Anyone else having issues with their remote’s battery not lasting as long as they expect? My old appletv remote needed to be charged like once or twice a year. My new 4K appletv remote has already needed charging twice, in just the couple weeks I’ve had it.
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Remote battery life
- Thread starter afjarboe
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Sounds like something they can probably fix in a software update that delivers a firmware update to the remote. How many versions of tvOS have been released since ATV4K came out? I don’t think many, perhaps wait until the next update and see if that changes anything.
This could be true.
I have noticed on my ATV4 that tvOS11 brought a lot of bugs with it. I am hoping that they will be fixed, but considering how long it took for the tvOS9 bugs to be fix, I wouldn't expect it any time soon.
I have only charged my remote once since tvOS11, but if I notice increase in charging, I will post it here.
I'm glad there was a topic on this already...I noticed I had to charge my AppleTV 4k remote yet again this weekend as well. It's lasting maybe a week or two on a charge.
I'll get ahold of Apple to see what they say...if anything, just to get another report in their system.
I'll get ahold of Apple to see what they say...if anything, just to get another report in their system.
I spent a little while on the phone last night with Apple customer service - I explained that since owning the AppleTV4k, I've had to recharge the remote on a weekly basis, whereas my previous AppleTV's remote only needed charging every 4 or 5 months (at the very most).
He asked a few simple questions and they dialed into my system for a quick diagnostic. Everything looked fine on their end.
Then he talked to engineering and was told this is something that is being looked into and currently they had enough different samples for their testing. We made an appointment with my local Apple store and I'm going tomorrow to swap out the remote for a brand new one.
We'll see what happens!
For anyone else having these issues, definitely call or email Apple. It's good to hear that Apple knows of this problem and are working on it, but it never hurts for them to hear about it more. I'll post an update on this thread once I have my new remote for a few days.
He asked a few simple questions and they dialed into my system for a quick diagnostic. Everything looked fine on their end.
Then he talked to engineering and was told this is something that is being looked into and currently they had enough different samples for their testing. We made an appointment with my local Apple store and I'm going tomorrow to swap out the remote for a brand new one.
We'll see what happens!
For anyone else having these issues, definitely call or email Apple. It's good to hear that Apple knows of this problem and are working on it, but it never hurts for them to hear about it more. I'll post an update on this thread once I have my new remote for a few days.
I second this, and not just for the remote issue. If they get enough calls on a problem, maybe they will look into it.
For the people that really don't want to call, I know that calling support lines usually sucks, but calling Apple support isn't too much of a hassle.
I have used Apple products for over 20 years, and for some reason, I have had to call Apple support more times in the past 2-3 years than the previous 20 years combined. Surprisingly, the wait times have been relatively short, unless I was put on hold. The support representative are hit or miss. Some are knowledgeable, and some are not.
I was having issues with iTunes Match a while back, and the support rep I ended up getting clearly had no idea what iTunes Match was or how it worked. Frustrated with her incompetence, I politely asked her to transfer me to someone else, and she took offense and started getting rude. I think I ended up hanging up on her.
But, I have also had some very knowledgeable reps that were very helpful.
If anything, you can create a record showing that you are experiencing this issue. So, if something happens with the remote batter after the warranty period, you have a record of issues with it, and maybe you can get it replaced.
If I had never owned an AppleTV I would probably think this was normal as I'm so used to charging so many different devices. I'm wondering if that's why this issue hasn't picked up more steam? Or if it's not a widespread problem?
I'm glad you're getting in touch with them - good luck!
Just wondering if the remote replacement resolved your issue?
the replacement mentioned here had the same problems...the battery would die in less than a week.
I took this one back and got a different replacement and that seems to have solved it.
There are definitely some batches of remotes out there with bad batteries
I also wonder if this might be a software/firmware issue. My brand new 4K remote has gone from 100 down to 93 in 3 days which seems faster than usual but also nowhere near as bad as what’s reported here. It seems to vary quite wildly which is why I think it might be software related. My remote shows firmware version 0x0075.
I have a replacement remote delivering Monday and Apple has told me to just keep the old remote. So I’ll be able to compare the two.
EDIT: Just to add to my hunch this is a software issue are a couple of reports of ATV4 remotes doing this after updating to tvOS 11. One is from earlier in this thread, the other over on Apple Discussions:
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/25313177/
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8122906?start=0&tstart=0
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Same issue here. Charging my remote weekly. Got a replacement from Apple. The problem wasn’t resolved.
I'll put this info here, but unsure if the issues are the same.
I had a similar issue with my ATV4 when I first got them, and it ended up being the Channels app's "shake to mute" feature which allows you to shake the Siri remote to mute the audio. This caused battery draining on the remote where I would have to charge it a once week or so. I've since disabled the feature and everything has been fine since with my ATV4s and ATV4K.
Interestingly, yesterday I was in the Covent Garden Apple Store in London and one of the remote batteries for the ATV 4K was dead! In an Apple Store!!!
