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Zorat

macrumors newbie
Oct 20, 2021
3
0
Came here hoping for a solution in this old topic, since I'm often experiencing this issue. Today it's been disconnecting/reconnecting constantly, laying right next to me on the sofa, maybe three meters from my Apple TV.

I now picked up the remote, moved it maybe a meter closer to the Apple TV, and now all of a sudden it's no longer disconnecting. ??‍♂️ Silly thing, but I've never thought of just moving it closer before.
I have continued to swap cables with no benefit. Apple has reached out to me 3 times asking for more info and after each tv os update they have reached out again and it hasn’t gotten better. Crazy how long this has been going on. I am surprised they haven’t sent me a last gen controller for the mean time as that worked.
 

SpringKid

macrumors 6502
May 17, 2019
408
905
Yes this has been bugging me on and off since I bought the remote. Usually it's not that bad, but today it's literally been popping up continuously for hours. But now it just stopped, after I moved it.
 

rolfwiggum

macrumors newbie
Jun 21, 2021
13
14
Came here hoping for a solution in this old topic, since I'm often experiencing this issue. Today it's been disconnecting/reconnecting constantly, laying right next to me on the sofa, maybe three meters from my Apple TV.

I now picked up the remote, moved it maybe a meter closer to the Apple TV, and now all of a sudden it's no longer disconnecting. ??‍♂️ Silly thing, but I've never thought of just moving it closer before.
I think the ATV needs line of of sight to the Apple TV, despite not being IR. it was behind the tv, and after I moved it it front, it started working better.

There were some patches to TVOS so maybe it’s a coincidence too
 

zalusky

macrumors member
Oct 17, 2014
88
72
I think the ATV needs line of of sight to the Apple TV, despite not being IR. it was behind the tv, and after I moved it it front, it started working better.

There were some patches to TVOS so maybe it’s a coincidence too
Not really true my ATV in the bedroom is in a walk in closet totally invisible to the TV. The new remote does send volume controls to the TV but the TV itself if properly HDMI-CEC enabled will just respond to the ATV waking to/from sleep and turn on/off appropriately.

I have 3 TVs 2 Sonys and 1 Samsung that all behave very well.
 

EdT

macrumors 68020
Mar 11, 2007
2,429
1,980
Omaha, NE
We’ll know soon based on reply’s to this thread. Our ATV 4K original is about 15 feet away. Exact same setup as with original remote that never had connection problems.
I think mine is the same remote/ ATV version although I got it after it was released about a year ago. I’ve not seen the problem that you are describing happen with mine. And have used it reliably from 20-25 feet without a problem with my connection. I really can’t get much further without leaving the room.
 

dugbug

macrumors 68000
Aug 23, 2008
1,931
2,151
Somewhere in Florida
Same. Upgraded tvos to latest and remote did nothing. I used app remote to unpair real remote and then held down menu and vol up

It paid but now randomly pops up ‘bring remote closer to continue to pair’ even hours later. I held it right next to the damn thing

Remote does work and despite periodic pair pop ups I’m now getting periodic disconnects
 
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Rockar82

macrumors newbie
Sep 8, 2016
28
15
Scotland
@dugbug Mine done the same, after a few calls to customer support I ended up just replacing it with the newer remote it paired no problem and I’ve had no problems since with it.
 

Mojave760

macrumors newbie
Nov 13, 2022
1
1
I have the Apple 4k 1st gen with the 1st gen remote. I owned it without issue for over two years. However, the day I moved to a new apartment I started experiencing the same issue as everyone here. My remote would not stay connected. I tried a hard reset, I changed the battery, changed the battery, tried a factory reset, and even bought the new 3rd gen remote. None of those steps resolved my issue. One of the posts on here mentioned bluetooth interference with a wifi router. That raised my suspicion because the only thing different in my setup from my last apartment was my wifi router. I switched from Sonic w/ eero6 to Xfinity w/xFi Gateway. The router was also on my TV stand. On the same shelf as my AppleTV. I moved my router to the bottom shelf of my TV stand (made of metal) and now my remote works!
 
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EdT

macrumors 68020
Mar 11, 2007
2,429
1,980
Omaha, NE
I have the Apple 4k 1st gen with the 1st gen remote. I owned it without issue for over two years. However, the day I moved to a new apartment I started experiencing the same issue as everyone here. My remote would not stay connected. I tried a hard reset, I changed the battery, changed the battery, tried a factory reset, and even bought the new 3rd gen remote. None of those steps resolved my issue. One of the posts on here mentioned bluetooth interference with a wifi router. That raised my suspicion because the only thing different in my setup from my last apartment was my wifi router. I switched from Sonic w/ eero6 to Xfinity w/xFi Gateway. The router was also on my TV stand. On the same shelf as my AppleTV. I moved my router to the bottom shelf of my TV stand (made of metal) and now my remote works!

Smart trouble shooting!
 
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curtis242

macrumors member
Aug 22, 2017
96
43
England
I’ not getting a connection issue but sometimes the button presses can lag or it doesn’t recognise i’ve pressed a button (atv4k 2021) tried resetting the remote and unpairing it an repairing it but it still happens
 

AL2TEACH

macrumors 65816
Feb 17, 2007
1,225
507
North Las Vegas, NV.
Yes fully charged
only thing I can think of is when it lags for me, I 2ble press press home and swipe up all the apps used like the iPhone (can't swipe your 1rst screen) and restart. takes care of lag and etc...for me.
it just dawned on me that I had to google pairing a remote to the Apple TV because I had never paired one, they just worked without pairing.
 
