Apple TV won't wake up for AirPlay request

Is there a consistent delay between "regular" and "deep" sleep that you see? I never see the deep sleep condition. I did put an ATV onto WiFi and it still responds to network commands.

The odd thing is that not only should the ATV always be reachable but it is also supposed to act as a Bonjour sleep proxy itself! That doesn't seem to be working (see this post).

Curious, what does "dns-sd -B _sleep-proxy._udp local" return for you? Any difference with the ATV in different states?

Also, I used the command dns-sd -B _raop._tcp in windows cmd line, and it shows the Instance Name of the ATV, but the MAC address is off by one digit! (Last digit in Instance Name is "8", but on ATV unit, in settings-> about, it shows a "7", and the arp table shows "7" as the last digit as well. Weird.

I think I can solve that mystery! 🙂 The MAC address that is used in the identifier is the one for the Ethernet port, which is +1 from the WiFi MAC address on the ATV. So if you were plugged into Ethernet, you'd see a match.

When I do dns-sd -B _sleep-proxy._udp local, I get nothing. This is true regardless of what the ATV is doing - sleep or awake. It just says, "Browsing for _sleep-proxy._udp.local", and then nothing is listed.

I just let the ATV go to sleep on its own after 1 hour. Now it is no longer pingable, but the ATV still showed up in airplay on iPod touch and iTunes. However, when I tried to connect to the ATV from iPod touch, it would not connect, and then the ATV disappeared from Airplay on iPod touch as well as iTunes.

I started thinking - why does ATV support Wake on LAN? If the ATV is never really supposed to "deep sleep" like mine does, then why would you ever need the ability to Wake on LAN? I obviously need it because I can't do anything else with the ATV when it is in deep sleep.

Another difference I can note between our setups is that I have a couple of devices (a Time Capsule and Airport Express) that do act as Bonjour sleep proxies (properly). I'm not sure what that might mean, but there has to be something different that is causing your box to zone out. And the fact that Wake on LAN can tickle it is really mysterious.

For others seeing this problem: Do you have any Airport devices on your network?

Maybe tonight after everyone else is off our home network I'll see what happens if I shut down both the AE and TC and if that makes the ATVs act any differently.

I am still considering the possibility that this has something to do with the ATV recall, even though the 4th and 5th digits of my serial number is JF, and thus supposedly not part of the recall. But on the other hand, my ATV did not used to behave this way. I read somewhere on another board that someone with this problem took their ATV to the apple store, and using iTunes, the genius restored the ATV to an older firmware version (6.?) and that fixed it. Maybe it's a combination of a certain hardware revision along with the new 7.2 update? I recall that mine started having this problem well before 7.2. I kept hoping the updates would fix what they broke, but none ever did.

Also, I do have 3 Airport Express units on my network. Not sure if they are acting properly as "Bonjour sleep proxies", but they do act normally. Of course, the Airport Express does not really have a sleep mode like the ATV does. They never timeout, and the green light stays on all the time.

For all the time I have spent on this, I suppose I could just go out and buy another ATV and see what it does. I think it is something specific to the ATV unit, but not settings, because I have gone over all the settings with a fine-tooth comb. There really aren't that many settings that would have an impact on "sleep", other than the sleep setting itself.

I do have 3 Airport Express units on my network. Not sure if they are acting properly as "Bonjour sleep proxies", but they do act normally.

Are they in "join a wireless network" mode? They might not do sleep proxy if they are just another client on the network, as opposed to creating or extending a network. Do you see them in the _raop list or with _airport ? (not sure if the latter will show up in "join" mode - but I'm curious.

Yes - all 3 of my airports are all in "join a wireless network" mode. I do see them in _raop list:

Instance Name

001B63233F53@Living Room

001CB3AB59C1@Patio

0014516DA87F@Basement

9C207BC22C38@Apple TV

Can you share the 4th and 5th digits of your ATV serial number? Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree here, but I just want to know if yours comes before "JF" or after.

