple support my apple tv 3 broke after update ,took back to bestbuy got new one.

apple support said when it says update don"t do it.

do update later every time it pops up, there tecs are working on problem.

Ron.

I also had to recycle my wireless router, don't know if your wireless or not.