How to set up content and purchase restrictions on your apple tv

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Apple TV has even more sophisticated content and purchase restrictions than its predecessors: it’s dead simple to restrict mature content, apps, and purchases. Let’s take a look at how to set and manage the restrictions.

Why Do I Want to Do This?

There are a wide variety of reasons you might want to enable content and purchase restrictions on your Apple TV and not all of them revolve around dealing with children. While the most obvious (and likely the most common reason) people want to lock down their media center hardware is to 1) prevent kids from seeing content they shouldn’t be seeing and 2) prevent kids from spending money.

At the same time, however, the content and purchase restrictions are also useful for more than just parents. If you have roommates and you don’t want them messing up your strategy game ladder scores you can turn off the online-multiplayer. The same things goes for purchases: no need to let roommates, visiting relatives, or Airbnb guests rack up charges purchasing seasons of TV shows, purchasing apps, or with in-app purchases.

Let’s take a look at how to enable the restrictions by setting a passcode and then we’ll look at the individual restrictions you can toggle on and off.

Enable Restrictions by Setting a Passcode

The first stop on our lock-down-the-Apple-TV tour is, as you might have guessed, the Settings menu. Here we’ll need to create a parent/administrator passcode before the Apple TV will allow any content restrictions. That’s fair enough, after all, as it would be pretty silly to set a content restriction that had no “lock” as it were.

Navigate to the large gear icon on the home screen of the Apple TV and select it with the touchpad on your Apple TV remote to access the Settings menu.

Within the Settings menu select the General sub-menu.

Within the General sub-menu select the Restrictions sub-menu. If this is your first foray into configuring restrictions it will be, as seen above, defaulted to “Off”.

When you enter into the Restrictions menu everything but the top “Restrictions” entry will be grayed out. Click on “Restrictions” to enabled a passcode.

Select a four digit passcode and, when prompted, repeat the passcode to confirm. You’ll be returned to the main Restrictions menu. Now that we’ve secured the Apple TV with a passcode let’s take a look at the individual restrictions you can set.

Restricting Purchases, Apps, and More

With the passcode set, let’s turn our attention to what can be restricted and how you can restrict it. The one topic that is of interest to parents, roommates, and landlords alike is front and center at the top of the screen: iTunes Store.

In the “iTunes Store” sub-section you can toggle “Purchase and Rental” as well as “In-App Purchases” between the default “Allow” and “Restrict”. The former stops the user from purchasing or renting any content from the iTunes store (including music, movies, TV shows, and apps) and the latter restricts any in-app purchases so nobody racks up a $500 bill for Super Power Smurf Berries in some silly Freemium app.

The next sub-section, “Allows Content”, deals not with purchasing restrictions but with restrictions on the playback of content. Here you can toggle music and podcasts between “Explicit” and “Clean”, change the rating system to represent the ratings of your country (if available), toggle movies, apps, and even whether or not Siri will display explicit language.

The movies and TV shows can be left wide open, turned off completely, or adjusted based on the rating system you selected. Using the U.S. rating system, for example, means you can restrict movies to only PG-13 and below (or any other rating) and TV shows to, say, TV-PG and below. The apps rating system is based on the iTunes ratings and allows you to turn apps off, allow all apps, or restriction the based on the 4+/9+/12+/17+ system (handy for keeping your young children away from that zombie shooter you’re addicted to).

Finally there are two last sections to look at. In the “Game Center” subsection you can toggle Multiplayer Games on and off as well as the Adding Friends function. Both restrictions are useful if you want to allow younger kids in your household to play games but not to add strangers as friends or to play online with multiplayer games at all.

The last section “Allow Changes” has restrictions for AirPlay Settings and Location Services. If you use the passcode system for nothing else this is a handy thing to lock so people, grownups and kids alike, don’t mess with these settings.

That’s all there is to the Apple TV purchase and content restriction system. While overall we’re pretty happy with the restrictions system we will say that it’s a big oversight that you can’t filter apps on an individual level. The content restriction works great on movies and TV shows as the content is passive and it has already been reviewed and rated. It doesn’t work all that great on apps, however, as so many apps can deliver content (and it’s not the content but the app that receives the rating). The Netflix app, for example, is rated at 4+ but we all know that there is tons of content on Netflix that isn’t kid-friendly. It would be nice if you could create a white list of apps that your child could launch (or a blacklist of apps that required the passcode). Hopefully in future iterations of content restriction services on both the Apple TV and iOS devices this oversight will be addressed.

Apple TV is a set-top box that connects to your TV with an HDMI cable. It connects to your home Wi-Fi network to bring the internet to your TV, and it also allows you to stream movies and music. Mac users can use AirPlay to display your Mac screen on your TV, as long as you’re connected to the same Wi-Fi network. You do not need an iPhone to use an Apple TV device, but you must have an iTunes account.

Setting Parental Controls on Apple TV

Before you can set the Apple TV parental controls, also known as restrictions, you must first create a PIN. The PIN is required for future access to Restrictions in the Settings menu. Depending on your restriction settings, you may also need to use this PIN to rent or purchase content.

To turn on Restrictions:

1. Using the Apple TV remote, select the Settings app at the bottom of the Home Screen.
2. Then select General >Restrictions.
3. Enter a 4-digit number to create your passcode, also known as your PIN. Enter them again to confirm, and select OK to continue.

Customizing restrictions

• Allow: Select this option when you don’t want to password-protect o restrict an app or feature.
• Restrict: Choose this setting for a four-digit passcode requirement for purchases, rentals, or app usage.
• Block or No: These options let you block content or features.
• Show or Yes: Choose these options when you don’t want to restrict an app or feature.
• Hide: Select this option to hide an app or feature.

Restricting specific content

• iTunes Store: Allow, Restrict, or Block. This applies to purchases, in-app purchases, and rentals.
• Music and Podcasts: Filter out explicit content with the “Clean” option. Filter nothing with the “Explicit” option.
• Siri Explicit Language: Select “Hide” to filter mature language. Select “Show” to filter nothing.
• Movies, TV Shows, and Apps: Select your location and filter or block content based on content or age ratings.
• Multiplayer Games and Screen Recording: Yes or No.
• AirPlay Settings, Conference Room Display, TV Provider, Background App Refresh, Remote App Pairing, and Location Services: Allow or Restrict.

Bark – The Internet Safety Solution

In addition to setting parental controls on your child’s device, the next safety layer parents and caregivers should strongly consider is a monitoring solution to assess the content their kids encounter (and produce) across text messages, social media, email, and more.

Bark helps families manage and protect their children’s entire online worlds. Our award-winning service monitors 30+ of the most popular apps and social media platforms for signs of issues like cyberbullying, suicidal ideation, online predators, threats of violence, and more. Our web filtering and screen time management tools empower families to set healthy limits around the sites and apps their kids can access and when they can visit them. Sign up today to start your free, one-week trial.

Bark’s affordable, award-winning dashboard proactively monitors text messages, YouTube, emails, and 30+ different social networks for potential safety concerns, so busy parents can save time and gain peace of mind.

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By default, Apple TV will allow anyone with access to the remote to purchase or watch any content. If children or roommates use your Apple TV, setting up Restrictions will prevent unauthorized iTunes purchases and access to mature content.

This article covers the 2nd and 3rd generation Apple TV models. If you own an Apple TV 4, please read “Apple TV 4: Restrictions and Parental Controls”.

Apple TV is an easy-to-use device. The ability to purchase content by pressing a few buttons on the remote makes it much easier to use. Imagine if you have to type in your Apple ID every time you purchase something on Apple TV? Unfortunately, this also makes it easy for anyone who lives in your house to buy content on your Apple TV, using your Apple ID account. Furthermore, young children can access just about anything on Apple TV. If other people have access to your Apple TV, setting up Restrictions is essential. Restrictions will allow you to set up a simple 4-digit passcode to authorize purchases and access mature content. It is also possible to hide content for sale, displaying only content that you own and disabling all purchases.

Apple TV’s Restrictions work, but they need some improvement. There are a few edge-cases that leave much room for improvement.

How to Turn on Restrictions

By default, Apple TV’s Restrictions are turned off. This makes it much easier to use. If you live alone or trust the people you live with, it is easier to just leave restrictions off. Turning Restrictions on will prevent any unauthorized iTunes purchases and prevent young children from watching mature content.

From the main menu, click on Settings > General > Restrictions. Next, turn on Restrictions. When you do this for the first time, you will be required to enter and confirm a 4-digit passcode. Make sure to remember this passcode. If you forget it, you will need to reset all Apple TV settings to turn off Restrictions.

Now that you have enabled Restrictions, it is possible to refine access to purchasing and content. First, let’s take a look at how to restrict purchasing.

How to Restrict Purchases on Apple TV

There are two ways to restrict purchases on Apple TV — hide them or ask for a passcode. Hiding purchasable content might be a good idea if you have young children. It may prevent pestering and begging to buy movies and TV shows. It’s also a good idea if you have installed an Apple TV in your company’s conference room. Restricting purchases can be an inconvenience, as you have to enter a passcode or turn off or adjust Restrictions to make a purchase. Keep in mind, you can always buy content on another device. Even if you restrict purchasing on your Apple TV, you can buy content on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or computer. As long as you buy it with the same Apple ID, it will be available on your Apple TV.

