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Enable USB on the Apple Tv

This guide only applies to the original silver Apple TV and not to the newer, black model.

The AppleTV is sort of a piece of junk unless you hack it so if you intend to actually get any use out of your apple tv you better do it. Here is how you enable USB so that you can play media off of attached storage (novel concept eh!).

Note: This Tutorial assumes you’re using AppleTV TakeTwo or the latest update (3.0). If you’re not sure run Apple TV’s update before starting

Step 1: Hack your ATV

This is a pretty easy process, you can find instructions here. You don’t actually have to install Boxee but follow the instructions except instead of creating a boxee USB you can just select “SSH”. Great, now to enable USB

Step 2: Install NitoTV

There are lots of ways to enable USB, trust me this is the easiest. SSH onto your AppleTV, download NitoTV and install it. Heres the code:

Valencia:~ ronin$ ssh frontrow@appletv.local
Welcome to the AppleTV (via atv-usbcreator)
frontrow@appletv.local's password:
-bash-2.05b$ wget http://nitosoft.com/nitoTVInstaller_tt.zip
-bash-2.05b$ unzip nitoTVInstaller_tt.zip
-bash-2.05b$ cd "nitoTV Take Three"/
-bash-2.05b$ sudo ./installme

This will install NitoTV and then restart your AppleTV’s finder, in other words you will have new options on your ATV menu.

Step 3: Prep for USB

Because the apple tv is purposely neutered you’ll need to snag the USB drivers from the 10.4.9 combo update. Heres the code

-bash-2.05b$ cd ~/Documents/
-bash-2.05b$ wget http://supportdownload.apple.com/download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/Mac_OS_X/downloads/061-3165.20070313.iU8y4/MacOSXUpdCombo10.4.9Intel.dmg

Step 4: Install USB support

Great, now the combo update has been downloaded to the Documents folder. Go to your Apple TV menu and go NitoTV -> Settings -> Install Software -> Smart Installer

This will take a minute but when its done you can plugin USB drives and your Apple TV will recognize it. Volia!

If your Apple TV doens’t recognize your drive try restarting your appletv either by typing “sudo reboot” or unplugging and plugging in your ATV.


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techa76 5 pts

it there a step by step version of this page anywhere, i dont know how to "SSH onto your AppleTV"

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Dan Awesome 5 pts moderator

@techa76 First you need a ssh client. If you have a Mac or Linux ssh is built into terminal. Just open terminal and type ssh frontrow@[ATV IP address] If you're on windows Google a program called Putty, it'll handle ssh. To get the IP address of your apple TV you might login to your router.

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teamofvass 5 pts

Have already installed NitoTV as a zip file from xbmc. Now I am trying to enable the USB port but have 2 problems...

 

1. I can not find the Smart Installer in NitoTV

and 

2. with ssh user: frontrow the password frontrow is access denied !!!

 

Thank you for your time....!!!

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RemiiRivers 5 pts

is there any new updates for how to enable the USB on the ATV gen 1?

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Dan Awesome 5 pts moderator

@RemiiRivers No update. It still works you just need the right combo update.

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RemiiRivers 5 pts

 Dan Awesome  RemiiRivers I couldn't follow the procedure that you had laid out because the link for the gizmodo has an old setup for the 2.1, where it would give me an error for not being able to find the source for it was not found.  So I searched around and was able to at least get XBMC on my ATV.  I figured from there, I would be able to follow your terminal directions, but I get stuck w the point of the password.  I tried entering in alpine to see if that would work, but that didn't.  Do you know anything I can do or help me along my way to use the USB port.

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Dan Awesome 5 pts moderator

 RemiiRivers Follow the rooting instructions laid out here: http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/

 

As for the password it should be frontrow.

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AdamRodriguez1 5 pts

This is a good guide - but I still want to know how to then copy the files from my USB to the AppleTV hard drive. Any advice?

And FYI, the only time the AppleTV recognized my USB drives was when I used a mac formatted drive.

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Buddy101 5 pts

It says "right click to patch recovery partition" in the smart installer option. Click "yes" to that also?

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dolanpatrick 5 pts

Can you use Ubuntu or a windows PC to do this? Will it work with hfs +

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Dan Awesome 5 pts moderator

dolanpatrick Yes, yes and yes.

With windows you need to use an SSH client like Putty.

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dolanpatrick 5 pts

Dan Awesomedolanpatrick and you are telling me also that this is just for Apple TV Gen 1?

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Dan Awesome 5 pts moderator

dolanpatrick That is correct.

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Thanks, mang. That worked perfectly and was super easy.

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I have been reading the comments about appleTV not recognizing external hard drives.

I noticed a comment that aTV only recognizes fat32.  My external drive is 1T and is NTFS

Can I format that to fat32?  When I clicked on format it said NTFS or exFat

Thanks Greg

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my apple tv does not recognize my usb external.. i have done every step :( help????

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Thank you so much, this was a breeze to follow. 100% successful on three different apple TVs. I only wish I had found your directions first before wading through all the other BS.

