"Apple TV app isn't available right now. Check your internet connection and try again."

I had the same issue. No matter what I did, including resetting the AppleTV, I kept getting the same result: None of my past history was there and it always gave me a failure of the app to connect to AppleTV. I could get AppleTV on my phone on the same wi-fi network and airplay it on the AppleTV but not using the app on the AppleTV. I was able to change to my wife’s account and everything worked but when I went back to mine, nothing worked in the app. I logged out by going to Settings, Users and Accounts,Default User and selecting Remove User from AppleTV, Remove. I then added myself back as default user and the app on AppleTV worked again.

Indeed. The Apple TV User Interface is doubly unhelpful in this case by giving users two pieces of information that have nothing to do with the true issue of not being able to authenticate the user.

Firstly, the Apple TV app indeed was always available, just the user could not be logged in. Next, checking the internet connection made users go off on a wild goose chase that a simple ping back to Apple by the Apple TV would have told the programmer that this was not the case.

Software quality from Apple seems to need some strengthening. It is great on new functionality, but is not as good with some of the more mundane basic issues like providing helpful directions to users when problems inevitably arise.

Thanks El_Erlandes, your solution (remove/re-add default user) worked here and resolved the issue. You’re correct in noting how bad that error message is. I’ll be continuing to follow this issue because I’m curious what caused it: was it an SW update or something specific to my AppleID.

Same here. This was happening on a few other apps as well. But now it’s just Apple TV.

I cleaned up my search. Disconnected the unit and let it sit for 10 minutes and reconnected. Changed wireless source. Nada.

However I can play it on my IPhone.

????

I had the same issue last night and this morning. AppleTV4K 1st Gen, 18.4. Since Apple TV was working on my other devices and my other apps I stream on AppleTV were working the message made no sense and was completely useless. But, I tried all the physical connections and forgot my network and then reset again. No luck. Thankfully, I checked this forum and found the answer. I deleted the default user and added it back in. SUCCESS.

Thank you for sharing your resolution with the community. Congrats on figuring it out.

Apple: This should be added to the steps to take when the Apple TV App is not working. And, a clearer message would be most helpful

I logged out of my store account, restarted the AppleTV, then it signed me back in automatically without inputting UN & PW. No further errors with AppleTV+ or the Store and no need to delete the user profile & re-create.

I signed out of Apple account and signed back in and it restored the Apple TV app. Hope this helps!

Same issue. Removed myself as user and re-connected. It’s working now.