MacBook won't connect to Apple TV through Airplay

1 Month in still nothing works. With all the suggestions that have been made, and believe me I have tried them all, nothing solves this issue.


My issue: MacBook won’t connect to Apple TV. Tells me to enter code every time I want to connect. Every time it says its unable to connect to Apple TV.


My hardware:

MacBook Pro 13"Version:macOS 10.12.3 Apple TV 4 Version:tvOS 10.1.1


What I have tried:

-Signing out then back in iTunes. This I tried a handful of times, lost count. Seems like a simple solution and tried it on my MacBook and Apple TV. It didn’t work.

-Hard reset of MacBook Pro. After researching the problem further, I found this suggestion a lot. Powering down and holding down a segment of keys. I followed the instructions closely and it worked just like it was supposed to but it had no effect with Airplay.

-Factory reset of Apple TV. I tried this option several times, a lot with signing out of iTunes on my MacBook. Even after receiving an update for the Apple TV it didn’t work. I was hoping that would solve it.

-Rebooting modem/router. I have both, at first I just turned off the router thinking it would solve it, then realizing it probably needed to come from the source the modem. I even unplugged the cable. No result.

-Disabling Firewall. I saw this suggestion a lot, I don’t think this is a very smart way to solve this issue, but I tried it all the same, didn’t work.

-Reinstalling macOS Sierra. I really didn’t want to do this, it’s a huge hassle and takes a while. But I at this point I’m willing to try whatever. Doing this a long with a factory reset of the Apple TV I thought for sure would solve the issue, but it did absolutely nothing. Same problem.

-Adding new user/creating one. I tried a family members ID and that didn’t help. I didn’t really want to create a new ID but I tried anyway. Neither one worked. Now I just want to delete the account.

-Keychain. I don’t really understand how Keychain is tied to Airplay, but I tried everything that was suggested. At first deleting the items in the keychain folder User/Library/Keychain. I dragged it to my desktop then deleted it. No result. I also deleted the Keychain through my iCloud. This was huge mistake, I am now having to reset a lot of passwords because I can’t remember them. It seems to me that Keychain only causes problems rather than help the user, I have been having issues with Keychain for a long time. But that a subject for another day.

-Contacting Apple Customer Service. I thought for sure they would be able to help me with this, but the only wanted me to go through things I had already tried. I even spoke to a “Apple TV expert”. After an hour of talking he couldn’t help me.


I don’t know guys, I’m just really frustrated with this whole issue. This is an isolated issue, I have 3 Apple TV’s they will connect to my other 2, but this one will not connect. It’s taken a lot of my time just trying to figure this out and it’s gotten me nowhere. I’m open to suggestions, but at this point I’m thinking it must be a hardware issue. Any thoughts?

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2009), Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Feb 17, 2017 10:13 PM

Reply
1 reply

Feb 18, 2017 3:25 AM in response to KBar51801

Use AirPlay to display video from your Mac on an HDTV - Apple Support

go to

Requirements for using AirPlay


older macs don't have a gpu which support realtime encoding to H.264 video stream which is require to use airplay mirror

your signature suggest you have an 2009 model


you can try out the commercial program called airparrot which rather then rely on realtime encoding by the video card the main cpu handle the encoding but that can impair the performance and cause delay of the stream.




but other then that the path to troubleshooting is


divide and conquer


write possible issues out of the equation


1 connect both by ethernet cable to the router rather then rely on wifi (then if it works you know it's wifi network related)


2 bring your appletv and MacBook to a friend and or family and connect them to that network (then if it works you know it's an issue with your network)


3 test with a mac from an friend and or relative on your network, then you know if


4 test with the appletv on the network at a friend and or relative to ....

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MacBook won't connect to Apple TV through Airplay

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