I unplug my Apple TV once a month for a very good reason

Streaming boxes and sticks are no doubt faster and better than your smart TV, but that doesn’t mean they don’t run into problems from time to time. These problems get worse as they age, and while my first-generation Apple TV 4K is still alive and kicking, it’s having hiccups more often than it used to. It has me wanting to pick up a new one, but I’m trying to hold off on that for a little while longer.

Aside from just buying a new one, there are a few ways to breathe life into my Apple TV 4K, and many more older devices. You may have heard of the familiar advice about unplugging it and plugging it back in, but what if I told you that it works? There’s no good reason you should keep your devices running for months at a time without giving them a restart every now and then. There’s no downside, and the upside is your device could start running smoother.

Give your devices a reset periodically

It helps them perform better

When my Apple TV 4K runs into trouble, instead of sitting around and hoping things get better, I just give it a reset. You could do it through your settings by navigating to the restart option, or you could unplug it for a few seconds before plugging it back in. This method hasn’t let me down yet, and I don’t imagine it’ll happen any time in the future.

It’s odd, but it gets the job done. There’s actually a reason behind this, and it’s because it clears the device’s cache. As you use your Apple TV, Roku, etc. it’ll store more and more information, and eventually it’ll be bogged down by it. I’m not talking about a straight factory reset, as that restores your device to how it was out of the box. I’m talking about the regular restarts that clear that cache and let it run smoother.

This doesn’t wipe out any of your installed apps, so there’s no need to worry about anything like that. The whole process takes just a few seconds, so you should give the restart a try if you run into problems. If you do this several times a year, you preemptively solve many of the issues you might run into. It might feel like overkill, but it really doesn’t take more than a few seconds to do it. In my experience, this has worked for my Apple TV 4K, my Xbox Series X and S, and my phone whenever it has trouble. It really is a tried and true method, so give it a try the next time your devices start to slow down.

It won’t fix all your problems

Some issues can’t be fixed

While a simple restart can fix a lot of things, doing this won’t suddenly make a dead device come back to life. If you notice your streaming stick starting to stutter or move sluggishly, by all means give it a restart. However, if your device turns off after a few seconds or won’t turn on at all, it needs much more than a reset.

If restarting your device isn’t fixing its problems, it might be time to bite the bullet and buy a new one. That’s not ideal, but time waits for nobody, and your aging piece of technology is quite prone to the passage of time. If that’s the case, it’s time to open up the wallet and buy a new device. I never said this would fix all your problems, but I find restarting my device once a month keeps it running nicely, and if you make a nice routine each month, then you might be able to prolong your Apple TV for a few years because it won’t feel awful to use all the time.