Apple TV name followed by random number when using AirPlay

Periodically, my Apple TV's power light comes on without me turning the Apple TV on. I assume it is set to automatically check for updates. Each time it comes on, the random number following "Living Room Apple TV" in the mirroring display increases by one. When I turn on the Apple TV and watch something, the random number disappears and then, some time later, appears and increases one by one, I assume following the random power up. Everything works right, just a mystery.

I have one ATV a Mini, 2 iPads, Touch and a new MBP and mine is up to 6024. My ATV does the same thing with waking up all of the time even though it's set to sleep after 1hr. It randomly awakens all the time and wonder if it has to do with updating the photos for the screen saver (iTunes - Choose photos to share). That's when it started to show up on my system...that I can recall. Apple has always had issues with this feature and this may be yet another bug.

I may be wrong but I believe this is related to a Bonjour naming conflict. I have noticed similar naming behavior like this with computers on my home network; i.e. a computer being renamed to ComputerName-2.local for no apparent reason. The problem seems to be caused by Bonjour trying to re-register the same computer, with the same name, twice. This causes a naming conflict that Bonjour resolves by adding a number. I think that the AppleTVs exhibit the same behavior, with the parenthesed number (x) instead of the dash number -x.

For example, my son goes to college, and when he comes home, his laptop always shows up with an incremented number (2...3...4...etc.). This is, unquestioningly, Bonjour resolving a naming conflict. Likewise, if I change the name of my AppleTV to NewAppleTV, the number goes away but eventually returns- NewAppleTV (2). I don't know why the network does this, but I strongly suspect Bonjour is the source.

Again, I'm not sure this is the reason for this behavior but it seems to make the most sense. I haven't researched this that much with regard to the details of how to fix Bonjour but I suspect the fix is related to resetting the network, probably at the router level (though simply restarting the router doesn't seem to do anything). I suspect the whole Bonjour network needs to be reset.

As others have posted, although annoying, the naming issue doesn't seem to affect performance, and I wouldn't expect it to do so.

If your basestation supports simultaneous dual-band wifi (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz), the AppleTV may be connecting to each network at different times of the day and therefore appearing to the router as two different devices. Each time it reconnects to the alternate network, the number likely advances by one. Assigning a different names to each network might help solve the issue.

I think holb is on to something. I have three ATV 3's. Two are hardwired, and one is wireless. 'LR ATV' is on wireless and exhibits the naming issue... It's 'LR ATV (1242)' currently.

I have an Airport Extreme that was running in 2.4/5ghz mode, so I'll try switching to 2.4ghz only mode and see if it changes anything.

Has anyone found a resolution for this yet? When this happens I am unable to Mirror an iPad to the apple tv.
The only temporary solution is to rename the apple tv but then it happens again within a day.

Just thought I'd follow up on this. My "LR ATV" is still "LR ATV", even after five days. I'll keep on eye on it, but so far, so good. Not really anything to lose with these new Apple TVs. If you can, just try a full restore like I did.

Cheers!

None if the proposed solutions work. The only way to avoid the problem is to connect your appletv with a LAN cable.

Apple support turned out to be very nice, but utterly useless: I sent twice a complete image of my machine and all the diagnostic info on their request.

Never got a reply.

First time was mid-March, now it's mid June.

Most problems seem to stem from a very bad implementation of their Bonjour protocol (AppleTv naming failure, back to my Mac never working properly...)

What frustrates me is that support could have at the very least notified of some progress or the lack thereof, after the second enquiry...

1. How exactly are you proposing to "delete" that number, when it is an automatically assigned sequential number upon faulty re-registration of the ATV services in the Bonjour DNS?

2. I need File Sharing on as I am remotely accessing my drives.

The only way I found out is to shut down all your network , wait a bit, restart and give your ATV a new name.

BTW After months of diagnostics by Apple engineering, they sent me to the Apple store, with the theory that it is a network controller issue. The Genius Bar technician told me that it probably is a manufacturing defect, but since the ATV is out of warranty, I can either pay 70 EUR for a replacement or 110 EUR for a new one, and I would be better off buying a new one anyway.

Me pointing out that manufacturing defects are covered even after warranty didn't help, and he told me that anyway the burden of proof is on my side. It's either 70 or 110 EUR.

I find the arrogance incredible, and since they know that the effort for enforcing my consumer right is way above 110 EUR they count on the fact that I'll just let it pass.

Great service!

In my experience: simply rename or re-select the Apple-Tv's name in the Settings tab of the device itself...

Back to my MBP or my iPhone, airplay now diplays devices's name correctly... (not even needed to restart the aTV)

Hope that'll work for you.

Have a theory after the recent update that the numbers shows how many apple products have been connected to the Apple TV. I use different third-party software for my apple TV. One of these is Airfoil, who had trouble connecting to the apple TV after last update. Could it be that it tries to connect again and again leading to increased value between the brackets in the connection window. As another user said, the numbers it disappears if you change the name of the Apple TV in the appel TV settings (and then change it back if you want)

I think one of the recent software updates fixes the issue.

Update all your expresses, extremes, Apple TVs, and iMacs/MacBooks.

It is a Bonjour protocol error as I explained earlier, it has nothing to do with connected devices to your Apple TV but with how many times it re-registers in one of the bonjour proxies.

All devices above can function as bonjour proxies, so you need to make sure the protocol stack is up to date.

Then shut down your network to clear all the above devices caches and restart them only after the last one has been shut down. Then rename your Apple TV to what you want (or change the name and rename it back), although in some instances you may already have gotten rid if the number already.

Enjoy.

arnoloisoncart wrote:

In my experience: simply rename or re-select the Apple-Tv's name in the Settings tab of the device itself...

Back to my MBP or my iPhone, airplay now diplays devices's name correctly... (not even needed to restart the aTV)

Hope that'll work for you.

"Works" for me as well. If I go into the settings on the ATV and simple select my device name and exit out (without changing the name) the number suffix goes away. It reappears the next day for me.

What's strange is this just started happening to me, I have had the ATV for a few years now with no issue. Not sure what happened...

I use an AirPort Extreme to extend the wireless network (base is also an AirPort Extreme) and had the same problem of a random number after the name. Also have an AirPort express to connect a printer wireless, which also extends the network. I think it's because the Apple tv is switching between the base and the extenders that the number appears. I don't know for sure but I think that is the problem. My Apple tv is now connected with a cable and the problem is gone.

I've had the latest version on my Apple TV and the issue is still there. I have a feeling it may be a DHCP issue. I have them wired but they are also registered to the both my 5GHz network and 2.4GHz network and if they connect via WI-FI the MAC address is different so the DHCP See's the same name and different MAC so it adds the number. Why the number gets so high doesn't make sense but at this point I can really care less. I will reset all the Apple TV's in my house one at a time, release their DHCP and reconnect them via ethernet only (for the 2) and the other one will connect only to my 2.4GHz network and I will reply back here to share my findings. Also File Sharing is not the issue, I never keep file sharing on my mac, also I don't believe it has anything to do with the way files are shared to Apple TV. I will not be able to test until I get back next week so anyone else can feel free to try this (at your own risk). Please do not mess with your router settings if you are not familiar with it.