TheGoodLife99

Q: Sleeping Apple TV 3 wakes up iMac every 10 minutes...

Some days ago I updated my Apple TV 3 to the latest 7.2.1 firmware (I forgot to do it when it was released this February).

 

Since then my iMac never really sleeps, because the sleeping Apple TV tries to connect to the home shared iTunes library on my iMac every 10-15 minutes waking up the iMac... This did not happen with firmware 7.2.


Konsole clearly shows that it is my sleeping Apple TV waking the iMac.

If the Apple TV is awake and I don't use my home shared library the iMac sleeps well until the next scheduled RTC alarm...

 

I tried the following without success:

- Restarting Apple TV, iTunes, iMac and the router (TimeCapsule) several times and in several orders

- Switching Apple TV from WiFi to Ethernet and vice versa

- Deactivating and activating Home Sharing

 

The iMac only sleeps (with the regular 2 hour RTC alarm break) if...

- iTunes is closed or

- Apple TV is on (not sleeping), off (no power) or not on the network

- Wake on network access on the iMac is off (which means Apple TV can not wake up my iMac at all, even not if I want it to...)

 

I had a similiar problem about 1-2 years ago with this Apple TV... it went away with a later Apple TV firmware update.

And now it is back with this possibly last firmware ever for this device...

 

The problem is mentioned on the Internet by several people - but unfortunately without a solution.

 

Any idea on how to fix this issue is highly appreciated!

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Michael

Posted on Jun 12, 2016 10:44 AM

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Q: Sleeping Apple TV 3 wakes up iMac every 10 minutes...

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Gino_Cerullo,Solvedanswer

    Gino_Cerullo Gino_Cerullo Jun 13, 2016 1:03 AM in response to TheGoodLife99
    Level 3 (567 points)
    Apple TV
    Jun 13, 2016 1:03 AM in response to TheGoodLife99

    The only other suggestion I have is to reset the Apple TV. That will force it to do a clean install of the OS. It will mean having to re-enter you account information though.

  • by Diana.McCall,

    Diana.McCall Diana.McCall Jun 12, 2016 3:40 PM in response to TheGoodLife99
    Level 4 (3,812 points)
    Apple TV
    Jun 12, 2016 3:40 PM in response to TheGoodLife99

    Are you familiar with this About Wake on Demand and Bonjour Sleep Proxy - Apple Support Apple help document. In order to keep the shared services you want available, someone must keep an updated list of who offers what services. It sounds like ATV has taken the job of running the Bonjour Sleep Proxy, and it is calling around to update the mDNS it is managing. Can you enable the sleep proxy on the Time Capsule? It might be able to  take over from ATV.

  • by Gino_Cerullo,

    Gino_Cerullo Gino_Cerullo Jun 12, 2016 4:58 PM in response to Diana.McCall
    Level 3 (567 points)
    Apple TV
    Jun 12, 2016 4:58 PM in response to Diana.McCall

    Diane.McCall, it is very likely that Bonjour Sleep Proxy is at work here. It is part of a system referred to as DNS-SD (DNS Service Discovery.) The Sleep Proxy is not something that can be activated or deactivated on the Apple TV or AirPort base station. The only way to disable the Sleep Proxy is to disable "Wake for network access" in the Energy Saver System Preference on a Mac computer or to disable services that use it like Home Sharing in iTunes.

     

    More information about DNS-SD can be found here including Bonjour Sleep Proxy.  http://www.dns-sd.org/

  • by TheGoodLife99,

    TheGoodLife99 TheGoodLife99 Jun 13, 2016 12:56 AM in response to Gino_Cerullo
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apple TV
    Jun 13, 2016 12:56 AM in response to Gino_Cerullo

    Diana.McCall & Gino_Cerullo,

    thank you for your replies!

     

    Diana.McCall,

    yes - I know this Apple support document.

    But as Gino_Cerullo already explained: You can't activate or deactivate the sleep proxy on an Apple TV or a TimeCapsule - it is automatic.

    If a TimeCapsule or Airport base station is present in the network, Apple TV will not offer a sleep proxy - I can confirm this using Bonjour Browser showing my TimeCapsule as the only sleep proxy available.

    Refering to the support document all you can do is to ensure that the latest firmware/software is installed on all devices - and this is true in my setup.

     

    Gino_Cerullo,

    yes - if I cannot find anything else I will definitely try to reset my Apple TV - as a last resort.

    To be honest I don't think this will solve the problem - but you never know...

