Anyone else getting 'no network connection' during viewing?

[nickdalzell1]

Hulu, Apple TV app, Netflix have started doing this on my ATV 4K. It works perfectly fine, but during a show it will show 'No network connection--please check your internet connection' on the upper right corner for a few seconds, but the show never rebuffers or changes the video quality, just plays perfectly normal. I'm still running tvOS 13.3 ( refuse to update) and in settings-->Network it seems to have a perfectly strong signal and again, the shows play fine. Just curious what's causing this 'false' error. Just started this evening.

 

[0128672]

I'm getting it just now too on my HD ATV 13.4.8. My screen says HDMI 1 No Signal, and below it a couple of suggestions how to troubleshoot. First time I've seen anything like that. I simply clicked the remote and my content continued playing normally.

 

[nickdalzell1]

Mine is not an HDMI issue. It's falsely claiming the internet is down/wifi was dropped but plays perfectly fine. Unless they've been storing the content on the local storage of the ATV itself? Everything seems to work? Siri works, the App Store loads, etc. But just when watching TV it shows 'No Network Connection-Check your internet' even though it's not malfunctioning. Does some Apple server somewhere get pinged to verify internet connectivity through the Apple TV unit? Maybe it's down? Either way the apps don't seem to be impacted in the least?

I got a laptop (HP 15c) that often has internet issues where the browser randomly shows 'DNS_Probe_Detected_Nxdomain' errors and then corrects itself, but I always blamed that on a wonky wifi chip. The Apple TV has never encountered this type of bug?

 

[waw74]

If the connection only drops out for a few seconds, it will play just fine from the buffer till connection is restored, and the refill the buffer once it's back.
Unless playback comes close to the end of the buffer, you should never see a problem.
When starting new or jumping far ahead, the buffer is empty, so you're basically close to the end of the buffer, which is when you see problems then.

I don't know what the max length of the buffer is, but I would guess it's at least 30 seconds and quite possibly several minutes, and will depend on how the app is coded, your connection speed, and how much memory is available.


You might want to check your DNS settings on your network, it's possible both of your issues are related to that.
You should not use the one provided by your internet provider. as they are notoriously flaky
The ones from google or cloudflare are much more reliable.
Cloudflare is probably the better choice, it also has options for blocking adult content if that's something you need.

To find out what DNS you are using, on the aTV, go to settings->Network. Under DNS look for 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4 (google) or 1.1.1.1 or 1.1.x.x (cloud flare)
if you see something else, you should look into changing your setup

You can change the dns server individually on all your devices, but the easiest and most reliable way is on your router. When done on your router, it will push the setting to all devices that connect to it. There are numerous step by step instructions online.

A DNS failure will not completely stop your internet. If your device has the required IP address stored somewhere a connection can still be established.
It's also possible the movie you're watching is streaming fine since the connection to that server is established and working. And the popup happens because the aTV is trying to reach Apple in the background to check for app updates or or something, but can't because it can't find a DNS sever.


DNS (domain name system) is basically a phone book.
All of the switches and network gear between your device and the device that houses an internet site use IP addresses and not names. When you type "google.com" into the browser, your computer asks a DNS server what google's IP address is. it then uses the IP address it receives to direct the requests to the correct computer on the other side.
The adult content blocking works by removing the entry for certain sites. So if your computer asks "hey what's Phub's number" it won't get a response. but if you know the IP address, you can type that in and still reach the site.

 

[nickdalzell1]

Here's the thing. My wifi never disconnected. Not even for a second (was watching the live router status of attached devices on my Mac to be sure). The Apple TV somehow got erroneous info. It's not doing it today. But yesterday it was popping up with each series I started, but only once. A few times it came up full-screen with a retry button and so on while the show played behind it.

It was still showing the full 4K screen quality, never downgraded to low quality which often happens when my internet gets off. Shows instantly started playing, no wait time, no re-buffer, etc. It's like whatever server Apple TVs use to determine the quality/staus of the network connection just outright failed. Worked fine otherwise. I filed it under 'bug'

I always use my own router's DNS server and use static IPs to avoid DHCP failures (which happens a ton-the DHCP can crash entirely on the router if the cache fills up) and NEVER and I mean NEVER use Google's or Cloudflares DNS. I don't consider them private or safe. Google has a nasty habit of stealing your info any way it can, and Cloudflare has blacklisted me a ton just for using private browsing and I despise any site using it. Cloudflare is BS.

 

[HDFan]

It works perfectly fine, but during a show it will show 'No network connection--please check your internet connection' on the upper right corner for a few seconds,

I had this problem a few times in the last week or so. Both were WiFi problems.

1. I had placed a Roku remote next to the ATV. Started getting the messages intermittently. Problem went away when I removed the remote so the signal to the ATV wasn't blocked.

2. Trying to reach the back of a network device to change cables I turned down the 4 antennas on my router. Got the message. Turned the antennas back into their upright position and the problem went away.

 

[Audit13]

I've been using my ATV 4K for about 2.5 years. It's always been on WiFi starting with tvOS 12 and is now running the latest tvOS 13 release.