To hide procurable content, first go to the Restrictions menu (Settings > General > Restrictions). Next, select Purchase and Rental. If you are asked to input your passcode, do so now. Click the center select button on the remote to toggle “ask”, “hide”, or “allow”. “Ask” will prompt the user for the passcode whenever a purchase is made. “Hide” will only show purchased content. Content available for sale will not be displayed. “Allow” will enable anyone to buy content on your Apple TV. This is the default mode when Restrictions are turned off. While this is convenient, it also allows anyone with access to your remote to make purchases. Even if no one else has access to your Apple TV, purchase restrictions might be a good idea. It is possible to accidentally purchase content. By default, Apple TV asks for confirmation, but it’s easy to accidentally confirm a purchase. It is unlikely that you will enter a passcode unintentionally.

If you own an Apple TV, then it’s likely you share it with others in your home. And if you have children, it’s essential that you make sure they cannot see inappropriate content on the device.

For those who are new to Apple TV or simply haven’t taken time to set up restrictions yet, this tutorial is for you. Here are the content restrictions available on your Apple TV and how to set them up.

Enable restrictions on Apple TV

To get started setting up restrictions on your Apple TV, open the Settings and click General. Go down to Restrictions, which should display as Off and click it.

At the top of the Restrictions screen, click Restrictions. You’ll then be asked to create and verify a four-digit passcode. When you finish, click OK and make sure you keep that passcode in a spot you’ll remember.

Once you set this up along with the restrictions below, any changes will require that passcode.

Allowed content

The Allowed Content section of the Restrictions screen is where you’ll want to spend a little time.

Music and Podcasts: Clean or Explicit.

Music Profiles: Show or Hide. This is for viewing other people’s profiles so you can see what your friends are listening to or share music.

Ratings For: Select your country. This will determine the available ratings for Movies and TV Shows that you’ll set next.

Movies: Choose a rating; only those movies within that rating or below can be viewed. You can also disallow all movies.

TV Shows: Choose a rating; only those shows within that rating or below can be viewed. You can also disallow all TV shows.

Apps: Choose an age range; only those apps intended for that age and below can be used. You can also disallow all apps.

Siri Explicit Language: Show or Hide.

Other restrictions

You’ll notice other sections in the Restrictions area for iTunes Store, Game Center, and Allow Changes. Each of these sections is pretty self-explanatory and offers either a Yes or No or Allow or Restrict setting.

So if you’re concerned about someone renting or purchasing items from the store or messing with settings for your TV provider, as examples, you’ll want to take a minute to review these areas too.

Wrapping it up

Setting up content restrictions on Apple TV is easy and necessary if you have children in your home. So take just a few moments to make sure your little ones don’t see something they shouldn’t.

Are you going to set up some restrictions on your Apple TV now? Or maybe you already have and appreciate the options? Let us know!

By Rob LeFebvre • 3:00 pm, November 10, 2015

• How-To
• Top stories

Keep your kids from watching, buying, or playing anything you don’t want them to on Apple TV.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Not every Apple TV is in a household full of self-realized adults. Apple knows this and has set up some restrictions, similar to the parental controls on iOS.

That way, you can make sure that your kids aren’t purchasing anything (or playing/watching anything) without your consent.

Here’s how to set it all up on your Apple TV.

With Restrictions on Apple TV, you can restrict a whole bunch of stuff, like:

• Purchasing movies, TV shows, and apps
• Making in-app purchases
• Playing iTunes movies or TV shows based on content ratings
• Opening apps based on age ratings
• Viewing content identified as explicit
• Playing multiplayer games in Game Center
• Adding friends in Game Center
• Changing AirPlay or Location settings

Apple says that Restrictions may not apply to some 3rd-party apps, so you’ll have to go into the individual app’s settings or Apps in the Settings app on your Apple TV.

Turn on Restrictions

Turn these on before you can choose what to restrict.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
To turn on restrictions, you’ll need to head into the Settings app from the Home screen, then click on General, then Restrictions. Turn them on, and enter a 4-digit passcode (preferably one your kids don’t already know).

Once you’ve entered and verified the passcode, the restriction options will enable in the Restrictions menu. If you need to change that passcode, just select Change Passcode and then enter the current one, then the new one.

Choose what to restrict

You can restrict apps as well as TV shows and movies.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
In the Restrictions section (in Settings > General > Restrictions), enter your passcode and then set up your restrictions.

You can click on Purchase and Rental to either Restrict or Allow anyone using the Apple TV to buy or rent stuff from the iTunes Store, and you can choose to Allow or block In-App Purchases as well. These are either on or off.

For Allowed Content, you’ll click on the Music and Podcasts to restrict those to Clean or allow Explicit lyrics and ratings, while you’ll choose from all the available ratings options in Movies, TV Shows, and Apps. Click on Siri Explicit Language to either obscure or allow explicit words in Siri’s on-screen feedback, then be sure to click on the Ratings For option to choose ratings systems from any country Apple TV supports. Lots of ratings for TV shows, too.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Your Family Sharing restrictions (set on your iOS device or Mac) will carry over to your Apple TV, too, including Ask To Buy, which lets your kids buy specific iTunes stuff only with your approval.

Remove all restrictions

If you want to disable all your restrictions, say when your kids are gone for the weekend and you want to watch some grown-up movies, you can do so temporarily, then re-enable them later.

All you need to do is head into Settings > General > Restrictions. Once there, enter your passcode from above, and then choose Restrictions to OFF. Boom. Have fun, mom!

The new Apple TV provides lots of options for bringing all sorts of content to your television, but not all that content may be suitable for everyone in your home. To deal with that, Apple gives you tools to control what can be downloaded and displayed on your TV. Unfortunately, those tools aren’t consistently applied across all content sources yet and don’t always work as expected. Even so, it’s better than nothing. Here’s a walkthrough of how these features work.

Getting started

Apple TV’s tools for managing content are in the Settings app, under the Restrictions option. It would be nice if Siri would bring you directly here, but asking her to open either Restrictions or Parental Controls prompts a terse reply that you don’t seem to have an app by that name. You can use Siri to open Settings, because that is indeed the name of the app. Whichever method you use to get there, once you’re in Settings, you can go to General > Restrictions.

You’ll then see a menu of options broken down into categories: Parental Controls, iTunes Store, Allowed Content, Game Center, and Allow Changes. Some of these options are binary—either Allow or Restrict, for instance—but when there are more choices, you’ll get a new page with a list of your options.

As long as Restrictions are tuned off, all options for specific controls are grayed out. To change any or all of them, you need to click Restrictions to toggle them on. Doing so will prompt you to create a four-digit passcode, which you’ll type in again to confirm. If you ever forget your passcode, you can reset it (along with all other settings) in Settings > System.

What you can change

Once you’ve tweaked your general restrictions, you can dig a little deeper. Here’s a full list of what you can change and restrict:

iTunes Store:

• Purchase and Rental: Toggles between Allow and Restrict.
• In-App Purchases: Toggles between Allow and Block.

Allowed Content:

• Music and Podcasts: Toggles between Explicit and Clean.
• Ratings For: Lets you choose which country’s ratings system to use when setting restrictions. This affects what you’ll see in the options for Movies and TV Shows.

Movies: Shows a listing of MPAA film ratings (or those from your country of choice.) Choose the highest rating you want to allow; everything above that will be restricted. You can also choose to allow all movies or no movies.

TV Shows: Similar to Movies, but with TV ratings system labels.

Apps: The same again, but using Apple’s App Store ratings.

Siri Explicit Language: Toggles between Show and Hide.

When you use voice commands, Siri displays what she hears on screen. This option obscures certain “adult” language by using the first and last letter of the offending word and filling in the rest with asterisks. For example, if “feather” happened to be one of George Carlin’s “Seven Dirty Words,” (NSFW link) Siri might display it as “f`*****`r.” Be warned, though—act like a potty mouth and you can expect Siri to chide you for your language, whether you’ve chosen to hide your naughty words or not. It’s not a perfect system by any means—your idea of objectionable words may not coincide with Siri’s, and even some of the words on Carlin’s list aren’t obscured.

A video posted by Macworld (@macworld_hq) on Oct 30, 2015 at 3:38pm PDT

Game Center:

• Multiplayer Games: Toggles between Yes and No.
• Adding Friends: Toggles between Yes and No.

Allow Changes: These settings allow users to override the main system settings.

• AirPlay Settings: Toggles between Allow and Restrict.
• Location Services: Toggles between Allow and Restrict.

How it works

If a user—let’s say your kid—never tries to play or buy restricted content, they’ll never know restrictions have been applied, because these settings don’t affect any other aspect of using the Apple TV. Try to purchase something beyond what the restrictions allow, however, and they’ll be prompted for that four-digit passcode—even if you set your iTunes account to never require a password.

For iTunes content—including apps—this seems to work well. With Movies restrictions set to PG, I had to enter my passcode to watch movies with PG-13 and R ratings that I had purchased from iTunes. I had the same result with purchased music tagged as Explicit when I had restrictions set to Clean and apps I tried to purchase with that option restricted.

Here’s the trouble: Dealing with other content providers—and even your own content played through Home Sharing. For now at least, ratings restrictions don’t seem to be honored when watching content from other providers like Netflix or network apps. I was able to watch shows with ratings of TV-14 and higher on Netflix, NBC, and ABC’s apps without being prompted for my passcode, despite the fact that I had restricted TV shows to TV-Y.

Content I had ripped from DVDs was more of a mixed bag. Apple TV seemed to honor ratings on movies I played via Home Sharing, as long as the meta tags had been properly filled out. (I use Meta Z to enter tags and artwork when I rip my own media.) However, I could play ripped TV shows regardless of their rating, even though I had restrictions set to TV-Y.

I also had to enter my Apple ID frequently to view content I had already purchased. This seemed like overkill to me, but it doesn’t seem to be tied to Restrictions settings. On a device that doesn’t (yet?) bring back support for Bluetooth keyboards or read settings from a trusted device, this seems more like a glitch than a feature, but time will tell.

