Apple TV (2) name, AirPlay dropouts and more.

Apple TV doesn't exactly broadcast itself. It responds to queries over Bluetooth when you open the AirPlay menu on an iOS device or computer. Peer-to-peer AirPlay uses this mechanism for discovery, then creates a point-to-point WiFi connection for data transfer, independent of any network. It sounds like you would prefer to disable this on your Apple TV. You could suggest this to Apple here https://www.apple.com/feedback/appletv.html.

Hello,

Thus, the issue has now been identified. And as the saying goes, it's not a bug, it's a feature. Apparently, since tvOS 10 activated a bluetooth signal that broadcasts any Apple TV to any iOS or macOS device as a potential output for sound. Thus, my neighbour's Apple TV showed up as Apple TV (2) in my Airplay menus. It also explains why it always takes a second or two for this second Apple TV to show up and why when selected it tells me that it is "unable to connect to "Apple TV (2) because the wireless signal is too weak." (I suppose since the actual airplay signal would be carried by WiFi not Bluetooth and since my neighbour's Apple TV is hooked on a different WiFi network, this cannot work). I have asked Apple whether this can be deactivated but apparently it cannot. Imagine a situation in a busy environment where there are multiple Apple TVs... how does one figure out which one is the right one? It's also not nice to have my own Airplay menu 'contaminated' by my neighbours' devices - I actually do not really want to know that they also have an Apple TV, it's their private business, likewise for me. So Apple please at least give us an option to opt out of the automatic bluetooth based broadcasting of Apple TVs. Merci.

I have a couple of suggestions that could help. First, you could change the name of your Apple TV to something distinctive, Settings > AirPlay > Apple TV Name > Custom Name. This will ensure that you and your neighbor can tell the devoces apart. Second, if you're not using any Bluetooth devices on your iOS device, you could turn off Bluetooth, so you won't see your neighbor's Apple TV.

Thanks Diana.

We have already changed the name (this is how we tested this in the first place). Bluetooth cannot be turned off on the ATV4 and turning it off on all Macs, iPads and iPhones where Airplay menu is used is not quite workable (no handoff features, no Apple Watch, no bluetooth speaker, no bluetooth keyboard, no bluetooth mouse etc etc). Also, I do not understand how that would prevent my ATV4 from broadcasting itself and thus revealing its presence (which I find intrusive). Also thinking about it, I'm no longer so sure whether the ATV4 broadcasts its presence via bluetooth or wifi. Would you know?

Hi Diana,

Thanks, good to know. I gather from what you say that tvOS 10 update has instated this peer-to-peer discover mechanism (Airplay worked before without any issue - I suppose, thus without any peer-to-peer protocol)

Feedback is already provided, including in an email to the CEO himself.

Having a similar issue here. I have one Apple TV, but on both my iP6+ and my Mac it shows up as "Apple TV (2)" and "Living Room Apple TV". This was even after I changed the name to "Black Box" and turned off AirPlay from the ATV itself. I've just restored it and going to set it up again to see if the issue gets fixed like that. I'm guessing the latest update on the ATV messed some settings up in the OS itself.

Hello, I'm having the same issues using Beamer (one of the best apps ever created) and my Apple TV.

I’m using the latest versions of Beamer, Apple TV and OS X. It’s some weeks that when I drag a movie into Beamer it doesn’t connect automatically to my Apple TV as before: instead, I have to click the Share button and select the Apple TV, then everything goes fine as usual. I haven’t changed any settings, so it should “Connect and Pause” automatically as before.

I’ve also noticed that my Apple TV’s name displayed in Beamer when I click the Share button has changed from the original one (“Miller Apple TV”) to “Miller Apple TV (2)”. I don’t know why there’s this (2) in the displayed name. It’s like Beamer sees 2 Apple TVs named the same way and so it has to add (2) to the other one. But there’s only this Apple TV and the name of the Apple TV itself is always “Miller Apple TV”.

These 2 things (auto-connect not working any more and (2) added to Apple TV’s name) have happened together. It’s like Beamer doesn’t connect automatically anymore to “Miller Apple TV” because there’s another Apple TV named the same way and so it doesn’t know where to connect. I'm in touch with Beamer support but after looking your post I'm now thinking that the problem is more related to the Apple TV than to Beamer.

Hello and thank you for the reply. I think that the problem is related to both Apple and Beamer. Apple TV is certainly messing up the name, but Beamer IS recognizing correctly the updated name. Unfortunately he's keeping in memory also the old name and this causes its autoplay function to not work properly. My thoughts, of course... Let's see what Beamer support will tell me 🙂

I have the same issue with my Apple TV seemingly producing a duplicate or triplicate of itself thereby renaming itself as Apple TV (2) and Apple TV (3). It's an odd issue in that these names fluctuate with no particular rhyme or reason. I initially thought the issue was down to my MacBook Pro but my iPhone 5 also displays the same names. Odd indeed.

Here's hoping Apple release an update to fix this glitch.

This is what my iPhone 6 Plus shows when I look for my ATV. It did not however show up like this on my Macbook Pro (Running the latest 10.10.3 Public Beta). I'm left to believe that the issue is indeed with the ATV's software. I have updated both my iPhone to 8.2 and my ATV is also on it's latest firmware. I only have one ATV in my setup and if I go to the Airplay Setting on it, it displays the same multiple ATV's but with a picture of a lock implying that they are PW protected (My ATV is most definitely not setup with any PW). Hopefully this will be fixed with an update.

This issue has raised its head again after I updated my ATV gen 4 to tvOS10. I know see an Apple TV (2) everywhere on my devices (iPad, iPhone, iMac). I restarted everything from Macs to iDevices to Airport Extreme... hmmm

Hi. You're seeing this (2) because Bonjour has seen a service with the same name (Apple TV) offered from two different IP addresses. Since it cannot tolerate this, it invents a new name for the second service. It's not actually harmful, though strange. This can normally be resolved by restarting the router.