How to Get Web Browser on Apple TV 4 And Apple TV 4K.
While the Apple TV includes some great apps and games, there is no web browser for the Apple TV, which means the only way to browse the web on Apple TV is via AirPlay from other Apple devices or by installing such apps. like AirBrowser to your iPhone and iPad, which turns your phone into a trackpad and keyboard. Honestly, you should try too.
Read: How to Record Apple TV Output Screen Without Any Cables
But you know what, you can also get your own web browser on Apple TV. While it’s not a full-fledged web browser like Safari or Google Chrome, you can do some basic web surfing, play flash videos, and browse data-aware websites.
So let’s take a look at how to set up a web browser on Apple TV.
Before we start
Make sure you have the following devices on your Apple TV
1. Macbook or iMac,
2. USB A to USB C cable
3. And, of course, Apple TV.
Once all of these things are at your fingertips, follow the instructions.
Install the web browser on Apple TV 4 and Apple TV 4K
Step 1
We’ll be using Xcode to additionally download the web browser to Apple TV, so install Xcode from the App Store. It’s free, but the setup file is around 5GB, so make sure you have a fast internet connection.
Step 2
After that, connect your Apple TV and Mac with a Type-C cable and launch Xcode on your Mac.
In this case, we’re using Xcode version 9, but in the case of Apple TV 4, however, if you’re using an Apple TV 4k that doesn’t have a USB C port, you can still connect it wirelessly to Xcode. )
Step 3
Then open a web browser on your Mac and go to that GitHub url. On the Github page, click the green tab in the center right of the page that says “Clone or Download”. Copy the url from the small popup.
Step 4
Launch Xcode and click “clone” on the “Source Control” tab in the menu bar. Paste the url you copied from the GitHub page and click clone.
Step 5
Choose a location and name for your file and click “clone” again from the drop-down menu.
Step 6
Then open the projects folder from the search box that displays your cloned files and double-click Browser.xcodeproj. This will open the project in Xcode.
Step 7
Click on the play switch build to build the project. Then, you will most likely see a notification that says “Build Failed”. This is because “UIWebView” is not available on tvOS. Let’s see how to fix this problem in the next step.
Step 8
Open the search box and go to the Applications tab on the left. Find Xcode at the end of the list and right-click it to select Show Package Contents.
Now go to Content Developer Platforms AppleTVOS.platform Developer SDK AppleTVOS.sdk usr include.
Open the file “Availability.h” and find the following lines around line 318.
#define__TVOS_UNAVAILABLE __OS_AVAILABILITY (TVs, not available)
#define__TVOS_PROHIBITED __OS_AVAILABILITY (TVs, not available)
Replace these lines with the following lines
#define __TVOS_UNAVAILABLE_NOTQUITE __OS_AVAILABILITY (TVs, not available)
#define __TVOS_PROHIBITED_NOTQUITE __OS_AVAILABILITY (TVs, not available)
Save the “Availability.h” file and return to the Xcode project page. Click build again and you’re done, you now have a web browser on your Apple TV.
Troubleshoot construction errors
For those of you who are having trouble editing the “Availability.h” file due to missing required permissions, follow these steps. Right-click the “Availability.h” file and select “Get Info”. Click the lock icon in the lower right corner and log in with an administrator password. Click the + sign and add the desired user. Change the read / write permissions and click the lock icon. You should now be able to edit the file.
Alternatively, you can also copy “Availability.h” to your desktop and edit the file there after changing the permissions by following the steps above. Replace the file in the original folder with the new edited file and it should definitely work for you. It was tested and it worked for us.
Now click again on the inline option in Xcode. For some of you it might work this time, for others who still see the error, here’s how to fix it. To find the problem, click the red exclamation mark on the right side of the navigation bar, this will open new windows displaying the error page.
First mistake: you need to log into your Apple developer account, if you don’t have a developer account, just use your Apple ID. This works too.
Now the second issue, “package ID” or original developer is not identified by Apple. To fix this, go to the github page again and copy the developer’s name. And replace its name in the package id.
The next, third problem is automatically solved, since it depended on the first two.
Finally, click on “Built” again. And finally, this time everything should work. You may need to enter your Apple administrator password to compile the source.
Step 9
You should now be able to see the new Browser app on your Apple TV home screen. Here are some tips for using the tvOS browser with your Apple TV Siri remote.
Here are some tips for using the tvOS browser with your AppleTV Siri remote.
– Double-tap in the center of the touch area on the Apple TV Remote to switch between cursor and scroll modes.
– Press the touch area in cursor mode to click.
– The menu will move backward as usual.
– By clicking the Play / Pause button, you can enter URLs, search Google and reload the page.
– Press the Play / Pause or Menu button twice to display a menu with favorites, history and / open home page, change user agent, clear cache and delete cookies
So what can you do with your tvOS browser?
Well, you can google search, open websites like smart DNS proxy, you can even play gifs and browse the internet. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work. While not a full-fledged web browser, it should be sufficient for basic Apple TV viewing needs.
