PlexConnect: Installling Certificates Without USB On Apple TV

Installing certificates without USB on Apple TV is a elegant and easy way to get PlexConnect on your Apple TV. Installing a certificate on your Apple TV is essential to get PlexConnect running because of the silent Apple TV Software update from August 27, 2013. Installing certificates over the air (OTA) on Apple TV can used for any certificates, not only for the PlexConnect ones.

Up to now, it was necessary to connect your Apple TV to your computer (Mac and Windows PC) via a micro USB cable. Some people including me noticed that not every micro USB cable is working to get the Apple TV recognized in the iPhone configuration utility.

Here’ how to installing certificates without USB cable on Apple TV2 or 3:

1. The latest version of PlexConnect from Github needs to be running.
2. Create certificate files for Mac or Windows (Step 2).
3. Copy all three certificate files to default directory .cer (Mac)/.der (Windows), .pem and .key to …/plexconnect/assets/certificates)
4. Complete Apple TV configuration steps in the PlexConnect Install Guide (steps 3 & 4 in Mac and 4 & 5 in Windows guide)
5. Go to the Apple TV Settings.
6. Select ‘General‘ then scroll the cursor down to highlight ‘Send Data To Apple‘.
7. Set ‘Send data to apple‘ to ‘No‘.
8. This time press ‘Play‘ (not the normal ‘Select‘ button) and you will be prompted to add a profile.
9. Enter the URL for the .cer file: http://your-Plex-Server-IP-address/trailers.cer […/trailers.der for Windows] (don’t forget to add http:// and use your PlexConnect IP address). Click on ‘Submit‘.

Using this work around is really an easy way to install certificates without USB cable to an Apple TV over the air (OTA).

Stay tuned! 😉