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Apple TV Failed Activation

I have an AppleTV 3rd generation ... ever since I restored it I cannot use AIRPLAY from either my iPad or iPhone. It previously worked fine but I decided to restore it because when airplaying it was playing up!


Now when I try to airplay from my iOS device it says looking for AppleTV. It cannot find my AppleTV.


When going to AppleTV SETTINGS / ABOUT / its say Activation FAILED.


I have tried everything from restoring via iTunes, unplugging it, resetting ... you name it I have tried it but cannot pass the Activation Failed. Hence I cannot airplay. Everything else works fine on the AppleTV - i.e. apps etc


Does anybody know how I can correct this and why this is happening?


Any help is much appreciated.

Posted on Mar 5, 2018 9:07 AM

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Posted on Mar 7, 2018 7:50 AM

Same problem here with any restored 3rd gen Apple Tv's. I opened a case with support and they said they are aware of the problem and do not have a fix at this time. I also have my Apple SE monitoring this case for me.


Jeremy

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49 replies

Mar 5, 2018 4:15 PM in response to Nate100

I called Apple support and we are not alone. Many of these gen3 appletvs are doing this. I reset mine not restored it and I got the same result. They took the information on both my appletvs and are pushing it up to the research folks. He told me it would be 4 days for a call back. There is nothing we can do to resolve it. I expect there will be a 7.2.3 update or something.

Mar 5, 2018 12:01 PM in response to Nate100

i hope the apple will resolve this issue. I tried everyting but the result always same.. Activation failed, failed, failed.. Restore, restore, restore the settings only or rename my wi-fi, configuring the router, changing the password, region, language everyting.. i spend lot of time to figure out what is happening here, but i failed like this fricking activation.😟

Mar 7, 2018 9:16 PM in response to Nate100

I'll add my name to growing list. Just purchased an Apple TV 3 from family and figured I'd do a RESTORE... and unable to connect with Screen Mirroring. Also noticed Activation FAILED so thinking that is the culprit. Tried a few things (wasting time, of course), but nothing helped. Hope the figure out a fix soon as I wished to try a few more things.

Mar 8, 2018 12:56 AM in response to Nate100

Reset my Apple TV 3 for use at work. The only thing they want it for is Airplay, the only thing not working is Airplay! Wasted far too much time trying to get this working but suspected an issue at Apples end as the activating part goes quite quickly and if you're really having issues activating an Apple TV it usually sits on that part for about 10 minutes before telling you it couldn't connect (had issue with our work firewall years ago).

Mar 8, 2018 12:37 PM in response to Nate100

I can confirm that we have 5 of these all doing the same thing in a Corporate environment.


It smells of... "No we don't slow down your phone, you probably just need a new one...." Yes, the $29 dollar battery program fixed all my old phones back to normal speeds.....


The 3 newest generations I have all work 100% perfectly, side note.


I'm not replacing all my Apple TV's, if they do get replaced it will be with non-Apple products.

Mar 8, 2018 1:44 PM in response to Nate100

Does anyone have an idea if this is a new issue or are we just all having issues now because we've all reset or restored our's recently? I can't tell if this is something that has gone wrong on Apple's end(activation server) or on our end. It's rare I can't google and find someone who has found a solution for something like this. All I can find is a few people who say it's a router/port issue but I opened a ton of ports to no avail.


Just scratching my head!

Mar 8, 2018 2:47 PM in response to Nate100

I have the same problem:

AirPlay doesn’t work, iPhone 6s (iOS 10.3.2) and iPad Air 2 (iOS 11.2.6) are not able to connect to Apple TV 3. gen (A1469, software 7.2.2).

Neither a reset nor a restore solved the problem. Actually I think this issue started with a reset, because the Apple TV worked fine until I did the reset this week.

I hope there will be solution soon.


crazyrugge

Mar 9, 2018 1:22 PM in response to Hwydog

I am having the same problem after restoring my Apple TV 3rd gen. I rang Apple for help on this after a long phone call they finally found out it is because the activiatob failing. He said that the engineers know about the problem and are trying to fix the situation, and there will be an update to sort it out. The only thing is he said it could be a few weeks or months! I really hope that is not the case!

Apple TV Failed Activation

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