Additionally, if you switch away from Restrictions and come back later, you’ll be returned to the General settings section and have to re-enter your passcode to get back into the Restrictions page. That’s a great security feature, but unfortunately, it only seems to work some of the time, with no discernible reason as to why it locks sometimes but not others. (Timing didn’t seem to be a factor.)

All in all, if your digital life falls mostly within Apple’s ecosystem, the Apple TV’s Restrictions may work well enough to keep inappropriate content away from impressionable eyes. But if you make frequent use of the other content sources available on Apple TV, Apple’s controls fall short. At this point at least, Parental Controls are no substitute for parental involvement.

Video-streaming services provide so much great content for families, but there’s also some content on those platforms that you may prefer your child does not see. Different shows and movies are appropriate for different ages. Fortunately, with Apple TV parental controls, you are able to parent in the digital world just like you do in the real one, especially if you allow access to the streaming system without parent supervision or from a device that your child has.

Before you get started, check if you have the latest software updates.

Apple TV Parental Controls: Turn on Restrictions

Apple TV parental controls are called restrictions. Follow these simple steps provided on their Support website.

1. From the main menu, go to Settings >General >Restrictions.
2. Select Restrictions to turn it on.
3. When asked, make a four-digit passcode.
4. Enter the four digits again to confirm, then select OK.

At this point, you have two different options, depending on whether you have an Apple TV 4K/Apple TV HD or an Apple TV 3rd Generation.

Apple TV Parental Controls: Apple TV 4K or Apple TV HD

You can select the parental controls appropriate for your family in Restrictions: Settings > General > Restrictions

• Allow || Apps and features that you don’t want to protect with a password
• Restrict || Purchases, rentals, or app usage that requires a password
• Block or No || Content or features you choose to block
• Show or Yes || Features and apps you do not want to restrict
• Hide || Features and apps you want to restrict

• Purchases, rentals, or in-app purchases from the iTunes Store: Select Allow, Restrict, or Block.
• Music and Podcasts: To filter out Explicit content, select Clean. To filter nothing, select Explicit.
• Movies, TV Shows, and Apps: Select your locale and filter, or block content based on film or age ratings.
• Siri Explicit Language: To filter mature language, select Hide. To filter nothing, select Show.
• Multiplayer Games and Screen Recording: Select Yes or No.
• AirPlay Settings, Conference Room Display, Location Services, Background App Refresh, TV Provider, and Remote App Pairing: Select Allow or Restrict.

If you would like to “customize your iTunes Store and App Store password preferences,” you can do so here.

Apple TV Parental Controls: Apple TV 3rd Generation

You can select the parental controls appropriate for your family in Restrictions: Settings > General > Restrictions

• Hide || Choose this to hide apps from the main menu
• Ask || Select this to require a password for purchases, rentals, or app usage
• Show or Allow || Select this if you don’t want to require a password or restrict an app or feature

• Purchases & Rentals: Select Allow, Hide , or Ask — “if you select Hide, your movies and TV shows don’t appear in the main menu and aren’t available to play”
• Movies and shows: Select your locale and filter, or block content based on ratings.
• Explicit music or podcasts: Select Allow or Ask.
• AirPlay Settings: Select Allow, Hide, or Ask.
• Conference Room Display settings: Select Allow, Hide, or Ask.
• Apps: Go to Settings > Main Menu. Pick the app that you want to restrict, then select Hide or Ask.

If you would like to “customize your iTunes Store and App Store password preferences,” you can do so here

Canopy and Apple TV Parental Controls Make Great Friends

Using both Canopy and Apple TV parental controls will protect those you love most. With Canopy, you can determine if they are allowed to access the app or website on their individual device, and when needed, you can choose to give them a break from endless videos and TV shows. When your kids are using Apple TV, you can be confident that they are only able to see movies and shows that you decide are appropriate for them when you implement Apple TV parental controls.

Learn more about how Canopy works, and begin your free trial today.

Apple TV | Troubleshooting

Bandwidth

Stuttering and buffering video playback is normally due to insufficient bandwidth.

On Apple TV, go to the main menu, click Settings > Network to verify that your network connection is active.

If your computer is connected to the same network, please see the Recommended Bandwidth FAQ page here (quality is based on the connection rate).

If bandwidth is adequate, exit the game and re-launch it. If that does not help, exit and then re-launch the MLB application.

If bandwidth is a problem, power cycle your router and modem to try to improve the connection. (Power cycling is turning off the power to the modem and router then powering back on, in an attempt to refresh the Internet connection). Also, try to limit the amount of devices sharing your Internet connection as this could have an impact on your network’s overall bandwidth.

If using a WiFi connection, you can improve your signal strength by moving your router closer to your device. Raising the device to the height of your router will usually improve its radio signal performance. Be mindful of anything that could interfere with the signal like cordless phones, baby monitors, etc. Also try limiting the amount of devices sharing your network. If you continue to have issues, try connecting your Apple TV device to your router with an Ethernet cable.

How to Update Your MLB Application

MLB.TV updates on Apple TV are received automatically on launch of the MLB app.

For General Apple TV system updates, please follow these steps:

1. Launch “Settings”
2. Launch “System”
3. Click “Software Updates”
4. Click “Update Software”

Login Issues

If you are having issues accessing your stream, and you have an MLB login, please verify your username and password on MLB.com. Then log out and log back into your account in the MLB app. If you purchased MLB.TV through your iTunes account and would like to restore your purchase, select “Restore Purchase” in settings.

General Troubleshooting

For video playback adjustment on Apple TV select “Audio and Video” and select “Resolution” and adjust the setting from “Auto” to an alternate option.

Try a hard reboot of your device. Remove your device from its power source for 30 seconds, then turn it back on.

If none of the above steps work, you could attempt a factory reset of your Apple TV, reset the device to its original “out of the box” settings and then try to relink your MLB Account.

If you own the new Apple TV, you don’t want your kids purchasing apps or movies without permission. Here’s how to create a passcode to prevent purchases.

Apple recently released its new Apple TV (4 th generation) which runs the new tvOS. One of the new features is an app store. However, you probably don’t want your kids running up your credit card bill by purchasing games, video, or in-app purchases. To prevent that from happening, you need to set up a passcode.

Create Passcode to Protect New Apple TV Purchases

To make sure there aren’t any unauthorized purchases you can create your password by heading to Settings > General > Restrictions. The restriction options are turned off by default so select it to enable them.

On the next screen type in a four-digit Passcode twice to verify it.

After creating your passcode, you’ll be brought back to the Restrictions screen, and all of the options will be unlocked under Parental Controls. Scroll through and set purchase restrictions.

You can also set the type of allowed content based on the film rating system and music with clean or explicit lyrics.

Now every time the viewer tries to purchase apps or rent movies or TV, the passcode you created will be required.

The new Apple TV is still a work in progress and doesn’t quite yet feel complete out of the box. Of course, it will inevitably improve over time, and we’re already starting to see that with more apps arriving in the store, and new updates to the box. For more on that read: My First Impressions of the New Apple TV (4 th Generation).

Also, if you recently purchased one or are new to the Apple TV, read our article: Tips for Getting Started with the New Apple TV.

Apple’s second-generation Apple TV 4K, launched April 2021.

At a Glance

• Apple’s revamped 4K Apple TV features an A12 Bionic processor, 32 to 64GB of storage, and 4K high frame rate HDR support, plus it comes with redesigned Siri Remote.

Features

• 4K support
• High frame rate HDR support
• Redesigned Siri Remote with clickpad
• A12 Bionic processor
• 32 or 64GB storage options
• New auto color balance feature

Should You Buy the Apple TV?

The Apple TV is Apple’s set-top box. The latest Apple TV 4K features a faster A12 Bionic chip, support for high-framerate HDR, and a redesigned Siri Remote. Apple typically updates the Apple TV infrequently, releasing a new model around every three years.

Announced in April of 2021, the second-generation Apple TV 4K is the newest Apple TV in Apple’s lineup and is fairly early in its product cycle, meaning that now is a good time to buy it.

There are two different Apple TV models currently available. One is the Apple TV HD from 2015, featuring support for displays with up to 1080p resolutions, an A8 chip, 32GB of storage, HDMI 1.4, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 4.0, and a price of $149. The other is the second-generation Apple TV 4K from 2021, featuring support for displays with up to 4K resolutions, an A12 Bionic chip, up to 64GB of storage, HDMI 2.1, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, and a price starting at $179. Both come with the same redesigned Siri Remote.

The second-generation Apple TV 4K has better specifications in almost every area than the older Apple TV HD and will be much more future-proof. Due to its age and lower specifications, it is difficult to recommend buying an Apple TV HD, especially since it is only $30 cheaper than the second-generation Apple TV 4K.

Almost all potential customers should choose the second-generation Apple TV 4K. The only customers who should consider buying the Apple TV HD are people who are on a strict budget, have no intention of buying a 4K TV, and are comfortable with buying a six-year-old device.

If you need more help deciding between the Apple TV 4K and the Apple TV HD, or the two 4K Apple TV models, we have guides available that provide some useful feature comparisons.

The Second-Generation Apple TV 4K

Contents

1. Should You Buy the Apple TV?
2. The Second-Generation Apple TV 4K
3. How to Buy
4. Reviews
5. Hardware and Design
6. Processor and Internals
   • Connectivity
7. 4K and HDR
   • 4K Streaming
   • Supported Photo, Video, and Audio Formats
   • Color Balance
8. Siri Remote
   • Remote App
   • Bluetooth Accessories
9. tvOS and the TV app
   • tvOS How Tos
10. Older Apple TV Models
11. What’s Next for the Apple TV
12. Apple TV Timeline

Apple in April 2021 introduced a new version of the Apple TV 4K, with an all-new Siri Remote a faster processor, and a few other notable internal improvements.

