tvOS 27: Audio stops on shared library after 5 minutes

The issue is with small interleaving on ripped files. The solution is to use MP4box to set the interleave to 500 milliseconds. Once you install gpac using Homebrew, the following bash command in terminal will do this on every MP4 file in or under the current folder. So go to your movie and/or TV folder and run it there:

find . -type f -name “*.mp4” | while read -r file; do MP4Box -inter 500 “$file”; done

I installed MP4Box and tried the command and initially it failed. I ran the suggested command past Claude AI who said the following:

"Why the command failed

The problem is the quotation marks. The forum turned the plain straight quotes " into curly “smart” quotes “ ”, and when you copied the command, Terminal received the curly ones. The shell (zsh) doesn’t treat curly quotes as quotes. It reads them as ordinary characters that are part of the file name, so it looked for files whose names literally begin with “ and end with .mp4”. When no such file exists, zsh stops with “no matches found.” The “$file” later in the command has the same problem.

Here is the corrected command, with straight quotes. I’ve also extended it to cover your .m4v files, since the original only looked for .mp4:

find . -type f \( -name "*.mp4" -o -name "*.m4v" \) | while read -r file; do MP4Box -inter 500 "$file"; done

Copy it from the box above rather than from the forum, so the quotes stay straight."

Using the command with the correct plain straight quotes worked and my files were fixed. Hope this helps anyone who encounters a similar problem

Thanks! MP4Box Interleave to 500 milliseconds solved my audio issue also… I set the file to output to a new file just in case when I tested but the full movie played with no drops. Tested with a few more files and all audio drops on original HomePods were resolved and when streaming from iPad to older HomePods.

Same here, same setup has worked flawless until the HomePod 27 (24j361) update now dropped audio after two minutes will resume if you pause and restart.

I've created a shortcut app for the audio fix. You can add it to your dock and then drop files or folders on it (it should process sub-folders) to fix the audio. The only evidence it is running is the Shortcut icon in the menu bar. You get a notification when it's finished. It will process both MP4 and MV4 files. You can open it in the Shortcuts app to see how it is constructed.

You need to have MP4box installed. There is an installer for GPAC (which includes MP4box) which I used and it is a standard one-click installer so very simple. It is here (look for latest OSX build):

I made this Shortcut for myself and I am posting the link here in case other people want to use it. I cannot support or trouble shoot this in any way, I am offering it as is.

The first time you run it, macOS may ask for permission to access the folder or drive. Click Allow.

Each file is processed in place. I strongly suggest you test this first by duplicating some files that are displaying the audio glitch and then drop them on this shortcut to see if it works. If it is working for you can then process entire folders, including sub-folders, in one go. I used it to process an entire folder of over 400 hundred movies and it took a couple of hours or more (I went to bed and left it running).

Here is the download link.

If it doesn’t work

“MP4Box: command not found”: open Terminal and type which MP4Box. If the folder it shows isn’t /opt/homebrew/bin or /usr/local/bin, put that folder at the start of the export PATH= line instead.

The Dock icon won’t accept drops: use the right-click Quick Action instead. Or make the same thing in Automator (File → New → Application, add Run Shell Script with “Pass input: as arguments,” paste the script, and save it). An Automator application is a dependable drop target that you can keep in the Dock or on the Desktop.

Hope this helps

[Edited by Moderator]

I have noted the same using my Apple Music playlists with HomePods. Resuming play on the song resolved it, but not it’s ideal. I’ve seen a few other reports as well. Please submit feedback to report the issue: Feedback - Apple TV - Apple

Getting this problem too. Pausing and starting solves it temporarily until the next time.

It only started after the upgrade to tvOS 27.

The number and timing of the cut outs seems to be random.

No occurrence of this before the upgrade.

Just got my home pods and set up a stereo pair and now having this issue when using the Apple TV home sharing app. Everything worked fine when I was using a surround sound system and still does if I pick the TV as the audio output. I have the latest Apple TV ordered and wanted to use the surround system with them once it comes. Very frustrating and not very encouraging.

