Following up on our previous article, if you’re still having trouble maintaining connectivity between your current Apple TV and its Siri remote, you’re not alone. In spite of a growing number of complaints, Apple has yet to publicly acknowledge or issue a fix for the issue.
Apple released a new version of the Apple TV 4K last fall, adding a new A15 Bionic chip inside, support for HDR 10+, and a new Siri Remote with USB-C for charging. Other than the change to USB-C, the Siri Remote included with the 2022 version of the Apple TV 4K is identical to the previous generation.
A number of threads on Reddit and Apple’s support website describe ongoing connectivity issues between the Apple TV and the Siri Remote.The problems seem exclusive to the Siri Remote with USB-C, which Apple also sells as a standalone accessory for users of previous-generation Apple TV models.
Users have stated that the Siri Remote regularly disconnects from the Apple TV without any recognizable pattern or explanation. These users have stated that the Siri Remote will disconnect while the Apple TV is playing something, usually minutes after the remote was used to initiate that playback.
Per one Reddit user:
“I thought maybe the remote was dead, so I charged for a few hours. Then the remote showed in the top corner as “connected” then 30 seconds later it disconnects. This cycled a few times over the next few minutes. I restarted Apple TV and then it reconnected, thought nothing of it. Now two days later, same thing. It’s requiring a full restart of Apple TV to get it to connect. The whole time, I could use control center remote on my iPhone no problem.”
The latest Apple TV 4K and USB-C Siri Remote were released in November. Since then, Apple has released multiple updates to tvOS 16, including tvOS 16.1.1, tvOS 16.2, tvOS 16.3, and tvOS 16.3.1. None of these updates, however, have successfully solved these problems.
If you’ve seen this issue on your end, please let us know about your experience in the comments.
Via 9to5Mac, Reddit, and support.apple.com