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Jett0516

macrumors 65816
Mar 5, 2010
1,022
933
Yea same problem! Where is Tim to fix this? Does his remote not lose connection? 😑
 

AStaleyUK

macrumors member
Oct 20, 2014
33
25
I'm also having the same problem with the ATV 2022 USB-C remote, was working fine for a week but yesterday it decided to have a hissy fit and disconnected multiple times in the space of an hour. No discernible pattern and no other Bluetooth devices nearby.
 

AbSoluTc

macrumors 603
Sep 21, 2008
5,279
4,213
Chiming in with the same issue. ATV remote with USBC is hating life. Connection lost, I can pair but only lasts a little bit. Randomly disconnects/loses connection. My phone remote works fine. Remote is also charged. No issues with previous 4K ATV. Search led me to this thread.
 

iwan073

macrumors 6502
May 1, 2011
402
274
The Netherlands
I have 2 USB-C remotes. They are connected to a 2017 and a 2022 ATV 4K.

As of yesterday something weird is happening.
First the 2022’s remote stopped responding to volume inputs. The light on the ATV was blinking while pressing the buttons, so it did get the signals, but the TV didn’t change volume.

Trying to figure out if it was the ATV or the TV, I switched my ATV’s around. Then at some point, neither of them had working volume buttons. On neither of my TV’s!
Paired an old remote that came with the 2017 ATV and that one worked.
Paired the USB-C remote again and it also worked. But then the other USB-C remote started working again too.

Today, few minutes ago even, I was watching YouTube on the 2022 ATV and adjusting the volume, when all of a sudden it stopped working again!

And again the ATV does get the signal as its light blinks when pressing the buttons. But nothing happens…
 

whitby

Contributor
Dec 13, 2007
397
402
Austin, TX
I had exactly the same problem. The new Apple TV 4K 128GB was set up and worked fine using the new remote (with usb c charging port) for a short time. Suddenly it stopped responding to the remote or had a delayed response. I connected the remote to a charger for 30 minutes (assuming maybe the battery was low despite the system settings telling me otherwise) or so and tried again. No change. I deleted and re- paired the remote. Still malfunctioned. I unplugged the Apple TV to get a soft reset. The remote worked fine for a while but after a few minutes of using ATV to watch content it start working intermittently or slowly or not at all. I hard reset the ATV and set up everything again. No change. I am using the latest update of TV OS.

I then tried pairing the new ATV with the remote (Lightening charging port) for the previous generation Apple TV 4K with 64GB memory. It paired fine but had exactly the same issues. This leads me to believe that the problem is with the ATV unit and not the remote. I reinstalled my older previous generation Apple TV 4 K using the supplied remote (Lightening charging port) and it worked perfectly. And continues working to this day. This unit is using the latest version of the OS.

I put the new ATV in a box and returned it for a complete refund. There is probably a software bug, but I cannot wait for them to fix it. BTW the iPhone remote app seemed to work fine. This is the first time I have had the complete failure of a brand new Apple device as delivered.
 
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AbSoluTc

macrumors 603
Sep 21, 2008
5,279
4,213
I have 2 USB-C remotes. They are connected to a 2017 and a 2022 ATV 4K.

As of yesterday something weird is happening.
First the 2022’s remote stopped responding to volume inputs. The light on the ATV was blinking while pressing the buttons, so it did get the signals, but the TV didn’t change volume.

Trying to figure out if it was the ATV or the TV, I switched my ATV’s around. Then at some point, neither of them had working volume buttons. On neither of my TV’s!
Paired an old remote that came with the 2017 ATV and that one worked.
Paired the USB-C remote again and it also worked. But then the other USB-C remote started working again too.

Today, few minutes ago even, I was watching YouTube on the 2022 ATV and adjusting the volume, when all of a sudden it stopped working again!

And again the ATV does get the signal as its light blinks when pressing the buttons. But nothing happens…

I get the opposite. It's not getting the signal as the light does not blink. When this happens, I am unable to pair another remote to the ATV either (even the older 4K lightning remote).
 

whitby

Contributor
Dec 13, 2007
397
402
Austin, TX
I would just like to add that in all the cases I described in my post, the ATV light would blink in response to a push on a remote button. Unfortunately my issues were not confined to volume but applied to all functions. Basically the ATV did not respond or would respond after a delay. It also appeared to 'catch up' in that all missed button presses get a response. In other words it cached the button requests and then would execute them. Sounds like a software issue to me (I am a software engineer).
 

iwan073

macrumors 6502
May 1, 2011
402
274
The Netherlands
I get the opposite. It's not getting the signal as the light does not blink. When this happens, I am unable to pair another remote to the ATV either (even the older 4K lightning remote).
Last time I had trouble with the new remote, I paired an old one. But then when I tried pairing the new one again, the ATV wouldn't respond.
That's when I decided to call Apple support. And as I was talking to the guy and explaining what was going on, I tried to pair and.... of course... it worked flawlessly :rolleyes:
 
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