Is your Apple TV stuck on a black screen with a strange image of an iPhone and Bluetooth icon? This means your Apple TV box has experienced a serious problems needs resetting. Here’s how to fix your Apple TV HD or Apple TV 4K set-top box to get it working again.
If you try and turn on your TV and are greeted with an image similar to the one visible above, it means you need to reset your Apple TV. The failure screen confusing includes no text telling you what to do; just a black-and-white drawing of an iPhone in front of an Apple TV puck.
This issue can arise on Apple TV HD and Apple TV 4K. A problem may have occurred during a system update, and this image indicates the device needs recovering and/or restoring to factory settings.
What this image is trying to show you is that you can recover your Apple TV using your iPhone. What you need is your iPhone running iOS 17 or later, so check in the settings if you need to update your iPhone OS first.
Then, unlock your phone and hold it close to the Apple TV box. A white pop-up panel will appear on your iPhone’s screen confirming that you want to begin the Apple TV recovery process. Press Continue. This will begin a process where your iPhone will beam the necessary firmware wirelessly to the Apple TV.
After the process is done, your Apple TV should reboot normally and you will be able to use it again.
If you experience the above image and you do not have an iPhone with iOS 17, you will not be able to do the automatic recovery. In those cases, you will need to contact Apple Support who can assist with your issue. This may include physically shipping the Apple TV box to them so they can perform the device restore.
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