Woes continue for users even after Apple TV 3.0.1 update

November 9, 2009

According to user reports, the patch released Saturday only addresses the “lost all media” issue but not any of the other — freezing, random restarts, overheating, sluggishness, vanishing networks, display issues — problems that have plagued Steve Jobs’ hobby since the release of Apple TV 3.0.

Quoting Apple support forum posters, Fortune reports that Apple TV 3.0.1 Update, which was rushed out and released on Saturday following hundreds of user complaints, only addresses one issue and has made matters worse for some.

“3.0.1 has actually made things worse for me,” says user laozi. “Now iTunes won’t see the AppleTV at all, and no combination of rebooting/resetting is helping. Totally stuck. Apple, please fix this.”

As this write up went to press two Apple forum threads — TV 3.0 — Many Problems and AppleTV lost all media — nearly 300 posts on the subject with many users complaining bitterly about the quality of Apple TV 3.0 and the mothership’s response.

“I don’t know about you,” wrote a user who calls himself baron von benjamin, “but this is the most problem-prone upgrade to any hardware I’ve ever seen.”

Can’t get there from here

Worse still, in a separate Apple support forum thread — Apple TV won’t restore to factory settings — at least one user is reporting that attempts to perform a “factory restore” results in a dead unit.

“Every time I press restore it says, ‘Restoring to factory condition failed. Your Apple TV could not be restored to original factory condition. Try again or go to www.apple.com/support for help,’” says poster Techno Kid.

With no way forward and no way back, Apple TV users are likely stuck with the ongoing disaster that is Apple TV 3.0.x until Apple can provide a fix.

Do you own an Apple TV? Have you lost data and/or experienced the problems listed here? Sound in the comments below…

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15 Responses to “Woes continue for users even after Apple TV 3.0.1 update”

  1. Andres V:

    Black screen after putting the AppleTV to “sleep”…..

  2. Dino:

    With the new update I cannot use the hack for making the TV in Color using Composite Cable

    (OK. with 3.0.1 Update it does not work. I never get amber light after Pressing Play. It worked with the 3.0 Update but is does not with the 3.0.1 Update. I have tried almost 20 times.)

  3. Eric:

    I have rebooted my ATV more often in the last week than I did in the preceding 12 months. I cannot believe 3.0 went through any kind of internal user testing. Quite simple, it fails of its essential purpose. Abominable.

  4. hairy larry:

    Just downloaded a new movie last wed and now its gone as is all my other movies. I thought is was something on my end. Noticed that something is there but not being recognized as movies.
    APPLE HELP!!!

  5. MedGA:

    Black screen after sleep or merely shutting down the HDMI connection, restarts, disconnecting from network, have to plug and unplug the unit every time I want to use appletv. Appletv 3.0 and 3.01 have been a disaster. Any way to rollback t0 2.xx

  6. MedGA:

    Did a factory restore and software update to 3.01 and still have to reset the appletv if I want to use it. AppleTV is not longer useable with the new firmware. When will able come up with a fix?

  7. Pete:

    It’s a great plate warmer and room heater at the moment, and I wonder if it melts, will Mr Jobbs will be replacing it for me ?

  8. Doug:

    Glad to know I am not the only one… It is hit or miss since the upgrade. Often times the apple TV is shown in the sidebar howver the apple tv will not see any content coming from itunes. Additionally, you can’t sync. I also get the restarts and have been tempted to restore and not do the upgrade (if that is even possible). I certainly hope Apple sends a fix. Thankfully I save nothing to my apple TV itself.

  9. Noddy:

    Yep, since the upgrade I have hda pretty well all of the issues on my 2 Apple TV’s… And I just bought another MAC to serve the Apple TV’s content! What a waste of money!!!! Blank screens, the units hang, lose connection to Itunes and the ATV crashes when I try to play my music collection (streaming). basically the ATvs are pretty useless. Thank-you Mr JObbs for my new expensive paper weights.

  10. chris:

    ATV is my only apple branded product in the home. 3.0.1 seems to work fine with my music collection on Vista running iTunes.

  11. emmaco:

    My audio starts and stops every few seconds with 3.0.1. Took me an hour to start downloading a movie last weekend.

    What was a reliable playback unit is virtually useless now.

  12. Frustrated Apple TV Fan:

    Just got off the phone with Apple TV support. They told me to do a Factory restore and update to 2.4 NOT to 3.01 and then sync my content.

    They don’t know if another software update is coming up, but they did say NOT to upgrade if it does until there are no problems. This is not like Apple at all and this will hurt them greatly.

  13. emmaco:

    Worthless doorstop with 3.0.1.

    Obviously Apple hired all the Vista programmers.

  14. Artie:

    I have to reboot all the time in order to stream movies from my Mac Pro. Never had this issue before. AppeTV has been a wonderful experience but now it’s making me wanna throw it out…LOL PLEASE APPLE… DO SOMETHING… THIS UPDATE IS KILLING MY CONFIDENCE IN APPLETV.
    sign… NOT CONNECTED

  15. Chris:

    On my third Apple TV in as many months. It lasts about a week. Then its a brick.

    The one time I ever bought apple care… was this one time. I’m getting my money’s worth.

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