Restore AppleTV OS – Ridiculously easy
You have to follow 3 basic steps and have a little bit of patience … and really, it couldn’t get any easier.
This method is based on you downloading the entire image first and write it to a USB stick, which will use to boot and restore you AppleTV with.
This trick worked for my AppleTV even after I had replaced the harddrive with an SSD, but you milage may vary.
CAUTION!
This guide is only to be used to restore AppleTV OS with a FIRST GENERATION AppleTV – i.e. the silver one, not the black one!

The 1st Generation AppleTV
Step 1 – Download the AppleTV Restore Image
You can download either AppleTV OS v2.3.1 or v3.0.2, depending on your needs. I usually restore v3.
You can download the files from Tweaking4All or from the OpenElec Wiki.
After downloading the desired file, you should have a ZIP file.
DOWNLOAD - AppleTV OS Restore IMG (v3)
| Filename: | factoryrestore3.img.zip |
| Version: | 3.0.2 |
| Size: | 251.3 MiB |
| Date: | July 8, 2013 |
| Download Now |
DOWNLOAD - AppleTV OS Restore IMG (v2)
| Filename: | factoryrestore2.img.zip |
| Version: | 2.3.1 |
| Size: | 196.3 MiB |
| Date: | July 8, 2013 |
| Download Now |
Step 2 – Writing the Image to an USB Stick
In this step we will write a Restore Image for your AppleTV OS to an USB Stick.
For this purpose you should have at least a 1 Gb USB Stick, but any size larger than that will work just fine.
Windows
Windows users will first have to decompress the .ZIP file to get the .IMG file.
A tool like 7Zip, WinRar or WinZip can do this for you.
After decompression you should have either a 536,870,912 bytes IMG file (for both versions!).
Once unzipped, use a tool like Win32 Disk Imager to restore the IMG file to your USB stick.
Download it from the SourceForge Page (recommended) or directly from Tweaking4All.
DOWNLOAD - Win32diskimager
| Platform: | Windows |
| Filename: | win32diskimager-v0.9-binary.zip |
| Version: | 0.9 |
| Size: | 5.4 MiB |
| Date: | January 6, 2014 |
| Download Now |
After downloading Win32 Disk Imager, start it and click the folder icon to select the .IMG file (Image File).
Next select the proper drive (Device) and when you’re very sure about your choices, click “Write“.
CAUTION: Make sure you selected the correct drive, since it will be completely overwritten!!
This process will take a little bit, and once complete proceed to Step 3.

Win32 Disk Imager – Writing an IMG file
Linux
Linux users will have to decompress the .ZIP file to get to the .IMG file first.
The following command-line statement does just that (using “factoryrestore3.img.zip” as an example):
unzip factoryrestore3.img.zip
After decompression you should have a 536,870,912 bytes IMG file (for both versions!).
Next step is to identify your USB Stick under Linux, which I always found rather cumbersome. There are several methods, including the mount statement, the lsusb -v statement and the dmesg statement. More info can be found on the Internet, for example at SuperUser.com and Known-issues.net.
None of those I really liked, and under my Ubuntu setup the following worked better and easier:
On my (virtual) machine this produces something like this (the output and the device name can be different on your machine):
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
| lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Apr 4 16:57 ata-Ubuntu_13__32bit_-0_SSD_ZASYTHJXX3YMXAFMGRSB -> ../../sda
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Apr 4 16:57 ata-Ubuntu_13__32bit_-0_SSD_ZASYTHJXX3YMXAFMGRSB-part1 -> ../../sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Apr 4 16:57 ata-Ubuntu_13__32bit_-0_SSD_ZASYTHJXX3YMXAFMGRSB-part2 -> ../../sda2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Apr 4 16:57 ata-Ubuntu_13__32bit_-0_SSD_ZASYTHJXX3YMXAFMGRSB-part5 -> ../../sda5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Apr 4 16:57 ata-Virtual_DVD-ROM__1__-_31415B265 -> ../../sr0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 May 25 08:08 usb-Lexar_USB_Flash_Drive_AAJHWTC45P2TPINQ-0:0 -> ../../sdb lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 May 25 08:08 usb-Lexar_USB_Flash_Drive_AAJHWTC45P2TPINQ-0:0-part1 -> ../../sdb1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 May 25 08:08 usb-Lexar_USB_Flash_Drive_AAJHWTC45P2TPINQ-0:0-part2 -> ../../sdb2 |
Since I know that my USB Stick is a Lexar, you will see right that the main device is called “sdb” (line 6 – highlighted). This is the device we need – do not pick one of the partitions (sbd1, sdb2, etc). We need the root device!
The proper name (path) for this device would be “/dev/sdb” (add “/dev/” in front of the device you found).
Tip: Once you determine which is the USB drive, remove it and run the same statement again to see if the drive actually disappeared from the list.
Once determined which one is your USB Stick, we will need to use dd to restore the IMG file to the USB Stick.
CAUTION : This will wipe the entire device, so make absolutely sure you’ve chosen the right device!
dd bs=4m if=factoryrestore3.img of=/dev/usbdrive
Where you will need to replace the “factoryrestore3.img” with the filename of the IMG file you’re using, and “/dev/usbdrive” with the device of the USB drive you wanted. In some cases you might need to run this with dd in front of the example code. Your Admin password will be asked before proceeding.
To make the process faster: use the raw device of the USB Stick.
This is done by adding an “r” (R) in front of the USB Device name.
Examples :
– “/dev/usbdrive” becomes “/dev/rusbdrive”
– “/dev/sdb” becomes “/dev/rsdb“.
The process will take a little bit. Once done, eject the USB drive properly and continue with Step 3 …
MacOS X
Apple users will have it much easier – no decompression needed.
A small application I created for Raspberry Pi users, called ApplePi-Baker, can be used for this purpose (as pointed out by Jan).
