Apple Initiates Replacement Program for 3rd Generation Apple TVs With Wi-Fi Connectivity Issues

Getting mine replaced

Setup my "genius" appt today, went pretty quick. Told them the issues I was having with wifi connectivity they took it behind the magic door, came back out 5 minutes later and sad he had good news, good news & bad news. The good news it qualified for replacement, the other good news was even though I'm out past one year of ownership it would be replaced for free. The bad news they were out and I'd have to wait for stock to come in, so for now I'll hardwire to my router and wait for my call.

Same here; made genius appointment; they checked and said they don't have in stock. I have to wait till it arrives. Now waiting for the email or call from them for my replacement Apple TV.

I'm wondering if this is what my problem is. I bought an apple tv 2 weeks ago from BB. The first day I used it, I got freezing issues when airplay mirroring from my iphone 5. The video kept playing on the iphone but the atv image on the tv was frozen. I had the atv hooked up with Ethernet. The apps on the atv continued to work but it was just the mirroring. I contacted Apple and they told me to restore which didn't solve the problem, then another rep told me it couldn't go thru my receiver, had to go directly to the tv. Neither solved the problem so I exchanged it for a new one.

BB and the Apple rep in the BB store all suggested a new router so I got a new router also. The phone connects at 5ghz and everything seems fine on the phone. It also freezes when playing music stored on my phone so it's not my internet connection or the website streaming the video. I used the replacement last weekend to watch 3 shows and it worked fine the whole time. Tried to use it again Tuesday night and it froze up in less than 5 minutes. Unplugging does not work, I took it back the next day and figured I just couldn't use it. I don't have the serial number but it should be logged in my support calls. I'm wondering if it's worth it to pick one up at the apple store instead of BB ad try again. I really liked it when it worked but it was just too frustrating.

I just called and the serial number of the unit I returned is not one of the ones affected. However, when discussing my problem with the rep, he said that when you are mirroring from the phone to the atv, the screen on the phone should turn off, it should not be running dual screens. Can anyone tell me if this is correct? Since I was given wrong info about not going thru a receiver, I'm hesitant to drive down there only to find out that the phone is working correctly. Thanks

Got mine replaced.....

For all those that are interested. It was replaced with A1427. Made a appointment at the Genius bar. Took 5 minutes and was replaced with no worries. All working fine now.
Happy Apple customer

Hi,

To all those who got their units replaced: can you please confirm the affected serial number character pair 3 & 4 or is it 4 & 5? Mine drops connection intermittently on wi-fi G and cannot join the N network. It has 'HQ' in positions 4 & 5 and ends with 'DRHN'.

Thanks in advance!

applefanDrew said:

My serial is DY5H9DT2DRHN. Am I eligible? It says the 3rd and 4th but the H9 is the 4th and 5th alpanumeric letters.

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If it says X and yours is Y then no. That said, if its under warranty there is no harm taking it in. Just because its not part of this program doesn't mean there couldn't be something wrong with it

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tremlock said:

Had mine replaced last month. The genius said he hadn't heard of any other cases. Guess he was wrong.

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Not wrong, so much as they aren't told every single issue that any cx claims to have at any store in the world. And given the variety of issues and causes for the multitude of products they see it is possible for someone to not see the exact same issue (symptom and cause) twice.

Just got mine replaced with a brand new out of the box one from Stormfront in the UK. I saw them remove it from the box, so defo new. However it was A1427 rather than A1469.

bryan85 said:

If it was plain white boxed, that is a refurbished unit. Although Apple wont call them that...

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No, Apple calls them refurbs, if they are. Those units, from buyers remorse returns and such, are whole unit tested and outside of the battery, casing etc are all the same parts from the original assembly

There are no refurbs at the bar, but there are a mix of newly minted with all new parts and remanufactured (which is newly minted with a mix of new and recycled after testing parts).

Some folks like to claim its a semantic game but its not. Course many of these same folks will bring in stuff they have used, worn down etc for almost a year and claim they are owed a full fresh retail item so the word game claims make sense

nsfw said:

went to a Apple Store and the front of the store guy

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Probably a sales guy, who aren't told tech details cause they aren't authorized to give out that info to cx anyway so they don't need to know.

didn't even know about the issue and then wouldn't do the swap for me without an appointment even though the serials are right there for the world to see.

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Read the rules again, they need to check serial and software. AND then do he proper paperwork. They don't just read the serial and toss a unit from the shelf at you.

Many of these units are over a year old with no history of complaints etc. so legally Apple doesn't have to do jack because those consumer laws say after six months you have to prove there was an issue when you bought it. With no complaints ever you'd be hard pressed to do that. So Apple could have said nothing and 'oh we'll you are out of warranty'. They didn't. So sorry you don't like having to follow couple of rules when you think you should be entitled to immediate help. I'm sure the folks that did make proper appointments would have loved you getting skipped to the front, especially over what is a 'hobby' and for most a toy

My Apple TV 2 had this exact problem. Wifi networks wouldn't even show up, and it kept telling me to unplug the ethernet cord when it wasn't plugged in.

