ATV3 is driving me insane with random disconnects

[bdrolshagen]

But I certainly need help identifying other potential sources of the problem. Many heads are better than one.

Same symptoms here (and more, like AirPlay audio being unreliable). My Zyxel router (network edge / firewall) often reports ARP spoofing on the IP addresses related to the time capsule (sole WiFi AP) and the two ATV (2 and 3). From other threads and forums I learned that this 'spoofing' is intended and related to 'ARP proxy' behavior built into ATV and time capsule (as well as express). For OSX this behavior seems to be linked to the 'wake up on LAN' setting of the respective Mac.

Could this be related to the sometimes intermittent, sometimes more or less permanent problems here (problem with arp cache handling maybe)?

 

[michael2020]

bdrolshagen suggestions

Proxy ARP is something that an Airport might do if it was functioning as the router in my network, but it is not. My airports are in bridge mode and simply pass traffic without looking at it. My main router for the house is a CG3000DV2 from NetGear and it is spoofing everything on my network to the cable network using one IP.

As I don't have anything setup this way on my network, and I still have the problem described, I think we can say that although you may have that going on, it probably isn't the cause of your iTunes disconnect issue.

What I am doing in my case is systematically eliminating everything that could cause this problem in a repeatable and controlled environment.

With many other variables, you may have a different source of the problem and I would advise systematically eliminating everything you can from the picture to see if the problem still manifests.

Right now I am running on SAFE MODE to see if I can eliminate internal interference from my laptop with iTunes.

 

[michael2020]

Update on iTunes disconnects from ATV

As a reminder, I have been working down the list of potential causes of this problem which is highly repeatable in my setup.

√ change laptop name
√ disable sleep on all devices
√ set airport to fixed channels on 2.4 and 5ghz
√ reset ATV to factory settings
√ switch wireless from 2.4ghz to 5ghz and back
√ set fixed IP in router and laptop and ATV
√ switch from wireless to hard wire from ATV and laptop to Airport
√ test the problem in a SAFE BOOT

I also added to this list to test my setup in a SAFE BOOT environment and the failure continued after a safe boot.

I am still open to other suggestions - I am planned next to switch to a Gen 3 ATV - I currently have a Gen 1 with my laptop running the latest Yosemite and iTunes. My airport unit is Gen 5 but I have also tested in a hard wired mode with no success.

 

[lexvo]

I had issues with my ATV loosing home sharing. I tried all the things from your list (except hard wiring) but nothing helped. When I upgraded to firmware 6 things got worse: very slow loading, buffering issues etc.

In the end, I downgraded to 5.3 (that was still possible then) and things were working OK again, except from home sharing.

Today, I'm still on 5.3. It seems home sharing is a bit more stable now (probably because of improvements in iTunes/OS-X/...?). But I don't use iTunes for playing movies anymore, I play movies from my NAS via the Infuse app on my iPad. Less ideal but at least it is working very reliable.

 

[mattr 76]

Has anyone tested ATV with the 10.10.4 Beta 4, as this looks to be an issue with the Discoveryd DNS setup that Apple started using a while back, for me, it seems to have stared around the same time, but I've not done any thorough testing to prove this. Which has been reverted in the latest beta to the old process

I say this as its not the only thing that Yosemite has issues connecting via DNS to, I use Alfred this also has an issue, where if I give Alfred the static IP for the machine, its fine. Fing also shows multiple DNS entries for my Yosemite home server.

To fix my iTunes connectivity issues Ive tried loads of things, google DNS, static IP for the ATV's, hosts entry, canning iTunes and using Plex....... the list goes on.

The simplest solution is a script that stops and starts iTunes App from a mobile web page running on the machine - this way I can restart iTunes quickly and easily and so can my wife, this saves us from too much moaning from the kids

Im running beta 10.10.4 Beta 4 on my laptop but not had the time to leave it running to see if it disconnects or not. Also I don't want to install the Beta on to my main machine as its a beta and it could cause other problems.

 

[Maury]

mattr, I strongly suspect the same root cause, DNS problems. The "can't find xxx" errors seem to be the result of the ATV attempted to get to a test page, whether that be in your home or at Apple. This is certainly true for the "Your ATV is not connected to the internet" messages, which I believe is pinging a page at Apple. That the errors began when the dns was switched over seems like a lot of coincidence.

 

[mattr 76]

Update: So I bit the bullet and updated my Mac server to the latest beta, I wish I'd done it sooner, it has fixed my issues and iTunes stays connected with no disconnects, not one. Where before I had to restart iTunes daily to see the content on the atv I've not had to do that once.
Happy is an understatement.

