Netflix stuck on "accessing netflix"

I have been having the same problem for 2 days now. The strange thing is that when Netflix is highlighted on the tab menu, I can access the "Netflix top picks" that show up across the top of the menu just fine ... But if I select Netflix itself, it just says accessing Netflix forever. I can access Netflix through my tv, my iphone, and my iPad ... And even, for a brief period of time, through the atv's web browser (although it ends up freezing and then resetting). It has been working fine for over 2 years so I'm not sure what changed?

Something must be going on because i have the exact same problem as all of you and we are all just experiencing it now at the same time.

Same problem for me, just happened last few days stuck on accessing netflix :( I can access the top picks also but not main menu. Anyone get a fix for this?

I had exactly the same issue, also starting just within the last week. When I navigated through the Apple TV menus to "Internet", and selected the first item, "Netflix", I got customized top-picks along the top. These were playable. And, they were accurate suggestions for my account - meaning that ATV was logging in successfully to and streaming from Netflix servers.

But when I tried to click on "Netflix" to enter the full Netflix application, I got an "Accessing Netflix" message, the spinning thing, and then nothing. No error message. And this message never timed-out, even when left overnight.

Nothing resolved this. I tried all the random Apple TV suggestions from other threads in this forum: power-cycling ATV, power-cycling router, ATV "Reset", changing DNS server, etc. I spent hours with Netflix Support, who were as confused as I was.

Finally, I did a Restore to factory settings (http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4367). It worked!

NetFlix streams without problems. But this wipes out all your customizations - anything you've done to your ATV box - and you'll have to re-do all that.

My Apple TV version was 4.4.4, same as Dui07. This is apparently a few versions old (http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4448). I'd been trying to do "Update Software" and ATV had said my software was up-to-date, but I guess I was encountering a separate issue which broke updates in v.4.4.4 (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4107).

Netflix must have made some update this week that broke compatibility with older ATV software versions.

I have had the same problem that everyone else seems to have and I took your advice and reset to factory settings and it now works.Hopefully it will continue.

While I've had great fun playing the "how many similar-to links does it take to get to my show/movie" game, I'd really like a solution to this. And to everyone who keeps posting to "just do a reset to factory settings" - we all knew that was an option from the start. We don't want to have to go through redoing all of our personalized settings, so it's not some magical solution to the problem to reset it. If anyone comes up with an actual work-around, please let the rest of us know! I'd rather keep getting to whatever I want to watch via a series of similar-tos than reset everything on the device.

Just rebooting apple tv by unplugging 30 secs got us back on

I am having the same issue as all of you folks. My ATV is 2nd gen. After trying all the things everyone else has tried, I finally gave in to doing a 'restore to factory settings'.

I get the message "Apple TV can't download the latest update right now. Try again later." I attempted it last night and tonight and got the same message. So I am really stuck now. Suggestions?

Hi imprinterbarrow,

I got the same message after giving up and deciding to restore. You will need to restore it though iTunes. You need a micro USB cable and to plug your ATV2 into your computer to access it through iTunes. You will be able to restore it then. Hope this helps! I'm actually happy I ended up doing the restore because my ATV is running a lot better for some reason ...

Thanks for the reply. I'm still stuck. I followed the steps indicated above in the link using a micro USB cable:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4367 and tried to use iTunes to restore the ATV.

It says I should either see a dialog box with the "Apple TV recovery mode" or I should have a choice of Apple TV on the toolbar next to iTunes Store. I have neither. I clicked help in the iTunes window looking for places/info to restore the ATV and I find nothing.

The ATV is flashing as it is connected to my Macbook via the micro-USB. I'm thinking the Macbook isn't recognizing the ATV because it's not appearing under Devices in the finder window. Any reason the micro-USB isn't compatible or something?

That happened to me as well in iTunes ... Unplug ALL cables (including the power cable - your computer will power it) and have only the micro USB cable attached. Then open iTunes and you should see it as a device at that point.