You can find more details on ApplePi-Baker in this article if interested.
You can download it for free from Tweaking4All.
DOWNLOAD - ApplePi-Baker
| Platform: | Mac OS X |
| Filename: | ApplePi-Baker.zip |
| Version: | 1.9.4 |
| Size: | 2.1 MiB |
| Date: | August 9, 2016 |
| Download Now |
After downloading and unzipping the application, start it and your Admin (sudo) password will be asked.
Enter you Admin password and select the USB Drive from the drive list.
CAUTION: Make sure to select the right drive, since it will be completely overwritten!
Next step is to click on the “Restore Backup” button, which allows you to select the .ZIP file you just downloaded.
On a decent computer and a good USB Stick this should only take a minute.
After completion your Mac may display a message that the USB drive is not initialized, just click “Ignore“.
Eject the USB Drive properly (use the eject button in ApplePi-Baker, next to the drive list) and continue with Step 3 …

MacOS X ApplePi-Baker – User Interface
Step 3: Boot your AppleTV and Restore AppleTV OS
Power down your AppleTV (i.e. jank the cord).
Insert the USB pendrive into your AppleTV and power the AppleTV up.
Press and hold the “MENU” and the “+” buttons on the remote as soon as you see the orange light, on the front of your AppleTV, light up. When you see activity on your USB Stick (if it has a light for that): let go of the remote buttons.
After a while, you’ll see the OpenElec logo and after a short wait, the “OpenELEC AppleTV Factory Restore” message, which gives you 30 seconds to bail. After the 30 seconds, a few information messages will appear and finally your AppleTV will reboot.
Once rebooted, the AppleTV will ask for your preferred language.
At that first boot a “Apple TV Recovery” message will appear.
Select “Factory Restore” and in the next screen confirm that you want to “Restore” …
Restore might take a minute or so … and after that your AppleTV boots as if it was new …
Comments
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Thanks for a more convenient method! Works like a charm.
Henry
Glad to hear that! Thanks for the cool feedback!
hans
I was hopeful. The Apple TV seemed to respond. It rebooted with the apple logo, it asked me for language and then whether I wanted to restart, or restore factory settings. I chose the latter, and then it entered this cycle, where it came back to the language option, and then choosing the factory settings, forever. If I chose restart, it would take me to the same menu again. So I tried unplugging the flash drive, and plugging the ethernet, didn’t work, but then it got me to some weird point where it stays forever, as in a lymbo, in what seems to be like the first 3% to 5% of the restore mode (the first chunk of the bar starts coloring white) and it never advances. I try restarting with MENU and – but it comes back to the same point, it never gets past it.
I feel like I lost my apple TV forever. Please tell me there is something else I can do.
CG
I would try flashing it again … seems like something didn’t go well in your first attempt.
hans
I used menu and – and it worked for me the menu and + didn’t work for me.
thank
kam
Thanks Kam for the tip!
hans
This has happened to me! 😩How did you get out???
Francisco
I did that, several times. Doesn’t work :-(
CG
Got it. I burned a new usb, and did everything from scratch. Should’ve thought of that yesterday.
Thanks
CG
I assume you mean that your AppleTV is up and running again
…
hans
Tried this method… then saw some logo then is tried to boot but then got “I/O error on device” with many failed attempts. Any ideas?
steve
This would be the most reliable method, the “I/O error” could be related to the brand/model USB stick maybe?
So far I have not seen this error, and I even replace the factory harddisk with an SSD disk.
hans
To be more specific, the OpenElec logo does show up. Then it looks like it’s attempting to update, load, etc. (black screen with a series of white type that repeats over and over again with that I/O message I mentioned. If you’d like the complete error message, let me know. It’s a bit long and it repeats for some time before it just reads “OpenELEC AppleTV Factory Restore”. At that point, it just stays that way. The reason I’m trying to do this is that my Apple TV is flashing a “?” above the Apple TV when I try to boot. I thought this method would do the trick unless it’s a hardware issue. I appreciate the help.
Steve
Use a different USB thumb drive. This drove me crazy then tried a different one and success.
John
I can confirm what John says. Sometimes it’s just a matter of grabbing a different USB stick.
Thanks John!
hans
Hi Steve,
Since I have not yet seen this happen, I’d have to guess that the harddisk of your AppleTV is having issues … but it’s juts a guess. If you have a 2.5″ harddisk laying around, you could swap those. Or take the one from your AppleTV and plug it into one of those IDE to USB adapters to see if it works properly.
I can imagine only 3 I/O issues:
hans
No I encountered the same issue but quickly corrected it by connecting my ATV to my router directly via LAN cable. Try that!
Sisco
Thanks Sisco for the tip! Much appreciated!
hans
I did all this and it worked but now the network and wifi are not working. have tried all the usual reseting all routers and apple tv etc but no joy. Any reason to why this would have stopped working?
Gerard McHugh
Hi Gerard!
I wouldn’t know any reason why this would happen – your procedure to reset routers and such is definitely something I’d done as well.
If Wifi and network are not working, then I flash the AppleTV again – just to make sure.
Note: In my AppleTV there is no Wifi card, since I’ve replaced it with a CrystalHD board to enhance video output. So I’m not able to test WiFi functionality. The firmware here though is an unmodified Apple version, and should work properly right out of the box.
hans
Hey,
Thanks for doing this.
Like Stephen I got to and the “factory restore” and then it froze. I do have some 2.5 drives and an ide adapter. I tried reading the drive prior to finding your page and windows wouldn’t see anything. It spun up with no noise… I’ll try another. How should it be formatted or does the flash do the formatting.
Thanks Again
Paul
Hi Paul,
the partition on your AppleTV drive cannot be read under Windows, unless you have specific file-system extensions installed under Windows. I’m not 100% sure which Linux file system is being used, but most likely something like ext2 or ext3, which Windows natively does not support.
