Apple TV 3rd Gen Freezing/Buffering constantly

I have the same issue. I have all apple products including an apple router. My internet speed is better than required and my Apple TV (gen 3) is closer to the router than previously when I had no issues with no interference between the router and Apple TV. I first corrected the issue with an Apple TV software update. Then my Apple router had a firmware update. Ever since then when I try to watch movies on my Apple TV it buffers more than it plays. I really hope Apple will fix this. Otherwise I feel like this could be a way to force people to buy more products.

Yeah I already have a zigbee power adapter set aside to power this so I can not only reboot it from my phone but also just have it reboot at 2am. Sad.

I've typically got to reboot the ATV after every 2 or 3 video podcasts, because caching of data ceases to happen at some point, causing the ATV to hang on playback (or play back video without audio). Only a restart fixes it... until it happens again after 2-3 podcasts.

AirPlay is its own grief - the 10 ft from phone to wifi router to ATV causes the AirPlay protocol to show whatever flaws it has. AirPlay will just spontaneous stop (network connection from the phone and from ATV are fine - no issues there). Or the AirPlay protocol wont find the ATV any more (searching.. searching...)

Something about both AirPlay protocol and the ATV firmware has gone down hill massively for the older ATV devices.

Having to power cycle the ATV, power cycle the iPhone, power cycle the WiFi router, all to address issues that only the ATV and AirPlay have (everything else works just fine: eg HBO app on ATV streams just fine, internet access/speedtest from iPhone works just fine)... this just seems wrong.. but its necessary in my home to get any reliable use out of the Apple TV.

4 years later and I find myself having your problem. Its been persistantly annoying for the last three years and our switch to ATT uverse as an internet provider has worsened the problem. ATT has no help and I'm not going to bother asking the apple 'gurus' at the store for help.

What is your system you are running today to watch movies? If you're pirating, and dont want to say so, send me a line at azulnemo@gmail.com and help me out to get started again. I was really hoping to contribute financially to the creative movie empire, but apple has runed that for me and so I'm going back to my college pirating days.

Thanks!

We may need to purchase an airport (sold by Apple) it seems there are too many devices wirelessly ported to one access point. I added my iMac to the mix and now all streaming apps ie Netflix, HBO Go, CNNgo etc are constantly pausing on me. After taking inventory, I’m at 5 devices which is the average allotment for a residential wireless modem with slightly higher than average speed (18).

Unfortunately no that won't work. The problem is down in the Apple TV OS in the networking stack. Because I switched to hardline Ethernet connection thus eliminating the wifi entirely. And the appletv STILL does the same nonsense. Will stutter, not cache much and hang on playing a variety of podcast videos that come from a variety of sources. The only reliable way is to airplay from the phone but then after some random amount of playbacks the phone starts not AirPlaying. There is some fundamental bug down in the network streaming/playback/airplay library that just won't get fixed since Apple wants us to buy a new appletv. But given that broke the last one I'm not sure I'd trust them again. A chromecast might be a better option as at least going youtube would work reliably to the big screen.

Hi there,

I would recommend taking a look at the troubleshooting steps found in the article below.

Apple TV (2nd and 3rd generation): Troubleshooting playback performance

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3623

-Griff W.

I have exactly the same problem and for the life of me can't figure out why!!! It has always been fine, it's only started happening in the last month or so!!!

I have the same problem, isolated to Netflix.

1. Select some content on Netflix and play it.

2. Netflix pauses, say at 4:10 into the content.

3. Fast forward beyond 4:10 and it plays again (immediately)

4. Rewind before 4:10 and it plays again UNTIL it reaches 4:10 again.

5. Try this on my iOS device (iPhone 4 over 3G), no issue

6. Try this on my MacBook Pro running wifi over same network as ATV3, no issue.

7. My ATV3 is hardwired

8. I have tested the wires for noise (yes I own a TDR that does a signal strength test)

9. Reset AT3 by unplugging CAT 5e, HDMI, power and waiting 5 minutes.

10. Tried software resets

11. I have business class high speed cable

Yet the results remain repeatable. Same content, same time index, same symptom.

If this were a bandwidth issue or router issue then other devices on the network should have had the same problems. If it were my ISP, then my cellular provider would have had similar issues given my thruput is much lower.

The fact it happens ALWAYS at the same time index is either a miracle of random chance or it means Netflix / ATV3 have software issue that the hardware is unable to deal with.

If I talk to Apple, they just send me to Netflix, if I talk to Netflix, they just conclude it is my hardware. This is an entertainment device. I don't have a lot of time for entertainment and when I go to it, I do not expect to have to troubleshoot it.

Has anyone experienced this on Roku or Hulu? Sould I change devices / content providers?

I'm an Apple fan (back to the Mac Plus) , but only because the products work, and this one is not.

I have an Ipad 4th gen and until the upgrade to 7 I had no issues with video. Now, I am having the same all of you describe. This is what I loved best about my ipad. Now, I am considering something else. Hulu, Amazon videos, and all other video sources I use experience the same.... Grrrrrr

I have the same problem and I have a window to return it until black friday comes along to see my alternatives. I use this to mirror and it is all fine. But netflix is the biggest problem with buffer. It stops like into the movie when i stream content from netflix and then i would have to switch to my ps3 to watch netflix on there because there is no issue on ps3. So i think it is the plist or whatever it is for netflix with apple tv 3 that is causing the problem. I have tried rebooting it. I am on latest os for apple tv still no clear answers or solutions. Im bumping this. We need a solution.

I have same problem as described above. Some additional info hopefully helpful to somebody:

+ I am visiting Chicago from Dallas, for a week. Never have problem there, now my iPad mini and iPhones 4 freez playing Netflix and even iTunes Radio!

+ Mac Book Pro seems to be OK or at least I don't remember any.

+ Just bought a brand new Apple TV (here in Chicago) and it freezes playing Netflix, PBS, Yahoo! Screen .... Happens with Wifi or wire (Ethernet). I can not watch any show longer than than 5-10 minutes without problem.

+ I was blaming the ISP and Wifi router until find out my wife's Windows 8 laptop has no problem what so ever -- via wifi! Neither her Samsung Galaxy S4 via wifi.

Apparently this happens to some of us and it may depend on where we are. Perhaps problem is with Apple servers that serves your area? And Apple is too big to care for problems that do not make it to national news!

I have the same problem now for the past few weeks.

Another symptom is that movie previews steam fine - nice and fast - but the rentd and purhased movies take forever buffering every 8 or so minutes. I have 3 Apple TV's and since the last update - which killed one of them - performance has been very slow.

Any assistance would be grealty appreciated.

Hi. So is this a problem Apple never intends on addressing? I have made numerous calls to Apple and they act like this is an isolated issue and "haven't heard of this issue affecting anyone else." I really hope they fix this soon!

I have the same issue. And it started right after Apple put out the update for Apple TV. There is no fix unless they do something about it. My ATV is hardwired and every other device in my house operates wirelessly. My smart TV doesn't have this problem, my Ipad, IMac, MacBook... NOTHING has this issue. It's at the point where it buffers longer than it plays.

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