How do I power off apple tv?

FWIW sleep isn't the same as powering down the Apple TV, which can only be achieved by removing the power cord from either the unit or the wall socket.

You can sleep the ATV by holding the Home button down for a few seconds and confirming in the dialogue which appears. However if you are using an auto-sensing HDMI switch the ATV won't release it. As the cable box very likely doesn't disconnect the HDMI connection the only way to switch is to use the manual switch which most of these switches provide. If you are not using an external switch and your TV is auto-sensing you should still be able to switch the input manually.

You can power off the unit by putting it to sleep. Apple use the word sleep as if you would use turn off or power off.

Go to settings....and go all the way down and hit sleep. You may need to exercise this and to do it in 3-5 seconds...a record that my kids are able to do it these days.

Also....by not turning it off, will not impact you in any ways not to watch TV as you may need to use your TV remote control and click on the source (usually it is called source or input) button that will allow you to switch between the HDMI (where apple tv is connected at the back of your TV) to your cable tv.

Hope this makes sense. If not, shoot me a reply back. All the best.

D_@_n wrote:

You can power off the unit by putting it to sleep. Apple use the word sleep as if you would use turn off or power off. Go to settings....and go all the way down and hit sleep. You may need to exercise this and to do it in 3-5 seconds...a record that my kids are able to do it these days.

No need to do that, just hold the Home button down for a few seconds (as I already posted above).

You need to do that if you want to power it off immediately. By reading what Roger posted you are simply wasting your time and coffee will get cold because some Apple TV will not adhere to such command on your aluminum remote control. What I gave you was a universal solution for ALL apple TV generation boxes. Same as for a computer: you can put the computer to sleep when there is no activity or you can shut it down yourself.

In the case of the older models holding the play/pause button down for a few seconds will achieve the same result as holding the Home button on the ATV4. Going into Settings is a useful backup if there is a fault condition and the ATV is not responding to this.

Of course since the ATV doesn't release any HDMI auto-switching even when asleep it's just as easy to simply switch manually to the required input and leave it to go to sleep in its own time. (The Amazon Fire TV box, the Roku - at least the 1 - and the Sky+ box in the UK all do the same irritating thing. Add to that the Humax PVRs which grab the auto-switch when they start recording from standby, and the whole HDMI auto-switching beginning to look a bit redundant.)

I think the OP actually just wanted to know how to get it to release the HDMI auto-switch. Of course pulling the power lead will do that all right. How long does it take to boot back up when the power is reconnected?

I think you are right about what the OP wants. I was merely answering the question as asked. In regard to releasing the connection it seems that some switches will and others won't, the matter has been raised on and off since the Apple TV 1.

That's nonsense Dan, you can put the Apple TV to sleep exactly how Roger described it above, if you can't you are either doing it wrong or have a fault with the Apple TV, quite honestly, I'll eat my hat if it's a fault.

To manually shut off Apple TV 4th Gen (you can identify this by seeing your remote: if it has a trackpad and a microphone button, it is 4th Gen), you hold down the TV button, and a menu should come up. Select sleep, and the Apple TV will power off. I am not sure about the 1st-3rd Gens.

ahanrahan wrote:

To manually shut off Apple TV 4th Gen (you can identify this by seeing your remote: if it has a trackpad and a microphone button, it is 4th Gen), you hold down the TV button, and a menu should come up. Select sleep, and the Apple TV will power off. I am not sure about the 1st-3rd Gens.

Just to clarify, as we discussed above, sleep is not power off, it's just sleep (blanks the screen but doesn't turn off the HDMI). To power off you have to disconnect it from the mains. The 'TV' button is the Home button; on models 1 through 3 the same thing is effected with the play/pause button.

When you try that from apple tv (generation 1 and 2) it does not work and used both genuine remote unless using the remote app via OSX. I do understand it works fine from generation 3 ongoing using the aluminum remote. The 3 methods described earlier work however and Rogers version works too only not for all of them. Chances are high no one is using older generation apple TVs so that will still work all right.

No need. Apple TV shuts itself off automatically after a few minutes of idle time. To watch cable you need to switch to the port on the TV to which your cable is connected. You do that on the TV.

If it's not detecting lock of signal from ATV, use your TV remote to switch INPUT to cable/satellite. ATV will go to standby mode automatically - no need to "turn it off."