The USB stick that you prepare in this article will handle the partitioning and formatting of your AppleTV’s hard-disk. You can use another (larger) 2.5″ Harddisk or for example (like I did) a 2.5″ SSD drive.
I have found that when the first time fails, the following might help:
hans
OK. I tried a few more times got to the blinking question mark…..tried two more hds all got the same thing. the drives were recognized by windows prior to attempting to put them in the ATV. does that mean the ATV is working? Maybe the cable? A different thumb drive? It seems so close!!!!
This worked great. I did jailbreak it a couple of years ago …worked fine… let it sit for a while 6-12 mo.s then it just wouldn’t boot.
Thanks Again
Paul
If you get the “OpenElec” message, then I think it’s safe to assume that the USB stick is working correctly.
With a total of 3 HDD’s, I’d assume that at least one of them should work, right?
Not using the AppleTV (you’re working with the silver 1st generation model right?) for 6-12 months should not break it, unless it was stored oddly (i.e. way to cold, way to hot, or way to humid).
I have never heard of a cable being broken, but it might be worthwhile to swap it with another cable, if you have one laying around.
It’s hard to diagnose the problem at a distance …
hans
Remade the stick…. got open elec logo…..gotta bunch of messages, quite a few errors, then asked me for open elec password.
Let it sit for awhile as I have no way to enter the password. finally rebooted it and get the blinking question mark. Could I unplug the stick and enter the password w/ usb keyboard.
Feeling pretty stupid.
Thanks
Paul
Never feel stupid Paul
… we’ve all had situations like this.
As for the password; there should be no password question, so in your case I assume that removing the USB stick might work to connect a keyboard (it’s most likely “openelec”). But again: there should be no password question.
I suspect that the installation script crashes seriously and just jumps to a regular start up instead.
This make me believe that there are some hardware issues with your AppleTV – most likely issues with the harddrive.
I know that writing down all the errors is impossible, but try to see if it generates some kind of mount or disk errors. Those would point to an issue with the harddrive.
hans
hi there,
i tried this and it finishes and restarts but goes back to the apple question mark, have a tried alot not sure what i’m doing wrong.
cheers
imran
Hi Imran,
During the process, did you see any error messages? Did you everything go as described above?
Are you sure your harddrive (in the AppleTV) is working properly?
hans
Hi,
I get all the way to the Restore option, try to restore and it fails. It looks like it is restoring, with the Apple Logo and the status bar. Then it fails. it says “Restoring to factory condition failed. Your Apple TV could not be restored to original factory condition. try again or go to http://www.apple.com/support for help”
I have tried flashing multiple times. No luck.
any thoughts?
thanks
Mike
Mike
Hi Mike,
Issues could be caused by:
– Unsuitable USB stick (but since you did get some messages, I doubt this will be the case)
– Corrupt download, you could try the original source to download the image again (OpenElec Wiki)
– Corrupt or defective harddisk, if you have another 2.5″ HDD laying around try that one.
– Other defects on the AppleTV (I have yet to hear of that, so I doubt that’s an issue)
You could try the online version of this article (requires a network connection).
hans
Hola
He intentado la instalación varias veces pero lo único que aparece es el logo de OpenElec y de ahi a la pantalla en negro, la retiro y solamente aparece el logo de apple pero no pasa nada que puedo hacer de antemano muchas gracias, saludos.
Robert
Hi Robert,
Please post comments either in English, Dutch or German. Google assumes you wrote in Spanish, the translation:
“I tried installing several times but all I see is the logo of OpenELEC and thence to the black screen, the retreat and only apple logo appears but nothing happens I can do in advance thank you very much, greetings.“
Please look at the previously posted comments concerning this issue. I’d start with v3 but you most certainly could try v2 as well (it will update then to v3 if you choose to do so).
Seems your USB stick boots OK, maybe the HDD of your AppleTV is defective, or the image to the USB drive didn’t go well.
It’s also worth trying the online method, where the image will be downloaded during install (wired network recommended).
hans
I’ll try , thank you very much .
Robert
How long would you say this process takes?
My aTV1 is sitting at
INFO : restoring recovery files
How ong should this take, currently It’s been sitting at this without a curser for 20 minutes or so.,
TIA
Grahame
I would guess that 20 minutes should be long enough … worse case scenario I’d say within 30 minutes …
You might want to retry the process from scratch … I’ve heard of attempt that fail the first run, but succeed the second run.
Also check if the harddisk is fully operational – it might get stuck when part of the harddrive is defective.
Alternatively, you could try the other image (v2 versus v3 or vice versa).
hans
Thanks Hans, I found a old 80GB IDE hard drive and swapped it out. Your fix worked.. :-) Thank you, When I have time I’m going to try spin-rite on the orginal drive to see what happens.
cheers
Grahame
Awesome!
Good to hear that Grahame!
hans
hello I did everything as you said and on the reboot, the apple tv did not start up, it tried to reboot again and again and again…it was like and infinite loop
kyriakos
Try doing the process all over again, including downloading and making a new USB stick.
Maybe something got screwed up with the download or the creation of the USB stick?
hans
Hello, I have downloaded the v2 version and fixed the problem..i don’t know why but THANK GOD it did….god bless you :) the good news is that before the version that I had was 2.3 and now is 2.3.1 hopefully I would be able to download the 3.0.2 directly for the apple tv….if this doesn’t work again what do you think that I should do? maybe the v3 version doesn’t include any settings for e.g sound or wifi and that’s why didn’t worked for me? …..Btw thank you for your reply…
kyriakos
OMG it worked, with the 2.3.1 all the correct data was written in the disk and the update is done. THANK YOU SO MUCH , REALLY GOD BLESS, YOU HAVE HELPED ME VERY MUCH!!!!!!!!
kyriakos
Awesome!!!!
