Cannot remove old Apple TV name from airplay on Mac - airplay times out and cannot connect

Question

Cannot remove old Apple TV name from airplay on Mac - airplay times out and cannot connect

I have a 3rd Generation Apple TV. I had it named Basement (2) as it was one of two ATVs in my house. I just recently purchased the 4th Generation ATV and moved the old one to an upstairs bedroom. When I renamed the 3rd Gen to "Bedroom" I noticed that everything on my iMac (Late 2012 model) running iTunes 12.3.1.23 on OS X El Capitan was still showing "Bedroom" IN ADDITION TO Basement (2) even though the device was renamed. When I try to connect to any Apple TV through iTunes it gives me the spinning beach ball and says the connection to Basement (2) has timed out. I can even unplug the ATV in question yet Basement (2) still shows up in the list of airplay devices through System Preferences. Even worse yet, when I try to set up the Apple Remote App on my iPhone 6s Plus, every time I sign in to Home Sharing, Basement (2) shows up again even if the Apple TV is not plugged in or powered on.

How can I completely, once and for all, delete Basement (2) from everything? I have restored it through the device, I have restored it through iTunes. Nothing works. It's like it it stuck in my computer or attached to my apple id or something and will not go away. Please help and let me know if you need any other information. Thanks!

Posted on Nov 10, 2015 9:22 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

CromeYellow

Level 1

59 points

Nov 25, 2015 11:14 AM in response to Mullmuzzler1979

I have the new Apple TV what I want to do is leave the new Apple TV on one of my iMACs, and delete the old Apple TV from that iMAC.

And then on my other iMAC, which is closer to the old Apple TV, put only that old Apple TV on that iMAC.

IS there a way to do this or are Apple TVs associated with my Apple account more so than with any particular computer?

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If there is no way to delete a certain Apple TV from a certain device, then how do I at least RENAME the two Apple TVs so that they are not referred to simply as both as Apple TV ?

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Answer 2

Nov 28, 2015 12:40 AM in response to Mullmuzzler1979

This worked for me:

- Turn off your Apple TV(s) (important if you have more than one, make sure ALL of them on the same network are off)

- Log in to iCloud.com (with your iTunes/Apple ID username & password). Click on "Find My Phone". Click on the dropdown in the top center to see all of your devices that you are currently signed in on. If your old Apple TV is still listed there, remove it, and then sign out.

- Close iTunes and Safari on your Mac.

- Make sure that none of your iOS devices are trying to use AirPlay.

- Open Airport Utility (in the UTILITIES folder in your APPS on your Mac). Click on your Airport Express or Airport Extreme and in the menu at the top of the screen, select BASE STATION. Select RESTART. Close Airport Utility.

If you don't use Airport Utility (or don't have an Airport device for your home network) you will need to restart or reboot your wifi router.

- While your Airport device(s) reboot, restart your Mac. Just for fun, restart your iOS device(s) too.

- Restart your AppleTV

- When everything has rebooted, check your AirPlay list. It should reflect only your current equipment.

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Answer 3

Nov 28, 2015 12:52 AM in response to CromeYellow

The easiest thing to do is to RENAME each AppleTV with a unique name. For example, at our house, each AppleTV has a name that reflects the room that it is in (for example: Living Room, Master Bedroom, Game Room, etc.)

Turn on the AppleTV you want to rename.

4th Gen AppleTV: Go to SETTINGS, then AIRPLAY. On the AIRPLAY menu, scroll to the second entry from the top APPLE TV NAME. Click on APPLE TV NAME and edit the name of the AppleTV to whatever you want.

Once you rename each AppleTV it's easy to select that ATV for Airplay from the respective Mac computer.

Fun fact: If you have a 2nd or 3rd generation ATV, and you use the Apple REMOTE app from an iOS device to access it, you used to be able to actually use emojis to create the name of that AppleTV. Our old 3rd Gen was named " Living Room " before it was replaced by our new 4th Gen (current model) ATV.

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Answer 4

Nov 27, 2016 10:33 AM in response to Mullmuzzler1979

This might be a bit extreme, but it did work and its also good practice to do once in a while. I went to my iOS device and changed the password to my Apple ID. I then applied the setting which logged out all other devices. This of course removed the old Apple TVs from my Apple Account, of course I then had to reconnect my relevant Apple Devices.

To Change the password to my Apple ID. On my iOS device, I went to Settings>iCloud>Password and Security>Change Password. Once that was complete, I also changed my Wi-Fi password to make sure the old devices were no longer connected to the wireless network, also had to rejoin my wireless devices back to WI-Fi network. Once those steps were completed I rebooted my iOS device, the old Apple TV showed up in the Control Center settings for a second or two, then disappeared, Id guess the old Apple TV cache had to be cleared. The next time I launched control center on my iOS device, the old Apple TV was no longer showing up.

I hope this helps

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