Apple TV name followed by random number when using AirPlay

Yes. Shut down all your macs/computers. Switch off all apple TVs, airport expresses, extremes, time capsules and your Internet router. This means to cut them off from power. Sleeping a Mac/mini/MacBook is NOT enough.

All have to be switched off.

Go for a 30 min walk.

Meanwhile all the bonjour caches of the servers/proxies should expire. When you restart your network numbering will restart again after a while.

If anybody has just bought an Apple TV, complain to Apple while you have phone support, and send them a link to this forum post.

It is an error of the Bonjour protocol that they need to fix some day. Maybe.

I changed my Apple TV name to Living Room Apple TV but it still has the number following the TV identification in the mirroring window. It starts at no number then gains one number at a time. If I unplug the Apple TV electric plug, then plug it back in, the number disappears - then, sometime later, starts adding the number again. Doesn't affect the Apple TV performance, just an irritation.

I keep having the problem with the number after the AppleTV name. It is VERY unnerving. What I did find out is the following: There is a multitude of registered services with Bonjour (using Bonjour Browser, but one can get the full list also in the Terminal), only one of which is the actual AppleTv. The other records are empty.

I tried the following to reset the Bonjour service:

1. Restart all devices, computers and router

2. Reset the router.

3. Disable and enable all network interfaces on my Mac

4. tried in Terminal:

launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist

launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist

5. Tried in Terminal:

dscacheutil -flushcache

6. Switched off my computer overnight.

The old entries still persist. I seem to remember somewhere in the Bonjour documentation that the DNS should remove entries that expire after a while. Well my AppleTV has been renamed to Living Room Apple TV for already a week and the old Apple TV entries still persist!!!!

Are these cached somewhere in iCloud?

Anybody has any idea how to get rid of those?

Nope. No info from Apple Engineering since I sent them my capture data on the 20. March.

On the other hand I've set a new numbering record with 1064...

My apple TV has been on a fixed IP, but Wireless connection. Seems the wireless connection and Bonjour are the problem, but aparently not enough people complaining...

Same here, Ivan. I'm kind of at a loss. I went back and looked over my system, and I forgot that only one of my ATV's is wired ethernet! In my screen shot, only HT ATV is wired; MBR ATV and LR ATV are both wireless, yet only LR ATV exhibits the annoying behavior. They're all set up as DHCP.

I just tried a full restore. It came back fine with "Apple TV" as the name. I just renamed back to "LR ATV", and so far, so good. I'll post back here in a day or two and update with status.

This is when my Mac is on the 2.4GHz network

This is when my mac is on the 5GHz network

the 2 apple TVs with numbers are WIRED and the one that has no number is on my 5GHz network. I have done several tes and have not found a solution. This does get annoying but it does not affect any performance.

dclayton wrote:

It is a bug in File Sharing. Turn File sharing off in System Preferences and then you can delete that number.

Just found this thread and I think dclayton is on to something.

See my post here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5829662

It is a bug in File Sharing. Turn File sharing off in System Preferences and then you can delete that number.

I believe it's extremely unlikely it is anything to do with the Wi-Fi channels. I'm not really certain myself, but think it could relate to the last digits of the IP address. If so this is caused by not naming your Apple TV, in the event that you have more than one Apple TV it is necessary to identify them from each other.

I am having the same issue. Everything works fine, but my Apple TV shows up with a (2) behind it for Airplay and iTunes.

I recently replaced my 2nd Gen Apple TV with a 3rd Gen Apple TV and sold my 2nd Gen to a buddy.

I have a feeling that somehow my MBP or Time Capsule based wireless network think there is a another Apple TV that may be turned off etc., and it has added my 3rd Gen as an additional unit. Just a theory.

I wonder how you teach your Mac or Timecapsule/Airport Express network that an Apple TV has left, never to return ?

I've seen it too.

I've often wondered if AppleTV IP address changes over time (restarting with DHCP IP allocation), but iPhone/iPad remember the same device name at a different address so think it's a similarly named duplicate AppleTV and append a number.

Annoying.

Hmm wonder if it has any relation to the Home Sharing issues some of us are seeing.

AC

Winston Churchill wrote:

Maybe.

Not so much that this might be the cause of home sharing issues but rather that it could be a result of the same same issue that causes the homesharing issue.

Yes, could it be a manifestation of the same issue.

I assume you've never seen this at all with Airplay?

But come to think of it (I'm thinking now that the high number (188) might have thrown me), I've seen it plenty of times on other peoples networks but applied to computers set up for file sharing, or more commonly with printers and to a lesser extent with other network devices such as IP cameras.

It's odd whatever the reason, and if you consider if doesn't show a number by default I doubt it's part of the IP address being shown.

I've never seen it reach double digits, but it's odd. Very odd 😮