I brought it to an Apple Store, and they replaced it with a new Apple TV 3 (which I can't jailbreak...). It was out of warranty, by the way.

Now, my iMac is having the exact same problem. It just keeps searching for networks, but nothing ever shows up. I called Apple Care, they did some troubleshooting, and then told me I had to take it in to the store...

ramb27 said:

Hi,

To all those who got their units replaced: can you please confirm the affected serial number character pair 3 & 4 or is it 4 & 5? Mine drops connection intermittently on wi-fi G and cannot join the N network. It has 'HQ' in positions 4 & 5 and ends with 'DRHN'.

Thanks in advance!

Click to expand...

It's the 4th & 5th characters.

EricOSU said:

It's the 4th & 5th characters.

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Thanks again!

ATV 3 - imac sleep

I bought 2 last August - always had to pull power plug and reboot - then OK. Saw this notice on replacement. Spoke to Apple Australia. Did some tests over a couple of days.
Discovered more prone to not connect/drop out if computer had been put to sleep previous night. With nightly shutdown and reconnection of iTunes at start of day then much better. Apple says change anyway. Getting replacements though - local authorized store happy to exchange 'unit' - you keep power cord and remote. Store says its wi-fi chip. ALSO same one used in iPhone with same problem - Apple having to replace iPhones too.

I made a genius appointment and he needed to run it in on their wifi until it experienced a drop since it connected to their network. The problem didn't occur in four minutes and I didn't want to leave it so no replacement.

EricOSU said:

It's the 4th & 5th characters.

Click to expand...

ramb27 said:

Thanks again!

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Got mine replaced today. The genius took inside for a brief check and came back with another A1427 sealed in brown box. Very pleased with the process.

Now hopefully, I won't have wi-fi issues with this new one.

No replacement

Took mine in today. Genius tech checked it out, verified it qualified, then proceeded to update the firmware and software on it. He said this would fix the problem and there was no need to exchange it. Any others have this experience? I haven't had a chance yet to see if I still have the connection problems as before.

I was able to swap mine out with no problem. It was the 4th and 5th letter that matched (not 3rd and 4th). I made an appointment with the genius and it took 5-10 min for him to check it and swap it out with a new(er) one.

I haven't had problems connecting to my network, just Apple's or Netflix's causing me to restart a couple of times per week for it to work.

My new apple TV was manufactured Dec 2012.

think i am good

DY6KDPD1FF54 & DY6KDPD2FF54
both MARCH 2013-Week 11

Have connectivity issues on Wired since 5.2.1

The thing with mine is that I have connectivity issue with the wired LAN since I updated to 5.2.1. Pre-5.2.1 it worked perfectly fine. Now every time when I wake it up out of sleep it has no network connectivity. A reboot is needed to get it back on-line.
Any one seen this problem?

PS I have JD in 4,5th position (bought Dec 2012), so it looks like I am not eligible for a replacement?

JMEANS said:

think i am good

DY6KDPD1FF54 & DY6KDPD2FF54
both MARCH 2013-Week 11

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Hi JMEANS, could you please check if you AppleTV recognizes the AdHoc WIFI network created from a MacBook ?

TIA,

M

pbodifee said:

The thing with mine is that I have connectivity issue with the wired LAN since I updated to 5.2.1. Pre-5.2.1 it worked perfectly fine. Now every time when I wake it up out of sleep it has no network connectivity. A reboot is needed to get it back on-line.
Any one seen this problem?

PS I have JD in 4,5th position (bought Dec 2012), so it looks like I am not eligible for a replacement?

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I have that same issue, HD on mine.

My serial number includes 'K9' but I'm having the issues and that's (supposedly) not one of the affected devices. :/

iBreatheApple said:

My serial number includes 'K9' but I'm having the issues and that's (supposedly) not one of the affected devices. :/

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I have an Apple TV that should have been in this list (matches either way with 3rd/4th letters or 4th/5th letters), however I went to two different Apple stores and both places told me it wasn't part of a replacement program they could find. I have no idea why, I even tried to show them this article but no go. Since I'm about 6 months out of warranty the only option is for me to pay for a refurb one.

Long story is I had the Apple TV for a while, and always used it with wired Ethernet. I just recently had to move it to a different spot and tried to use the WiFi and it kept disconnecting immediately. Now it won't even find or join a wireless network. So I'm kinda thinking it was probably defective a long time ago (wish I had checked earlier).

Wow. I didn't see this before today! I have at least one of my ATVs on this list. Is it still possible to exchange them? The WiFi is lousy on it.

I guess that would be a "no."