I’m glad to hear you’ve got it to work again! Excellent!
hans
To be honest I didn’t think this would work.
I had already done a lot of internet reading and attempted other “solutions” but without any joy.
However, I followed the instructions above and it worked first time like a dream. Thank you very much
Adam
Thanks Adam for taking the effort to post a nice feedback!
Glad to hear it worked for you too!
hans
Dude, you’re the best…THANKS!
Ironblacklion
Hi Ironblacklion!
Thanks for taking the time to leave a cool feedback!
Glad the article helped you!
hans
Ok. I am likely going to come off a s real dumb ass here but please be patient as i am new to all this stuff. I have an apple tv 1 and it has been jail broke and crystalbuntu and openelec installed. However, it is not working right so I am trying to factory reset it but it is set up as a linux based program. I need to make changes to the programming (lines of code) to allow me to do this. The apple tv wants me to enter an openelec login but there is no keyboard. Is there any way to set up a keyboard wirelessly to enter the data. Is there a zip file that has the changes in it already for a linux based system?
cayjungrl
Hi Cayjungrl!
We all are, or have been, noobs at some point
. So don’t feel bad about that …
When restoring your 1st generation AppleTV as described above, it should not ask for a OpenElec password. So that indicates that something is going wrong. First thing I’d do is simply try again, if you haven’t done so already.
If that failed: the most common “issues” I have seen are:
– Download corrupted (I have not found a pattern yet when and how this happens) …
– USB Stick not “flashed” properly …
– AppleTV Harddisk defective ….
Now, the first two are easy to remedy:
Download the image again, flash another USB stick, and try again.
The 3rd issue, which appears pretty common unfortunately, can only be resolved by testing another 2.5″ IDE harddisk ,…
I actually replaced my with a 32Gb SSD (IDE/PATA), a Transcend from Amazon, but those appear no longer available.
Here is a list of alternatives at Amazon. A 32Gb drive can be found for less than $50 – and since all my video resides on my NAS, I did not need a large drive.
Also note that an SSD will make the AppleTV faster and keeps it cooler too …
I assume you’re having a CrystalHD in your AppleTV, in that case I’d look at OpenElec. Unfortunately, the 1st Generation of AppleTV is no longer supported with new builds (the last version for the ATV is OpenElec 4.2.1).
hans
You-are-a-god. Fixit. Works using an external USB 80GB hdd.
mactvshows
Hi MacTVShows!
Thanks, haha. I wouldn’t consider myself “a God” but I’m very happy to hear that it worked for you!
hans
Thank you for the help. This was the only place I found to tell me how to upgrade my Apple TV 1G hard drive using my Windows PC.
The gray cover on my Apple TV tore no matter how careful I was being. It’s on the bottom and I intend to keep it til it dies, so no big problem.
I did find that I had to flash my USB drive a second time making sure that Win32 Disk Imager was ‘Run As Administrator’ under Windows 7 Pro 64 bit. Maybe doing this will help someone avoid a second flashing. Doing this allowed the Apple TV to complete the Factory Restore to the new hard drive without further issues.
Mary Ford
Hi Mary!
Thank you!
Great to hear that this worked for you, and thanks for posting the “run as administrator” tip!
hans
Hi: just downloaded program lets see how it dos.. but again without trying it . Thank You
Genarrow
Thanks Genarrow!
hans
This worked perfectly as described. It took a few restarts of the Apple TV and iTunes to get things to coordinate, but now everything is pure Apple again.
My Apple TV 1 hack had become so far out of date that it was better just to go back to the original. I can convert any video file into iTunes using iVI so now any video can now be played. No need for the old hacks anymore.
Thank you so very much!
Bruce
Hi Bruce!
Glad to hear it worked well for you too! And … thanks for taking the effort to post a nice feed back – that’s always much appreciated!
hans
Thank you SOOOOOOOOO MUCH! I was literally about to shoot my self!!!
tking
Glad to hear you didn’t shoot yourself!
Thanks for leaving a nice comment! It’s much appreciated!
hans
Many thanks!
jkspinner
Thanks for the positive feedback – glad it worked for you too!
hans
Hello well i made the USB drive, but the problem I am having is that i dont have a paired remote i have a remote but i am unable to do the option that says menu + volume + , any help would be appreciated. I bought the apple tv 1 used and when i plug it in the orange light just flashes, thanks in advance for the help.Christopher.
Christopher
Hi Christopher,
Ouch, not having a paired remote can be a challenge. I honest do not know how to work around that problem.
Reading the Apple Knowledge Base Article on this: I’d say your AppleTV is having issues, possible the harddisk.
You could try taking the harddisk out and connecting to a regular computer (with an USB adapter for example) and check the disk or even wipe the disk. Or … even better … place a different 2.5″ ATA (not SATA) harddisk or SSD drive.
hans
hold the left forward button with the menu button for 10 seconds and will pair
kyriakos
Thanks Kyriakos for posting the tip!
hans
no prob Hans :)
kyriakos
hello, I have installed the openelec system on my apple tv 1, if I do this procedure it will bring me back the original OS of the apple tv?
kyriakos
Yes it will!
hans
thnx Hans :)
kyriakos
Hi, thanks for your tutorial. I currently find myself with a trusty 160gb ATV which I think is failing me, (gets stuck in menu items, light flashing when using remote, unresponsive). I’ve done a factory reset a few times. On occasion it just sticks at the language selection screen, other times it fully loads and then everything becomes unresponsive again. I did have ATV flash installed but this was wiped when I did a factory reset.
I’ll be straight. I’ve never ever changed a hard drive… in anything, or opened it up so please forgive my ignorance. I’ve done plenty of jailbreaking devices so am willing to give anything a try.
