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Apple TV 4K Gen 1 negotiating at only 100Mbps wired (TVOS 16)

orpheus1120

orpheus1120

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 23, 2008
1,432
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Malaysia
My Apple TV was running at full-duplex gigabit LAN speed prior to software update to TVOS 16, wired to my Ubiquiti edgeswitch. Now it's only negotiating at 100Mbps after the update.

Not a cable or switch port issue since other gigabit-capable devices are negotiating at gigabit speed on the same cable and port. The RJ45 port on the Apple TV is clean and devoid of any debris but I clean it anyway with compressed air and some isopropyl alcohol on Q-tip.

If I recall correctly prior to the TVOS16 upgrade, it was running fine at full gigabit speed on TVOS 15. It seems this issue has cropped up before after digging through Reddit but no apparent resolutions were ever discovered.

I'm wondering if anyone else has similar issue?
 
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My Apple TV 4K 2017 (1st gen) gets 343 Mbps when wired via ethernet under tvOS 16. That is the maximum speed of my internet service, so no issues on my end.
 
What happens if you manually configure the port in network preferences?

Screen Shot 2022-10-16 at 2.42.43 AM.png
 
tvOS 16 has screwed up a few apps that worked okay prior to it being released. I wouldn't be surprised if it screwed up some ethernet settings or coding. My ATV 4K 2017 still works fine on ethernet connection, but something must have happened to cause yours to use the slower 100Mbps speed rather than the 1Gbps speed.
 
HDFan said:
What happens if you manually configure the port in network preferences?
Click to expand...
You cannot configure this in Apple TV. The settings you shown are from the Mac, not Apple TV.

The Apple TV auto negotiate its link.

w5jck said:
tvOS 16 has screwed up a few apps that worked okay prior to it being released. I wouldn't be surprised if it screwed up some ethernet settings or coding. My ATV 4K 2017 still works fine on ethernet connection, but something must have happened to cause yours to use the slower 100Mbps speed rather than the 1Gbps speed.
Click to expand...

I'll see if the next version update fixes this issue. If not then it's probably a hardware issue with the RJ45 connection.
 
orpheus1120 said:
You cannot configure this in Apple TV. The settings you shown are from the Mac, not Apple TV.

The Apple TV auto negotiate its link.



I'll see if the next version update fixes this issue. If not then it's probably a hardware issue with the RJ45 connection.
Click to expand...
You can force gigabit FDX from the switch side. I have a wired iMac M1 that eventually drops down to 100 Mbps, probably from borderline in-wall wiring. I force it to gigabit and it works perfectly fine at the higher speed.
 
One addition: When my ATV 4K 2021 was new, it also didn't constantly keep the 1000 Mbps rate until I connected it to a home under the HomeKit settings. Maybe You can give it a try.
 
The 4k 1st Gen (and 2nd Gen) only has a 100Mb ethernet port so it's actually connecting as intended. I'm not sure why before it was connecting faster (or is for others on this thread) but seems like more a reporting error at the router end
 
Wakey87433 said:
The 4k 1st Gen (and 2nd Gen) only has a 100Mb ethernet port so it's actually connecting as intended. I'm not sure why before it was connecting faster (or is for others on this thread) but seems like more a reporting error at the router end
Click to expand...
Are you sure? Mine(2nd gen) is reporting GBe.
 
razorme said:
You can force gigabit FDX from the switch side. I have a wired iMac M1 that eventually drops down to 100 Mbps, probably from borderline in-wall wiring. I force it to gigabit and it works perfectly fine at the higher speed.
Click to expand...

I tried that before making this thread. It doesn't work. Forcing it to 1 Gbps FDX and apple tv won't connect via ethernet.

macbuzzr said:
One addition: When my ATV 4K 2021 was new, it also didn't constantly keep the 1000 Mbps rate until I connected it to a home under the HomeKit settings. Maybe You can give it a try.
Click to expand...

My Apple TV has always been the home hub for HomeKit. So that's not the issue. Plus I can't see how a software option would negate a hardware connection speed. But thanks for the observation.

Wakey87433 said:
The 4k 1st Gen (and 2nd Gen) only has a 100Mb ethernet port so it's actually connecting as intended. I'm not sure why before it was connecting faster (or is for others on this thread) but seems like more a reporting error at the router end
Click to expand...

You are wrong.

Gen 1 - https://support.apple.com/kb/SP769?locale=en_GB
Gen 2 - https://support.apple.com/kb/SP845?locale=en_GB

Both have Gigabit ethernet.
 
Yes, it sounds odd. But being connected to a home in HomeKit forces the ATV to keep the high link speed. Otherwise it will drop the speed for power saving purposes...
 
It's just weird tbh. Other devices connect at 1 Gbps using the same cable and port on the switch. I might do a factory reset and see if it fixes the problem. If not I'll wait for TV OS 16.1 and see how it goes.

Thanks to everyone who responded thus far.
 
orpheus1120 said:
It's just weird tbh. Other devices connect at 1 Gbps using the same cable and port on the switch. I might do a factory reset and see if it fixes the problem. If not I'll wait for TV OS 16.1 and see how it goes.

Thanks to everyone who responded thus far.
Click to expand...
Did you try recently?

I thought I was also stuck at 100Mbit. But now it's 1Gbit.
 
orpheus1120 said:
Nah, nothing has changed after 16.1.
Click to expand...
Ok, today I got my new Apple TV 4K (2022) and I put it in the living room.
I do a speedtest, and what do you think? 100Mbit! I'm like what?!
So I switched my two TP Link switches around to see if that made the difference. Because in the bedroom, with my 2017 Apple TV 4K I was getting 1Gbit.
Nope, still 100Mbit in the living room.

Then I decided to use a different UTP cable in the living room. The cable going from my switch to the Apple TV. And yep, I got 1Gbit in the living room as well.

Turns out that the UTP cable I was using in the living room was the culprit all along
 
I tested the same cable on other gigabit devices and they were all running fine at gigabit, except for the Apple TV.
 
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iwan073 said:
Ok, today I got my new Apple TV 4K (2022) and I put it in the living room.
I do a speedtest, and what do you think? 100Mbit! I'm like what?!
So I switched my two TP Link switches around to see if that made the difference. Because in the bedroom, with my 2017 Apple TV 4K I was getting 1Gbit.
Nope, still 100Mbit in the living room.

Then I decided to use a different UTP cable in the living room. The cable going from my switch to the Apple TV. And yep, I got 1Gbit in the living room as well.

Turns out that the UTP cable I was using in the living room was the culprit all along
Click to expand...
Sounds like you were using a Cat 5 (100Mbps) ethernet cable...at a minimum, you need to use a Cat 5e (1000Mbps) ethernet cable on all your modern devices/modems/routers or your going to get a throughput bottleneck. It should be printed on the cable.
 
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