I used the following command. Just navigated to the folder. I would always recommend backing up your files before running a command like this against your library and I ran it on a smaller folder first and tested before eventually running against my full library.

find . -type f -name "*.mp4" -print0 | while IFS= read -r -d '' file; do MP4Box -inter 500 "$file"; done

• Searches the current folder and all subfolders for MP4 files.
• Runs MP4Box on each matching file.
• Does not explicitly create a separate output file. 

One other new thing to add: the audio issue seems to be tied exclusively to files that I either ripped from my DVDs or have obtained outside of the iTunes Store (or Apple TV store, whatever the **** it's called now). When I tried to watch a show using Home Sharing that I had bought from Apple, the audio remained available for the full 10 minutes I watched. When I went back to watching Mad Men, not bought from the store, the audio fell out after 2 minutes as usual.

So, not entirely sure what that means but there's likely a technical issue here with audio codecs or converting for AirPlay. I'll keep poking around and troubleshooting to see if I can isolate the issue. The upcoming tvOS version still does not fix the issue, nor does playing with the audio settings (stereo only, 16-bit, whatever). Deeply, deeply annoying and frustrating bug.

It’s not “a reported issue” unless you actually do report it because Apple doesn’t read these forums to be made aware. Please use this link to submit your report ——> Feedback - Apple TV - Apple

Unfortunately the forum moderators deleted the included links.

You can get the MP4box installer by searching for the GPAC website and look for the download page

I created my Shortcut using Claude AI. I gave it the short code that is in the other messages in this thread (remember to ask the AI too make sure the correct quotation marks are used). I then asked the AI to describe step by step in a simple way how to create a Shortcut to make an app to implement the fix through drag and drop.

I will try adding the direct download link for my shortcut with spaces inserted to get around the moderation - it may or may not work

Take out the spaces

tonyswash. com / Fix-Audio .zip

Are you using HomePods as speakers or something else? I know it is not a general problem because it doesn’t happen with other apps. But trying to determine if the same issue happens with home shared libraries, even without HomePods.

Okay I managed to get it to work by using terminal once I had installed GPAC and remembered how to switch to a directory on my Mac. Tried it with one TV series in one folder and it seems to have worked.

We have the exact problem as well. I was actually trying to see if anyone was. Glad it is a reported issue. Worked completely fine until the update to 27. Now we get about 3 minutes consistently before we get silent audio on our local video files.

For some reason, last week this issue stopped for me with my home library, but it started again Friday so I'm back to square one. I've upgraded the machine it's streaming from as well and nothing seems to help. I'm using Symfonisk Sonos speakers, so it's an airplay issue with tvOS 27 and home sharing for sure. All other apps are working just as they always have. Not sure it's going to be fixed in the next version either because I've tried that as well.

This is terrifying to do in bulk but so far no issues. Test files have worked without a hitch. Going to set it up so that it doesn't make any modifications to movies/shows I've bought from the iTunes store but this is definitely gonna be a multi-day project for me.

I can't figure out how to get this to work and frankly am a bit nervous doing it as I was getting a bunch of warning. Is there an app that can do this on mac?

I am talking about using terminal to change the interleaving to 500.

The problem is not with HomePods as when watching tv with a satellite box the problem doesn’t happen.

I tried both HomePods and tv speakers and it did it as well. It's also not every video file we have either. But the ones that have the issue, will have the issue every single time.

Still happening after the recent update to tvOS 27.2

That’s very frustrating. I was hoping this would be fixed right away.

Particularly since the introduction of a new appletv.

Same here

I haven't done this yet, but how did you identify the issue and solution??

Mine works fine using the TV speakers with the same exact tv show.

Thanks!

Thanks!

Sorry. Replied twice. Thanks Tony from London.

I download both files and installed GPAC. When I try and drop files onto the Fix Audio app it just says it can't be opened. Any idea what I am doing wrong?

If you drop it on the app it won’t work. Add it to your dock and then drop the file or folder on the icon in the dock. Works for me

Thanks. Had it in the dock. But I can use terminal know and it works well. Thanks to your GPAC link.