Assuming my hard drive is at fault, is it simply a case of buying a new PATA drive. Opening up the ATV. Taking the old one out. Putting the new drive in and booting it up with your USB stick method?
Do I need to do anything with new drive before I install it? or can I simply replace the old with new and boot up?
Sorry if anything I have asked is really obvious or stupid. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Regards
Paul
Paul Shackleton
Hi Paul!
In essence it’s a matter of opening the case (which is a little messy when removing the rubber bottom – let the AppleTV run for a while so the bottom gets warm so it comes off easier), locating the PATA drive and replacing it with another one.
I’m not 100% sure if just any PATA drive will work, but I had success with replacing it with a cheap PATA SSD – which makes it more quiet, faster en cooler.
This guide to upgrade the AppleTV drive might be helpful for you!
Restoring the AppleTV OS can be done as described here.
Hope this helps!
hans
Thanks for the reply Hans,
It looks like there’s more to do than just taking one out and putting one in, plus using your usb stick method.
I better get reading and buying the relevant adaptors etc..
Cheers
Paul
Paul Shackleton
Well, the drive you’d need should be a PATA IDE drive or SSD – they can be found!
If you’re looking for an SSD, than look for example at Amazon. The number of PATA IDE Harddisks available is a little tougher though, I found these (160Gb and 250Gb) at Amazon.
I would try to avoid getting an adapter (SATA to PATA) = you might run into space restrictions and incompatibility issues.
Like I said: I didn’t even think about checking compatibility and just bought an PATA IDE SSD, plugged it in, recovered as described in this article and I was good to go … no need to clone the drive.
hans
THANK YOU !
My Apple TV 1 is up and running again; I’d love to have a newer generation one, but my television system doesn’t support HDMI and my bank account doesn’t support replacing my system this year lol
The children can watch movies once more, the wife and I can watch the tv programmes we have downloaded and bought from apple, and music and photos play in the background.
We are one happy family, thanks to you guys, very much appreciated !
Martin Goddard
Awesome Martin!
Glad you’ve got it all up and running again!
hans
Hi, let me first say this tut was the first one I have found that explained everything in explicit detail and didn’t assume I was a programmer, so thank you for that!! However I have an interesting predicament, my remote quit working and no app I have installed to my iPhone 4s seems to work either, any suggestions on how I can accomplish the restore when the remote don’t work for my atv and iTunes don’t see the atv? I have tested both remotes on my macbook pro and they work so I know it’s not the battery :-)
Thanks much
Kohly
Hi Kohly,
thank you very much for the compliment!
As for your remote problem; Yes that can be quite tricky indeed.
Your remote needs to be synced with your AppleTV, which for the first generation AppleTV should be done by press and hold the Menu and Next/Fast-forward buttons for 6 seconds – AppleTV needs to be on of course, but I’m not 100% sure if it actually needs to “work” to accomplish this. A chainlink appear if syncing worked. Other websites (yes I had to look this up as well) claim that you should press and hold the Menu and the Previous/Rewind (<<) button for 6 seconds.
This should be done when the orange or white light is on.
However; I have yet to run into a situation like this. Or at least: I do not recall running into this problem.
hans
Had a few problems had modified the pata and installed a sata converter installed a SATA 500GB HGST drive
Came across a few little problems that might help other People
1 Could not see the drive complained about the sta1 drive
solution was installed drive into win 7 and prepared the drive in component management formatted then deleted the format
2 loaded the software all good this time but 30 minutes in still going (not right) checked disk in win 7 not partitioned or loaded
solution PATA/SATA controlled I had to jumper for select alternative drive
3 All good but at the end when rebooting video was scrambled and white screen reinstalled the image with a new one same results
solution burn version 2 image and reinstalled
All good at this point hope this helps others to get it running now I have 461 GB to play with internally
Ted
That’s awesome!
Especially with the PATA/SATA converter.
Thanks for posting these additional tips as well!
hans
Creating the USB drive worked no problems (OS X 10.11 El Capitan), but booting up the ATV from it goes from OpenElec log to “Init started: Busybox v1.18.4” and stays there.
It was an 8GB USB thumb drive, it that makes any difference.
James
Hi James,
Sorry to hear you’re running into an issue.
Which of the images did you use? Did you use v2, v3 or an OpenElec installation?
First thing I’d try, is re-flashing the USB drive.
If that still fails, re-download one of the images and try again.
If that still fails, consider using another USB stick.
Also: could it maybe be that the harddrive of your AppleTV is “dying”?
A few visitors had this happen, where the original hard drive had become very unreliable.
I apologize for the seemingly “dumb” solutions, but it has worked for some as you might be able to see in the comments here …
hans
Thanks for your reply Hans.
I tried v3 first, then v2.
I’ll try another USB stick.
I’ve taken the HD out and run SpinRite on it, so it should be OK. But it’s still a possibility.
James
Yep, tried another USB stick, and it worked!
Thanks a) for this great tutorial, b) for your help and c) for ApplePi-Baker!
James.
James
Awesome! I’m happy to hear that James!
and …you’re most welcome!
hans
Hi,
I’ve tried this on an Apple TV that may already be dead? I’ve put in a new Hard Disk and tried to follow the tutorial. But I’ll I get is this:
Image of TV
Any ideas?
Ta
Louis
Louis
Hi Louis,
seeing the screen of you AppleTV, I’d think you might have some other issues with your AppleTV.
It either boots weird (not necessarily OS related) or your graphics chip/memory has an issue. I have never seen this, only with damaged memory or video cards in the PC world.
hans
Hi
I should have said I got passed this atage “bail. After the 30 seconds, a few information messages will appear and finally your AppleTV will reboot” with the fuzzy lines. Now the box just boots shows apple logo then boots again after say 5 mins and keeps on in that cycle. I never got the language option etc.
Ive scanned the hard disk on mac and there are no issues.
Sometimes more fuzzy lines than photod.
