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RevTEG

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 28, 2012
1,364
1,237
San Jose, Ca
As title says, my new Apple TV 4K keeps losing wifi connection. Connection is working fine on all our other devices (iPads, MacBook, as well as an older non 4K Apple TV).

Any recommendations?
 
Any possibility at all to (ethernet) wire it? If you can't get a wire to it and are using a mesh wifi unit, position a node near it and connect via ethernet to the node. Or consider a Powerline ethernet option which uses your home wiring to sometimes work as a reliable way to get ethernet to where you want it.

Else, there are many possibilities. Wifi has finite bandwidth. If it works sometimes and doesn't work others, do the latter times coincide with when perhaps others in the household are also taking up to big bites out of the bandwidth? There's only so much to go around, no matter how fast your broadband connection.

Have you reset your password lately to perhaps kick some wifi freeloaders (neighbors) off? Someone you shared your wifi password with once may be (even unknowingly) hogging a bunch of your bandwidth now if they live close enough.

Have you restarted modem, restarted router, restarted AppleTV just to shake out any accumulated kludge from not restarting those for a good period of time?

Have you ruled out the AppleTV itself by temporarily running an ethernet cable across the floor to test to see if it still loses connection? If so, I start suspecting your AppleTV has a probable fault. This test is not about leaving the ethernet cable long term- just ruling out something being wrong with wifi on your AppleTV (itself).

Do you notice this at a specific time(s) each day but other times it is fine? If the problem time is a busier time and neighbors live close enough to perhaps act as some wifi interference, you might try changing wifi channels.

Is there classic wifi disrupters in use when you lose connection? Microwave? Etc.

Have you checked wifi signal strength where you have your AppleTV? For example, use wifi on a phone or iPad and push them into the area when you have the AppleTV. Full wifi bars or not many bars? If wifi is weak there, try looking for another spot for your AppleTV with a stronger wifi connection. Sometimes even a few feet (move) can make a difference. Try both X and Y axis, meaning higher or lower positioning can make a difference too.

The key to success here is experimentation to try to narrow in on the cause.
 
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Any possibility at all to (ethernet) wire it? If you can't get a wire to it and are using a mesh wifi unit, position a node near it and connect via ethernet to the node. Or consider a Powerline ethernet option which uses your home wiring to sometimes work as a reliable way to get ethernet to where you want it.

Else, there are many possibilities. Wifi has finite bandwidth. If it works sometimes and doesn't work others, do the latter times coincide with when perhaps others in the household are also taking up to big bites out of the bandwidth? There's only so much to go around, no matter how fast your broadband connection.

Have you reset your password lately to perhaps kick some wifi freeloaders (neighbors) off? Someone you shared your wifi password with once may be (even unknowingly) hogging a bunch of your bandwidth now if they live close enough.

Have you restarted modem, restarted router, restarted AppleTV just to shake out any accumulated kludge from not restarting those for a good period of time?

Have you ruled out the AppleTV itself by temporarily running an ethernet cable across the floor to test to see if it still loses connection? If so, I start suspecting your AppleTV has a probable fault. This test is not about leaving the ethernet cable long term- just ruling out something being wrong with wifi on your AppleTV (itself).

Do you notice this at a specific time(s) each day but other times it is fine? If the problem time is a busier time and neighbors live close enough to perhaps act as some wifi interference, you might try changing wifi channels.

Is there classic wifi disrupters in use when you lose connection? Microwave? Etc.

Have you checked wifi signal strength where you have your AppleTV? For example, use wifi on a phone or iPad and push them into the area when you have the AppleTV. Full wifi bars or not many bars? If wifi is weak there, try looking for another spot for your AppleTV with a stronger wifi connection. Sometimes even a few feet (move) can make a difference. Try both X and Y axis, meaning higher or lower positioning can make a difference too.

The key to success here is experimentation to try to narrow in on the cause.
Haven’t used an ethernet cable yet. Will try that. New Apple 4K is sitting next to the router just like the old Apple TV has been sitting for years. Plugged old Apple TV back in and it hasn’t dropped connect. Replaced with new Apple TV 4K and it dropped connect less than 15 minutes later. Speed test still showing connecting active on iPad and MacBook. It’s definitely something with the new Apple TV 4K. I just purchased it yesterday and it’s dropped connection continuously.
 
If right next to the router, try an ethernet cable as that will be very easy. If there are no drops with it, it implies wifi issues much more clearly.

However, if it is "right next," sometimes things can be too close... so if you don't want to leave it ethernet connected (though in your case, I can't quite imagine why not if the router has any free ethernet jacks), try putting a few feet distance between router and AppleTV and see if the issue persists.

In any case where ethernet is an option, I ALWAYS encourage using ethernet. Wired is generally superior to wireless in pretty much all scenarios where wired is possible. In your case, it sounds like a very easy option to basically rule out using wifi at all.
 
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