New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….
Original story (published on October 30, 2020) follows:
The third generation Apple TV was released way back in 2012. The 8-year-old device continues to receive updates and is still pretty popular. However, there is a new issue. The YouTube app is reportedly freezing for many after a bad update.
As a result, a slew of complaints have emerged on official Apple TV as well as YouTube forums.
As apparent from the above comments, the issue is triggered when a video is paused on the YouTube app. It causes the Apple TV to hang and then eventually reboot on its own.
The cause of this appears to be a bad update, software version 7.6 to be precise. The problem was non-existent on the previous 7.5 version. Also, it seems to be only affecting the Apple TV (3rd generation) as of now.
From this, it appears that there is a compatibility issue between Apple TV and YouTube after the update. The same has been suggest by a Product Expert on the YouTube forums:
However, it has been over a month since the complaints first started pouring in, and neither Apple nor YouTube has acknowledged the issue.
Since the issue arose after the 7.6 update for Apple TV, your best bet would be to downgrade to version 7.5 until something is done regarding this bug.
Workaround for the Apple TV YouTube freezing issue
Make sure you choose the correct software before going forward with the installation. Also turn off auto-update after the process, so that the software does not update to version 7.6 on its own.
Download the old version of the firmware. For me it was the version from 24th March 2020 (I took it from https://ipsw.me/product/AppleTV). Be careful in choosing your version of Apple TV!
Connect the Apple TV to the computer via a micro-usb cable.
Restore the downloaded firmware (for more details https://www.imyfone.com/apple-tv/downgrade-apple-tv/).
Disconnect from computer and connect to TV.
All data is lost and you need to configure everything from the beginning Source
This is clearly just a workaround, though, and Apple and YouTube need to pull their socks up and fix this annoying bug immediately.
That being said, let us know in the comments below if you have already received a bug-fixing update for the Apple TV YouTube freezing issue. Also, inform us of any other workaround, if any, in the comments below.
Update 1 (December 21)
05:55 pm (IST): The freezing issue when pausing a YouTube video on the 3rd generation Apple TV appears to have been fixed via the Apple TV Software Update 7.6.2 as per some users who were experiencing the problem. We’ve shared some reports below:
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