     

    I am still very surprised that this behaviour only occurs if the Apple TV is sleeping... this clearly points in some way to the TimeCapsule sleep proxy.

    What does the Apple TV do in the network / with the sleep proxy every 10 minutes while in standby (and only while in standby)?

    And why does it wake up the iMac without any need to access the shared library?

     

    Best regards,

    Michael

  • by Diana.McCall,Helpful

    Diana.McCall Diana.McCall Jun 13, 2016 4:43 AM in response to TheGoodLife99
    Level 4 (3,812 points)
    Apple TV
    Jun 13, 2016 4:43 AM in response to TheGoodLife99

    Is there any chance that the ATV screensaver is set to use photos from your iTunes library? Maybe it's persistently making sure it's up to date. Not a solution, but a possible explanation.

  • by TheGoodLife99,

    TheGoodLife99 TheGoodLife99 Jun 13, 2016 4:41 AM in response to Diana.McCall
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apple TV
    Jun 13, 2016 4:41 AM in response to Diana.McCall

    No, I already checked that when I tried to imagine all possible explanations why a sleeping Apple TV might want to access my iTunes library.

    Screensaver is off (set to "Never") and - just in case - the photo selection is set to "National Geographic", not to anything from my iTunes/iPhoto library.

     

    Additionally Apple TV seems to do a lot of caching concerning my iTunes library structure, artwork, etc.

    It knows nearly everything (except the media files content itself) without reloading the library, that means I can browse through music albums, TV Shows, etc. without accessing the iMac. Only if I play a song or a TV Show the iMac is accessed and serves the media.

     

    I tried to make the Apple TV forget my iTunes library - forcing it to reload it (and perhaps correct something) - but I couldn't find a way to do that:

    - Switching between two libraries on the Apple TV doesn't unload/reload anything.

    - Restarting the Apple TV doesn't unload/reload anything.

    - Even signing out of home sharing, restarting and signing in again doesn't reload anything - the library is still there after signing in again.

     

    If the cached libray is the culprit, it looks like I have to reset the Apple TV to get rid of it...

  • by Diana.McCall,

    Diana.McCall Diana.McCall Jun 13, 2016 6:35 AM in response to TheGoodLife99
    Level 4 (3,812 points)
    Apple TV
    Jun 13, 2016 6:35 AM in response to TheGoodLife99

    Just another thought: what is the duration of the DHCP leases from the router? If it's relatively short, ATV may be rebroadcasting its services every time it renews the lease, and that message might wake the Mac. The router logs should show the times of the lease renewals. I've observed that my ATV 4 on ethernet seems to renew randomly at intervals from 1 minute to 1 hour, while on WiFi it renews every 12 hours, like clockwork (the duration is 24 hours). Your ATV 3 is probably different, but may have similar oddities.

  • by TheGoodLife99,

    TheGoodLife99 TheGoodLife99 Jun 13, 2016 7:42 AM in response to Diana.McCall
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apple TV
    Jun 13, 2016 7:42 AM in response to Diana.McCall

    Diana, thank you for keeping at it!!

     

    Unfortunately the current Airport Utility doesn't provide any logs from my TimeCapsule...

    So I switched my Apple TV to a static IP address, restarted (just to be sure) and let it fall asleep...

    ...and after 10 minutes the sleeping Apple TV woke up my sleeping iMac again with a TCP request on port 3689 to connect to my home shared iTunes library!

     

    That proved DHCP and it's lease duration to be innocent...

     

    Best regards,

    Michael

  • by TheGoodLife99,

    TheGoodLife99 TheGoodLife99 Jun 14, 2016 10:32 AM in response to Gino_Cerullo
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apple TV
    Jun 14, 2016 10:32 AM in response to Gino_Cerullo

    Gino_Cerullo,

     

    because I couldn't find a solution, I tried your suggestion to reset my Apple TV:

     

    I signed out of iCloud, the iTunes Store and Home Sharing on my Apple TV and restored it (not only a reset to factory settings, but a full restore with a complete download and installation of firmware 7.2.1).

    Then I setup up the Apple TV as required and signed in to iCloud, the iTunes Store and Home Sharing.

     

    And guess what: The problem seems to be gone!!

     

    The sleeping Apple TV no longer wakes up my iMac (at least not in the last hour...).

    The obvious conclusion: Updating from firmware 7.2 to 7.2.1 can leave an Apple TV 3 in this strange mode where it prevents a Mac with a shared library from sleep while it is asleep.

     

    Thanks again for your help!

     

    Best regards,

    Michael