If you’re still hanging on to an old Apple TV model, iOS 16 breaks one of the most useful features. With this update, you are no longer able to cast most content using AirPlay from your iPhone to your Apple TV. This only affects the second-generation and third-generation Apple TV models, which were released in 2010 and 2012, respectively.
As pointed out by iCreate, this seems to primarily affect content that is DRM-restricted. This includes pretty much every streaming service, such as Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, Hulu, and many more. This has also been discussed among many Apple TV 2 and Apple TV 3 users on Reddit.
iCreate notes:
If you attempt to AirPlay a movie or TV show from one of those services to an Apple TV 2 or Apple TV 3, you’ll be presented with a vague error message: “There was an error loading this content. Try again later.” Testing with an iOS 15.7 device, AirPlay still works with the Apple TV 2 and Apple TV 3, even with DRM-restricted content.
Remarkably, another AirPlay function still works: Synchronous playback. This allows you to display the image from your iPhone or iPad one on one on your television. But as soon as you open a movie from a streaming service in this mode, the above error message will appear again. So it seems to be a bug that only affects protected content (with DRM).
It’s still possible that this is a bug that Apple addresses with a future software update, but it’s still present in this week’s release of iOS 16.0.3. Unfortunately for those Apple TV users, it’s likely a purposeful change that relates to stringent DRM requirements.
Apple’s last software update for the Apple TV 3, which was Apple TV Software 7.9, came out on March 14 of this year (via Aaron).
In a similar vein, we’ve seen a number of services drop support for their old Apple TV apps in recent months. This includes things like YouTube, CBS All Access, Crunchyroll, and MLB At Bat. In fact, when these apps were discontinued, the companies pointed to using AirPlay as a solution. This is no longer possible thanks to iOS 16.
With the 2012 and 2013 release dates in mind, this is not a surprising change. In fact, it’s shocking that support lasted for this long in the first place. The real downside, however, is that Apple sold the third-generation Apple TV until late 2016. At that time, it was sold for $69, making it an enticing option for people who wanted an Apple TV without paying close to $200.
Because the Apple TV 3 was sold until late 2016, there are still a ton of them out in the wild and they are often key parts of a user’s home theater setup. Losing a key feature like AirPlay, with no acknowledgment from Apple directly, is a major disappointment for those users.
