u/tech-at-sea

Looking to compare notes with anyone who's hit this, because I think there's a real gap in how Apple TV recovery works and I don't think I'm alone.

**What happened:**
My Apple TV 4K (Wi-Fi-only model) spontaneously dropped into recovery mode one day. No power event, no unusual usage — apps only from the App Store, sitting in the same spot it always has. It will not leave recovery mode no matter what.

What I've tried:
- Multiple long sessions with AppleCare phone support, every step they had
- Dozens (honestly probably 100+) recovery/restore attempts
- Multiple different iPhones for the proximity-based restore
- Multiple Wi-Fi/network configurations to rule out my network
- Genius Bar appointment — they confirmed there's nothing they can do and offered to sell me a new one

It's 35 days out of warranty. So their official answer to a 13-month-old device bricking itself is "buy another one."

**What I think is actually going on:**
Watching the proximity restore attempts closely, the handshake between the iPhone and the Apple TV *appears* to complete — the devices find each other and the process starts — but it fails within the first few seconds of downloading the update. My theory is it's either a bad handshake that only looks successful, or something in the local network negotiation that the process can't survive. Either way, the restore flow dies at the same point every single time, across different phones and different network configs, which doesn't smell like a coincidence.

**The bigger problem:**
The Wi-Fi-only model has no Ethernet port and no USB-C restore path. If the over-the-air recovery flow fails, there is literally no other way in. Apple sells a sealed device with exactly one recovery mechanism, and when that mechanism fails, the answer is a paperweight. This thing is connected to Apple's own servers its entire life — there's no reason a server-side rescue path shouldn't exist. I KNOW, I should expect this with Apple and there’s nothing to be done about it now! Just venting 🙂

**Questions for the sub:**

1. Has anyone else had a Wi-Fi-only Apple TV 4K get stuck in recovery with the restore failing seconds into the update download?
2. Has anyone found a workaround the official process doesn't cover?
3. Has anyone gotten an out-of-warranty exception from Apple for this specific failure?

I've escalated to Executive Relations and will update the thread with what I hear back. If enough people have hit this, it's a pattern, not bad luck. Thanks!

Love my Skylight - just looking to better understand and clean up some calendar events.

We sync everything from our google calendars - and I see that every event is assigned both a profile AND a label (Family Event). Is that required, they all have to have both profile selected and label added? It just seems cluttered and there’s no rhyme or reason to when/why the label appears. When editing the event in skylight in an attempt to remove the family label, it actually makes the event disappear from skylight until I close and reopen the app, at which that point the event still has the Family label on it. Odd, but this is what makes me believe it must require both a profile and a label.

When looking at my synced connections in the settings, it does show every color Google Calendar uses mapped to Family events label but I do not use those colors/labels when making my Gcal events.

Crazy amount of helicopters all over the city and Riverfront tonight - anyone know what’s going on or where to look up airspace info/flight details?