I have three (3rd gen), all purchased at different dates. The 4-5 digits are:

- HK (the oldest and the one I've been fiddling with most)

- JJ

- KF

All three are connected via Ethernet and remain ping-able 100% of the time. If you'd like me to experiment w/ using WiFi on the newer units, let me know. I remember for one of them (probably the KF) that I called about the recall, but the conversation wasn't very productive and since I was planning on using a wired connection I didn't bother any further.

My "JF" unit was purchased on November 25, 2012.

I don't think I can make any more progress on solving this problem unless I order another ATV unit and compare results. I don't want to spend the money to do that, but at this point, it seems like the only way.

I will also try and connect my current unit to ethernet and see what happens. I'll keep you posted.

I managed to connect the ATV to ethernet. I also connected to a different router with wi-fi and ethernet.

The results? VERY surprising!

Turns out, I CAN get the ATV to stay ping-able when in sleep mode. This is true on both routers, and it is true on wi-fi and ethernet. However, the router must be disconnected from the Internet, and then I must restart the Apple TV. When the ATV comes up, there is no normal "home screen" full of icons at this point, only "Computers" and "Settings" icons. I can then go into settings and put the ATV to sleep. Then it stays pingable while in "sleep." It is asleep right now, and I have been pinging it for hours with Internet disconnected. (ATV is connected to router via wi-fi, Internet connection is unplugged from router. ATV can see local network only. No Internet access.)

I also tried restarting the ATV while connected to the internet, then I disconnected the Internet from my router. Then I put the ATV to sleep, and then ping STOPS responding within a few seconds. Then when I reconnect the internet (while ATV is in "sleep"), it notices that it is connected to the internet, and the home screen apps load up in the background. Then it STOPS responding to ping.

To recap - when ATV is booted normally and connects to the internet and fully loads, then putting it to sleep makes it stop responding to ping. But if I restart the ATV with no internet, it does not fully load, and comes up with a more limited selection on the home screen. In this state, if I put the ATV to sleep, it remains pingable for hours - maybe even longer. It seems to have nothing to do with the router, and nothing to do with wi-fi vs. ethernet. Then if I plug my Internet back into the router, the ATV is then able to load all the way (while sleeping - blue LED is off and still pingable), and then it STOPS responding to ping. The only way to keep it responding to ping while in sleep mode is to keep the internet disconnected from the router.

This could explain why there is such a mixed bag of user reports on this issue. It's hard to nail down what is happening. I just did a full restore to factory defaults. When it was done restoring, without changing anything, I put the ATV to sleep, and then within 10-15 seconds, it stopped responding to ping.

The only thing I can think of to try next is to order a new ATV and see what that does. My feeling is that this problem has to be specific to the hardware of certain ATV units, but I guess I really don't know. Swapping out the unit should shed some more light.

Wow. Just wow.

Some great detective work. Can't explain it.

Do either of the routers keep a "client list" for the WiFi? If so, is the ATV in the list when it does the deep sleep thing?

It would be quite interesting to run Wireshark on the WiFi in monitor mode and see the 802.11 traffic - something might be going on with power save mode. But that's totally a guess.

I am glad you asked about the router "client list." When the ATV was in "deep sleep" (not pingable), I checked the wireless client list on the router, and the ATV was in there. I waited a few minutes, and it seemed to stay in the list.

Then I went into the router settings and disabled the "wireless MAC filter." (I normally have this enabled, and I have the MAC address of the ATV in the table of permitted devices.) When I disabled the Wireless MAC filter, the pings started responding for about 45 seconds, then stopped. Then I re-enabled the wireless MAC filter, and again, the pings started up again for about 45 seconds and then stopped.

When I put the ATV to sleep, the pings continue for about 45 seconds, so there is a common theme here. Toggling the setting for "Wireless MAC filter" seems to make the ATV respond by ping again - but just for about 45 seconds. Then it stops.

