apple tv does not access iTunes - 4/17/2014

Hi Noel,

I've noticed one or two others commenting on how something had "improved" in Australia; unfortunately, that's not been my experience - things are still as they were Thursday night, although the UI has deteriorated - wouldn't have thought things could get any worse!

What annoys me is the lack of statements from Apple - are they waiting to find an answer before making an announcement? If it weren't for some clever users here, we would still be in the dark over what might have been the cause. From one of the posts earlier today it seems updating of servers and locking things down after the heartbleed issue may have been the initial cause. I'm happy that these steps are taken, just annoyed at the lack of treatment from Apple.

Not sure if someone else state this temporary solution, but if you need to use your Apple TV Gen 1 to watch a movie, this could be a solution if you are in a tight bind.

Something else I’ve noticed. Not all of my HD movies will transfer over to the Apple TV 1^st Generation. I have downloaded quite a few 1080p HD movies from iTunes. According to iTunes, a 720 will also download to your iTunes along with 1080 if you ordered the HD format. Unfortunately the Apple TV doesn’t like the 1080p format, so it will not download it. Not sure why the iTunes will not download the 720 instead of attempting to download the 1080 to the Apple TV…hopefully Apple will take care of this the same time they take care of the problem going on this weekend.

In iTunes my Apple TV is showing up and I was able to download to the hard drive some movies. Once that was done I disconnected my wireless router. I believe there is a conflict with the communication between Apple TV and iTunes. To shut down any type of possible communication I simply turn off my router by pulling the plug. My computer is "hardwired" so I had no problem getting on the internet without the wireless router.

Once the router was disconnected there were no more glitches. The Apple TV acted like the old Apple TV when I first got it.

This is a simple, quick, and temporary solution if you have to use your Apple TV to play a movie.

Still waiting for Apple to fix the worldwide problem.

Hello there!

Could it be a globlal problem woth ATV's 1st gen.?

Here in Switzerland I've got the same problems like you. No connetion to iTunes store.

I tried everaything to solve the problem. re-start, disconnection erase and new syncronization of HDD. No solution yet. in the diagnostics a get the display there is a problem with your ethernet networking, check networking settings. I did it but can't find conection problems.

Very frustrating 😠

Hi Mitch,

I think I will have to take some of that back.

There was an improvement this morning and it has been better all day with no play back problems and some limited access to the iTunes store but not able to purchase anything.

There is an earlier post here from someone in Canada who said that was their experience also yesterday until they tried a reboot of the ATV and it went back to the same condition as before.

With much trepidation I also tried the reboot a few minutes ago and got the same result.

Back to the same as it has been the last few days and same problems as everybody else.

So I don't have any idea what's happening now and am getting as fed up with it as everyone else.

Something really did happen for the better today though until I rebooted.

The problem is most certainly global. there are reports of this issue from all over the globe. The problem is at Apple's end, not yours, so all you can do is wait until they fix it.

Hi Noel,

That was me earlier... sorry to hear yours reverted after the reboot. I suspect the problem [or in this case apparant improvement] might have been connectivity issues with your ATV to Apple. As disconnecting the ATV from the internet does get rid of the sluggish behaviour, and fixes the glitchy playback problem for locally stored content.

Hi world,

Apples system status is green:

http://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/

The apple support (from germany) is not aware of the problem. They just send me the standard solution from apples website. Although it's eastern, I'd be happy to hear an official statement from Cupertino.

Happy eastern!

I suggest that anyone who has not already done so file a bug report via the feedback page, to increase the exposure on this. https://www.apple.com/feedback/appletv.html

Have been experiencing the same frustrating problem here in the UK.

I hadn't used ATV 1 for a while but last night when I went to purchase a movie I found it very sluggish moving around the menus and items were missing from the Movies menu. I tried a factory reset but that didn't help. I was about to sling the ATV out with the rubbish this morning when I read the posts on the issue and realised that it's not just happening to me.

I've reported it as a bug to Apple and will wait for the fix. In the meantime, it's down to the local retailer for a physical copy of the movie I can't purchase from iTunes.