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simpler nitoTV Take Three installation instructions:
apt-get install wget
wget http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16129573/com.nito.deb
dpkg -i com.nito.deb
apt-get update
apt-get install com.nito.nitotv
Thanks!!!

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Dan Awesome 5 pts moderator

The problem with this is that a normal hacked appletv doesn't have apt-get installed.

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will this also work with adding Apple's external USB optical drive? i would like to be able to put in CDs (like a stereo)

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I doubt it, this installs the drivers needed for usb mass storage devices. But if you try it and it works let me know.

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http://supportdownload.apple.c...

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Dang auto correct! Freaken rock lol!!!

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my mistake it has to be identical to whats put, all caps etc

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doesnt work now, went to the apple thing to get the 10.4.... and it says not found

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> old style plist parser error or xml error

I am getting this too. Does anyone know what/where the USB drivers are in the MacOSXUpdCombo10.4.9Intel.dmg? I savvy enough that I don't have any problem manually copying them, I just need to know which files to grab.

Thanks!

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Great work. Much Appreciated!

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i followed your instructions, but the smart installer reports this: old style plist parser error or xml error?

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Dan:
I did like you said and it all worked like a charm. I have a followup: How can I copy those media files on my USB drive onto the Apple TV's hard drive? Any quick and easy solutions? thanks much.

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No easy solution I'm afraid. If you want to copy files you'll have to ssh in and do it with terminal.

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Confirmed that this works flawlessly on a newly purchased from an Apple store unit. I installed Boxee first but I don't think that's relevant. I did format my drive (Seagate) to HFS+ because I thought maybe it was just a fs issue which can affect some Macs. Anyways, did this; plugged the drive in and absolutely no worries from here on out. Cheers!

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ok I am not doing something right. I try to run sudo ./installme and winscp says, "Host not responding for more than 15 secs"

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Ok I found my mistake. It was Winscp. I switched to Putty and the install went as planned. But one question....I wanted to use my external drive to extend the capacity of the ATV. Is this not possible using NITOtv or should I use another hack?

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thank you so much!!!!!!! i really appreciate all the information i have gathered from here. i had a feeling it wasn't that hard. keep the good work and god bless dan

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How do I know if the apple tv has recognized the hard drive? when i view the apple tv in my iTunes, it still reports the apple tv storage space as 144GB but I have a 1TB western digital passport plugged into the usb port. I ran smart installer and it said everything was installed successfully. any ideas? thanks in advance.

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The normal ATV software won't play off of your harddrive without some significant changes. Since you ran the smart installer you installed NitoTV. Nito can play all those files, open up the nito player and see if you can find the hard drive in there.

If you just want a sure fire way to see if the hard drive is connected and mounted ssh in. Once you're logged on type the command "df -h" this will show you every mounted drive you have. If your hard drive isn't in there try unplugging it and plugging it back in and then waiting a minute.

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Thank you very much - got a used 40MB ATV when I realized I could add a terabyte sized external drive. Now I don't have to have to run iTunes to watch or listen to my media.

I have zero experience with Apple's OS but was able to follow you directions and get the USB drive enabled(did take me a couple of hours, mainly looking for a way to figure out the SSH link and how to enter the commands). Guess my next challenge is to format the drive in FAT32.

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Glad to hear it! To get around formatting the drive over ssh just plug that external into your computer and format it. Easy, then plug it in. Good to go.

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thanks you it just worked like a charm

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YOU ROCK!!!!! thanks a lot!!!

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The process above does not work any longer. The file that you download from nitosoft.com is actually nitoTV Take Three. Change the command:

-bash-2.05b$ cd "nitoTV Take Two"/

to

-bash-2.05b$ cd "nitoTV Take Three"/

and all will work.

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Thanks Dan - I'll give the downgrade a whirl! See if that fixes my problem!

Q

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This is probably the most extensive write-up I've seen for hacking the AppleTV.

I've got an AppleTV running v3 of the apple OS software. I've patched it using a patchstick, & installed NitoTV, run the combo update, Kext & super installer via the NitoTV menu & I've read lots of pages about getting an external USB drive working, but do you think I can get it to work?

I've plugged 3 different external drives in varing in size from 120GB to 2TB and none are picked up. I even use Putty to 'dk -f' to see what drives are mounted and it doesn't show my external drives at all - none of the 3 appear in the mount list.

They're all NTFS drives as I'm running windows systems at home (no Macs... yet) so what am I doing wrong?

The whole reason I patched my AppleTV was so I could plug in my external drive and watch the media on there at my leisure!

Hope you can help!

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I haven't tested it with v3. I actually keep my atv running on v2. You can downgrade by following these instructions http://patchstick.wikispaces.com/Oops,+I+update...

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Thanks Dan - I'll give the downgrade a whirl! See if that fixes my problem!

Q

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It's the fact that the drives are NTFS that's giving you grief. I had the same problem initially and ended up just breaking down and formatting a drive in HFS. Works like charm for me and I'm running 3.0.2 right now.

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