Thanks for reply, I suspect as you say its a board issue.
Cheers
Louis
Louis
Hi I am having the same issue with it booting to the apple logo and just staying there. I was wondering if you needed up finding a fix for this. All I seam to be able to do it get it to the boot screen weather it be the penguin sitting on the box(installing other software) or just the apple logo. Thanks in advance
Jay
Hi Jay!
I recommend testing another USB stick, if you have one.
People have reported mixed results, and when switching to another USB stick, problems seem to disappear.
Another issue could be that the harddisk of your AppleTV isn’t all that good anymore … you’d need to swap it for another one to test.
hans
I’ve added your picture, hopefully someone recognizes this “noise” …
hans
Hi; My ATV, Gen 1 hard drive crashed. Can I obtain the OS somewhere and place on a USB stick? Will it boot from a stick? If not, what about an external HD?
Dougal
Hi Dougal,
I have not ever seen a ATV1 run from an external drive or USB stick – but considering that these sticks can boot and considering that it’s running on a slimmed down Mac OS X version (as far as I read online), booting might be possible, but would probably take a lot of work.
You could look around at the AwkwardTV Wiki for more details, for example this article.
It’s probably much easier to find an ATA hard disk or SSD drive. Finding an ATA SSD however appears to be quite a challenge.
hans
Hi Hans; Thank you so much for taking the time to try to help me. It is appreciated. I’ll take your advice and see if it helps. I’ll let you know how I make out.
Thanks
Dougal
Hi Dougal!
You’re welcome – please post what you ended up doing, I’ll be looking forward to that!
hans
Hans
Get Dougal to buy a 44pin 2.5″ IDE PATA Hard drive to SATA converter adapter connector make sure its a slimline it has IDE on one side and SATA on the other its no thicker than the 2.5 Sata Hard drive reposition the drive in the apple TV1 to allow to fit the converter on the apple IDE Cable you will have to carefully remove the other crimp connector (the cable connector will remain be careful not to remove this )fit a 500Gb or 1 TB hard drive (see my Post on the drive I used)
it all fits in neatly if you do this carefully
If you like I can send you Photoes of my conversion
Ted
Hi Ted;
I am so amazed at the help being offered here. I presently already have a Seagate, 320 GB HD with connector setup shown in pictures sent in my email. Thank you and Hans so much for your help. It is more of a challenge to get my ATV 1 working as I already have a new ATV 3.
Thanks again.
Dougal
You’re most welcome!
I received your email, but only pics of the SATA connector.
You ATV needs ATA (aka PATA), so you will need a SATA->PATA adapter (as Ted suggested).
Make sure you find the smallest model you can find.
After adapter & drive have been installed, the ATV1 should “see” it as a regular drive.
hans
Thanks for the Tip and for offering to send pictures Ted
@Dougal: if you’d like to see pictures … just ask
hans
Hi Hans; As can be seen in my reply to Ted I am very grateful for the help here. Sure, I’d love to see your pictures and anything that will help.
Thank you, again
Dougal
Hans, Thanks much…. Confirmed that IMG (v3) and (v2) work for Apple TV, with Win32 Disk Imager. I initially used a differnt USB img builds, USB Image Tool, which caused the dreaded blinking “question mark”.
Rodolfo
Hi Rodolfo,
Awesome, glad to hear it worked for you
.
And … thanks for taking the time to write a thank-you note … I very much appreciated it.
hans
Hi, everybody i did all the process and it worked immediately ,i put a 250 go sata hardrive with sata to ide adapter and now i have 232 go for my music collection .Thanks you so much for your job
Nabil
Hi Rodolfo; I’ve been trying the same exact thing and it only gets to the part where it is writing files to the HD, then @ RE-Boot it goes nowhere. Did you format your HD first? Any advice would be appreciated!
Doug
Dougal
Hi Nabil!
Great to hear this worked well for you and thank you for taking the time to write a “Thank you” note – it’s much appreciated!
Could you maybe post a link to what model SATA to IDE adapter and what model drive you used?
hans
Thank you for the information. I tied uploading the two files (Factory restore2/3) on two separate thumb drives. It seemed finicky to actually get it to work and took me many times. In the end it would go through the black screen about reinstalling and booting but after that nothing would happen. Still working on the issue… Anyone else getting this? Does this system boot with no Hard drive at all? Perhaps a bad hard drive is the issue.
– hooked directly into ethernet.
– tried 2 USBs (2.0 in both cases i think)
– Files made with Apple PiBaker on El Capitan
– signal seems to be coming out of component outs when it does – not the HDMI. (you can get a black and white signal out of the blue connector if you only have one port on your TV as most do)
ps. I like how you don’t have to set up an account to write in this post since, lets face it, I probably won’t be on here again.
Tim wilson
OK, made some progress. It turns out having the HDMI cord plugged in messed things up. It seems to have only connected to the screen initially by the component outs (red green blue connectors). I don’t have component on my screen so I had the GREEN connector connected to the only port on my projector that is the same as most Tvs have (yellow RCA jack). Sorry, I mentioned this was the blue cable above.
If you are doing this set up i suggest you use the component outs or try them if you had the same issue i had.
excuse the sloppy writing, its late.
Tim wilson
Hi Tim,
glad to hear you figured it out – I have to admit that I was not aware that HDMI could cause problems, especially since I used HDMI as well when I did this with my own AppleTV. Good to know thought that there are scenario’s where HDMI might not work.
Good call to use the Composite input of a projector/TV/monitor (yellow RCA) with one of the Composite connectors (green)!
Thanks for taking the time to post that here – others might benefit from this as well.
hans
Ey guys, you’ve made my day. My Atv didn’t get it at first run, got stuck at 5% at factory resetting. So I flashed the stick a second time and did the whole procedure once more. Worked. I’m happy to have my Atv again……
Frank
Awesome! Glad it worked for you Frank!
