Disney Plus Not Working on Apple TV? Here’s the Fix!

Got a scheduled movie night, but Disney Plus is not working on your Apple TV? 

When Disney Plus was released last year, fans got very excited due to what the app can bring to the table. It is an on-demand movie streaming service with the best shows from Marvel, Star Wars, Disney, and Pixar. 

Besides the excellent lineup of movies and TV shows, Disney Plus is also available across multiple platforms making the app accessible to any user. 

Unfortunately, many users were disappointed with the app a few days after its release due to unexpected problems. While bugs and glitches are normal for newly released applications, this is not what you would expect for a premium service like Disney Plus. 

 If you are reading this, Disney Plus is probably not working on your Apple TV, and you have no idea how to fix it. 

Thankfully, you’ve come to the right place. 

Today, we’re going to show you precisely what to do if Disney Plus is not working on your Apple TV. 

Let’s begin!

1. Check Disney Plus Servers. 

Every time you encounter errors on Disney Plus, the first thing that should always come to your mind is to check its servers. To do this, you can use third-party services like Downdetector to view the status of the platform. 

Disney Plus Server Status

It is a website that shows the current situation of applications and the issues they encountered for the last 24 hours. 

If Disney Plus’ servers are down, we suggest that you just wait for their team to address the issue since server problems are not fixable on your end. However, you can still do the rest of the methods below to alleviate the situation if you need to access Disney Plus right now. 

2. Try Watching Another Show. 

Movies and other shows on Disney Plus may encounter temporary errors and become unplayable for some time. If you have issues playing a specific title on the platform, try to watch a random show on the media library and see if the situation would be the same. 

Proceed to the last method below if the problem only occurs on particular shows on the Disney Plus app to report the issue.

You can also visit our dedicated guide if you cannot watch anything on Disney Plus

3. Lower the Stream Quality. 

If you experience playback issues with Disney Plus on your Apple TV, the problem could be with your network connection. Streaming HD videos online need a high-speed connection, and if your internet cannot keep up, the video would buffer or won’t play at all. 

To fix this, lower the stream quality of Disney Plus to reduce the load on your network. Check out the steps below to change the stream quality on the app: 

  1. First, open Disney Plus on your device and access your Profile
  2. After that, go to the App Settings
  3. Lastly, select Save Data from the options and go back to the media library. 
Change Data Usage Disney Plus

Once done, play a couple of titles on Disney Plus to check if the app is now working correctly on your Apple TV. 

4. Re-Login to Your Account. 

Your user data may have encountered a temporary bug or glitch that causes the Disney Plus app to run into errors. To fix this, sign out of your current session and log back in after several minutes to refresh your account data. 

To log out of Disney Plus on your Apple TV, follow the steps below: 

  1. On your Apple TV, find Disney Plus from the main screen and launch the app. 
  2. After that, tap on your Avatar to access your profile page. 
  3. Lastly, click on Log Out to complete the process. 
Log Out Disney Plus

Wait for 2 to 3 minutes before logging back into your Disney Plus account and check if the problem is solved. 

5. Check and Reset Your Internet. 

Disney Plus has a bandwidth requirement of 5 Mbps to use the platform without issues and 25 Mbps for playing 4K UHD titles. If your network is slower than the required speed, errors and other problems may occur on the app. 

To check if your network is the problem, run a test using Fast.com to measure its current upload and download speed. 

Speed Test

If you’ve confirmed that your internet is the culprit, restart your router to re-establish the link with your ISP’s servers. 

Restart Router

Once done, perform another speed test on your network to confirm if the restart worked. On the other hand, contact your service provider if your network continues to run slow and ask them to address the issue. 

You can also consider upgrading your current plan if it is below the required 5 Mbps of Disney Plus.

6. Restart Your Apple TV. 

One of the simplest things to do when troubleshooting a problem on your device is to restart it. Although the process looks very basic, it is effective for eliminating any temporary errors on your operating system and flushing out random data on your device’s memory. 

Now, if Disney Plus is not working on your Apple TV, check out the steps below to restart it: 

For Apple TV HD and 4K:

  1. First, open your Apple TV and access its Settings page. 
  2. After that, navigate to the System tab. 
  3. Lastly, select Restart and follow the on-screen prompts. 
Disney Plus not working on Apple TV

For Apple TV 3rd Gen or Older: 

  1. Access the Settings page of your Apple TV
  2. Next, open the General tab. 
  3. Finally, click on Restart

Once done, go back to Disney Plus and check if the app is now working. 

