32gb or 64gb Apple TV?

[Juicy Box]

As someone who is constantly struggling with storage issues on my Apple TVs, the size that one should get totally depends on what the ATV will be used for, or what it might be used for in the future, and basically it comes down to playing games.

Some people will never play any games, and in this case there is very little reason to get the larger 64GB unless you plan on selling it one day.

Some people might play a few game, but don't have an issue deleting old games to make room for new ones, so again, a 64GB might not be needed.

Some people might play a lot of games, or like to keep old games and the data associated with the games on their devices to play later. I highly recommend getting the 64GB version, as it doesn't take many Apple Arcade games installed to fill a 32GB ATV.

I constantly have issues with storage on my 64GB ATV, so 32GB wouldn't even be considered for me.

Screensavers are considered cache, so if your storage is full then cache will
be emptied. My point is that the screensavers do not take up masses of space to the point that they will cause owners of the 32Gb ATV problems. That’s a nonsense.

This is not totally accurate in my experience.

If space is needed the OS could free up space by deleting some of the Aerial Screensavers, but a few caveats....

The OS will not delete every Aerial, so if someone is in need of space to download a new game but their storage is full, there will be about 1GB of space used up from an Aerial Screensaver.

Even if using a different Screensaver other than Aerials, at least one Aerial will remain on the Apple TV even if you need more storage.

Need proof, I cannot install a 1.2GB game on my 64GB Apple TV 4K due to not enough space, but I still have the Aerial Screensaver:


Another thing about the cached data is how it gets cleared. If an app that is already installed needs additional storage, the OS will free up cached data from other apps and screensavers to provide space for the active app. But, this does not work the same way for installing new apps.

You could have 900MB free space and need to free up a little more for a 1GB game. You could delete many GBs worth of games before the OS will count that space as free space and will only then let you download the 1GB game.

I have even deleted over 10GBs of games just to download the game Inside which is a little over 1GB.

I am unsure how the OS handles the above situation, as there doesn't seem to be a set rule to it, but it seems to be a combination of amount deleted and time before the OS counts the delete apps as free space.

My son has started showing interest in playing games on the Apple TV so, I might need more space going forward.

This isn't a bad idea.

Some people don't realize this, but only about 7 large Apple Arcade games will fill up a 32GB ATV.

 

[imlovinit]

If I could download my tv and movies then I could see use for 64gb but can’t do that and don’t game on the box so 32gb is more than enough

 

[gnomeisland]

Screensavers are considered cache, so if your storage is full then cache will
be emptied. My point is that the screensavers do not take up masses of space to the point that they will cause owners of the 32Gb ATV problems. That’s a nonsense.

I never said the screensavers would fill up 32GB. I said they (as well as other cached files) will get deleted if you begin to fill up storage so in my opinion 64GB is worth the small upgrade fee. Please read and try to understand before engaging in ad hominem attacks.

I didn't belittle other people's opinion or experience that advocated buying the 32GB model. I just wanted to share an alternative experience. Why the hostile "nonsense" and "utter myth" over opinions and experiences that don't jive with yours?

 

[Pug72]

Yeah Ive gone for 64GB due to app cache deleting on apps I regularly use. It's a pain when I want to stream media on Infuse but it has to rebuild metadata before I can start.

If there was a way to manually delete downloaded screensavers it would be ok. Saying that, on a new device, if set it to never download aerial screensavers then it wouldn't steal the storage. I like them though.

 

[hazriqpedia]

I'm thinking to get a 64GB one so that I can download my movie beforehand (that I bought from Apple TV) and play it later.. but seems like we can't do that. Correct me if I'm wrong.

So, maybe 32GB is fine?

 

[satcomer]

I'm thinking to get a 64GB one so that I can download my movie beforehand (that I bought from Apple TV) and play it later.. but seems like we can't do that. Correct me if I'm wrong.

So, maybe 32GB is fine?

i would buy a smart NAS because other devices could have access to the collection!

 

[Claudius2k]

Are you kidding? At this price point, $20 is very cheap memory. You don't know what Apple has planned. I remember when my 8G iPhone was more storage than I'll ever need. What if TVOS evolves independently like IOS and there are frequent functional releases adding new capabilities (only if you have room)? $20 is cheap future proofing. If it were $100 that would be different.

 

[Juicy Box]

Are you kidding? At this price point, $20 is very cheap memory. You don't know what Apple has planned. I remember when my 8G iPhone was more storage than I'll ever need. What if TVOS evolves independently like IOS and there are frequent functional releases adding new capabilities (only if you have room)? $20 is cheap future proofing. If it were $100 that would be different.

I agree.

When the ATV4 (HD) first launched, 64GB was overkill due to Apple's ridiculous static storage limit of 200MB. Apple has since backpedaled, increasing the static storage size to 4GB (or higher now?).

But with that increase, it doesn't take long to fill a 64GB Apple TV, let alone a 32GB one. Just a handful of Apple Arcade games, and your Apple TV is full.

64GB is not enough for me. I get tired of the "out of storage" message on my Apple TVs. I would love to see a 256GB ATV, or even a 128GB would be nice.