Lost Top shelf feature on ATV after latest update. Anyone else having this problem? Thanks
Last TestFlight beta update, or last App Store release update?
Latest TestFlight beta 6.10.1438. I just ran 6.10.1549 still no top shelf. I’m running 2023.06.08.0458
I am seeing this as well, but only on my ATV 4K 2nd gen device in the bedroom. My device in the living room is a 3rd gen device and seems to be working properly.
Is yours 2nd or 3rd gen?
Having the same issue
I routinely have had this issue. Turning off sources that are enabled on the client, down to the barest minimum (in my case) seems to clear it up.
Force-quitting the Channels app, moving it from the top row down to a lower one, then moving it back to the top row, launching the app fresh, then exiting it, focusing on another app and then back to Channels (in order to check the top shelf!) usually makes it work again.
(You can tell it’s refreshing because there’s a flash of an Apple logo. Sometimes moving the app from the top row and back again after the relaunch, is what forces a refresh, and makes the top shelf work again, too.)
But mostly this top shelf feature seems to have been bothered by the sheer number of channels I have available in the app from all of my sources, TVE, custom channels, the Kister method, etc. When the fact of the matter is, I really would just like the top shelf to show me what’s playing in my favorites channel collection and maybe a few others? There’s shouldn’t be an effort to index all available 1823 just for the dozen or so I’d really be eyeing in the top shelf on a regular basis.
I think if there was a setting that let us select which channel collection(s) would inform the “On Now” presentation via the top shelf, it would help with this oft-mentioned issue:
I don’t use the top shelf with “Up Next.” I do notice that neither that feature enabled for the top shelf nor the alternative “on now” are working for me at the moment, and I’ve tried all the usual dances above. I am using the latest TestFlight on 3 AppleTV 4K’s.
It does feel like something’s changed with how the top shelf feature works recently, for the worse.
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Or just be able to turn “On Now” off in Top Shelf the same way you can with “Up Next”. Maybe I’m not a typical Channels user but I almost never watch live TV and have no interest in what’s on now. I don’t even have “On Now” enabled in the sidebar. I stopped caring about live TV when I got my first TiVo over 20 years ago.
Interestingly, shortly after my last post, Top Shelf magically started working again with the beta and worked consistently until yesterday. I made no changes to anything in Channels during that time. I’ve been super busy and barely had time to watch anything let alone tinker.
I don’t doubt that there’s some correlation with number of sources but it feels more like a high number of sources/channels makes it more likely that Top Shelf will stop working. I really use Top Shelf a lot with all of my streaming applications that support it. When I turn my TV on, if i’m not already in Channels, and I’m not sure what I want to watch, I head to Top Shelf.
One of the reasons I’ve not been able to find a clear root cause is that once it’s working, I don’t want mess with it. But maybe I’ll experiment a bit this weekend.
3rd gen
Ok, so Top Shelf stopped working on the ATV that it has always worked on so went back to an older build and it started working again. Tried the latest (6.10.1539) again and sure enough it stopped again. So I kept trying different builds and was able to get up to 6.6.2001 with Top Shelf still working fine but in 6.8.1416 and any later builds it does not work. I switched back and forth a few times for a sanity check and results were consistent.
I’ll see if I can replicate this on another ATV but might be a good datapoint for @tmm1 and team.
@Fofer - curious what you see with 6.6.2001.
Ok, found some more information. Initially, Top Shelf for Channels wouldn’t work on my 2nd ATV with that same build (6.6.2001) at all. But as soon as I tuned off Virtual Channels in Soutcrs: BAM! - immediately started working again (but only on that Build or older). I was able to consistently reproduce this by turning Virtual Channels off and on in Sources.
It’s worth noting that all of my other Sources are enabled and some (Pluto, Samsung etc) have a lot of channels, many of which are in my Favorites and I only have 7 virtual channels so at least for me - it’s not the number of channels or sources that makes it unhappy. It feels to me like a timeout of some sort, like if the ATV doesn’t get a response from the app quickly enough then: NO TOP SHELF FOR YOU! But of course that’s just a guess.
I’m too lazy to check the other ATV to verify tonight but I’m pretty confident I don’t have Virtual Channels enabled on it.
The only way I could top shelf back was reverting back to 6.6.2001
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Same. And apparently no one cares.
I don't think that's a fair characterization. My hunch is this is more complicated than we imagine and also, realistically speaking, not as much of a priority as other bug fixes and features. I'm optimistic it will eventually get fixed, though. I also think the Channels developer team, small as it is, has been good to us with this product and is doing the best they can. In the meantime I'd say more patience and grace is appropriate.
Just my 2¢...
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Are you seeing a Channels logo or Apple logo in the top shelf area?
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Channels logo, “Channels Live TV, everywhere”
Channels. Apple logo will be there for a few seconds when you first move Channels into the top row but is replaced by Channels logo.
Mine seems to get stuck on the apple logo. We're looking into it.
Fix coming. Thanks for tracking down the version numbers!
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Thanks.
Latest version (6.15.2346) matches the behavior of 6.6.2001: Top Shelf works as expected until Virtual Channels is enabled in Sources. Unless others are experiencing this, I suspect there may be something up with one or more of my virtual channels. Haven’t had much time to look into that possibility though.
Thanks for looking into it.