7. Update Disney Plus. 

Disney rolls out timely updates on their application to ensure that it is well optimized and errors are getting patched. The application’s security also improves every update to prevent hackers from acquiring your account or infiltrating your device. 

To update Disney Plus on your Apple TV, follow the steps below: 

  1. First, open the Settings on your Apple TV
  2. After that, go to the Apps tab. 
  3. Lastly, turn on the ‘Automatically Update Apps’ feature on your Apple TV
Disney Plus not working on Apple TV

Wait for your device to update all the applications installed in it and try re-accessing Disney Plus. 

8. Update Your Apple TV. 

After updating Disney Plus, it is vital to update your Apple TV to avoid compatibility issues. This will also ensure that the update patches up any bugs and glitches on tvOS. 

To update your Apple TV, see the guide below: 

  1. First, open your Apple TV and access Settings
  2. After that, navigate to System > Software Updates
  3. Lastly, click on Update Software and follow the on-screen prompts to update your Apple TV
Disney Plus not working on Apple TV

Go back to Disney Plus afterwards to check if the app is now working correctly on your device.

 

9. Reinstall Disney Plus. 

If the update did resolve the issue, we suggest that you reinstall the app on your Apple TV. Disney Plus may not be installed correctly, or some of its resources got corrupted during use or when an update failed to push through. 

To fix this, follow the steps below to reinstall Disney Plus on your device: 

  1.  On your main screen, locate Disney Plus and select it using the remote. 
  2. Now, hold the touchpad for an extended period or until the app icons start to shake. 
  3. After that, access the options screen by pressing the Play/Pause button on your remote. 
  4. Lastly, select Delete and follow the on-screen prompts to continue. 
Disney Plus not working on Apple TV

Once done, reinstall Disney Plus on your Apple TV and check if the problem is solved. 

10. No Sound or Audio on Disney Plus?

If you experience audio or sound problems with Disney Plus on your Apple TV, do the following steps below to fix it. 

  1. First, ensure that your Apple TV is not on mute and the volume is turned up. 
  2. After that, restart your Apple TV by following the steps on Method 6
  3. Now, check your HDMI connectors if it is plugged in correctly and ensure that they don’t have any physical damage. 
  4. Next, navigate to Settings > Video and Audio > Audio Output
  5. Lastly, ensure that you’ve selected the correct audio output device. 

Go back to the Disney Plus app afterwards to check if your audio is now working. 

11. Reset Your Apple TV. 

Settings and other resources on your Apple TV may have been changed by other applications and caused Disney Plus to malfunction. It is also possible that tvOS’ system files encountered a severe error, and the update can no longer fix it. 

In this case, we suggest that you reset your Apple TV to eliminate any errors. Check out the guide below to reset your device: 

  1. First, open Settings on your Apple TV
  2. After that, go to the System tab. 
  3. Lastly, select Reset and follow the prompts to continue with the process. 
Disney Plus not working on Apple TV

Wait for your Apple TV to reset, which may take a while, depending on your system. Once done, reinstall Disney Plus on your device and check if the problem is solved. 

12. Change Your DNS. 

If you experience slow streams, even if your network is running correctly, try to change your DNS. Your ISP’s default server could be having issues now, and your Apple TV is struggling to communicate with Disney Plus. 

To fix this, use other DNS servers in the meantime by following the steps below: 

  1. On your Apple TV, access the Settings and go to General
  2. After that, open the Network tab and select Wi-Fi
  3. Now, select your current network and click on Configure DNS
  4. Finally, select Manual configuration and use Google’s DNS server, which is 8.8.8.8.

Go back to Disney Plus and check if you can now watch movies and TV shows without problems.

 

13. Report the Problem to Disney Plus. 

If Disney Plus is still not working on your Apple TV, we suggest that you get in touch with their customer support through the Help Center

From there, you can contact their team through chat, phone, or social media to report the issue. When asking for help, provide all the necessary details to help speed up the troubleshooting process, like your account information, a screenshot of the error and the device you are using. 

Disney Plus not working on Apple TV

You can also browse the other guides on the Help Center and see if you can find any solutions. 

This sums up our guide in fixing Disney Plus if it’s not working on Apple TV. If you have questions, please leave a comment below, and we’ll do our best to help you out. 

If this guide helped you, please share it. 🙂

Author

  • John Sixto

    John is a staff writer at Saint and comes from a SAP ABAP development background. He has a Bachelors in IT and has been writing since 2018, with over 500 posts published. He loves to build PCs and has a deep curiosity in understanding how different components and configurations work. John spends hundreds of hours at a time, researching and testing the software and apps, before he proceeds to write about it. LinkedIn X (Twitter)

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