How do I block the Apple TV update server?

Isn't there a settings toggle for this somewhere in Settings, something like Check for update - Automaticaly , Don't check , etc. ??

 

PlexConnect also has an option to block AppleTV updates.

 

I have somehow managed to do just this, i have never had any of my apple TVs auto update.

 

It's not the auto-update that's the issue but the constant nagging by Apple TV whether to update now.

 

Never had it prompt me to upgrade now, despite auto updates being on, updated the one in the spare room manually yesterday when i moved it to the dining room, and it was 2 updates out of date.

 

You mean "off," right?

 

no i have auto update ON, its never prompted me to update, and its never auto updated...

seem to be stuck between the two settings

 

You would probably have to plug a computer in between the Apple TV and the router and have it sniff the IP's as the Apple TV goes about it's business.

 

I actually did this myself, because I run an older Apple TV 2 2010 (720p) and want it to stay on software version 5.3 (the post iOS-7 updates run like crap and make it extremely slow and laggy).

There are hypothetically two ways to do this. First, a very old thread from 2008 about blocking updates on the older AppleTVs:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=420176

Stop the device from accessing http://mesu.apple.com (Apple software update server). Now, there are two ways (I suppose) you could do this.

- Jailbreak your Apple TV.
OR
- Use the Apple Configurator profiles to add a filter to the device and block the Apple software update web site. (I haven't tried this).

I chose #1, since you can jailbreak a AppleTV2 2010 at any time unlike later models. So I made a jailbroken 5.3 image using Seas0npass and installed it on my AppleTV.

The directions change slightly compared to the old thread. We'll modify the /etc/hosts file but the frontrow account is no longer accessible.

0. Jailbreak your AppleTV with Seas0npass.
1. open Terminal app
2. ssh -2 root@[IP address of your AppleTV]
3. you'll login as root. The password for root with a Seas0npassed-Apple TV is 'alpine'. (Google "Seas0npass ssh root password" if you can't find this or it changes in the future).
4. echo "127.0.0.1 mesu.apple.com >> /etc/hosts
5. cat /etc/hosts
6. Confirm that the entry was added to the list.
7. logout
8. close terminal.

Since you're root, you'll need to use a different path relative to hosts than the old frontrow account from the other thread.

Now I check "Update Software" under Settings, and AppleTV fails immediately and returns "the software update could not be downloaded at this time", which is exactly what I want.

With a later AppleTV, you can't use the seas0npass/root access directly, so you should use Apple Configurator to set a filter profile on your AppleTV, and add "mesu.apple.com" to the blocked list.

*#2: Protocol 1 no longer seems to work as in 2008 (I'm not an ssh guru, don't ask me what that means).

 

My AppleTV has auto downloaded new apps whenever they get released. But the OS never gets updated without me reading about it on the internet, going into settings, manually checking for an update and opting to install it.