Apple TV won't wake up for AirPlay request

This is "good" that you were able to reproduce the ATV sleep problem on your network by doing a "reset all settings." This seems to indicate that there is some 7.x firmware bug that causes the ATV to not behave properly when sleeping, based on a certain combination of settings (as opposed to a possible hardware problem or some kind of network/router incompatibility.)

However, when I set my ATV "Sleep after" to 30 minutes (from the default 1 hour), I still have the same problem! That setting does not cause it to "behave" when sleeping. Maybe I should try to reset all settings, then change the "sleep after" to 30 min., while leaving all the other settings on default? I could try that.

I don't have DirecTV, so I can't try the 1st settings option that you show above.

I tried the "sleep after" 30 minutes setting and it didn't make a difference for me. I do have DirecTV though and programmed my remote to the Apple TV. Since doing that it is waking up without power cycling it or sending Wake On Lan requests. I'll report back if it stops responding again.

I don't have DirecTV, so I can't try the 1st settings option that you show above.

I suspect that it is the act of programming a remote, and not necessarily a particular remote, that makes it go. So if you have a DVD/BluRay type of remote that you can test with, you might be able to reproduce this.

WOW! I just programmed the ATV to work with my cable box remote. I put the ATV to sleep about 15 minutes ago. Still pinging!

Is it too soon to declare victory?

To recap - the ATV sleep issues do NOT appear to be hardware related, nor do they appear to be network related.

It looks like the 7.x firmware causes the ATV to not sleep properly UNLESS you have programmed the ATV to work with a third-party remote control, as described here:

Apple TV: Using a third-party remote control - Apple Support

Once that is done, the ATV seems to sleep properly. More users out there should test this to confirm.

This explains a lot!

Just wanted to add that if you are trying to program a universal remote like the DirecTV remote in AV1 or AV2 mode to your AppleTV and are getting the ""button already learned" message, you need to first program a code into the remote. See screenshot and links below for more details:

Directv remote programing

Yes, learned this trick a few years ago. The DirecTV remote doesn't have a code for "Apple TV", so a code for a random DVD remote (and the Disney one listed above is the one I used) has to be entered. Then the Apple TV can be trained.

Thanks for digging up that post! Memories... 🙂

If popevalleyboy (the original poster) is still following this thread, could you try out the remote programming trick?

No problem. Whenever we declare victory on this one of us will write up a response detailing what someone in this situation should do. At that point, if you mark that as the "solved" response, anyone coming upon this discussion later will have the answer right at the beginning instead of having to wade through all of the other stuff 🙂

Hopefully we'll get more feedback soon.

Well, I tried with a friends ATV3 too, even reset it to factory and still no sleep proxy for me.

The only difference I've seen is that his Model (non-DRHN) does stay reachable via Wi-fi for a longer time period compared to mine (DRHN).

And it starts and advertises airplay correctly after the sleep period.

Seems to me that the faulty behaviour of the sleep proxy is a software bug.

I seriously hope they can fix that.

I also wonder why they have '8.0' in this version:http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/01/report-homekit-uses-appletv-as-a-smart-home -hub-sometimes/

I still get 7.2 shown in my settings and it says its up to date...

update: it's just OS Build / Apple TV Software switch... my bad 😝

There is another thread dedicated to Sleep Proxy here:

AppleTV3 will not act as Bonjour sleep proxy

Probably better to keep the two issues separate as they don't seem related.

I suggested on that thread and will suggest here: If anyone still has support coverage on an ATV, it would be worthwhile to have a talk or chat w/ Apple Support to see if they can shed any light on the Sleep Proxy issue. Straightbourbon, didn't you just buy one?

Yes, I did just buy a new Apple TV, specifically for the purpose of troubleshooting this problem. But since I do not need it for any other purpose in my home, and since this problem is now solved, I am thinking about returning it for a refund.

Also, I don't have a Mac, and I don't use the ATV sleep proxy feature, so I don't really have a good way to test that.

Just incredible! Almost one year after I started seeing this ATV disappearing behavior i'm finally back to a working setup and who could have thought a third party remote was the cure! haha spread the word, i even have an open case with apple and i'll tell them about this on monday 🙂

thanks!

And STILL it doesn't work. Once it's asleep it cannot be seen by the Apple remote app and can't be woken for Airplay. For some the solution seems to be to disconnect the ATV from Ethernet and use wifi. Brilliant solution. So we're forced to use a slower internet connection for things like Netflix simply because YET AGAIN Apple functionality" just DOESN'T work"!