I've never seen this message before. I'm using my ISP's router which is about 20 feet from the ATV.

 

[nickdalzell1]

My router isn't some budget model either. It's a Netgear NightHawk AC1900 dual-core 1GB RAM router. Wasn't cheap when I bought it either. I'm also not running the standard config. I edited a ton of settings to make everything work and to avoid the dreaded 'reboot every few weeks' bug that most people accept as normal.

The message shows up in the upper right hand corner and appears to resemble the same dialogue alert as the remote being connected notification. It says "No network detected--Please Check your Internet Connection"

Hulu continues to work. Netflix however will eventually show a full-screen error with a retry and cancel button. The video/movie you were watching when that happens will continue to play behind the error oddly enough. It's like it has the connection to play the video but not support the UI that powers it. Netflix thinks its not connected but the video server disagrees and continues unabated.

As said, the ATV never disconnected, but it might be possible certain servers it depends on to know it's connected are down when that error appears. It's not happened since that day so I guess everything is alright. I haven't done anything it just resolved itself. It did, however seemed to coincide with the update available notifications. Shortly after I started getting those errors, it would interrupt my video playback to say an update is ready to install.

 

[Audit13]

My router isn't some budget model either. It's a Netgear NightHawk AC1900 dual-core 1GB RAM router. Wasn't cheap when I bought it either. I'm also not running the standard config. I edited a ton of settings to make everything work and to avoid the dreaded 'reboot every few weeks' bug that most people accept as normal.

The message shows up in the upper right hand corner and appears to resemble the same dialogue alert as the remote being connected notification. It says "No network detected--Please Check your Internet Connection"

Hulu continues to work. Netflix however will eventually show a full-screen error with a retry and cancel button. The video/movie you were watching when that happens will continue to play behind the error oddly enough. It's like it has the connection to play the video but not support the UI that powers it. Netflix thinks its not connected but the video server disagrees and continues unabated.

As said, the ATV never disconnected, but it might be possible certain servers it depends on to know it's connected are down when that error appears. It's not happened since that day so I guess everything is alright. I haven't done anything it just resolved itself. It did, however seemed to coincide with the update available notifications. Shortly after I started getting those errors, it would interrupt my video playback to say an update is ready to install.

Before I changed from being a cable subscriber to being a FTTH subscriber, I had the Netgear r7000 as well. I switched it for an Asus RT-AC86U to get better wireless signals throughout my house and to run OpenVPN Client. The r7000 is a good router but didn't support hardware encryption as a VPN client.

Maybe your physical location is a factor? I'm in Canada and stream from USA services with no issues.

 

[HDFan]

The message shows up in the upper right hand corner and appears to resemble the same dialogue alert as the remote being connected notification. It says "No network detected--Please Check your Internet Connection"

If you run speed test on your apple tv when this occurs what does it show? You may have the best router, but once the signal leaves the router there are a lot of things that can cause problems. I have an Asus RS-AX88U AX router (which I assume is good) but I still have to be careful about things that can effect the airways.

 

[waw74]

I edited a ton of settings to make everything work

sounds like that might not be the case.

 

[nickdalzell1]

Those edits were done months ago. Once again, it's not the internet. It's whatever Apple server the TV box is looking for to verify quality of service. It was a server bug. My unit continued to work normally and has been error-free since that day. Nothing's changed. Not on my end.

Never bothered to run a speed test (although the movie during the error continued to play in 4K) since the issue resolved itself a day after this thread was made.

 

[danb1979]

Sorry to drag up an old thread; but just started to get this recently on my Apple TV 4 here in the UK

ATV is bang up to date; route is the Virgin Media Superhub 3 running 250 meg download via fibre; the router is up to date and working faultlessly. It's been reset a number of times recently and everything connected to it works fine with zero issues

But the ATV4 over the last few days (since its latest update) flashes up 'No Signal Detected' and then it disappears.

Apple TV+. Netflix, Prime, Movies, TV Shows etc all work as they should with no dropping/no lag, but this error is cropping up...

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Cheers

 

[satcomer]

Work on line if your ISP just came to your block! So quick line changes might mean networknscans need to decrease it's sensitivity a little!

 

[nickdalzell1]

I'm guessing whatever server ATV uses to verify stable connections is down or bugged out. I haven't used my ATVs in awhile. Kinda gave up on them for forcing updates down on me. I had them blocked at the router but Apple circumvented them so I was getting 'a new update is available' every time I paused or stepped away leaving it on the main menu. It infuriated me I can't disable that anymore.

 

[rumbletum]

Sorry to drag up an old thread; but just started to get this recently on my Apple TV 4 here in the UK

ATV is bang up to date; route is the Virgin Media Superhub 3 running 250 meg download via fibre; the router is up to date and working faultlessly. It's been reset a number of times recently and everything connected to it works fine with zero issues

But the ATV4 over the last few days (since its latest update) flashes up 'No Signal Detected' and then it disappears.

