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Why Does Apple TV Freeze?
Apple has been plagued with defective releases since iOS 8 launched in late 2014. In addition to iOS, it seems that just about every product has suffered from a lapse in quality. Even the Mac has become less reliable, however, I still find it to be the best computer available today. Fortunately, Apple hasn’t been focusing on the Mac. With fewer changes and a solid platform, Mac OS X has managed to stay robust and reliable. This is not the case with other Apple products. They are cramming in too many features and hiring mediocre engineering talent.
Apple TV has, until recently, been considered a hobby for Apple. I was an early adopter of Apple TV, buying the 2nd generation device in 2010. Although it didn’t offer much in the way of built-in content, it was much more stable than it is now. Netflix was flawless and I never had problems with AirPlay. There was a brief lapse in quality around the iOS 5 release. I found that AirPlay was crashing a lot. It seems that iOS was the culprit, and the iOS 6 release fixed these issues.
Around 2014, my Apple TV started experiencing major problems. It would repeatedly reboot itself, usually in the middle of a video. I researched the problem, and a lot of people were experiencing it. By 2015, it was clear that Apple was not going to fix this issue. They abandoned Apple TV 2, even though no formal “end of life” status was reached. Apple continued to add new channels, such as HBO NOW, but failed to fix this critical bug. It was painfully obvious that they would only work on Apple TV 2 if there was a return on their investment. Adding channels such as HBO NOW and Showtime allowed them to skim some of the subscription fees. If they fixed a critical defect, customers might just hold on to that old Apple TV.
When Apple TV 4 debuted, I was excited. I was well aware that Apple’s new TV appliance was just playing catch up. Unlike most Apple products, it didn’t leapfrog its competitors. In fact, it lacked some obvious features, such as support for 4K video.
The company seemed to take this new Apple TV seriously. It was no longer just a hobby. It even took precedence over the iPad Pro in the keynote. I figured that it was about time to replace my Apple TV 2 with the new model. Overall, I feel it is an improvement, and despite the flaws, it isn’t rebooting itself a few times each night. Unfortunately, it is still not the level of quality one would expect from Apple. It’s more like what you’d get from some no-name, fly by night tech company that is destined to go out of business in a few years.
In the big picture, Apple TV freezes because it is not a quality product. System crashes and freezes are severe bugs and would normally halt the release of any operating system. Apple seems content to release broken operating systems. (continue…)