And,…. Thank you for taking the time to write a thank-you note – it’s much appreciated
hans
Works great! – Thanks!!!
Greetings from Germany
Marc
Thanks Marc! Great to hear it worked well for you as well!
Greetings from Die Niederlande (for now anyway) …
hans
Hello there Hans, I sent you a message from my iPad earlier, and I do not see it posted it, so I am sending it again.
Currently I am trying to replace the hdd on my Apple TV 1, and you mentioned that you had replaced your atv 1 hdd with a small 32Gb ssd and worked in conjunction with a Nas for your media access; my question is, how did you get the atv 1 to see the Nas drive and what brand are you using. Currently I have a Western Digital My book Live Nas where I keep all my media but it is only seen by computers an iOS devices only , no atv..
Your info on this subject will be much appreciated.
Bilesco
Bilesco
You’re most welcom,… but you comment actually did post, just under the other AppleTV recovery article (see this link).
You can read the details there, but short version: I installed OpenElec (an embedded Linux completely optimized for KODI/XBMC).
hans
Worked first time thank you, it’s made my paper weight usable again.
Alan
Awesome!
Thanks for posting Alan! It’s much appreciated!
hans
Hello Hans,
I replaced my diseased atv hdd with a pata 120G ssd hard drive and proceeded to install the atv os version 3.2 ; had a little delay
as the installation got stuck in the section where you chose language , so I decided to use a usb 3 instead and the installation was flawless. I originally was ,going to install a sata 1 tb, but desisted from that idea, due to space limitations when you follow that method.
In my case 120G is not enough for all my media, however since I have all my media in a nas I will try to connect it to the atv using Kodi,
Thanks an awful lot for your help for all you do.
Bilesco
Bilesco
Hi Bilesco!
Awesome, great to hear that you managed to place a 120Gb SSD in your 1st-gen ATV. I did the same with a 32Gb SSD, same setup as you: Media is stored on my NAS.
If you haven’t already;
consider installing a CrystalHD (replaces the WiFi card in your ATV), so the ATV supports 1080p better …
hans
Hello Hans,
As of matter of fat, I did get the Broadcom Crystal Hd card, now that you mentioned it, when I first got the the SSD HD, but held off installing it, since you loose the wifi,i if you make the switch, however you can regain it by installing a wifi bridge or usb dongle; nevertheless my current atv os is a Linux base, which lets you display 1080P ; are there any additional benefits to installing the CrystalHd ?
Thanks for help,
Bilesco
Bilesco
With mine (running OpenElec) 1080p h264 was problematic without the CrystalHD … granted, I have no clue how things have developed since.
– much faster.
My ATV is in a guest bedroom, so it’s rarely used or updated …
As for loosing the Wifi – I really prefer wired networking for video playback
hans
Thanks Hans, I will experiment with it, once I install XBMC and get my NAS connected to it, I will post my results.
Once again thanks for your help
Bilesco
Thanks! And … You’re welcome Bilesco!
hans
hi i went through all the steps and i reached to english but its like the remote isnt responding to the box it after english the box eventually load to next screen but its asking me to click ok for screen resolution but i cant select ok do you have any suggestions .
christina
Hi Christina!
Well, as silly as it may sound, but … try using a different USB stick and try again.
For unclear reasons, the support for certain USB sticks seems unreliable. Trying the entire process again, seems to work at times. Using a different USB drive as well.
(I know that sounds horribly lame,… but as you can see in the other comments, this is not uncommon unfortunately)
hans
All I can say is thanks so much!! This page was a great help, easy step by step and everything I needed for resources was right in the document. My stuck in “failed to restore” recovery mode days are behind me and my Apple TV 1 is back up and running on vs 2.3.1(figured I would try older os and see if I liked it better as I can always update later.)
The only thing I at first stumbled with was because I tried just copying the unzipped .img file to my thumb drive, nothing was happening on powerup. Then went back and downloaded the win32 disk imager and FOLLOWED THE DIRECTIONS. Lol Voila, openelec message displayed and everything went smooth… Thank You Thank You Thank You!!!!! =)
Burke
Hi Burke!
Thank you for taking the time to post a thank-you! That’s awesome! Glad it worked for you as well!
hans
Dear author,
Thank you for enabling me to upgrade my loverly ATV1 old 32GB HDD with new Kingspec SSD 1.8″ PATA/IDE 128GB (for IBM ThinkPad X40 X41 X41T). Now I can enjoy my entire music collection streaming directly to analogue amplifier without any need to have Mac or anything to be on and streaming. I also enjoyed new SSD from eBay was a direct replacement to old HDD in ATV1 without any need to adapters and so.
Regards,
Nurlan
PS: having PayPal in your list would make me to Donate
Nurlan
Hi Nurlan,
I’m glad to hear you’ve managed to replace your drive, awesome!
As for a PayPal link; PayPal made me remove the link since my website (according to them) seems to be promoting activities they frown upon. I tried to explain it to them, but … well, no luck there.
If you’d like to donate, show at Amazon (use the link in the upper left corner) or by using PayPal (use my email address: hans at luijten dot net, subject: AppleTV Recovery) – it’s much appreciated!
hans
Hi there,
I downloaded the latest OSMC and lost my sound on my ATV1. I followed this exact process and it restored the ATV1 and I got my sound back. I then tried getting an older version of OSMC and lost my sound again. I’ve followed this exact restore process twice now, an am able to restore my ATV1 to factory settings but can’t seem to restore my sound. Help?
James
Hi James,
I have not encountered that problem …
What kind of Audio output do you use? And if optical or HDMI, what kind of device do you use for input?
hans
Hi Hans,
Audio output is just HDMI, and this is plugged in to the TV directly. Another weird turn of events last night, I then started using my ATV2 on the same HDMI cable and it worked, then once I plugged the ATV1 in again the sound was working.