Design wise, the second-generation Apple TV 4K continues to look like the prior-generation version, with a simple black box design that plugs into a television set over HDMI.

The Apple TV 4K, as the name suggests, offers 4K resolution with support for high frame rate HDR content, including HDR10 and Dolby Vision. For full performance, it needs to be paired with a 4K TV and 4K content is also required.

Apple says it is working with FOX Sports, NBCUniversal, Paramount+, Red Bull TV, Canal+, and more to stream content in high frame rate HDR. AirPlay now supports high frame rates so Dolby Vision video shot on iPhone 12 can be displayed in full resolution on the new Apple TV 4K.

There’s a faster A12 Bionic chip inside the new Apple TV 4K that will offer a GPU boost, faster video decoding, better audio processing, and improved gameplay.

Though the design of the Apple TV 4K has not changed, Apple overhauled the Siri Remote, which now features an all-new design with a one-piece aluminum body. There’s a clickpad control wheel with five-way navigation, with the clickpad also supporting touch gestures. The clickpad’s outer ring supports a circular gesture that lets you jog through TV and movie content.

The Siri Remote is larger than the prior version and it includes a dedicated power button that controls a TV’s power. It also includes volume buttons, a mute button, an option for pausing and fast-forwarding, and a menu button. There’s a side button for activating Siri.

Apple added a new color balance process that uses the iPhone’s front-facing camera to fine-tune the colors on the Apple TV by comparing the color to industry-standard specifications. This works with the new Apple TV 4K as well as older models.

The Apple TV 4K is priced starting at $179, and it became available for purchase on Friday, April 30. The Siri Remote is available separately for $59.

Apple has discontinued the prior-generation 4K Apple TV that was released in 2017, but the Apple TV HD continues to be available for purchase.

Note: See an error in this roundup or want to offer feedback? Send us an email here.

How to Buy

The Apple TV 4K became available for purchase as of Friday, April 30, and the first orders began arriving on May 21.

The Apple TV 4K is priced at $179 for 32GB storage, or $199 for 64GB storage. Apple is also continuing to sell the Apple TV HD, which is priced at $149 for 32GB storage. The Apple TV HD supports 1080p resolution rather than 4K resolution.

The 2021 Siri Remote can also be purchased on a standalone basis for $59.

How to get a free trial, download episodes, turn on subtitles and dark mode and more on Apple TV Plus.

Apple TV Plus — Apple’s $5-a-month streaming service — houses a number of popular, exclusive shows like Ted Lasso , Dickinson and Schmigadoon. The tech giant launched Apple TV Plus in 2019, aiming to compete with Netflix , Disney Plus , HBO Max and others.

Here are a few hacks to make sure you get the most out of the service.

Stay up-to-date on the latest news, reviews and advice on iPhones, iPads, Macs, services and software.

Get an Apple TV Plus free trial

Normally Apple TV Plus costs $5 a month or $50 for an annual subscription. You can still get a free trial of the service, but Apple changed up the time periods in June . Now, if you’re planning to try Apple TV Plus out with the free trial, there are three options.

If you’re signing up for the first time, you qualify for a seven-day free trial before the $5 monthly charge kicks in. If you buy a new (or new-to-you) iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, iPod Touch or Mac, you’ll qualify for a three-month free subscription. To get the free trial period, you have to redeem the offer within 90 days of purchase.

Lastly, if you can, take advantage of the Apple One bundle — which lets users combine different services like Apple Music, Apple Arcade, Apple News Plus, storage service iCloud and the new Apple Fitness Plus for one price. By subscribing to Apple One, you can try Apple TV Plus free for one month.

Ted Lasso, a fish-out-of-water sports dramedy, has been one of Apple TV Plus’ most popular shows.

The Apple TV app has a dark mode option, too

Dark mode gained serious momentum over the last year and it seemed like every app was adding the option . The Apple TV app is no different. You can put the app into Dark Mode or choose Automatic, which makes Dark Mode activate at night only. To set it up on your Apple TV or another device, choose Settings > General > Appearance > choose Dark or Automatic.

Reduce Loud Sounds in your Apple TV Plus volume settings

Yes, we know about volume controls, but the Apple TV app’s Reduce Loud Sounds option does only that — reduces loud sounds. This way, if you’ve bravely chosen to watch a horror movie alone or a war film with dozens of thunderous explosions, you won’t be constantly raising and lowering the volume. On your Apple TV, choose Settings > Video and Audio > Reduce Loud Sounds.

Hailee Steinfeld stars as Emily Dickinson in her new Apple TV Plus show, Dickinson.

Download Apple TV Plus movies and episodes of your favorite shows to watch offline

When you know you’re going to be away from Wi-Fi, you can download shows and movies in the Apple TV app to watch offline later. You can do this on iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and Mac. Simply open the app and select the movie or show you want to download. Tap the cloud-shaped download button. The icon will appear next to each individual episode of a show and will be next to a movie’s title. When the download completes, you can find the content in the Library section of the app.

When you’re finished with the content, go back into the Library section of the app and tap Edit. You can select which titles you want to get rid of and then tap Delete Download.

Go behind the scenes with iTunes Extras

ITunes Extras is a feature that lets you go behind the scenes of your favorite movie. Certain titles will have “extras” like trailers, gag reels, deleted scenes, alternate endings and more. To find out if a film you want to watch in the Apple TV app has iTunes Extras, open the Movies app and select a title. Scroll down past Viewers Also Watched. If the title has iTunes Extras, it’ll be in a preview section next to the trailers.

Billie Eilish’s documentary is available on Apple TV Plus.

Apple TV Plus sleep mode lets you doze while you stream

If you like to doze off with the TV as background noise, you can customize Apple TV to “go to sleep” when you’re ready. On your Apple TV, go to Settings > General > Sleep After to set a time frame for the app to turn itself off.

Turn on subtitles in Apple TV Plus

Subtitles virtually eliminate the risk that you might miss an important plot point, even if you’re not watching a foreign movie or you’re not hard of hearing. To get subtitles on Apple TV, you can swipe downward while watching a show or movie and turn them on. If you’re not a fan of keeping subtitles on throughout a movie, you can also ask Siri “What did he just say?” if you can’t understand a character. The title will rewind to where the last person spoke and turn on subtitles temporarily.

Reese Witherspoon (above), Jennifer Aniston and Steve Carell star in The Morning Show.

Apple/Screenshot by Joan E. Solsman

Follow your favorite shows so you don’t miss new episodes

Although I’m perpetually adding movies and shows to my watchlists that I’ll probably never watch, I like being able to know when a new season of a show is out. The Apple TV app can track shows you watch automatically under the Up Next section in Watch Now. It pulls the shows from across multiple streaming services, except for Netflix. For example, mine shows several titles I was watching on Hulu.

See also

• Apple TV Plus: How to cancel (and what’s coming soon, in case you’re on the fence)
• Apple TV 4K (2021) vs. Roku Ultra: Which high-end streamer is best for you?
• The best TV shows on Apple TV Plus, from The Mosquito Coast to Ted Lasso

When new episodes become available, they’ll jump to the front of the queue. Along the same lines, if you’re not sure what to start watching, you can ask Siri “What should I watch?” for some suggestions. You can also ask to see popular movies or what shows are trending.

Restrict adult content from the kids

You probably don’t want your kids watching everything you do on Apple TV, so the app has a way to make sure there’s no content overlap. You can assign a PIN code to movies or shows with a specific rating so your kids can’t access them. It only applies to iTunes content though, so that means shows and movies you’ve bought or rented through Apple. On the Apple TV, you can set a PIN code by going to Settings > General > Restrictions. Set the code and then you can decide what counts as Allowed Content.

Have you decided that an Apple TV would be a great addition to your family’s entertainment options? If so, you should consider settings up parental controls if you have children in the house. This will give you piece of mind when it is their turn to play a game or watch a show on your Apple TV. To enable the Restrictions feature for parental control, follow these steps.

Enable Restrictions – Apple TV 4th Generation

Step 1: Open the Settings app on your Apple TV.

Step 2: Click General and then Restrictions.

Step 3: Click Restrictions again on the next screen to enable the feature.

Step 4: Create and verify a passcode for Restrictions in order to adjust the settings or disable the feature in the future.

Configure the Restrictions

The iTunes Store – Decide What to Allow

In the first section of the Restrictions are settings for the iTunes Store. This applies to purchases and rentals from the store on your Apple TV.

You have two settings that can be allowed or restricted. Click Purchase and Rental to change it from Allow to Restrict in order to disable it. With In-App Purchases, click it to adjust it from Allow to Block.

Allowed Content – Choose Which Content Is Safest

The Allowed Content area includes six different categories including music and podcasts, TV shows, and apps.

Music and Podcasts

Like the iTunes Store settings, Music and Podcasts can be changed easily. You can decide between Explicit and Clean. So, just click to make your choice.

Ratings For

This is as simple as choosing your country from the list. Once you do, the ratings for Movies, TV Shows, and Apps will apply to the choice you make.

Movies

In the Movies category, you can decide which ratings you would like to allow. Keep in mind that more severe ratings will be restricted automatically. For example, if you click the PG rating, then ratings for PG-13, R, and NC-17 will be unavailable. In addition, you can choose to disallow movies completely or allow all movies.

TV Shows

The TV Shows category works the same way as Movies where you choose the ratings. But instead, these will be television ratings such as TV-PG and TV-14. Here again, you can choose to disallow TV shows completely or allow all TV shows.

