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I am afraid to update my Mac to iTunes 11 since I still use an original AppleTV (the old one with the hard drive) on one of my televisions. Does anyone know if the original AppleTV is compatible with iTunes 11?

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The built in help still mentions both generations of Apple TV, so it would be poor form to have silently dropped support. You'll want to make sure you have a good backup since iTunes 11 also installs new frameworks that don't let the older app to run until you clean them out and reinstall all the old frameworks and helper programs for iTunes syncing. – bmike♦ Nov 29 '12 at 19:22
I would assume thAt if my brothers first gen iPod works, then yes. – Cole Johnson Dec 6 '12 at 0:24
I have the same problem. 1st generation apple tv and the latest iTunes are giving me more problems than than pleasure. If your older version of iTunes is working fine, no need to upgrade. – blismer Jan 28 at 20:38

3 Answers

up vote 7 down vote accepted
+50

I ended up testing this myself.

  • Syncing content works
  • Restoring the device works

I haven't exhaustively tested everything possible, but I did write up what I have tested in more detail on my blog.

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1  
Would you mind posting your findings here in addition to the link to your blog? – JoshP Dec 3 '12 at 15:22
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If you buy from the store on the 1st gen Apple TV, you can no longer copy from the Apple TV back to your computer through iTunes 11, or atleast I have not found a way. You are forced to download the content twice. I'm getting a lot of Error -50's when downloading on my computer. I was avoiding these by downloading on my Apple TV and then copying back to my computer but this is no longer an option. iTunes 11 has removed some very useful features in my opinion.

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Error -50 has nothing to do with old devices: support.apple.com/kb/TS1583 – Cole Johnson Dec 6 '12 at 0:25
Could you elaborate on this? The accepted answer seems to say that syncing new content works for them. – bmike♦ Jan 28 at 21:26
up vote 0 down vote

It doesn't work! It does not appear in the device menu unless I delete the account on the apple tv and re-sync it, then it disappears after the sync and you have to keep doing this every time you want to sync it!

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