Happy Black Friday, Apple TV fans! As a way to express my appreciation to this sub, which helped me out recently with another app I launched (Screen Canvas), I’m making my two of my Apple TV apps, Dark Sleep and Mood Lights, completely FREE for today only (November 30)! No subscriptions, no catch—just download and enjoy.

I originally built both apps for myself because I couldn’t find any existing solutions that worked for me. Then I released them, only to find they started selling—and now they often make it to the Top Paid Apps leaderboard. Here’s what each app does:

🌙 Dark Sleep - Sleep Sounds & Sunrise Alarm (normally $6.99)
I was looking for a simple app that played sleep sounds with a dark screen and could be started with a single click on the remote—but I couldn’t find one, so I built it. Then I realized, if the light from the screen was preventing me from falling asleep—which was the reason for the dark screen to begin with—maybe I could do the opposite and use the light from the TV screen to wake me up, just like those expensive sunrise alarm clock hardware devices. That’s how the sunrise alarm clock feature came to life. I use this app every single day to sleep and wake up.

👉 DarkSleep.app | App Store Link

🎨 Mood Lights - Make Your TV a Mood Lamp (normally $4.99)
There are plenty of apps that make the screen dark, but I couldn’t find anything that changes the TV’s color for different moods. Sometimes I don’t want it dark—I want colorful lights, just like a mood lamp. So I decided to make one myself.

👉 MoodLights.app | App Store Link

⏳ This is a one-day offer, valid only on November 29. Must download today before it goes back to being paid.

Thanks again to this amazing community for your support—you’re the best! Enjoy the apps, and let me know your thoughts in the comments! 😊

Hey everyone,

I've got myself an Apple TV 4K two days ago. It is, by great distance, the most annoying piece of hardware I've ever bought. It connected everything with each other (which for some might be the appeal for getting everything Apple, not for me). I just want to use the thing as a stream box for Netflix and such.

Is there any way I can cut all connections between my MacBook and the AppleTV? Which setting do I need to modify?

Thanks in advance!

Has anyone else experienced this and have a solution? I'm on version 18.1

I have 2 AppleTV's in different rooms and only 1 of them is paired with a HomePod Mini. I can walk up and say "Hey Siri turn on the TV" and it works. But then I say "Hey Siri Open Netflix" and it asks which AppleTV I want. The HomePod listening is paired with the one I want, why does it randomly ask me which TV I want. Other times it does not ask which AppleTV, it just assumes the one its paired with.

Since the latest tvOS 18.1 update when I watch YouTube on Apple TV at the start of the video or after an ad the video plays but for 1 second the screen is black. Then it goes back to normal until the next video or the next ad. I tried reinstalling the app, nothing changed. Same with my subscriptions, my Sony subscriptions are placed in a random order and when I return to the section after a video it puts me back to the first subscription in this random list. Am I the only one with the same problem?

Large video streams (4K) are unplayable for me since the tvOS 18.x release. This has been hypothesized to be due to falling back to software decoding. I have a second Apple TV which I held back to 17.6.1 which continues to play fine. Is anyone else experiencing this?

Since a couple days, my siri remote is not controlling my TV volume, it worked fine , tried rebooting my remote , restarting my apple tv and , checked the HDMI cable and my TV hdmi cec settings , any idea, running 18.1

With every update, so again with 18.1, I’ve been hoping this useless icon would finally be got rid of. Anyone that still doesn’t know that iTunes downloads are now implemented in the Apple TV app has been living under a rock.

so i have a text tmrw for HSP3U on TVO ILC thru Microsoft teams and I need to know exactly how the test will go. Can they see if i swich tabs? can they see if i have another chromebook behind the one im using? will they record me? I have ILC proctor 21,  Kari Pearce. Im just more worried about if they will know if i swich tabs or not

Ever since my Apple TV 4K (w silver and black lightning remote) updated to tvOS 18.0, I can’t download apps - I click “get” and then the wheel just spins and nothing else happens. It first happened trying to download Balatro+ from Arcade, and I also tried from the App Store App, and I have tried non-arcade apps as well. I’ve restarted, I’ve checked to make sure my account is properly logged in, I’ve cleared out space so I know it isn’t a storage issue, but no one else online seems to be having this issue. Has this happened to anyone else, and if so, have you found a solution?

Is it just me, or is the YouTube app on TVOS 18 hot garbage? Ever since the update, videos fail to play, or they do play and start in the middle of the video. If you hit PAUSE, the video resumes on its own 3-4 minutes later (It never used to do that) Thre were two other issues that I cant think of at the moment, but I am really frustrated. I used to LOVE YouTube on TVOS, but now it's become an unreliable mess. I hope they get it patched soon.

I have an Apple TV 4K in HDR10 that recently updated to tvOS 18. When a new Aerials screensaver pops up, I usually press the up arrow to see the location info, especially the space scenes as they progress. Now it is allowing me to change the screensaver from Aerials to portraits or memories. I should mention I have the touch surface turned off so it is set to click only. How do I see location info on tvOS 18? Can I disable the others to restore the previous behavior?

https://preview.redd.it/fo8x8w8q8tsd1.png?width=720&format=png&auto=webp&s=7ddbaf13ae63d9b57f0e39b2e03562cbbfcf914b

Ever since the update, I've been experiencing this issue. Has anyone else encountered the same problem? Is there a way to fix it, or should I just wait? I have a daughter and I use this feature a lot.

