"Apple TV can't connect to the server at this time..." Going on for days. I've tried resets, changing my password, network diagnosis, etc... Still no luck. Was working perfect prior. Anyone else stuck like I am?

Bottom line - don't buy Apple TV unless you have a lot of time to go through all of the steps mentioned in this thread pretty much every time you want to watch anything. I used to be a big Apple fan - APPLE TV is garbage

Sorry. Best solution is a Roku box. I prefer the ATV format but when the authorisation gremlin pops up I switch to Roku. And while I'm there I rent from Amazon and stream from their Prime selection

Took more than a month to watch final eps of Breading Bad. We tried everything suggested. Sometimes it worked for three minutes of an ep and then the dreaded message about not being able to connect to server would appear and go on for days. solution? Take a hammer to Apple TV and buy boxed sets in future. Never again. I hate Apple TV.

I have owned my ATV for almost a year and never had any troubles until I downloaded the new firmware. Since then every time I rent a movie it wont load, I cant find it or I ger a server error. I have spent countless hours over the weekend trying to watch one movie. DO NOT BUY A ATV!!!!! It is junk!!!!

Had the Airport Extreme wifi router installed and have had zero issues. Use a gigabite modem and used a very nice wifi router and the ATV's would not connect correctly. My IT guys suggested I try the Airport Extreme as he has seen this happen before and it worked out nicely. Not really happy about it, but at least it all works, and works fast.

Well, obviously Apple is not addressing this issue because I started having this problem a week ago and I can't seem to find a fix. The same error has been posted months ago. Very frustrating. Mine is either 2nd or 3rd gen. I just can't remember if the issue started after installing the latest ATV updates or ios7 or Maverick os on my mac! I don't think IOS 7 did it because I know I was playing Netflix after that install. I think it has to be one of the ATV updates I did. Can anyone shed some light? I don't even know if I'm making sense!

I came here with a similar problem using my new netgear n750 router. My apple tv was not able to connect and kept giving me error meesaages. Unfortunately nothing i saw here worked worked for me and I had to call support. What fixed my problem (and may help some of you others) was the security settings in my router. You will have to login to your router settings (for me this was done by putting in a specific web address - check with your router literature or online).

By changing the wireless security on my router to WEP (and then generating a new pass key - you'll see this when you change your security to WEP, it's basically your new password). Originally I was using a WPA level of security and this was apparently the problem. I renamed by network just to make sure that apple tv found the new updated router network, used my new pass key, and now it works. Maybe this will help someone

This earlier posting worked for me:

"This worked for me without having to reset my Apple TV universe: Press Menu and Down Arrow keys simultaneously for 6 seconds until the light flashes rapidly."

Thank you!

Had problem for a couple of weeks, then checked my iTunes account via my laptop and found apple wanted me to re-enter the 3 digit security code of my credit card. After doing that online, my AppleTV allowed me to purchase and watch movies.

This earlier posting worked for me ALSO!!!:

"This worked for me without having to reset my Apple TV universe: Press Menu and Down Arrow keys simultaneously for 6 seconds until the light flashes rapidly."

Thank you!

I have a bit of a different take on this. In my case, the answer was to restart my Airport base station. Every once in a while I'll run into odd connection problems that only affect one or maybe two devices on my wireless network. I've found that I can fix the problem on the network side. So, if the preceding fixes don't work for you (they didn't for me), try restarting your base station.

I've been having this problem with my AppleTV 2 (720) for months now, intermittently. Had tried many things including full settings reset, restarts, unplugs and it was still really clunky after being perfect and brilliant for a long long while

My solution (which interestingly also fixed the same server errors I was getting with the YouTube app on ATV) was as follows:

in iTunes on my Macbook, went into my Account and edited my payment information. Inputed the 3 digit security code from my associated debit / credit card

Did a 6 second remote reset as decribed in the above thread

After this everything is fixed, including better iTunes Match performance when I add tracks to iTunes. Previously it was taking an age to 'send information to Apple' and then 'receive results' before tracks would appear via Match in ATV. This is now slick again

Frustrating that Apple's solution to what appears to be a common problem is ridiculous!

Sam

The full settings reset worked for me. But certainly, over the last week or so I've had this server error - it happened randomly and only with Apple TV (all my other devices could connect just fine).

So definitely try the full reset first, it should work.

Well, I found this post after a search on Google and I wanted to add my fix to this problem. For me the answer lay with my Internet Provider BT. I have the Parental Controls set and for some reason they block useful things like Apple updates!!. If you are with BT or some other service provider that has an 'at source' filter, try turning it off and seeing if that then allows you to do the Apple TV update.

Of course if I had the web address of the Apple TV update server I could add this to my Whitelist, but I have no idea what it might be. Anybody know?

I have the exact same problem.. Started after I got the new Time Capsule.. Apple, solve it!