Apps

You can restrict apps completely, allow them all, or choose the age group for the apps from ages four and up. The age indicators come from the information on the App Store.

Siri Explicit Language

Similar to Music and Podcasts, the Siri Explicit Language setting is a simple change. Click to either Hide or Show inappropriate language as it applies.

Game Center – Allow or Restrict Items

The next section within Restrictions is for Game Center. You will see two options you can allow or restrict. These include Multiplayer Games and Screen Recording. Just click each one to change the restriction from Yes to No.

Allow Changes – Pick Which Can Be Changed

This section is for a handful of settings that include AirPlay, Conference Room Display, Location Services, TV Provider, and Remote App Pairing. Each one has a simple choice, so just click to Allow or Restrict changes.

Notes on Passcodes

Changing Your Passcode

To change your Restrictions passcode, go back to Restrictions within the Settings app and enter your current passcode. Then, click Change Passcode to choose a new one as well as verify it.

Hold Onto Your Passcode – Important!

Be sure to save your passcode somewhere. If you forget your Restrictions passcode, you must Reset the Settings for your Apple TV in the System Settings.

Apple TV 2nd or 3rd Generations

Once again, the above Restriction settings apply to the fourth generation Apple TVs. However, on second and third generations, the basics are about the same just with a difference in the terms used.

You will see options for Hide, Ask, Show, or Allow. These apply to Purchases and Rentals, Movies and Shows, Explicit Music or Podcasts, AirPlay settings, Conference Room Display settings, and Apps.

Need More Help?

Restrictions and parental controls can keep your little ones much safer from what they can access. If you would like to set up these controls on an iPhone or iPad, we have an article to show you how. And, if you need help doing this on your Mac, we have you covered there too in this article.

If you have taken control of these restrictions to keep your child safe, let us know in the comments below.

AppleInsider is supported by its audience and may earn commission as an Amazon Associate and affiliate partner on qualifying purchases. These affiliate partnerships do not influence our editorial content.

Entering text, particularly a complex alphanumeric password, on the new Apple TV’s Siri Remote is, frankly, a pain. Thankfully Apple has included a few convenient workarounds offering both flexibility and security when purchasing content.

If you have a password 8 characters or longer for your iTunes account, you likely won’t want to enter it every time you want to download a new app on the fourth-generation Apple TV. Because of this, after the first few downloads, tvOS will automatically ask the user whether they want to turn off password prompts entirely.

If you want to manually opt in and disable password entry for purchases, open the tvOS Settings app, choose iTunes and App Store, and select Password Settings. There, you can choose to require a password never, after 15 minutes, or always. Users can also disable the password requirement for free apps.

But for those who want to prevent app and content purchases without the need to enter a complex iTunes password, there is another method.

In the tvOS Settings app, choose General, then Restrictions. Selecting this menu for the first time will prompt you to enter a four-digit passcode to make changes to system restrictions.

Once you’re in, turn on Restrict for the Purchase and Rental option. With this enabled, you’ll only need to enter a shorter, simpler four-digit number to authorize iTunes and App Store purchases, rather than your full iTunes account password.

This setting more convenient applies to both App Store downloads, content subscriptions, in-app purchases, and iTunes movie, TV and music purchases.

Further restrictions in tvOS allow users to block in-app purchases, and to filter explicit or mature content. There’s also an option to prevent Siri from showing explicit language. tvOS also allows control over multiplayer gaming and GameCenter friends, and restricting changes to AirPlay settings and location services.

If you’ve downloaded any apps on your iOS device recently, then chances are it features in-app purchases, especially if it’s a game. What was once a rarity has turned into the norm, and apps are now full of opportunities to buy virtual goods that don’t exist outside of the game. From gems and extra lives to costumes and ammunition, if there is a way to charge money for it, a developer has probably done so.

Difficulty

Duration

What You Need

• How to turn off in-app purchases on an iOS device
• Prevent unauthorized purchases
• How to enable Ask to Buy on an iOS device

While most adults can (sometimes) resist the temptation, some kids can’t. With your credit card now an integral part of iOS, thanks to the wonder of Apple Pay, it’s all too easy for someone to spend money just to get a little further in a game. A great deal of money, as it happens. There are well-documented cases of little ones innocently spending thousands of dollars on in-app purchases, and no one wants that — not even to unlock every world in Super Mario Run. Luckily, there is a way to curb in-app purchases entirely, and we’re going to show you how.

Don’t miss out on more of these helpful features and check out our picks for the top iOS tips and tricks.

How to turn off in-app purchases on an iOS device

Step 1: Locate and tap Settings while viewing the Home screen.

Step 2: Tap Screen Time inside the main Settings menu.

Step 3: Scroll down and tap Content & Privacy Restrictions. Next, tap the Content & Privacy Restrictions slider so that it becomes green (i.e., so that it’s switched on).

Step 4: Tap the iTunes & App Store Purchases button.

Step 5: Tap In-app Purchases, then tap Don’t Allow.

Once this is complete, neither you nor anyone else will be able to make in-app purchases on your iPhone. Of course, most of us will probably need to make in-app purchases at some point, and you can choose to set a password for those purchases instead of disabling it altogether. To do this, instead of switching in-app purchases to Don’t Allow, you’ll go to the Require Password subheading and select Always Require. As long as you don’t divulge your password to anyone, that should protect your wallet information from unwanted intrusions.

Prevent unauthorized purchases

You can also prevent unauthorized purchases within apps by going to the iOS Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions > Allowed Apps.

Step 1: From Allowed Apps, turn off the iTunes Store.

Step 2: Doing this will restrict the iTunes Store from your iPad or iPhone. If you want to limit other apps that also offer in-app purchases, you can employ this same protocol.

How to enable Ask to Buy on an iOS device

The Ask to Buy feature helps parents and guardians prevent children from making in-app purchases without consent. If you want to set up Ask to Buy, you’ll need to turn on Family Sharing first. With Family Sharing, you can designate one user to approve app purchases. Anyone other than that user won’t be authorized to make purchases, and if they attempt to, the primary user will be notified. Parents can then review the purchase and sign off on it using their Apple ID.

Step 1: Tap your name and select Family Sharing.

Step 2: Tap Settings while on the Home screen.

Step 3: Find your child’s name and tap it.

Step 4: Tap Ask to Buy to enable it.

Now when you buy a new iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, or Mac, it includes 3 months of Apple Arcade, with free access for up to six family members. Play 200+ incredibly fun games ad-free, like Angry Birds Reloaded, Simon’s Cat – Story Time, and Solitaire by MobilityWare+. Enjoy them with the whole family, because great new devices deserve great newВ games. 1

Apple Arcade lets you experience over 200 incredibly fun games, with no ads and no in-app purchases. New games are added regularly, so there are always new worlds, adventures, and stories toВ explore.

You can start your free 3 month subscription to Apple Arcade after setting up your new Apple device. Here’s how to redeem your offer:

1. Turn on your new Apple device and sign in with your Apple ID.
2. Open the App Store. Tap or click Apple Arcade. And make sure your device is running the latest version of iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, or macOS.
3. The offer should be presented immediately.
4. Choose Redeem 3 Months Free.

New streaming service, new tricks to try.

By David Nield | Published Feb 5, 2020 5:12 PM

Apple’s new movie and TV show streaming service is here, yours for $5 a month, or free for a year if you buy an Apple phone, tablet, or computer. That gives you access to original Apple shows like See, The Morning Show, and Servant, and if you’ve already signed up, you should know that you can do more with this platform than you might have realized so far.

Start and stop your subscription

As with Netflix, you can cancel and restart your Apple TV+ subscription at any time, so if you’ve already binged on everything you want to watch, Apple gives you an easy way out.

If you’re on a Mac, you can check your subscription status via the App Store: Click your name (bottom left), then View information, followed by Manage (next to Subscriptions). Alternatively, in any web browser, sign into the Apple TV+ site, then click your avatar (top right), Settings, and Manage (under Subscriptions).

You can start and stop a subscription from an iPhone or iPad, too. Open Settings, tap your name, and choose Subscriptions—you’ll see Apple TV+ on the list if you’re currently subscribed, or under the Expired heading if you’ve stopped.

Go picture-in-picture

Should you want to watch a show on Apple TV+ while doing something else, you can use the picture-in-picture mode on macOS or iPadOS. The same trick won’t work on an iPhone though—you’re either watching or you’re not.

On macOS, once you’ve started watching something on the TV app, click the picture-in-picture button—it’s the one furthest to the right in the bottom row. This will keep the playback window on top of all other windows. Resize it by clicking and dragging the edges, or move it by clicking and dragging the center.

On iPadOS, tap the picture-in-picture button in the top left-hand corner (third from the left). Again, the window will sit on top of all other apps, so you can keep watching while you’re doing other tasks. Tap on the window and drag it around to move it.

Watch content offline

You’re not always going to have a solid Wi-Fi connection while you’re out and about, so Apple TV+ lets you download shows and movies in advance. Open the TV app on an iPhone or iPad, tap into a show, and you’ll see blue download icons (arrows coming out of clouds) next to individual episodes.

It’s slightly different in the TV app on the Mac. Here, you’ll need to tap through to individual episodes, and then you’ll see the Download button. Whether you’re on your computer or a mobile device, shows and movies will be available for 30 days before they expire.

If you find yourself without an internet connection, getting to your downloads is easy. On iOS or iPadOS, tap Library in the TV app, and then Downloaded. On macOS, tap Library in the TV app, and then TV Shows or Movies.

