Q: Apple TV update failure

If your apple tv is plugged into your network with an ethernet cable, try unplugging it, and setting up a wireless connection instead. This worked for me.

Welcome to the Apple Community.

If you are using ethernet, try the update with wifi, as suggested above.

If your problem persists get yourself a micro USB cable (sold separately), you can restore your Apple TV from iTunes:

1. Remove ALL cables from Apple TV. (if you don't you will not see Apple TV in the iTunes Source list)
2. Connect the micro USB cable to the Apple TV and to your computer.
3. Reconnect the power cable (only for Apple TV 3)
4. Open iTunes.
5. Select your Apple TV in the Devices list, and then click Restore.

This is geninely bizzare - why would a hard wired connection be "less" than a WiFi connection?

It did work for me too however with the same issue - Gen3 ATV.  The Update did take an incredibly long time however. 2-3 hours it seemed.

If your apple tv is plugged into your network with an ethernet cable, try unplugging it, and setting up a wireless connection instead. This worked for me.

This was a problem spefically with software v5.1, most users encountered it when upating to 5.1.1 and it therefore shouldn't affect most users now updating to 5.2. Indeed it only affected a handful of users with specific routers. However it may be that there are a few users who hadn't updated from 5.1 and are encountering this problem when updating to 5.2.

I've updated without issue until this latest 5.2 update. I was using ethernet to (the latest) Airport Extreme. Seems odd the issue would be present on Apple's own router and not on some other 3rd party routers. Unplugged ethernet and used wifi, no problem.

Definitely odd...