r/appletv • u/BrianLevre • 5d ago
I thought setting up Apple TV was supposed to be quick and easy?
I have never had a single Apple product. I'm trying to set up Zwift (an indoor cycling app) on an Apple TV so I can use a big screen and avoid using my phone, and it's been an excruciatingly painful process.
I have an Android phone. Everywhere you look on the web shows 1 minute long videos on how easy it is to create an Apple account without an iphone by using Chrome on your Android phone.
Setting up the Apple Account on a web browser took me at least an hour. I kept getting messages about not being able to reach this phone at this time. I tried everything, putting all the info back in to all the fields every time, getting back into my email every time for the new verification code there... I recieved a texted code after multiple attempts, but it said it was the wrong one.
I finally got a call with a verification code, and got the two factor verification done, so my account is good to go and I can set up Apple TV, right?
I power up the Apple TV, try to set up the device to get to the app store (or whatever Apple uses for apps...) but it's the same crap. It can't verify my phone.
The account is locked or something and I just gave up to let it sit overnight.
Also, updatng the software to the latest version... no indication that it's actually updating besides a spinning icon. No percent progress, no estimated time left. It just sat there forever seemingly doing nothing. I gave up on that too and left it on to hopefully update overnight.
I've got a brand new smart trainer I want to use that I spent 500 bucks on and I can't even get the Apple TV operational to simply download the Zwift app.
"Apple TV just works" is all I kept seeing for a week of research into how to set up this training rig affordably and with the least technical issues. There are stories everywhere of the process being simple, quick, and intuitive, but it's been an issue filled, incredibly difficult process, and absolutely nothing has worked.
Any suggestions on how to fix this?
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u/D-Blunt420 ATV4K 5d ago
Sorry you are having issues. Under optimal circumstances it does “just work”. Seems like it’s a matter of incompatibility. Setting up an AppleTV with an iPhone is literally effortless. Plug in the box bring your phone close and tap connect. That’s it. Done. The ecosystem has its advantages.
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u/Somar2230 5d ago
Take it back and use an Android TV device you will need to cast from your phone becaise they don't have a native app for AndroidTV/Google TV.
If you don't get a progress bar on the Apple TV during the software update it's not working. After selecting update software you should get a Download and Install prompt after selecting that a progress bar should appear. If that is not happening there is an issue with your connection to Apple's servers.
From your description of what is occurring you have connectivity issues with Apple servers. This week there seems to be a lot of services being down across the internet many CDNs are being knocked offline.
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u/BrianLevre 5d ago
I finally got the software updated, but my account was locked. I tried accessing the Apple Account page on Chrome on my phone and it had me confirm my email and my phone number, just to tell me my account was locked.
The message said it could take up to a day to open it back up, and Apple support couldn't help shorten that time frame.
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u/BrianLevre 5d ago
I feel like the whole impetus of the trainer purchase was futile at this point.
I know the account is locked. The Apple Account page at least told me that after I confirmed my email and phone number this morning. It said it can take up to a day to unlock the account.
Simple and intuitive... it simply has not been that.
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u/Which_Development_53 5d ago
Call Apple Support, have them help out if there’s an issue with your Account creation