Keep tabs on the kids

If you’ve set up Family Sharing for other Apple apps and services, know it extends to Apple TV+, too, allowing up to five people to access the same subscription. If you haven’t set up Family Sharing yet, you’ll find a link on the System Preferences pane on a Mac, and in the Settings app on iOS and iPadOS devices, under your account name.

As well as letting you share an Apple TV+ subscription, Family Sharing also lets you put limits on what kids in the house can watch on the service, by banning TV shows and movies with a certain rating. From an iPhone or iPad, you can access these options by opening up Settings, then tapping Screen Time and Content & Privacy Restrictions (look for TV Shows and Movies).

If you’re on a Mac, you’ll need to open System Preferences from the Apple menu, then pick Screen Time, Content & Privacy, and Stores. You can also make changes to parental controls by going to your Apple TV+ account settings on the web, and turning the Content Restrictions toggle switch to On.

Set the streaming quality

Apple produces its shows and movies in high-resolution 4K quality, and that’s the version you’ll see by default whenever you play content from the platform. But if you’re on a slow Wi-Fi connection or don’t want to use the entire data plan, you can dial this down when needed.

On macOS, with the TV app running, click the TV menu, then choose Preferences and Playback. You can choose from three different options of video quality: Good, Better, and Best Available.

If you’re watching on an iPhone or an iPad, open up Settings and select TV, iTunes Videos, and then pick the playback quality you want over Wi-Fi and cellular connections. If you want to prevent yourself from obliterating your data plan, you can use the same screen to limit playback to Wi-Fi only. While the menu refers to iTunes, the same settings apply to Apple TV+ as well.

Watch on non-Apple devices

If you don’t have an Apple-made device to watch Apple TV+ on, all is not lost—you can use the Apple TV+ web app to watch on just about any computer, whether it’s a Chromebook or a PC. Just sign in with your Apple ID credentials and you’re good to go.

The web app is a more basic version of the TV app, but you can still scroll through the shows you’re still in the process of watching, as well as the content you haven’t gotten around to viewing yet. Don’t try this option on macOS though—you’ll be redirected to the native TV app instead.

You can also use the web app to watch Apple TV+ on Android phones, but for this to work properly, you’ll need to request that the mobile browser loads the desktop version of the Apple TV+ site. On Chrome for Android, you can do this by tapping the three dots in the top right-hand corner, then choosing Desktop site.

Watch on the big screen

The most obvious way of getting Apple TV+ up on your living room television set is to plug in an Apple TV box, but if you don’t have one, despair not—official Apple TV+ apps are also available for Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices.

You can also use a Chromecast or an Android TV device, but you’ll need to cast directly from a browser with the Apple TV+ web app. Open the platform on Google Chrome or Chrome OS, then click the three dots in the top right-hand corner, choose Cast, and pick your device. Playback isn’t the smoothest using this method, but it works.

Alternatively, if your smart TV has AirPlay 2 support—a growing number of modern sets now do—you can load up Apple TV+ on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, and hit the AirPlay button (the arrow pointing at a rectangle) to beam the video feed over to your television.

David Nield is a tech journalist from the UK who has been writing about gadgets and apps since way before the iPhone and Twitter were invented. When he’s not busy doing that, he usually takes breaks from all things tech with long walks in the countryside.

Submitted by Jon Reed on January 4, 2020 – 6:45am

iOS has extensive settings that allow you to control and restrict what content your kids are allowed to see, what they are allowed to purchase, what apps they can use and even how much screen time per app they are allowed. The Apple TV doesn’t have quite the same amount of parental controls, but you can still certainly block in-app purchases, restrict viewing content and set some other boundaries. Here’s how to set up restrictions on your Apple TV:

Go to Settings->General->Restrictions on your Apple TV and click on Restrictions.

That’s all there is to it. Now any time you want to view restricted content you’ll have to enter your code. If at some point you forget your code you can do a system reset and start over. Now your kids could do that too, but it’s probably a little harder to get away with.

Parental controls enable guardians to control what their kids can watch. Even if you’re not concerned about your kids intentionally seeking out inappropriate content, it can often come to them by accident. Apple TV’s parental controls give parents broad control over the content that can be displayed on the Apple TV, giving parents power over what kids can do with the device. Adult viewers can always override the settings with a four-digit PIN, which is also required to edit any enabled parental controls.

Apple uses the word “Restrictions” rather than the phrase “Parental Controls” in the Apple TV interface and support documentation. For consistency, we will adopt that usage in the steps below as well. Parental controls are the same as Restrictions, just by a different name.

Depending on the variety of Apple TV you have, follow the correct instructions below to set and use Restrictions on your device. If you’re having trouble identifying which Apple TV you own, you can follow Apple’s pictorial guide to identifying your Apple TV.

Turn on Restrictions for Apple TV

Before you can use Restrictions, you’ll need to enable the service and set a PIN for access to parental controls.

1. From the Apple TV’s home screen, open the Settings channel and navigate to General > Restrictions from the Apple TV home screen.

2. Select Restrictions again to turn the service on.

3. Create and confirm a four-digit PIN. This PIN will be used to when editing parental controls, so try to make it difficult to guess but easy to enter.

4. Select OK to turn on Restrictions.

Setting Restrictions on the Apple TV

Once Restrictions are enabled, you can set specific permissions.

1. Navigate to Settings > General > Restrictions from the Apple TV home screen.
2. In the Restrictions menu, the previously disabled and non-selectable items below the Restrictions toggle will now be accessible. To set restrictions for various services, scroll down and select the correct service.
3. Choose from the available restrictions for the selected app, service, or product. If prompted, enter the PIN number you set when enabling Restrictions.

Available Restrictions on Apple TV 4K and Apple TV (fourth generation)

Depending on the application, content, or service you’re applying a restriction for, different options will be available. The options for restrictions vary from item to item in the Restrictions menu. In general, you have the option to either permit the service without restriction, require a the Restrictions PIN, or set age-based controls for restricting content.

• Show/Yes/Allow: Use this option to enable the service without restriction. This is the same as disabling Restrictions for that service. The service can be accessed without entering the Restrictions PIN.
• Restrict/Ask: Use this option to require the Restrictions PIN before the service or product can be accessed. Without the correct PIN, the restricted service or product cannot be accessed.
• Block/No: Blocks or disables the feature completely and removes the content from searches and playback.
• Hide: Use this option to hide the service.

What Restrictions Can Be Set on Apple TV?

Here are some examples of the most commonly-requested types of restrictions and parental controls that you can set on your Apple TV. Older Apple TVs may not have access to features like the Siri remote or Apple TV apps.

• Purchases and rentals from the iTunes Store: Allow, Restrict (require PIN) or Block. Free content will not be affected by this selection.
• Music, Podcasts, Audio: Explicit allows the purchase and playback of content with an Explicit label. Clean only permits content without an explicit language label in iTunes. Any item tagged with a Parental Advisory Warning from the RIAA will be marked with the Explicit label in iTunes. Content uploaders can also voluntarily mark their content with the Explicit tag, indicating adult audio content.
• TV Shows, Movies: Permit content based on MPAA ratings and TV content ratings. Available ratings are supplied based on your Apple TV’s locale settings. Watching TV shows and movies can also be completely disabled by setting Don’t Allow Movies or Don’t Allow TV Shows as appropriate.
• Apps: Force a specific locale and block Apple TV apps based on age ratings (4+, 9+, 12+ and 17+). Apps can also be disabled all-together with Don’t Allow Apps selected.
• Siri Explicit Language: Choose Hide to prevent Siri from “hearing” any mature language. Choose Show to disable language filtering.
• Hardware applications and services like AirPlay, Conference Room Displays, Location Services, and several other options can be set to Allow, which permits the service to be used, or Restrict, which requires the four-digit Restrictions PIN to use the service.

– Jul. 22nd 2021 8:04 am PT

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When WarnerMedia launched its new expanded streaming service, HBO Max, earlier this year, HBO simultaneously stopped participating in Apple TV Channels. This meant that new subscribers could not sign up for HBO through Apple TV Channels, but existing subscribers could continue to access their subscriptions.

HBO appears to have flipped a switch today, however, that completely shuts off access to HBO via Apple TV Channels, including the ability to sign in using your Apple TV Channels subscription information.

Update July 22, 2021: Apple is now sending out an email to affected users informing them that HBO is no longer available and that they will receive a refund. Apple and HBO are offering users a discounted rate for an HBO Max subscription. Here is the full email:

The HBO channel on the Apple TV app is no longer available and your subscription has ended. You will receive a refund or credit for any unused portion of your current subscription period.

Redeem your code below to keep watching on HBO Max — which includes all of HBO along with so much more — for a discounted rate of $9.99/month for the first 3 months of the HBO Max Ad-Free plan. This limited-time offer is valid through September 5, 2021.

Download HBO Max from the App Store, connect to the Apple TV app, and enjoy all your favorite HBO shows and movies. Plus, get access to HBO Max originals and even more blockbusters, and enjoy them across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV.

For those unfamiliar, Apple TV Channels are streaming services that you can buy and stream directly in the TV app. If you do so, all billing is handled through Apple itself, and the video is hosted by Apple. This means you watch it directly in the TV app on iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV, rather than in the third-party provider’s application.

In the case of HBO, the streaming service supported full Apple TV Channels integration until the launch of HBO Max. When HBO Max launched, existing subscribers through Apple TV Channels could continue accessing the HBO channel, but the HBO channel was not updated to feature Max-exclusive content.

So those who subscribed to HBO through Apple TV Channels could access some HBO content through the TV app, but they could also sign in to the HBO Max app to access all the content at no additional charge via your Apple ID account.

