Q: I can no longer stream my music or radio from iTunes without it constantly pausing to buffer every two or three seconds.  This is new.  What can I do?

If you haven't tried it yet, cycle power on all of your devices which are participating in this setup, starting with your Router first and then your Apple TV.

I have this same issue. I restarted all my devices, (router, express, airport base station, apple TV), and this did not help. If I am streaming Pandora though my TV it is fine, and I can play music without issue through my apple TV by mirroring my macbook pro and iTunes (playing music on my hard drive), but when I try to stream music through the apple tv music app, or through iTunes store, or the cloud, it is buffering every 4-5 seconds. Extremely annoying! I have also played around with moving around my devices as someone mentioned it could be interference, but this made no difference. My apple TV was working fine a few days ago.

Any one have any ideas?

Thanks!

Christine

christinegabrielle wrote:

 

My apple TV was working fine a few days ago.

 

Any one have any ideas?

There are to things which you might try; doesn't matter in which order you will try to do them but if one wouldn't work, then you still might need to check other step too.

1. Test on a different network.

You might test your Apple TV on a different network on a different location (friend house, other family member house) and see if issue persist.

If you have an iPhone, you can try with using Personal Hotspot (check with your Mobile carrier if ok to use it as additional fees might apply): Share your Internet connection with Personal Hotspot - Apple Support

1. Setup Personal Hotspot on your iPhone.

2. Instead of connecting your Apple TV to your home WiFi, try this time to temporarily connect your Apple TV to Personal Hotspot connection created from your iPhone.

3. Test if problem persist.

4. Reconnect your Apple TV to your home Wifi.

If that setup worked, contact with your ISP and asked to check if ports listed in below articles are unlocked:

If your Apple TV stops at the date and time screen during startup - Apple Support

TCP and UDP ports and protocols used by Apple TV - Apple Support

2. Restore to factory settings.

You can try to restore Apple TV to factory settings, setup once again and check if that makes any difference: Restore your Apple TV (2nd and 3rd generation) - Apple Support

I'm having the same issue, and it persists regardless of network used - I've tried it with four different ones now.  Rebooted all the devices, tested out my internet connections and speeds, and no issues streaming other media (i.e., Netflix).  It started very suddenly 9 days ago, and there were no (known) changes to the network prior to the issues.  It's been happening with Apple TV, iPhone, and iPad.

I've also noticed that at about the same time, app updates have started "catching" during download, and aren't completing without some nudging on my part.

Hi,

I have done everything you suggested, spent an hour on the phone with centurylink, my ISP, and a technician that was dispatched to my home to troubleshoot after replacing the modem, and doing a number of other things including checking for the blocked channels and still no luck. my iTunes music on my apple TV is still constantly rebuffering. Very frustrating. When I connect via my iPhone hotspot, it works fine.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks!

Can you switch to your 5GHz network?

Good luck, Tom

Hi Tom,

Tried that. Made no difference. It is odd, I can stream youtube no problem over apple TV, yet my music, apple radio continue to continuously rebuffed. same on my macbook. I can stream Pandora, you tube, netflix no problem, but even when I go to the iTunes store and stream a music sample it rebuffers every few seconds.

Thanks!

Christine

Christine, I've noticed the same thing - other sources seem to be working fine, but anything Apple is not.  I tried adjusting my network radio frequency and channels as well - no change.  It's not just you!

- Lee

I live in the Midwest near Saint Louis and I’m having the same problems, especially with the Mac App Store. Updates are glacially slow. All other network functions are fine like surfing, video (YouTube, etc), email, messaging. Just Apple services seem to be affected. Where do you others live? Maybe it’s a regional thing because Apple’s network is distributed all around the country for the purpose of assuring quick and reliable downloads. It’s not like everybody is downloading from the same server farm.

I Live in Denver. Still having the same problem. Very frustrating. Essentially my Apple TV is useless for me now, since I used it primarily to stream music, and I can't listen to apple radio anymore, even on my MacBook, because the constant rebuffering is very annoying. I have same problem w slow updates as well.

Love to hear if anyone has any other ideas.

Los Angeles. Time Warner cable.

Rebooting every device didn't help.

Going to 5 GHz did. YMMV.

/ / /  mobile \ \ \

HI,

I went to 5ghz, it made no difference. I'll try again.

i'm having the same issue. i've been streaming video from youtube, netflix, local homesharing without issue. I can stream music from iPhone, iPad, and airplay. but directly with Apple TV it pauses every couple of seconds with iTunes match and radio. when i stream to my iPhone with iTunes match it works fine. the issue for my is isolated to the apple tv. i've tried the suggestions above but have not had success.