 

[neutrino23]

We used to have problems with disconnects. The ATV was connected by WiFi to an Airport Express in the living room which was connected by Ethernet. I wanted to run the Ethernet cable under the house. I didn't want to have to ever replace it so I bought the best quality cable at monoprice.com which was about $25 instead of the cheap stuff for about $10 or so. Magically all of the problems went away.

My point is that you might think about other links in the chain. Maybe the ATV problems are caused by something else.

 

[mattr 76]

Trust me I tried Ethernet connections, what I didn't try was a direct connect to the Mac via Ethernet, as that would be to impractical. I also swapped out my router for my time machine as the main network router, again this didn't work, I've swapped back as my router gives me more features.

What I would say is that it's still up and working and I'm still happy.

 

[Kenjancef]

I still have the same issues, and I am hardwired. My Mac Mini is in my basement, and I have a 14' CAT 6 cable running to a 16-port gigabit switch. One CAT 6 cable runs from that up through a hole in the floor to a 5-port Gigabit switch sitting on my TV stand. Out of that is a 5' CAT 6 cable that plugs directly into my ATV3. I've tried replacing cables and switches and still have issues. I am REALLY hoping that OS X 10.10.4 works in my case.

 

[gixxerfool]

I realize this is an old thread. I didn't read through it all, but it seems to cover a good portion of issues. My Apple TV 3 on the latest OS will disconnect from my 2008 mini running snow leopard. The ATV is hard wired into a gigabit switch into the mini. I had the same issue over wifi. If I restart the ATV my library comes back no problem. I have the discs set not to sleep and the machine doesn't sleep either. It's hardly a big issue, I would like it to go back to the way it worked at one point.

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

I realize this is an old thread. I didn't read through it all, but it seems to cover a good portion of issues. My Apple TV 3 on the latest OS will disconnect from my 2008 mini running snow leopard. The ATV is hard wired into a gigabit switch into the mini. I had the same issue over wifi. If I restart the ATV my library comes back no problem. I have the discs set not to sleep and the machine doesn't sleep either. It's hardly a big issue, I would like it to go back to the way it worked at one point.

Anyone have any suggestions?

I had a lot of issues. What I came up with as a hypothesis is that if my mini 'content server' ever was rebooted, the ATV would have to be restarted.

There must be some timeout in their software that makes the ATV give up when it looses the connection to the 'blessed' source.

I got to the point where I'd ritualistically rebooted the ATV's before trying to use one. Things worked pretty well after that. I meant to try to do a wireshark on the network to see what happens, but got the issue to go away...

Now, I have everything updated as far as I can, and things seem to work somewhat better. I had to toss an ATV V2 due to some incompatibility at some level with the setup I have. I couldn't get that one to work, no matter what. I think something might have bricked it, but it would respond to a restore.

Good luck. With the issues I have had, I have been hesitant to try the new ATV 4...

 

[gixxerfool]

I had a lot of issues. What I came up with as a hypothesis is that if my mini 'content server' ever was rebooted, the ATV would have to be restarted.

There must be some timeout in their software that makes the ATV give up when it looses the connection to the 'blessed' source.

I got to the point where I'd ritualistically rebooted the ATV's before trying to use one. Things worked pretty well after that. I meant to try to do a wireshark on the network to see what happens, but got the issue to go away...

Now, I have everything updated as far as I can, and things seem to work somewhat better. I had to toss an ATV V2 due to some incompatibility at some level with the setup I have. I couldn't get that one to work, no matter what. I think something might have bricked it, but it would respond to a restore.

Good luck. With the issues I have had, I have been hesitant to try the new ATV 4...

For a while, I thought it may have something to do with the ATV going to sleep. More like it was losing its handshake with the mini. Prior there were issues with it losing the HDMI handshake and it wouldn't be found. Perhaps I will try a hard wire right to the machine and do a full restore.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

For a while, I thought it may have something to do with the ATV going to sleep. More like it was losing its handshake with the mini. Prior there were issues with it losing the HDMI handshake and it wouldn't be found. Perhaps I will try a hard wire right to the machine and do a full restore.

One ting that has always mystified me is the communication between the 'client' and the 'server' in the ATV system. What causes the ATV to lose track, or connection if you will, with the 'server'. It seemed at one point the ATV would just 'go to lunch' at random. I then updated iTunes on the server, and that issue largely went away.

It just seems like that connection needs to be more 'robust'. More 'self healing'... Resilient? Hmm...

Anyone with an ATV4 having issues like this so far? Too early?