Apple TVs on tvOS 17 losing WiFi?

[Jakubi-wan]

Good afternoon,

Prior to this summer, all of our Apple TVs were on various versions ranging between 13.x to 16.x. I went around and updated them all to 16.6 at the time and turned on auto-update so I didn't have to manually do this again for 350+ devices across 11 buildings. However, we forgot to block tvOS 17 along with iPadOS 17 and iOS 17, so about 20% of our fleet updated over the course of two weeks overnight. Not the end of the world, it was working fine.

After awhile though, on tvOS 17 only, the device will lose WiFi connection and will not pick it back up.

Our configuration is simply no remote pairing and always use conference room mode. 

In order to bypass this, we have to:

• Internet sharing via USB-C to ethernet to the Apple TV
• Update inventory to make sure it's connecting
• Drop it out of the configuration profile or naming scheme
• Add it back to the network
• Re-adding it to the configuration profile or naming scheme

I usually don't have to do this more than once per device. But it's been a rather annoying occurrence to drive to different buildings to fix this. The way I find these devices before a user submits the ticket is a Smart Group based on if it's inventoried within 24 hours. Once 24 hours pass, I get an automated ticket to look into the device(s). I can usually just cancel the update inventory command and then re-run it and it's fine and drops off the report. When it doesn't, then I know it's a device with this issue.

Does this issue happen to anyone else?

Does 17.1 or 17.2 beta fix this?

[akaiser]

Did you find a resolution to this? We're seeing this in our school district right now

[Jakubi-wan]

I have not. We put a block in place for tvOS 17 so it's stopped auto-updating for the rest of our fleet.

I'm waiting for tvOS 17.2 to drop and then I'm going to update a few of them near my office so I can quickly see if any issues arise.

[akaiser]

Ok we'll probably plan on doing the same. 

You would think this issue would be a lot more widespread but you're the only other person I've seen mention it. Wonder if there's anything specific with our configurations that could be causing this?

[Jakubi-wan]

We have 3 configuration profiles.

Scoped to all Apple TVs via pre-stage enrollment:

• Network Config

Scoped to all Apple TVs via naming scheme:

• Disable Remote Pairing, Require Passcode, No Sleep, Home Screen Layout
• Conference Room mode

I've noticed on every non-production / pre-deployment Apple TVs I've updated manually from 16.x to 17.0, it won't find the work when done despite knowing and using the network before the update.

Even weirder: these production Apple TVs auto-updated with no issue but started falling off days or weeks after the update was complete.

[akaiser]

Our configuration profiles are similar. We also lock ours in Conference Room mode which makes it even more difficult to rejoin them to our WiFi. 

I've opened a case with Jamf Support, I'll keep you updated on what I find out!

[akaiser]

I'm also wondering if this might be an issue with the way our network is set up. Do you guys happen to use mac-based wireless authentication?

[Jakubi-wan]

Yeah, so we put devices in static groups inside of Cisco ISE and the device can only connect to the WLAN SSID that the group is part of.

No username or password.

[akaiser]

Our school district uses Cisco ISE as well. Might be something to look into for us then.

[Jakubi-wan]

I am hoping 17.2 fixes this issue.

I have a few devices in production on 17.0 that I will push up to 17.2 and see if they drop configs.

During Thanksgiving break, about 80 of them were unplugged and they lost their network connection. My lingering feeling is that this is an OS thing.

[akaiser]

Hey unfortunately tvOS 17.3 hasn't fixed this, wanted to see if you're still dealing with this issue?

[aharvey]

Have you had any luck resolving this yet? We have a similar configuration, and even with 17.2 I noticed today that we have 5 AppleTVs that haven't checked in and aren't on WiFi. Like you, I'll have to go connect them to the hardwired network, remove the conference mode profile, join them to WiFi and reapply the profiles. I'm installing 17.3 to see if it makes a difference, but usually it's a couple weeks or more after an update that they start dropping off WiFi.

[akaiser]

Nope we're still dealing with the issue. I've opened a support case with Apple but haven't gotten anywhere with them either.

I'm also wondering if this could be a network issue. Do you happen to know how your devices authenticate to the network? We have an open network with Mac Authentication (Cisco ISE). 

[aharvey]

We have them joining an open network with no authentication. I saw you and Jakubi-wan both had Cisco ISE devices, but we do not. Ours is just an open network on our Ruckus WiFi. I'm curious if it would make any difference if I wasn't applying a WiFi profile through mdm and just setting it on the AppleTV in case the profile (re)application is somehow messing with it. I'll see how 17.3 behaves and if it drops I might test a device that doesn't get a WiFi profile.

[akaiser]

Hey unfortunately tvOS 17.3 hasn't fixed this, wanted to see if you're still dealing with this issue?