I have no idea what would cause this behavior, and even stranger is that when the ATV is restarted without internet connectivity to the router, then I can put it in sleep mode and the pings stay active indefinitely (as they should.)

Maybe when I toggle the "Wireless MAC filter" setting on the router, it is sending something out (multicast?) that causes pings to start working again for about 45 seconds. This makes me think that the "Wake On LAN" that I send to the ATV does not really do a true "Wake on LAN" on the ATV, but just does something that the ATV responds to briefly when it won't respond to pings. Kind of like when I toggle the router setting. I don't see any reason that ATV would really need a true "WOL" feature, if it is working properly, which mine is not.

I have ordered a new ATV. It should be here next week. It will be interesting to see how that behaves. I just think that there is some incompatibility between this specific hardware revision of the ATV and the current ATV firmware. I know this did not used to be a problem with this particular unit and the older firmware, and some users have reported that reverting to older firmware fixes the problem. Running a brand new ATV with latest firmware on my network should tell us something.

Actually starting with this problem

AppleTV3 will not act as Bonjour sleep proxy

and after several experiments with the router, my managed switch and resetting the ATV I'm facing the same problem now. The ATV disappears from the network after going to sleep mode. Checking the bonjour browser I've noticed that all the usually advertised services disappear after few seconds as well. I did all the tests described here, disconnecting from internet and even just using my managed switch without the router connected at all, nothing helps...

I suppose there is no official statement from apple yet?

Can you post the 4th and 5th digits of the ATV serial number (as a couple of us have done above) to see if there is any correlation to Straightbourbon's box?

I agree with jjkraw - it would be useful if Aldur300 could post the 4th and 5th digits of the ATV serial number (as a couple of us have done above) to see if there is any correlation. (Mine is "JF".)

Also, let me clarify my point about testing the ATV network presence by disconnecting from internet. You have to do more than JUST disconnect your router from the Internet. You must disconnect your router from the Internet AND restart the ATV. At this point, the ATV will have local network connectivity, but no Internet connectivity. This will prevent the home screen from fully loading as it normally does.

When the ATV restarts without Internet connectivity, you will see a screen that says "home sharing", and then there will be only 2 icons - "Computers" and "Setting." Now go into settings and put the ATV to sleep. Then check and see if the ATV network presence remains, or if it goes offline again. In my case, when I run this test, I get continual ping response after putting the ATV to sleep.

Hey guys, being back from work I've done some more testing.

First my ATV model:

Model: A1427

Software: 7.2 (7512)

4th and 5th digit of the serial: JD

My setup:

Internet ---- Router ---------- Managed Switch ------------ Win 8.1 PC (DHCP)

\--wlan-- iPhone 6 (DHCP) \---- iMac (DHCP)

\---- ATV (Static IP)

Test:

1. Situation today after work with full initial setup ----> No ATV connectivity, Bonjour services not announced
2. Disconnect Switch from Router ----> No internet at ATV
3. Restart ATV ----> Only two icons visible, no Movies, TV Shows etc.
4. Put ATV to sleep manually
5. Wait 5 minutes
6. Check bonjour services from iMac ----> All expected visible except bonjour proxy
7. Use iTunes at iMac to run a video via AirPlay ----> ATV wakes up and working
8. Disconnect Router from internet, connect router back to managed switch ----> Still not internet at ATV, but connected to Router
9. Put ATV to sleep manually
10. Wait 5 min
11. Check bonjour service from iMac and iPhone -----> All expected visible except bonjour proxy
12. Sync iPhone 6 scream via AirPlay ------> ATV wakes up and working
13. Connect internet to router ----> Back to initial setup with internet, all ATV home screen icons back
14. Put ATV to sleep manually
15. Wait 1 min
16. Check bonjour service from iMac and iPhone -----> All expected visible but no IP addresses
17. Try to sync iPhone ----> Failing
18. Try to connect via Remote APP ----> Failing
19. Wait another few minutes ----> All bonjour services gone

So I can confirm Straightbourbon's test outcome.