Logitech Harmony + Apple TV II = eternal need to unpair

no idea why it's doing that, as mine works perfect with my Logitech Harmony One.
there is no need to pair any remote, so not sure why you keep trying to pair it.

I've not had any pairing issues with my ATV2. It works perfectly with my Harmony 880. When I was setting up the Harmony Remote via a USB connection to my iMac, I ignored the pairing comments and simply set it up as a TV/Apple/Apple TV, and everything worked fine.

I intentionally paired my Harmony remote with my Apple TV, so that the Apple TV would not be confused by commands to my Apple Mini (controlled by the same Harmony remote, but using different Apple Remote IDs). I initially set up the Apple TV using Harmony's standard Apple Media PC configuration, which configures the remote to emulate an Apple Remote with ID = 1. Since then it has worked flawlessly.

Have you tried unpairing the Harmony remote from the Apple TV, the re-pairing it and just leaving it paired?

Have you tried restoring the Apple TV ( http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4367), creating a new Harmony Apple Media PC device, and starting over from scratch?

Last resort: Create a new Harmony device, tell the Harmony that you have some random DVD player or VCR (that you don't actually have), and then teach the Apple TV the commands for that device, using your Harmony remote and Apple TV's learn capability.

This is a real puzzle, since I've generally found that different Harmony remotes are pretty much interchangeable functionally, and presumably Apple TV's are all the same.

Have you tried creating a new Harmony device and learning the commands from the Apple Remote provided with the Apple TV?

You didn't mention whether you tried telling Harmony that you had some random DVD player and then getting the Apple TV to learn those commands from the Harmony.

Running out of ideas...

Does the original Apple remote show the same problem?
Another idea is to try changing the ID of your Apple Remote, which is done by holding down the Menu and Center buttons together for several seconds.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3176

Assuming those commands work, you could then try learning them on the Harmony. This is a long shot, since I think the things you've already done should have worked.

Does the "Unpair" command in the Harmony library work from your Harmony remote, or do you have to choose "Unpair" from the on-screen menu?

My next suggestion was going to be to have the Harmony issue the "unpair" command automatically on activity start, but it sounds like the Logitech guys have already tried that (although it still sounds like it ought to be possible to get it to work, if it is possible unpair manually using the Harmony--it might be a timing issue, in which case they may just have to work out when to issue the unpair).

I have a Logitech 880 and after fighting with this for quite awhile, I seem to have got it working. I believe what did the trick was manually mapping the remote buttons to the appletv commands (left/right/up/down/menu/select).

BTW, the unpair command they have for the appletv seems to be wrong. Unpair only ever works if you do it from the device menu. I added unpair as a custom button, and it did nothing.

Here's an article and blog of some 3rd party remotes that work with ATV2 from Tuaw on 24 November 2010. Might consider a different one.... check them out at:

http://www.tuaw.com/2010/11/24/teaching-your-apple-tv-to-use-a-3rd-party-remote/

Hope this helps

I've had nothing but smooth sailing with my Harmony One and ATV (now ATV2).