Why could this be?
I’m a bit worried about installing OSMC on my ATV1 again, as twice now I haven’t had any sound when I’ve installed – and seem to still lose the sound once I fully restore, with the sound then returning randomly?
James
Well, one thing I can come up with, since it happens to me every now and then with my HTPC;
When I power up my TV after powering up my HTPC, audio can get goofy. If I power up the TV first and then my HTPC, it all works nicely.
It could of course also be a driver issue in OSCM … I never tried OSCM (for those unaware: OSMC is a Linux distro with KODI included, kind-a like OpenElec).
hans
Thanks for the response Hans. I would prefer to install OpenElec but I was struggling to do this on my ATV1. I used the instructions here http://wiki.openelec.tv/index.php/HOW-TO:AppleTV_Installation/Create_the_USB_Key#tab=Mac_OSX
but when I got to this line (below) I noticed that mine was saying disk2 in the identifier, so I didn’t know how to update the remaining lines of code, so that this would work for disk2 rather than disk1.
e.g.
Do I just update “disk1” to “disk2” or do I need to change “1m” to “2m” also?
Cheers
James
James
Oh yes, I can understand you being hesitant with that, I would be too …
Could indeed say /dev/disk2 for the USB drive, instead of /dev/disk1. It all depends on how many other drives/partitions are connected. A good thing to look for is the name of the drive.
For example, this is what my USB stick, named “LEXAR32GB”, looks like this in terminal (El Capitan 10.11.6 beta):
Which is “/dev/disk5”.
The steps for you (/dev/disk2) after “diskutil list” then should be:
Finally we use ‘dd’ to write the image file to the USB key. Notice we are using /dev/rdisk2 instead of /dev/disk2 (this is a little faster to write). You will need to enter the password for your user account when prompted:
the equivalent command for a USB install would be:
Uncompressing and writing the image to the USB key will take 1-2 minutes depending on the speed of the USB key. Once USB creation has completed you can ignore the error message about the disk being unreadable (OS X cannot read an AppleTV recovery partition) and you eject the USB:
How is OSCM running for you? Besides the potential Audio issue ….
hans
Hey guys , complete novice here ,please be gentle. I have a atv1 with only xbmc installed and no apple OS. , I’ve tried this to no joy, what am I doing wrong as it just keeps opening xbmc up. Help please.
Tony Ward
Hi Tony,
do all the steps described here execute correctly? Do you see any error messages?
Have you tried doing this with another USB stick?
hans
His Hans, can’t even seem to get it to boot off the usb , just restarts xbmc.
Tony Ward
No error messages either
Tony Ward
In that case: Try using a different USB stick. It seems that not all USB sticks are recognized properly by the ATV.
hans
Can anyone recommend a usb that works and cam it be used again if fomatted. Thanks
Tony Ward
I used, if I recall correctly, a Lexar 32Gb USB 3.0 stick. But it has been a long time ago that I needed to do this.
And yes, every stick can be wiped and reformatted for regular use.
hans
THANK YOU FOR THIS POST!!!! openELEC ain’t what it used to be… And I had to use my trusty Sandisk for the job as the other thumb disk was a bust!! :P
aydno1
Awesome!
As far as I know, OpenElec is no longer maintaining an AppleTV image for the newer KODI’s.
Which is a bummer in my opinion, but then again, I can imagine that maintaining many different hardware platforms can be a lot of work.
p.s. The OpenElec team has split in two now: OpenElec and LibreElec.
The latter seems more active, but on their forum I see that AppleTV is being pushed aside as well (see this thread).
At the moment I cannot say that LibreElec is “better”, but it runs smooth on my regular HTPC.
hans
I keep trying to download apple pi baker 1.9.4, but the version I download is labeled 1.9.0. ??
Guess I have to over-ride security as there is no sig on the file. :-(
john springer
Hi John,
Sorry to hear you’re running into a little snag there …
I just downloaded ApplePi-Baker 1.9.4, and it is labeled 1.9.4.
Maybe you have to empty the cache of your browser?
I’m not sure what you mean with the sig on the file?
hans
Getinfo from the app: (I downloaded the zip file 3 times from different links; always got the same)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-QAeQMKWAaTUWUxcUpDY3pScmM/view?usp=sharing
Also when you try to run it you get this:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-QAeQMKWAaTSjBmRHk0UXFKc1k/view?usp=sharing
(I know how to over-ride, but maybe not everyone does.)
john springer
Hi John,
The “GetInfo” is a mistake on my end, I had not updated the version number in the plist.
For the correct version number look at the window title of ApplePi-Baker (which at this time should say 1.9.4).
By the way: downloading ApplePi-Baker from different source is at your own risk. You should always get the latest version from Tweaking4All.
As for the “untrusted” message: Go to the Apple menu -> System Preferences -> Security and Privacy.
There you have to set “Allow Apps downloaded from” to “Anywhere”.
Maybe in the future I’ll sign up for a developers account with Apple. Unfortunately, they charge $99/year for that, and with the current advertising and donations, I can barely keep the website running, and at this time I’d rather not charge for the applications I create.
Let me know if there is anything else I can help you with, and thanks again for bringing the wrong version number in the plist to my attention!
hans
Ok on the version. I thought that might be what happened but wasn’t sure. I downloaded all from your site but trying different ways to get to the download to see if I got a different result.
For the security, you don’t have to turn it off. Try to open and fail; go to system>security and it will show you app failed to open. Click the padlock to unlock and enter password. Then click Open anyway. Then go to app and Command click and say it’s ok. Only have to do that once.
John
Yeah the version was boo-boo on my end
….
Thanks for the security tip!
After a while I got quite fed-up with it and just disabled it all the way. Maybe not the best advise for all users.
So … thanks again!
hans