Apple TV Channels users are widely reporting today, however, that access to HBO Max has been completely cut off. This includes the ability to access the HBO channel in the Apple TV app, as well as the ability to sign into the HBO Max app using your Apple ID.

As noted by users on Reddit, HBO in the Apple TV app had pre-announced its plans to shut down its Apple TV Channel with a message reading: “HBO is ending its channel service on July 22. After that, get HBO Max to continue watching.”

One issue noted by users is that the HBO Apple TV Channel offered a live HBO feed, which is not available in the HBO Max application. Another issue is that HBO has removed the ability to sign in using your Apple ID, which could impact those users who have already paid for access via their Apple accounts, as noted by Alex Cranz on Twitter.

This is confirmed by going to the “Sign in with a provider” option on the HBO website, where you’ll no longer see signing in with your Apple ID as an option.

One solution appears to be: Sign up for a new HBO Max account using the email associated with your Apple ID, then reset your password, and log in to your new account to access things like your watch list and account settings.

9to5Mac has reached out to WarnerMedia for more details and will update if we hear back. Were you an HBO subscriber through Apple TV Channels? Have you lost access to the streaming service today? Let us know down in the comments.

Hey @hbomax you logged me out on all my devices and there’s no way back in. I subscribed via the HBO @AppleTV channel, so I don’t have a separate login. What’s the deal?

If you subscribed to HBO through Apple TV channels it stopped working yesterday. What’s really cool is there has yet to be a refund if you were, say, paid through early August.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

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Apple’s Family Sharing service lets your loved ones access a shared pool of content and subscriptions. Here’s how it works.

Apple’s Family Sharing is a way to make your apps, movies, subscriptions, and more available to all the people in your family. You can also use it to control the screen time or content restrictions for your children’s devices. What’s more, it can even let you keep an eye on the location of all your loved ones.

We’ve written this guide to explain everything you need to know about setting up and using Apple’s Family Sharing service. Let’s take a look at how it works.

What Is Family Sharing?

Family Sharing lets you connect up to six different Apple ID accounts together. These accounts form your Family Sharing group, which you can use to save money by sharing various Apple purchases and services, including:

• Apps, movies, TV shows, songs, and books
• Apple Music family plan subscriptions
• Apple Arcade, Apple News+, and Apple TV channel subscriptions
• iCloud storage

Since everybody has their own account, you don’t need to share your password with other people. You can also access content in your Family Sharing group from any device you use with your Apple ID: iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, or even a Windows PC.

Alongside shared purchases and services, Family Sharing automatically creates a shared reminders list, shared calendar, and shared photo album for you all to use. With permission, you can even use Family sharing to see the location of everyone in your group, as well as all their Apple devices.

Finally, with Family Sharing, parents or guardians can manage the Screen Time or Content & Privacy Restrictions for any children under 18 in the group. With Ask to Buy turned on, they can also approve or deny App Store and iTunes purchases their kids want to make.

You Can’t Share Everything

Unfortunately, not everything is available to share with Family Sharing. Before purchasing an app, scroll down to the Information section in the App Store to check that it supports Family Sharing.

Notably, you also can’t share in-app purchases or subscriptions for non-Apple services.

How to Set Up Family Sharing

Whoever creates the Family Sharing group becomes the Family Organizer. This person chooses who is and isn’t allowed in the group, and also chooses which services or purchases you share with Family Sharing.

If the Family Organizer chooses to share App Store and iTunes purchases, they must also agree to pay for new purchases that anyone in the Family Sharing group makes.

It’s easy to set up Family Sharing from an iPhone or Mac, provided it’s running at least iOS 8 or OS X Yosemite, respectively.

A recent update from Amazon has made it easier for Apple customers to buy or rent movies from its Prime Video app. Before, customers using the Prime Video app from an iOS device or Apple TV would have to first purchase or rent the movie elsewhere — like through the Amazon website or a Prime Video app on another device, such as the Fire TV, Roku or an Android device. Now, Prime Video users can make the purchase directly through the app instead.

The changes weren’t formally announced, but quickly spotted once live.

Amazon declined to comment, but confirmed to TechCrunch the feature is live now for customers in the U.S., U.K. and Germany.

The change makes it possible for Prime Video users to rent or buy hundreds of thousands of titles from Amazon’s video catalog. This includes new release movies, TV shows, classic movies, award-winning series, Oscar-nominated films and more.

This is supported on a majority of Apple devices, including the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch running iOS/iPadOS 12.2 or higher, as well as Apple TV HD and Apple TV 4K.

Amazon for years has prevented users from directly purchasing movies and TV shows from the Prime Video app on Apple devices. That’s because Apple requires a 30% cut of all in-app purchases taking place on its platform. To avoid fees, many apps — including not only Amazon, but also Netflix, Tinder, Spotify and others — have bypassed the major app platforms’ fees at times by redirecting users to a website.

Since the news broke, many have questioned if Amazon had some sort of deal with Apple that was making the change possible — especially because it didn’t raise the cost of rentals or subscriptions to cover a 30% cut.

As it turns out, it sort of does.

Apple tells TechCrunch it offers a program aimed at supporting subscription video entertainment providers.

“Apple has an established program for premium subscription video entertainment providers to offer a variety of customer benefits — including integration with the Apple TV app, AirPlay 2 support, tvOS apps, universal search, Siri support and, where applicable, single or zero sign-on,” an Apple spokesperson said. “On qualifying premium video entertainment apps such as Prime Video, Altice One and Canal+, customers have the option to buy or rent movies and TV shows using the payment method tied to their existing video subscription,” the spokesperson noted.

It remains to be seen if Amazon will extend Apple the same courtesy on its Fire TV platform, by allowing Apple customers to rent or buy movies directly in the Apple TV app there.

Amazon’s adoption of this program is notable, as it comes at a time when Apple is under increased scrutiny for alleged anti-competitive behaviors — particularly those against companies with a rival product or service — like Prime Video is to Apple TV+, or Fire TV is to Apple TV, for example.

Amazon called attention to the new feature in its Prime Video app, which now alerts you upon first launch that “Movie night just got better” in a full-screen pop-up. It also advertises the easier option for direct purchases through a home screen banner.

Update: John Gruber discovered that non-Prime subscribers could make purchases and rentals too, but instead of going through Amazon’s system for those transactions, they’d function as an in-app purchase that goes through Apple Pay. Seems like everyone wins here.

After more than two years of rumor, speculation, and hype, Apple TV+ has finally arrived.

Apple’s streaming video service is now available for $5 per month, but if you buy a new Apple device, you can get the first year for free. At present, Apple TV+ consists of eight original series and one documentary movie—all ad-free and exclusive to the service—with Apple promising to add more movies and shows over time.

Although we’ve been hearing about Apple TV and its lineup of original programming for some time, many of the finer details are only coming out now. Before you start binging on shows like For All Mankind and The Morning Show, here’s what you need to know:

Early reviews are okay

Apple TV+ doesn’t have any immediate home runs in its modest launch lineup, but critics have mostly enjoyed The Elephant Queen (90% “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes), Dickinson (74%), and For All Mankind (74%). The consensus is less solid on The Morning Show (59%) despite the star power of Jennifer Aniston, Steve Carrell, and Reese Witherspoon, while See (40%) seems to be a letdown despite its cinematic production values. TechHive critic Jeffrey Anderson came away with some similar opinions after watching those shows himself.

For All Mankind is one of the stronger shows in the Apple TV+ launch lineup.

There’s no strong consensus yet on Oprah’s Book Club or Apple’s three series aimed at younger viewers (Helpsters, Ghost Writer, and Snoopy in Space).

The free year of Apple TV+ has one big caveat

Mentioned in this article

Apple TV 4K

While Apple works on adding more content, it’s giving away a year of Apple TV+ to anyone who bought a new iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac, or Apple TV after September 10. The redemption offer should appear automatically if you’re running at least iOS 12.3, MacOS Catalina, or tvOS 12.3, though Macrumors reports that some users will need to contact Apple support if the offer doesn’t appear. (If you’re not eligible, you can still get a 7-day free trial, but you’ll need to create an Apple ID and provide a credit card number.)

There is a catch, however: To get the first year free, you must agree to automatic billing at $5 per month or $50 per year thereafter, and if you cancel early, you’ll lose access to Apple TV+ immediately. That means you can’t rely on the usual subscription trick of canceling right after you sign up. Instead, I suggest marking your calendar for a few days before your first year is up and bookmarking this link, which will take you straight to Apple’s subscription management page.

An Apple TV isn’t necessary (but it helps)

As you might expect, Apple TV+ is available on Apple TV streaming boxes, iPhones, iPads, iPod Touches, and Macs. It’s even available on third-generation Apple TVs that aren’t running tvOS. But in addition to those devices, you can also download the Apple TV app on some non-Apple hardware:

• Samsung TVs (2018 and newer with “N” and “R” model numbers)
• Roku players from 2016 onward, plus some Roku TVs and older streamers
• Fire TV Stick (second-generation) and Fire TV Stick 4K, with more device support coming
• Via AirPlay to Vizio SmartCast TVs and 2019 LG TVs
• In a web browser

Apple also plans to support AirPlay 2 on some Sony TVs this year, and it will bring a proper app to Vizio, LG, and Sony TVs “in the future.”

You don’t need an Apple TV streaming box to watch Apple TV+. This is the Roku app.

The Apple TV+ experience on these devices does have some notable limitations: While Apple is supporting 4K HDR on all platforms, it’s only offering Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision on its own hardware. And if you’re using AirPlay, video quality will max out at 1080p. The best video experience will still be on an Apple TV 4K, where Apple TV+ shows are apparently hitting some extremely high bit rates.

