Apple TV 2nd, 3rd Generation Bug Causes Menu Options To Disappear; No Temporary Fix For Problem

There’s a serious bug that’s making second- and third-generation Apple TVs non-operational to a certain extent. This mysterious bug is known to have been around for some time now, but its presence is not strongly felt by owners until recently.

According to MacRumors, the mysterious Apple TV bug disables several menu options such that only the Computers, Music and Settings options are appearing when the device is switched on. This means affected units cannot show Netflix, Hulu and all of the other Apple TV channels.

Owners of second- and third-generation Apple TVs are reportedly taking to Reddit and MacRumors' own online forums to share their concern and disappointment over this problem. Making the situation worse is the lack of any stopgap to counter the issue, while Apple has yet to release an update to address it.

Based on the things users were sharing, restarting the device and even resetting the router or the Apple TV itself won’t fix the problem. There are users who claimed that changing DNS settings fixed the issue, but others who tried to do the same thing said it did not work for them.

The bug appears to only affect the second- and third-generation Apple TV units. The fourth-generation does not show signs of having the same problem. It’s also good that Apple has already promised to release a software update as soon as possible to crush the bug.

The news comes almost a week since Apple introduced its new Apple TV guide app called “TV” during the launch event for its new MacBook Pros. The app is designed to bring a unified experience for discovering and accessing content from multiple apps.

Unfortunately, Pacific Crest Securities analyst Andy Hargreaves told CNBC’s “Power Lunch” on Monday that patronage for the TV app seems bleak. "I think the challenge that Apple has here is it's really hard to become the front end when you don't have the services that people watch. And without Netflix and Amazon ... as part of that app, I don't think anybody's going to tune in,” the analyst was quoted as saying.