AppleTV back button (updated)

Channels Apple TV
#1

I'm using the latest AppleTV 4k, and the latest non-beta version of Channels. I also use a Harmony Ultimate Home remote. Normally when watching a show, if I wanted to go back to the guide, I would press the Back button on the remote, which I have programmed as the Back button for the AppleTV and I would go to the guide at the channel I was currently watching. This has worked fine for years. Suddenly now, when I press the button, I'm returned to the guide, but instead of being on the channel I was watching, the guide scrolls all the way to the beginning of the channel list. This is kind of a PITA when you are just jumping out quick to see what the coming up because you have to navigate back to the channel. Any ideas as to what might have changed? I haven't changed anything on the remote itself in months, so I'm assuming a change in Channels, though it could possibly be a change in TVOS. Anyone else seeing anything similar?

Thanks!

Dan

(Updated to change Menu button for Back button. Not sure where my head was when I initially wrote the message LOL)

#2

Does it behave the same way with your Apple
Remote where you press back? Or perhaps you don’t have the Apple Remote. I’m not seeing the behavior you describe in the non beta or the beta using the Apple Remote.

I also have a Harmony IR remote that has a button programmed for Back and it’s still working the same.

I can’t explain why it would have changed but It seems like maybe your Harmony or the hub might be sending the signal twice since pressing the Back button twice (slowly) will take you back to the top of the guide. Or perhaps the button is sticking.

Not sure how the Ultimate Home works exactly. Does it send an IR signal to the hub which then sends BT to the ATV? Or maybe it uses RF to the hub?

With IR you can take a video to see the led’s flashing on the remote and determine if a signal is being sent twice.

#3

The back button functions normally/correctly everywhere else on my Apple TV. I think it isn't the back button that is doing it. I've done a little more checking, and if I go into the guide and move anywhere off the first channel in the channel list and just wait, after a few seconds, the list scrolls back to the first channel. Something strange is definitely going on.

#4

So I finally fixed this. I tried everything. Rebooted Apple TV, rebooted server, power cycled my entire network, uninstalled and reinstalled channels on the Apple TV, nothing would work. Finally, I was trying to choose a channel, and the guide kept jumping back to the start of the list every time I got close. I got frustrated, but I knew it was on my favorites, so I switched to Favorites view and everything was stable. I went into a channel and came back out and the guide stayed on the channel that was selected. I switched back to all channels and everything is working fine there too. All back to normal, so something must have gotten corrupted in the guide data that even uninstalling and reinstalling wouldn't clear up. At least it is all working again, but it was a very frustrating week trying to figure this out.

Dan

#5

And it happened again last night. I launched channels on my Apple TV and got the Setting Up Channels screen, like an update installed. I didn't notice if there was a blue dot or not on the icon before I launched. Once I got to the guide, it was doing the same thing again, scrolling back to the first channel in the guide after pausing for a second while surfing, or when exiting back to the guide after tuning to a channel. Again switching the guide type from all channels to anything else and back appears to have fixed the problem. We'll see if it happens again on an update. I'll try to keep an eye for the blue dot. Didn't happen this morning.

Dan

#6

Could you make a video next time it happens

1 Like
#7

Sure, I can do that.

2 Likes
#8

It happened again. No updates to the app. Everything was working fine then I backed out to the guide and it scrolled up to the top of the channel list.

I have videos, but need to get them off my iPhone and upload them. The video attachment function here doesn’t like the iPhone format for uploading videos

#9

I finally figured out what the problem was. I had built some m3u streams for my wife and stepson with channels from their home country, and to make it easy for them to find the channels, I mapped them to 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc. While working on some other issues, I'd deleted that tuner and noticed that the guide problem went away, and when I added it back, the problem reappeared. The solution I found was to change the assigned channels to that they we no longer the first channels in the guide. I have a channel 2, so I just made them 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 etc. Problem solved.