This article was reviewed by Luigi Oppido and by wikiHow staff writer, Nicole Levine, MFA. Luigi Oppido is the Owner and Operator of Pleasure Point Computers in Santa Cruz, California. Luigi has over 25 years of experience in general computer repair, data recovery, virus removal, and upgrades. He is also the host of the Computer Man Show! broadcasted on KSQD covering central California for over two years.
This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources.
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If there's a blinking white light on your Apple TV, you won't be able to stream your favorite shows or movies. Fortunately, you can usually fix the problem without involving Apple support. Read on to learn why the light on your Apple TV is flashing, and for easy troubleshooting steps to fix this frustrating issue.
Easily Fix a Blinking Light on Apple TV
Move the Apple TV remote into a different room and leave it there. If the light stops blinking, the remote is malfunctioning, and you'll need a replacement. If not, cold restart the Apple TV. If the light still flashes, restore the Apple TV using your PC or Mac.
Steps
Cold Restart Your Apple TV
If moving the remote away from the Apple TV didn't stop the blinking light, a cold restart could fix the problem.
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Press and hold the TV and < buttons on the remote. Or, if your Apple TV remote has a MENU button, press and hold that button instead. Continue holding the button(s) down until the status light on the remote blinks quickly.[1]
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Unplug your Apple TV. Disconnect the Apple TV from power and wait about a minute.
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Plug your Apple TV back in. Once you reconnect your Apple TV to power, wait a few minutes for it to boot up. Hopefully, this cold restart will force your Apple TV to boot normally and stop that annoying flashing LED.
Restore Your Apple TV
If the white light on your Apple TV HD or Apple TV 3rd Generation is still blinking, you'll need to restore it to its original factory settings. Note: If you have an Apple TV 4K, you cannot restore it—you will need to Contact Apple to set up a repair.[2]
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Connect your Apple TV to your PC or Mac. If you are using macOS Catalina or later, you can use Finder to restore your Apple TV. If you have macOS Mojave or earlier, or are using a Windows PC, you'll use iTunes.
- Unplug the HDMI cable (the one connecting the Apple TV to your TV) from the Apple TV.
- Connect a USB-C cable (Apple TV HD models) or Micro-USB cable (3rd Generation) to the port on the back of your Apple TV.
- Connect the other end of the cable to your PC or Mac's USB port.
- If you have a 3rd generation Apple TV, plug the power cord into a power source to provide power.
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Open Finder (Mac) or iTunes (Windows). Click the Finder icon on your Mac's dock, or launch iTunes
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Select your device. If you're using a Mac, you should see your Apple TV under "Locations" in the left panel. On a PC, click the device icon at the top.
- If your Apple TV doesn't show up, make sure it is connected to a power source (3rd generation) and that all cables are secured properly.
- Make sure your USB-C or Micro-USB cable supports data transfer—not all of them do, especially if they came with other devices.
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Click the Restore Apple TV button and follow the on-screen instructions. This will restore your Apple TV to its original factory settings. It may take several minutes for the restore to complete. Once your Apple TV is restored, the blinking light should go away, and you can get back to streaming your favorite movies and shows.
- If you see Restore Error 1603 or 1611, it's usually because your USB-C or Micro-USB cable doesn't support data transfer. Not all cables do, especially if they came with other accessories.