After the update, the áudio has a delay with my airpods. When I bought the apple tv I had to use the wireless áudio Sync to all vídeo options.

With the update, did i Lost Everything?

Hello, so I just updated one of my Apple TVs to TVOS 18 and it looks like what happened with TVOS17, is now happening again with 18. When you select the ATV icon, Up Next does not display anything, just big ATV. See pic. Anybody else having the same issue?

***UPDATE*** As erio_ink posted below, restarting the ATV seems to have fixed the issue so give that a try if you have the same thing going on after the update.

https://preview.redd.it/ddkcuvkhq7pd1.jpg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a3f7bf8f50f715b6b4563443fbe8e718cbbc7d94

Noticed that HomeKit automations are very slow or actions missed when I’m watching 4K content. Storage space looks fine… can it be the end of life for the A12 Bionic processor?

I did notice it asked to update now or later after downloading it in 2 4K 2nd gen.

I think Apple TV could really improve their multitasking and become the go to smart TV platform for sports fans.

Live sports are getting spread out across many different streaming platforms. This makes it nearly impossible to switch between games as you could on cable. Today Apple TV is still better than most platforms since it keeps apps open in the background, however it always pauses content when multitasking which means when you switch between two live feeds you always have to press play and jump to live.

Utilizing the Apple TVs overpowered processor, I have a few ideas that I think would give Apple a huge advantage for sports fans.

1. Add a multitasking button to the remote
   • Single press will open the app switcher
   • Double press switches the the previously opened app, much like the "prev" button did on cable remotes.
   • Long press would open the multiview editor, similar to the native multiview control.
2. New App switcher
   • Mockup: https://i.imgur.com/1YGVZfV.png
   • Rather than a single line of apps, use the grid like app switcher from iPadOS. This would make it faster to find the app you're looking for.
   • Add a button to start multiview mode
   • Live content should not stop playing when in multitasking mode, just like cable doesn't stop because you aren't watching it.
3. Multiview Mode
   • Mockup: https://i.imgur.com/IplLo7O.png
   • Allow multiple apps to be run at the same time.
   • Swipe between apps to select which one plays sound.
   • Click into an app to begin controlling it.
   • Swipe up into edit mode to move apps around, add/ remove/ or change apps, and change display mode.
4. I would also love to see how the new Apple Sports app could be integrated into tvOS
   • Ideally all services could be linked to it and it could act as a hub to launch any game with a deep link into whichever service it is on.

Other platforms don't have the compute to support these use cases. Apple can really flex their muscle here and become THE streaming device for sports fans who want to flip between games on all of the services they pay for without the hassle of starting/ restarting/ and finding their game everytime they want to switch apps.

Would love to hear anyone else's thoughts or ideas on this topic!

Hi there!

https://preview.redd.it/cz3fwmqt12zc1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=70472af9ef14c07b298a43a2380f80e91bc123f8

I've made a small app for tvOS called "Masterpiece: Gallery of Art". It showcases various famous paintings from around the world along with the name of the painting, the artist, and the time. I thought it could be a great addition during get-togethers with friends when you want to put something on the TV (don't judge me!) and you're tired of YouTube ads or something.

If you're interested in trying out this app, feel free to use one of the promo codes below:

A7TLPPRRP4TK
799TM9WPHHW7
K6YKJEJX9L7F
K6NA7NHL6NPH
WPK49LPYMN3J
KNNNJF6ALARX
NKTAYTRRPJ7K
NFR3FMXTXN47
6XX9EH43MFKR
H4H6EMLJER6Y

This is my first tvOS app, so please go easy on me in any reviews. Thanks! 🙏🏻

https://preview.redd.it/etufacqx12zc1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=b051bfa58c2d9359268e5aab5a30b74991f3de5f

tvOS 17.4 has broken CEC for some (most, all) users that use CEC. Are there any users that still have CEC usable under tvOS 17.4?

I’m working on adding tvOS to an iOS app. I have had Sign in with Apple in place for the iOS portion of the app, but when I tried to use the functionality on the tvOS simulator, I get a button click, but nothing happens. I got the same result when trying a sample project from WWDC ‘21.

Is this is known issue? I haven’t been able to find any mention of this issue online.

I was able to replicate all commands except "TV button" to invoke control panel (switch users, power off etc) - I've tried the hexcodes suggested elsewhere

Has anyone else had a bug where holding down on something in the Up Next row, causes it to not respond and the options don’t appear like “Remove from Up Next”.

Looking for an app that can play my hundreds of dsf format audio files through my new Apple TV 4K. The files reside on a Synology NAS. So far, the only app I can find that claims to do this is PLEX, which appears to be *not simple* to set up. Any better recommendations, either easier to set up, less expensive, and/or more privacy?