Yes, thanks.

That is my understanding and experience of it also but it was connected to the Internet all of today and not through my computer.

I think had the ATV on standby all last night.

Maybe I just got lucky this morning and managed to get a connection to the server, which it held on to all day until I rebooted. It's when it is trying to connect to the server and not succeeding that it causes problems. It just keeps trying forever.

With all these gen1 ATVs generating zillions of unsuccessful requests it's no wonder.

For all of today I could see all the store menu items and see and play the movie trailers but not access any paid content. No problems playing back local content because it was holding the internet connection.

So nothing's fixed and I think I'll shut up until it is.

Thanks for your response.

I bought a pile of Apple gear when I retired so I wouldn't have to worry about this sort of thing (c'est la vie!)

purchase it with iTunes on your Mac/PC, and share it ot your ATV. [you'll need to disconnect the ATV from the internet to fix the sluggish behaviour]

Hello,

I meet the same issue since the 17th of April with my Apple TV 1st gen, in FR. I tried lot of thing but unfortunately, I cannot fix it.

it is very annoying. It is the second time I meet this kind of issue with my Apple TV 1st gen. The last time, I waited at least 5 days before a fix from Apple.

I become very dissappointed of the Apple's service...

Please Apple, do something !

Same problem here in Japan. 1G ATV, 3.02.

As others have suggested, transferring content to the ATV via wifi and then disconnecting the ATV from the internet resolves the playback stuttering. Quick method is to attach an ethernet cable to the ATV that is not connected to anything.

Hoping Apple pushes out a software update for this soon.

Netflix mostly contains a small selection of old content that is available at a flat monthly rate. It is NOT a viable "replacement" for being able to rent nearly all current (and most older) movies, in my opinion.

I contacted support for AppleTV and within a few hours got an email from a tech support, but they just want to have me jump through the "reset/update" hoop that does not work as reported on here. It would seem that Apple does NOT inform (say through an email) their support teams about bugs like this, which just wastes time and energy on both ends. One of my AppleTV Gen1 units is connected via Ethernet (as of very recently, ironically) and it shows all the store menu options and not flickering, but clicking on one reports the iTunes store as unavailable. My WiFi unit is crapping its pants trying to connect to the servers and the options are missing. That unit can still run XBMC, however and it works albeit with some delays here and there that mostly affect only HD video playback with a stutter every 8-10 seconds or so (SD playback is smooth).

Ultimately, if Apple doesn't fix the problem, I guess I'll have to turn both units into CrystalUbuntu machines. Oddly enough, I had just ordered the CrystalHD card (got it two days ago) for the Ethernet unit as I was planning on updating my projector to a 1080p 3D model and wanted it to be able to handle 1080p encodes of rips of my BD library instead of just the 720p ones that have sufficed until now since my currentp projector is 6 years old and a 720p only model. XBMC only is better than a stuttering Apple mess. Frankly, I'm surprised more news sites haven't reported this. Media attention is one of the few things that seems to spur Apple into action. Otherwise, they typically show apathy, especially with older products.

Oh, I also have an ATV Gen2 unit and it's working perfectly fine and connects to the iTunes Store without issue. Only my Gen1 units are acting up (i.e. as opposed to the posts on here that suggest it affects Gen2/3 units as well. Either they resolved the issue for those units or they just needed a restart or something).

@mathteacher973

AppleTV 1 hardware is 6-7 years old and there was no iTunes store functionality on the device when released.

When Apple added HD to iTunes it was 720p only initially and AppleTV 1 was just powerful enough to handle 720p at 24 fps, though many found it could just about do 25 fps but 30 FPS was not possible.

iTunes used to automatically download SD and HD, but it never downloaded two HD versions automatically. It no longer downloads SD automatically for an HD purchase. You can get the SD version from iTunes store quicklinks by changing the checkbox below purchases you are browsing.

There is an option in iTunes preferences to choose 720p or 1080p - if you change this you can then download the other version.