I also experienced the worst customer service ever in the Covent Garden store. I was trying to use the ATV but the remote was dead so I asked the guy about it. He seemed annoyed as he was polishing the MacBooks that the dirty humans had put finger prints on
He tutted and frowned when he tried to use the remote and told me to check the ATVs out at the front of the store. I told him that i'd tried that but the games controllers were for some reason over riding the remote as overtime I tried them, it said controller connected. He looked at me and aggressively said "Go and find some staff over there" and that was it.
I couldn't believe how crap that service was. I walk out and vowed why be loyal to an Apple store when I could buy my next MacBook from John Lewis, get a free 3 year warranty on it and get 10% off too when they have their deals on.
I managed to try the ATV in another store AND I noticed horrible lag on the trackpad. What is going on? Mine doesn't seem as laggy but I have my trackpad on fast. It doesn't feel like an Apple product in that case. I wanted to compare the picture of ATV on the Apple store LG TVs compared to my Panasonic. From what I can see, the Apple Store LG TVs were set to SDR. Also the motion was no where near as good as my Panasonic using iTunes trailers that i'm familiar with AND lastly, those LG TVs look very plasticky and cheaply made. I'm surprised to see Apple using them as the picture quality didn't stand out - one made the iTunes trailer look like a basic stream as opposed to say a BluRay in terms of picture. Those TVs really do not do justice to highlight ATV's quality. They look like 50" TVs in size so surely Apple has a the money to install 55" LG OLED TVs in their place or really go designer and fit SONY A1 or in the flagship stores install LG Wallpaper TV?
I also experienced the worst customer service ever in the Covent Garden store. I was trying to use the ATV but the remote was dead so I asked the guy about it. He seemed annoyed as he was polishing the MacBooks that the dirty humans had put finger prints on
He tutted and frowned when he tried to use the remote and told me to check the ATVs out at the front of the store. I told him that i'd tried that but the games controllers were for some reason over riding the remote as overtime I tried them, it said controller connected. He looked at me and aggressively said "Go and find some staff over there" and that was it.I couldn't believe how crap that service was. I walk out and vowed why be loyal to an Apple store when I could buy my next MacBook from John Lewis, get a free 3 year warranty on it and get 10% off too when they have their deals on.
I managed to try the ATV in another store AND I noticed horrible lag on the trackpad. What is going on? Mine doesn't seem as laggy but I have my trackpad on fast. It doesn't feel like an Apple product in that case. I wanted to compare the picture of ATV on the Apple store LG TVs compared to my Panasonic. From what I can see, the Apple Store LG TVs were set to SDR. Also the motion was no where near as good as my Panasonic using iTunes trailers that i'm familiar with AND lastly, those LG TVs look very plasticky and cheaply made. I'm surprised to see Apple using them as the picture quality didn't stand out - one made the iTunes trailer look like a basic stream as opposed to say a BluRay in terms of picture. Those TVs really do not do justice to highlight ATV's quality. They look like 50" TVs in size so surely Apple has a the money to install 55" LG OLED TVs in their place or really go designer and fit SONY A1 or in the flagship stores install LG Wallpaper TV?
It needs to be set to match. Then it auto switches to HDR and the correct framerate. Motion is great on the LG(when the settings are correct) though I don't know the model you looked at.
You can never judge a TV in the store. They don't calibrate them. And the lighting is harsh. And clearly they didn't have the settings correct on the ATV4k either.
My LG is not cheap and plasticy at all. It looks very high end. And sony's use LG panels in their OLED tv's.
The model is a basic very cheaper end LG TV with the LG badge removed from the front but still on the rear of the TV. Strangely, they are the same ones used for last years ATV non 4K so they may not even be 4K models.
It is quite easy to judge the quality when you are stood one foot away from it and can observe it well.
Settings wise, Apple probably tell the stores to leave the ATV on the default setting since that is what Apple seems to prefer. I truly appreciate that your OLED LG looks high end - they are pretty nice but heck, some of the cheaper LG TV's like this model found in the Apple Store along with the supermarkets here in the UK are pretty cheap looking - grey black plastic frame, chrome metal feet that don't match the colour of the TV etc - strange for Apple!
In fact, here's a picture of the ones that they use!
http://uk.businessinsider.com/analysis-of-apple-tv-apps-2015-12?r=US&IR=T
Not really. You aren't going to watch tv 1' away and not in those lighting conditions. And it's still not calibrated.
I needed a new remote last week because it just suddenly stopped working and responding.. not really battery issue, but remote issue.
Charging it didn't help..... Could not pair even after reset. and no acknowledgement by Apple TV despite i was trying to pair with remote even though it was right in front pointed at it.
Replaced with 4K remote (since Apple no longer sells the 4 remote), and back in business
I know when i charged mine, i had to charge it every few weeks. I just assume that's normal
I think we'll agree to disagree on this one. My eyes can really tell me when something looks correct and when something is downright wrong
Of course. But when it's in poor lighting, not the correct viewing distance and not calibrated your eyes should tell you it looks like crap. And you said it does. I haven't seen it and I still agree with you.I think we'll agree to disagree on this one. My eyes can really tell me when something looks correct and when something is downright wrong
Change all those things and your eyes will tell you something different. Since you haven't seen it under these different conditions you really can't say.
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