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AppleTV 4 keeps waking up

I put the device to sleep either by press and hold the Home button or going to Settings and selecting sleep. It sleeps for a minute or so but then it wakes up on its own and turns the TV on as well. Curiously enough it only happens to one of my TV's (Sony Bravia bought 2009) but not with the other (Samsung Plasma TV bought 2013). Any ideas?


Thank You,
Erasmo.

Apple TV, tvOS

Posted on Nov 3, 2015 11:25 AM

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Posted on Nov 3, 2015 4:04 PM

I Think I figured out the problem. It seems to happen when I put the AppleTV to sleep while a video playing app (I tried with HBO go & Plex). It'd appear the video player app stays active and wakes up the AppleTV (which turns on the TV). I tried quitting the Apps before putting it to sleep and the problem did not reouccur. Can someone from Apple please look into this?

38 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 3, 2015 4:04 PM in response to jtphil

I Think I figured out the problem. It seems to happen when I put the AppleTV to sleep while a video playing app (I tried with HBO go & Plex). It'd appear the video player app stays active and wakes up the AppleTV (which turns on the TV). I tried quitting the Apps before putting it to sleep and the problem did not reouccur. Can someone from Apple please look into this?

Nov 4, 2015 10:44 AM in response to Erasmix

This seems to be a random problem. Given the randomness of it, I don't know for sure whether or not what I did had a direct effect on it, but turning off ad tracking worked for me. Mine stayed asleep just fine for the first couple of days, but suddenly I couldn't get it to stay asleep until I turned off ad tracking. Now it's working just fine.


My guess is that that the ad-tracking service wants to run some process in the background at certain times, and when it turns itself on to do this, the unit sends a signal via HDMI-CEC that turns on the TV. Seems like a bug that can be fixed.

Nov 6, 2015 9:10 PM in response to Erasmix

One possible issue here is AirPlay. ATV will wake up when someone evokes AirPlay on an iOS device or Mac, and ATV 4 will turn on everything else.



This is an old problem; people used to complain that the light on ATV would shine for no reason. The difference now is that ATV 4 can use HDMI-CEC to turn on TVs and receivers.



I had this happen the first night after I plugged in the ATV 4. I turned it off, came back to the empty den an hour later, and everything was blazing. Turns out my wife had been using her iPad to AirPlay upstairs on the old ATV.



I tested it, and sure enough, invoking AirPlay will turn on the ATV 4, which turns on everything else; I think it will respond even if you aren’t trying to AirPlay to the ATV 4 itself, but to some other device.



The only solution, regrettably, is to disable ATV 4’s ability to turn on the other equipment. Look in Settings and turn off HDMI-CEC. My empty den has been quiet ever since.

Nov 15, 2015 11:02 AM in response to Erasmix

I'm having the same issue, while playing Netflix (or HBO/Showtime) usually pause and stop, go all the way back to Apple TV's main menu and select sleep (turn off all devices), at first this works but unfortunately it turns back on my Samsung TV after around 2-3 minutes. It's very annoying to have to turn off again while going to bed, please fix this problem and update tvOS as soon as possible.


Using Apple TV 4th gen, tvOS 9.0.1.

Nov 20, 2015 10:32 PM in response to Erasmix

POSSIBLE SOLUTION:


I called Apple about this. I was told to go to settings and choose for the device to go to sleep in 15 min when inactive; therefore let it go to sleep by itself. After this, the problem disappeared. Now I can press and hold the home button to turn it off without the possibility of waking up by itself. I can't explain how this fixed the problem, but i did. Give it try to see if this works for you.

Jan 16, 2016 3:56 PM in response to Erasmix

OKAY. SO HERE'S THE SKINNY ON THIS ISSUE.


Keep the remote out of reach of pets and children, and one's self for that matter. I saw that my TV was coming on without me wanting it to as well. Then I came downstairs one day to find the cat sitting on the remote. He jumped off the coffee table (because he knows he's not allowed on there) and the TV came on. Later I noticed that I turned on the TV by touching the AppleTV remote while dusting.


I Do not believe this is an issue. This is just people not thinking about every possibility that could press that easy to press button on the remote. Since I moved the remote to a spot that the cats don't bother with (basically a small bowl on the coffee table) and I've been more attentive about my habits and actions the issue that happened several times a week has stopped all together. This confirms that the issue was environmental and not at all with the device.


GIve it a try!

Jan 16, 2016 4:06 PM in response to UserName096042

I don't have any pets. I don't normally use the Apple remote as I have a Harmony Remote for turning on and off all my devices.


When I turn off the devices (Apple TV, TV, Receiver) with the Harmony remote, the Apple TV light goes off for a few seconds then comes back on. It stays on for quite a while (I've never actually timed it). I think it sometimes stays on longer than the defined sleep period, though I've never tested that. And if I don't exit the Netflix app before turning it off, it will sometimes automatically watch the next episode of a tv show.


It's definitely an issue. It just seems to affect different people in different ways. It's one of the reasons I use my Roku a lot more now than the Apple TV. The Apple TV is the first Apple device that I've actually been disappointed in.

AppleTV 4 keeps waking up

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