[aharvey]

Well, the process of installing 17.3 definitely broke WiFi. When I pushed out 17.3, I ended up having to go around to all of them and connect them to the LAN so I could get them back on WiFi. (Next time I'll make sure to remove the conference mode profile before pushing out an update.) Now that they are running 17.3 they are still checking in as of today, but sometimes it takes a while before they drop off.

[jasonin951]

Interesting that you say that.  We had one that fell off the WiFi a few days ago (February 10th) (was 17.2) and after we manually intervened and put it on the LAN and rejoined it now is on 17.3.  I can't confirm if it was going through the upgrade process when it fell off WiFi or not as I wasn't there, but this might be a good lead.  I just don't know if it was in the process of updating that it disconnected from WiFi or if it auto updated after it was on since the update was available.

[Jakubi-wan]

@aharvey @akaiser 

tvOS 17.3 issue persists.

They fall off less than 17.0, I'm testing 17.4 beta 1 now.

The problem I have is that it's random and not reproducible consistently unless I unplug the power a few times.

I've reached out to my Apple Engineer attached to our enterprise account for more information. I'll open an AppleCare case shortly.

I noticed that when adding back to the network, our networks take 5 to 10 seconds to show up while others are actively showing up immediately. I wonder if this the root cause, I don't believe Jamf config profiles retry the network connection? I'm not sure.

[akaiser]

Just wanted to check back in on this thread and see if anyone has made any headway on this issue. Our school district is still being impacted and have started to switch our Apple TVs to P2P connection to see how that works. 

[Jakubi-wan]

Still an issue.

17.4 seeeeeeeems better.

[MikeWachholz]

Just looking at moving to 17.3 and found this.  Wondering if anyone is running two different WiFi networks on their Apple TV's? Wondering if that might save us as we are (One WPA and one open Guest network).  Just curious.  

[Michael_Sander]

Same here. We have 80 Apple TVs ( mixed Generations ) in our school , with MAC Autentification.

Must go every day to many many Apple TVs, to connect manual to our wifi.

WTF.... Problem since TVOS 17.

The have all the Version 17.3

Cant find any, about this Problem. Hope, 17.4 will fix it. HOPE.  

Under TVOS 16.....   never Problems. 

Our APs: Aruba 516 

[jasonin951]

We have our Apple TVs setup in conference room mode and use them to screen mirror from an iPad over airplay. This works fairly well except for one major issue. When setup in this mode often the Apple TV loses its connection to the Wi-Fi network.

In order to resolve this, we have to work with the onsite team to disconnect the Apple TV and move it to a different location that has Ethernet. Once on Ethernet I can remove the locked down conference room mode and they are then able to rejoin the Wi-Fi. This happens repeatedly and seemingly randomly for all of our 26 Apple TV devices.

I have worked with our networking team, and they have escalated to Meraki who manufactures our Wi-Fi access points. They even did extensive logging on the network to attempt to capture a root cause to the issue. After extensive troubleshooting it was determined that even after restarting the wireless access point and the Apple TV device it never attempts to re-connect to the Wi-Fi network.

The Wi-Fi network is assigned via a Jamf policy so the device should know about it and there is no change in policy even when we remediate the device by connecting it to the LAN other than removing the conference room mode restriction from it temporarily so that the end user at the remote location can rejoin Wi-Fi.

[Michael_Sander]

Apple tvOS17.4 is available. 

[jasonin951]

Has 17.4 fixed the issue for you?  I'm about to start upgrading ours.

[Jakubi-wan]

Hi all following,

I've been slowly manually updating all Apple TVs on tvOS 17.x to 17.4 while blocking the remaining Apple TVs from going to anything higher.

So far, it's been much better at staying on the network. But it might be too short term to tell yet. Because of the randomness of dropping off, it could each drop off a few days after the first time or weeks later. Some might not drop off at all after the first time.

A nugget I've noticed however, when most Apple TVs went from pre-17.x to 17.x or anything further, every time the update finished it would lose network connectivity and have to join it back before installing it's configurations. When all 60 Apple TVs I've done to 17.4 so far, every time it's found the network again when the update completed.

I'm very hopeful this has been fixed.

[nkuhl1630]

We have the same issue and it's not just with Apple TVs but iPads as well. I would send an OS update command to a few groups of iPads, they'll update, restart, then some won't auto reconnect to wifi. We have then physically touch each one and reconnect them. 

We are using mac-auth on our wifi instead of 802.1x but I can't imagine why that would be an issue as others have mentioned.

[Michael_Sander]

Same Problem, after 17.4.

Many Apple TVs lost her w-lan. 

We are using also mac-auth.