The good news is that Apple TV+ programming does show up in search results on Roku and Fire TV devices, so you can say “Dickinson” or “See” into your voice remote and find the show without having to dig through Apple’s TV app.

Yes, there is a web version

Although Apple TV+ doesn’t have a proper Windows app, you can still the access the service through your web browser at tv.apple.com.

This site, in turn, provides a workaround for some of the other devices that lack Apple’s TV app. You can use a Mac if you haven’t updated to MacOS Catalina, and if you have a Chromecast or Android TV device, you can use Chrome’s Cast feature to mirror the browser tab onto your TV. (Just keep in mind the quality will be vastly inferior to a proper app.)

Unfortunately, I’ve had no luck getting videos to play through the site on Android mobile devices, Android TV browser apps, or the web browser on unsupported Fire TV models.

Family Sharing good, password sharing bad

Apple TV+ allows for six simultaneous streams, which is a pretty generous limit, but the service inherently protects against password sharing by making you sign in with an Apple ID. Because anyone who has your Apple ID login would also be able to access your iCloud, sharing with friends and extended family members would be ill-advised.

That said, Apple TV+ does support Family Sharing, allowing up to six people in a household to use the service with their own Apple IDs. Apple has instructions on setting up Family Sharing here.

You can download everything

At least for now, you can download the entire Apple TV+ catalog for offline viewing.

On iPhones and iPads, Apple TV+ supports offline viewing, so you can download any episode by clicking the cloud icon next to its description. I was able to download every episode of every show without issue, though it’s still unclear how long you can keep watching offline without having to download the episode again.

You can’t binge-watch just yet

Apple isn’t exactly following the Netflix playbook for releasing its original programming. While full seasons are already available for Dickinson and its children’s programming, in most cases new seasons will premiere with three episodes, followed by one new episode per week. Oprah’s Book Club is an exception to both rules, with just one episode available to start.

If you’re in the habit of adding and dropping subscriptions as needed—and you’re not eligible for a free year of service—consider holding off on Apple TV+ until you can binge-watch more of the content.

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(By Matthew Keys, The Desk) – If the rumors and reports are correct, Apple will begin taking pre-orders within the next few days for its forthcoming Apple TV set-top box.

Unlike the current generation model — which has been reduced to a modest $65 at some retailers ahead of the new version — the upcoming version of the set-top box is a callback to the first generation Apple TV in that it has a significant amount of on-board storage. In the fist generation Apple TV, the storage was meant to accommodate movie and TV show downloads from the iTunes store; this time around, the storage is meant to accommodate a number of apps expected to be offered in the first-ever app store for Apple TV.

The new Apple TV comes in two storage flavors: 32GB at $149 and 64GB at $199. The biggest difference between the two will likely be how many apps you can store on the device before you reach your limit and which kinds of apps you intend to use.

Apple has a few plans in place to keep users from having to constantly delete old apps in order to make room for new ones. New technology found within Apple’s television operating system will automatically pick certain apps apart, downloading only the parts of an app a user needs most at any given time and keeping other parts of the app in the cloud. The bits of the app that are immediately downloaded are known as on demand resources, and the idea is that it downloads app content faster while saving space on the device.

Even though Apple’s not forcing developers to use on demand resources (it’s turned on by default), it is requiring developers limit their apps to 200 MB in size. And while Apple TV does allow apps to download as much as 2 GB of data in order to unbundle and run an app, there’s no “persistent storage” on the device — meaning Apple TV tosses any unused, cached data back into the cloud when a user closes an app in order to free up space on the device.

All of that means the base-model 32 GB Apple TV should be more than enough for most people. Given the size limitation on Apple TV apps, a person could download well over 100 apps and still have some room to spare.

So why is Apple also selling a version with a larger amount of storage?

Aside from users who may want to download movies, TV shows and music from the iTunes store (it isn’t even clear if Apple is allowing this, since downloading iTunes content hasn’t been a thing since the first generation Apple TV), it’s possible that Apple intends to allow developers to create larger-sized apps sometime in the near future. The new Apple TV is not just a home theater system, it’s also a gaming device, and the slickest games sometimes demand a little more finesse that only an increase in storage space can provide.

Games were cited as the reason behind Apple’s recent decision to allow developers to submit apps as large as 4GB to the iOS (iPhone and iPad) App store, where previously the file size was limited to half of that. And since Apple TV will have killer hardware for games, it stands to reason that, as time goes on, Apple may do the same thing for Apple TV depending on developer feedback.

So the bottom line is this: If you only plan on using Apple TV as a home theater device (think Netflix, Hulu Plus, HBO and maybe a handful of others), you’re probably fine investing in the base 32 GB model. But if you can see yourself using Apple TV as a gaming device — or you want to make sure you’re ready for potentially-larger apps in the future — spend the extra $50 for the bigger memory.

Apple TV is a great way to watch shows at home, but it suffers from some of the same problems as other online streaming services and tools. Luckily, you can use an Apple TV VPN to solve some of those issues. We’ll show you how.

Oct 04, 2021 · 1 min read

How to use NordVPN with Apple TV

As any NordVPN review will tell you, there are plenty of benefits to using the service that won’t be exclusively limited to Apple TV, but there’s a catch – you’ll need to install NordVPN in a way that will let your Apple TV use it. NordVPN works on plenty of devices, but with Apple TV it’s a bit more complicated.

Apple TVs don’t support VPN software, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t secure it with a VPN connection. It’s just that setting an Apple TV VPN is going to take a few extra steps. There are a few ways to do this:

• Set up a VPN on your Wi-Fi router.
• Share a VPN connection with your Apple TV.
• Set up SmartDNS on Apple TV.

In this blog post, we’ll cover all three ways you can set up Apple TV VPN, pros and cons of doing so, why you need a VPN, and why NordVPN is your best choice.

The most common way to set up a VPN on Apple TV is to use your router with NordVPN.

Have a safe and pleasant online TV experience.

Protect your Apple TV with the world’s leading VPN.

Install NordVPN on your router

Instead of just using an app, you’ll have to install NordVPN directly on your router. The process of installing a VPN on your router depends on its firmware, however most installations will have three steps:

1. Find your router’s IP address.
2. Log in to your router.
3. Configure your router for a VPN connection.

Check out our guides for routers that support a VPN connection here. Read our blog post for more information about how to set up a VPN on a router and why.

Running NordVPN on your router comes with pros and cons.

If your router can’t run NordVPN but you want a router that does, check out our tutorial page or visit our partners at Flashrouters – they sell consumer routers that come pre-set-up with NordVPN!

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Protect your devices with the world’s leading VPN.

Share a VPN connection with your Apple TV

If you can’t or don’t want to connect your router to NordVPN, there is another way to give your Apple TV VPN access. By using NordVPN on your laptop and then using that laptop as a router, you’ll effectively give your Apple TV VPN access!

There are a couple of issues with this approach. First of all, Mac laptops currently do not support this function. They can share their internet connections easily, but devices that connect to them won’t receive VPN coverage. You can set up such a connection on a Windows computer, but the setup process is relatively advanced.

There are two main ways to share the virtual private network connection on your computer:

1. Share a VPN connection via mobile hotspot
2. Share a VPN connection via wireless connection

To turn your Windows laptop into a VPN router, check out our detailed tutorial. Warning – it’s fairly advanced!

Set up a VPN using SmartDNS

SmartDNS has its benefits but it doesn’t protect your device or encrypt your traffic the way a VPN connection would.

NordVPN supports SmartDNS feature. Here’s how to set up SmartDNS on NordVPN for Apple TV:

1. Whitelist your IP address on your VPN account profile (click here for NordVPN setup help).
2. On your Apple TV, go to General >Network.
3. Click on Wi-Fi at the top and select your network.
4. Select Configure DNS >Manual.
5. Enter SmartDNS server address provided by your VPN service. For NordVPN, set Primary DNS: 103.86.99.103 Set Secondary DNS (if available): 103.86.96.103

Why you need a VPN for Apple TV

There are plenty of reasons why this award-winning VPN provider is your best choice. From securing multiple devices, to the number of servers, here are some of the reasons why you should go for NordVPN:

• Protect any Apple TV. With NordVPN, it doesn’t matter which generation of Apple TV you own. Secure them all: Apple TV 4K, Apple TV HD, Apple TV 3rd Gen., Apple TV 2nd Gen., and Apple TV 1st Gen.
• Huge number of servers. NordVPN offers one of the widest server coverages across the globe. With 5,200+ servers in 60 locations you never have to worry about overcrowding.
• Lightning-fast connection. NordVPN’s lightweight NordLynx protocol ensures maximum speed and minimal VPN data usage. Enjoy any streaming service on your Apple TV in complete serenity. No buffering screen will interrupt your favorite show.
• Security on any device Secure your phone, laptop, tablet, router, and IoT devices with just one account. NordVPN works on all the major operating systems and allows you to protect up to six devices.
• Try completely risk-free. Getting NordVPN doesn’t immediately have to be a long term commitment. If you don’t enjoy our service, you can get your money back within 30 days, no questions asked.

Which routers work with a VPN?

Whether or not a router can support a VPN connection depends on its firmware. You can find supported routers and firmware here.

Do routers have a VPN built in?

Yes, some routers come with a VPN pre-installed. If you’re looking to purchase a new VPN router, check out this page for our best picks.

How do I tell which generation of Apple TV I have?

There are few ways you can check your Apple TV’s generation. Go to your Apple TV’s Settings, then choose General, and go to About. Here the model of your Apple TV will be displayed. You can also check the bottom of your Apple TV.

Encrypt your traffic and stay private.

Protect your devices with the world’s leading VPN.

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