Apple TV keeps crashing NON-STOP!!!

vazandrew wrote:

The 2nd gen hasn't been updated for quite some time, and if that were the case it would be widespread. Have you done anything to troubleshoot?

If you google the problem, you quickly see it IS widespread. It suspiciously sounds like Apple planted a bug to make it unreliable like they are rumored to have done in slowing down old iDevices. It's a concerning thought, and really brings into question Apple's reliability and trust You'd think they would want to fix it to avoid such negative associations.

I will add my vote to this problem on my 2nd Gen. It only started about two months ago for me. Luckily the apps (Netflix, PBS, Hulu) don't crash during streaming, only when I pause for a long time. I am sadden to see that it is an issue with the tvOS.

Im no tech expert but I did something that I believe fixed the issue (for me at least). My assumption was that the older generations of Apple TV can't handle the Netflix app streaming high resolution and crash (nothing related to network speed). To fix this, I logged into my Netflix account, went into playback settiings and changes the data usage per screen to medium (0.7 GB/hour) this resolved the crashing problem immediately.

I hope this works for you as it did for me

cheers

We purchased our 4th generation not even two weeks ago and we are having the sames issues. I thought it might be our internet, but we also have a Roku in another room of the house and the apps seem to work fine on the Roku. We have issues with Showtime, HBO and Hulu. Not sure what the deal is, but it is really frustrating considering we just purchased it.

Although too early to tell for certain, this may have fixed it for me also. Three crashes in ten minutes prior to making the change, 30 minutes crash free afterward. Will continue to monitor. With that said, the video quality is now noticeably worse...as one would expect. Prior to trying this I'd gravitated away from my ATV and toward my FireTV instead, since it appeared both a more advanced and more reliable alternative. Not sure this "fix" justifies returning...

Thanks for the tip though!

I've had the same problem since the Apple 4 was announced (I swear this is done on purpose). My ATV 2 has been great and all that I need or want (Wish I could download the Amazon prime app). I restarted everything, updated everything, and then called support. I did a full factory reset and now it won't connect to my wifi. Everything else works fine. The ATV will even connect to other wifis, just not the original one that it has been on for many years. I have no idea what is happening but I think they really want me to buy the 4.

Any suggestions?

MY problem is mostly limited to Hulu. The gen 2 ATV routinely resets when Hulu comes out of commercial, or the audio drops, video freezes, etc. Started last year, just getting steadily worst, even though we are now on Google Fiber ( pdefinitely can't blame it on the network!!!).

Feeling totally UNmotivated to spend money on the newest ATV given this track record. sorely disappointed.

We have AT&T U-Verse Giga Power with 360 Mbps downloads hard-wired and on Wi-Fi to my Amazon Fire TV stick. Network speed is not an issue and never has been. Frankly, I've given up on the Apple TV's and only use it for Airplay from my five Apple devices. The $39 Fire TV stick beats the heck out of the Apple TV by playing Netflix without a hiccup and Amazon Prime Movies. End of story.

Your story does not end happily, For whatever reason my tv 3 runs Netflix w/o a hitch

and all the other uses as well, including Amazon Video streaming, all the debates

streaming, etc. on Time Warner cable. I'm looking for a firmware update for folks

bedeviled by the new model - otherwise the earlier units may start selling at premium.

I guess there are too many unknowns for the Genius Bar to isolate the problem, like

different internet services, etc. Good luck, Tom

I have this same issue; mostly on Hulu. I've tried resetting all types of settings, video resolution, changed HDMI etc. Nothing fixes this. My internet is fast and reliable at 200mbps+. It happens both on an 2nd and 3rd generation ATV in 2 different rooms. My FireStick streams Hulu perfectly with no issues or glitches.

This appears to be a failure in the new software and is another intentional or accidental effort for apple to make their prior products obsolete. Between useless iPads, an outdate router (Airport Extreme) and now these ATV issues; I'm at the point of moving off the Apple universe completely.

I think it boils down to the ATV2 just not having enough processing power and/or memory to run the increasingly bloated apps that the developers push out- I'm not sure I blame the O/S as much since Netflix and watching iTunes movies (rental, streaming, and over WiFi from my computer hard drive) all work perfectly. Though it seems like this is negating the alleged benefit of Apple so tightly controlling developers, if they can still push apps that won't work reliably with the "max OS" for a given device.

I did break down and buy an AppleTV 3 (currently available for $69 or so) and it does everything flawlessly.. at least until the apps get too bloated for it as they probably will, I'm sure.

I really have my biggest beef with Hulu. Its always been the most buggy, streamed the worst on limited bandwidth before I got Google Fiber, and STILL doesn't have surround sound support like Netflix and all the Apple content does. And I noticed that Hulu was reporting to have "updated" long after the OS on my ATV2s quit updating, and I'm sure that's where the bloat came in. I only stick with it because of the content.

. . not going to scroll for the post, but after stressing about stresses of every

kind in search for relief it seems that removing power from the tv for a few

minutes is a better stress reliever than Restart in the menu. I keep my unit

on a switch now. A friend on the other side of the country just lets me know

in case of a problem. Her unit's on a WiWo AC switch controlled by my

phone here - a simple toggle of her power and she's back in business.

Good luck to you - Tom

I realize this may be late, but I just came across your post. Are you sure that your wifi network doesn't have some property that makes it harder to connect to. I'm thinking of unpublished SSID, or blocking of new MAC addresses. You may not remember what you had to do to connect initially. Since it works with other wifis, I don't think this is an ATV problem. I just tripped over this myself, switching ATV from wireless to wired, and it couldn't connect because of the new MAC address for the ethernet port. Had to go into the router to allow the new device.

Nope. Mine's worked fine for years. It's only been the last few months after the recent updates that Hulu starts crashing and restarting. It has nothing to do with my router, mac address etc. Those have been static and work flawlessly.

Also the post above about 'power' is laughable. Seriously; you think disconnecting the power fixes this? Yes, disconnecting the power is your best clean restart, but it has nothing to do with power or it's resting state.

Right. I was responding specifically to ashbynyc. Your problem sounds much more generic. Sorry.