Apple TV 4K: Force Restore to Factory Settings


Background

This is a quick trick you can do to force an Apple TV 4k to reset to factory settings. Had a few Apple TVs that were stuck on single app mode and had been removed from our MDM. The 4k version of the Apple TV doesn't have a port so they were effectively bricked. Looking around online I found that you can bring them to Apple and have them replaced, but that's more work than I was willing to put in.

Considerations (Skip if this is a personal device)

The only thing to make sure of here is that your Apple TV is currently unbound from any MDM platform, or at least unscoped from whichever configuration profile that locked it into single app mode.

Steps

  1. Unplug the Apple TV and immediately plug it back in
  2. Let it boot up to whichever screen/app it's stuck on
  3. Unplug the device and immediately plug it back in
  4. Repeat 3-6 times, eventually a popup will display stating that it seems the device is having issues, and give the option to reset the device to factory settings

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Pokemon Sword & Shield: Everstone Location

Pokemon Sword & Shield: Breeding Cheat Sheet