unexplaind intenet usage by my apple tv

this is not true i only have 5gb from my phones hotspot and i can watch about 10 to 15 movies and tv shows on netflix and atleast 50 to 80 youtube clips

there is a password you can set, all atv start out with the same one and its for sharing content. figure out where you can set a password and see if that helps

Yes it is true. The phone data plan is separate from the home network. That is what I was referring to.

Thank goodness I found this thread. I too have been suffering a huge jump in data charges and could not work out the reason. After a lot of digging, I noted a very interesting fact. Any day that I went out and did not use the TV, the charges were normal. Any day that I used the TV, my data use was about 530MB per day higher.

By way of background, my ATV2 is set to power up when the TV is turned on. It then powers down after 30 minutes of non-use.

By a process of elimination, I determined that the ATV2 was causing the data use. PLUS it used the same excess whether I used it or not....just the process of powering it up caused the extra 530MB.

THEN I checked all my settings, but all was OK. But I noted that a software update was needed. I did this and guess what the download was.....540MB!

....and now my data use has returned to normal!

Surely Apple could not be so stupid as to automatically download such a large update even though the user had not requested it?

SO, problem solved....but has the update fixed the 'bug'?

Well. I finally figured it out. It was indeed caused by my ATV. Seems that I had set a slideshow to run during idle times, and the show was grabbing BIG photos ( > 10MB) from my Flickr account. I thought this was only happening when I had the ATV on, but it seems it continued to do this 'slideshow' even when the TV was off. Seems the ATV was still on and running even when I was out of town for 10 days! Racked up 50GB in excess of my 120GB monthly limit, and cost me an additional $75 last month!

I spoke to Apple about this, and they asked me if the ATV was 'alseep'. They said I could confirm this by seeing if the little white light on the ATV box was on all the time. It was! You need to go into the settings and tell it to sleep after X minutes, otherwise it will continue to run, and download, in the background.

So, take a look... Make sure that white light is OFF!

Yes, mine sleeps OK.

Mine was definitely the software update problem. As soon as I did the update, the excess download stopped

ok guys im not sure but my apple tv had alot of useage in the beginning, but now it does not... im guessing it was updating but i really dont know... now it really doesent use the internet much. problem solved

Most of the time, Apple TV huge internet usage is due to the fact that you launched a video on YouTube, then started to watch a movie and starting another stuff...

And all is downloading at the same time and takes all your bandwitch. If the problems occurs for hours or days, just restore your Apple TV.

After a week of checking numerous devices on our LAN for repeated downloads of 500-600MB that had been occurring for the last 6 weeks came across this thread. Sure enough the culprit was the Apple TV downloading an update. We only ever use it to play music from the laptop, never look at it on the TV. Because the Apple TV is on a power saving board it gets turned on and off each time our TV does. Each time it gets turned on it would auto download the update, then would lose it when turned off again, and download again the next time the TV was turned on, so lots of GB involved.

All good once I installed the outstanding update - until the next one perhaps????????

Thanks to those who persisted for shining a light on this one.

Got the ATV 3 about a week ago.

- ATV3 uses approx 500 mb every day when turned off ( no lite on)

-ATV3 was updated to latest 6.0.1 the first day I got it.

- ATV3 when unplugged from the wall and cable uses no bandwidth ( go figure)

-ATV3 has gremlins under the hood stealing bandwidth ( obviously)

Also, when using itunes on a win 7 64 bit pro system home sharing is a joke ( turns off every minute or so) and forget about using simple AirPlay from iTunes as there is not even an icon available to click running itunes on windows 64 bit. Actually, the only thing that consistently works is AirPlay from my ipad or iPhone to the ATV3. Yes I have researched on the apple forums and there are apparently many thousands of other ITunes/ win 7 users and home share / win and mac with all the very same repeatable issues that Apple has not bothered resolving or even responding to.

At least I can return this ATV 3 for a full refund. It's a shame really, would have been great if it all worked.

If the device really is off and not streaming content then it isn't using any bandwidth. Make sure to verify other network uses. Home Sharing issues do tend to come down to network

Photostream was the cultprit in my case - recently swtiched to a DSLR and the larger files sizes ramped up my usage as they were pushed and pulled around the cloud.

I am so glad I found this thread. My wife got me an ATV3 for Christmas. I have a 10gb usage cap on my broadband and have never really got close to this - the download speeds in my area are so poor I don't have the patience to download / stream movies! I got an email from my ISP shortly after setting up the ATV saying I was getting close to my download limit and directing me to my ISP usage monitor. It stated that upto that point my average monthly download was less than 6gb so I thought it was a little strange but continued to monitor. The punch in the face came the day after my usage month reset. The monitor said that I had downloaded almost 2 gb in one day!! I contacted my ISP who suggested changing passcodes etc.

I used the ATV for the first time on the screen last night (used as audio airplay from my iPhone until then) and it said an update was required. I did the update and going home tonight to check on my download for the day.

I think what made my issue worse was that I had the ATV plugged into the same extension block as my Christmas tree lights which I switched on and off at the wall multiple times a day when leaving the property. I guess, from what was mentioned above, each time I switched on at the wall the ATV downloaded the update, then each time I switched off without installing, it lost it. Thereby, needing to download it again!!

I will continue to monitor my usage over the next few days and report back if the issue is now fixed - fingers crossed!

As an update, I have been monitoring my usage over the last few days since installing the update and it all looks to be back to normal. One to bare in mind for the future!

I too have noticed this problem with my AppleTV2. The screenshot above is the bandwidth usage for just my AppleTV (and not the other devices on my network). At just before 2am it decided to download 575MB of data without my consent. Eveyone in my house was sleeping at that time, so I know that nobody was streaming video to it. I have the screensaver turned off.

Yesterday, I noticed that it had downloaded 700MB of data TWICE in that day (I don't have the screenshot for that).

I currently have no interest in installing the update that it keeps prompting me for (and is probably re-downloading over and over again). Is there anyway to get it to stop checking for new updates automatically?