Apple TV+. Netflix, Prime, Movies, TV Shows etc all work as they should with no dropping/no lag, but this error is cropping up...

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Cheers

No suggestions, but UK Apple TV user here too been having the same issues for the past few weeks. First time I remember noticing it was watching the livestream of the last Apple announcement but has been happening most days since then. My ATV is connected via Ethernet, no issues with any other devices.

 

[nickdalzell1]

It happened most often for me when using Hulu. It just occassionally popped up in the corner saying "No Network Please check your Internet connection" over and over, but the video stream kept going, all in proper quality, zero interruptions.

Now, when my Netgear Nighthawk router died, it would drop the ATV and it would just stop playing, showing it rebuffering, but no notice of any issues with the connection. I just assume now that it's no different than when Android thinks there's no internet when there is. I think in Android's case it involves pings to 'googlestat' or some site. When my Netgear had went out again, it'd show tons of requests to that server and some random Apple server.

Since getting an el-cheapo Linksys router for $50 at Office Depot, nothing has been awry, internet perfectly stable with twice the number connected than with the Nighthawk. Apparently, in the case of routers, you don't exactly get what you paid for. Paying $499 for a dual-core, 2GB RAM router was a mistake I'll never make again, I assure you.

 

[Mpjohnsn]

I have been getting this error as well, for a little over a month. Contrasting the experiences above, I have my Apple TV on a 1Gb Ethernet connection - never on WiFi and I still get it despite watching Youtube TV without any interruption of the stream.

 

[RSmith2023]

Hulu, Apple TV app, Netflix have started doing this on my ATV 4K. It works perfectly fine, but during a show it will show 'No network connection--please check your internet connection' on the upper right corner for a few seconds, but the show never rebuffers or changes the video quality, just plays perfectly normal. I'm still running tvOS 13.3 ( refuse to update) and in settings-->Network it seems to have a perfectly strong signal and again, the shows play fine. Just curious what's causing this 'false' error. Just started this evening.

I started getting a form of this from the STARZ app on my AppleTV. It will not even load content.

 

[ugfish]

Within the last week I’ve been getting frequent error messages in the top right of my tv for “Wi-Fi is not connected” and “Wi-Fi has no internet access” all while being on a stable Ethernet connection. I do not notice any interruption in service and my AppleTV is up to date and has been restarted.

I’ve tried switching to WiFi, restarting the AppleTV, and trying a different Ethernet cable. None of these options have stopped the messages.

 

[ugfish]

Attempted to forget all WiFi connections and re attach Ethernet cable and now the messages still pop at the same frequency but say “WiFi is not connected” instead of the previous messages mentioned in my post.

This leads me to believe the most recent update has introduced some bug where it is checking for a WiFi connection even when a valid, stable Ethernet connection is being supplied. I don’t know of a way to disable wireless on the AppleTV which I believe to be the culprit.

 

[nickdalzell1]

All I could figure out in the end is that whatever server the Apple TV uses to 'know' you have internet or not was either being blocked by the router's firewall, or was unable to be contacted thus making the error display, even if content plays fine.

Also, I'd suddenly just lose the stream and then get 'this video can't be played' or something like that, and I could just restart and be fine. But in that case I'd get no warning of any issues regarding internet connectivity.

It's the same on any other device, from Windows 10 saying 'ERR_DNSPROBE_NOINTERNET' errors, or having the triangle exclamation mark icon on top of the 'globe' icon on Windows Vista, or Android saying 'connected, no internet' but of course, all internet works fine (well, it will work on apps but no browse oddly) but in all those cases the router was my culprit. Since putting in a $50 Linksys router everything has been perfect, and I can finally handle all the devices (20+ of 'em) on my network without crashing. My NetGear NightHawk which cost me $499 a couple years ago was utter garbage.

I also updated to tvOS 15.1 (to finally shut the darned thing up from nagging me constantly about it) and it's just as reliable as it was on tvOS 14. I think the router might be to blame, perhaps needing restart or replacement as in my case. I learned the hard way that buying an expensive, gaming-rated router doesn't equate to reliable internet connectivity.

 

[CoMoMacUser]

I occasionally get that message. Have for years. My service is rated for 100 Mbps down, but my area node is overprovisioned, so I usually get more like 130 Mbps. I have a mesh network, with one AP literally next to the ATV. Not sure what the culprit is because this doesn't happen with my Roku Ultras. Fortunately the loss usually is only for several seconds.

 

[nickdalzell1]

check your router logs. I'd bet you will either see quite a few 'device disconnected/reconnected' entries along with some false-positive 'DDoS attack' messages. Perhaps also some indication of the server Apple uses to check for internet not being accessible. My NetGear's log was chock full of constant disconnect/reconnects from the IP Address of my Apple TV. (which is set to a static IP)

 

[MrWillie]

My ATV is hardwired. Always has been. Runs like a scalded rabbit. I decided years ago to run everything off of a wired network and leave the wireless for mobile devices. When I made that move all my Wi-Fi annoyances disappeared.