Fourth-gen Apple TVs spontaneously awaken, power on their HDTVs, users complain

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV
Some owners of the fourth-generation Apple TV are complaining that the device is spontaneously waking up itself and/or connected TVs, an inconvenience that could burn unnecessary electricity and could potentially cause screen burn-in for people with plasma sets.




The issue is the subject of numerous threads on Apple's support forums, and can also be confirmed by AppleInsider. Affected people may see their Apple TV turn on as quickly as a minute later, though longer delays are reported as well.

TV sets with HDMI-CEC support will turn back on as well, wasting electricity and potentially disrupting sleep. Plasma burn-in is a risk because tvOS may not always run its screensaver as it's supposed to.

The exact cause of the problem is uncertain, with owners blaming everything from Bluetooth to AirPlay. Some people have reported success in closing some (or all) apps before putting their Apple TV to sleep, or else restarting their unit first, or even turning off ad tracking. Those just concerned with keeping a TV off can disable HDMI-CEC in tvOS settings.

Such solutions would suggest that the problem is rooted in a software bug. If so Apple could fix it in a future tvOS update, but there's no immediate sign a patch will be wrapped into tvOS 9.2.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 87
    Yep I can confirm this has happened to me a few times. Definitely annoying.
    cnocbuiallmypeopleireland
  • Reply 2 of 87
    Yes it does. The way I got around it is to quit all running apps before turning it off.
    allmypeopleireland
  • Reply 3 of 87
    I noticed this happening as well... however, I discovered it happens only when I power off using the Apple TV remote. If I power the TV off by using the TV remote instead of the Apple TV remote, it does not happen.
    allmypeopleireland
  • Reply 4 of 87
    appexappex Posts: 687member
    A Mac mini (even old one) is much better than Apple TV for multimedia center.
  • Reply 5 of 87
    dimmokdimmok Posts: 359member
    Opposite happens for me...Apple TV won't turn off my Vizio TV. Everything else works well.


  • Reply 6 of 87
    appex said:
    A Mac mini (even old one) is much better than Apple TV for multimedia center.
    Disagree, totally. Mac Mini's, especially old ones can't handle processing video very well. The GPU's are underwhelming and the way a user interfaces with the mac mini is cludgy at best. Especially for a family with children or non techie so's.
    bdkennedy1002nolamacguytenlystevieargonaut
  • Reply 7 of 87
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,177member
    Some people have reported success in closing some (or all) apps before putting their Apple TV to sleep, or else restarting their unit first, or even turning off ad tracking. Those just concerned with keeping a TV off can disable HDMI-CEC in tvOS settings.
    I wasn't aware Apple TV's tracked users for ad purposes. If they do I would assume it's opt-in rather than default. 

    EDIT: Well never mind. They do and it isn't. For some reason I thought Apple TV was running a different version of iOS that didn't include anonymized default user tracking.
    Duh!
    edited January 2016
  • Reply 8 of 87
    CEC is so half baked and different from device to device it's amazing to me this is the only issue. Where is there a bug report for the screensaver though? It's always worked for me.
    ireland
  • Reply 9 of 87
    rbonnerrbonner Posts: 635member
    I had this happen, thought it was my cat stepping on the remote (still possible through)
    coolfactorargonaut
  • Reply 10 of 87
    ...and the journalist prostitutes of wall street continue feverishly to dream up pure nonsense to pile on to the gargantuan stack of rubbish news coverage on Apple.

    Please check your Samsung TV if that happens...

    It never ever happened for me, but interestingly, this problem suddenly appeared to 9 out of 10 people in this forum.... you wonder...
    edited January 2016 yojimbo007
  • Reply 11 of 87
    eightzeroeightzero Posts: 3,056member
    "What happened to Nest could never happen to an Apple product."
    stevie
  • Reply 12 of 87
    atv4 has been the most annoying device rollout in a while. i love both my 2nd and 3rd gen atvs but apple has been entirely too sloppy with ios, mac os and now atv over the last 2 years.
    anantksundaram
  • Reply 13 of 87
    I smell a class action suit..../s
  • Reply 14 of 87
    doggonedoggone Posts: 377member
    The HDMI-CEC feature is pretty neat.  I was surprised when the AppleTV was able to switch on the TV.  I haven't see the switch on issue but then don't use a lot of apps.
    My problem is slightly different.  We had to upgrade to Xfinity (Comcast in CA).  The cable unit can also use CEC but I found that the TV would switch back to the cable output about 10 seconds after switching to the Apple TV.  Very annoying.  After chatting with the Comcast support for an hour who didn't have a clue, I finally worked out that I had to switch off the CEC feature on the TV.  There was no way I could find to disable or modify behavior on the cable box.  
    I will try disabling CEC on the Apple TV and switch it back on on the TV to see if that will work.
    Hopefully at some point the TV and the cable box will be updated to be able to recognize 2 units that have CEC control and give preference to the unit that is activity displaying video.
  • Reply 15 of 87
    eightzero said:
    "What happened to Nest could never happen to an Apple product."
    Having your TV turn on occasionally is annoying, having your thermostat fail totally could be life-threatening. Slightly different.

    As an aside, I have a Sony TV which occasionally turns on for no apparent reason, I have no Apple TV. A friend has a Samsung TV (also no Apple TV) that does the same. It's a thing that happens sometimes when you daisy chain half a dozen different boxes together all vying for top dog position, something's always going to want to do something in the background you weren't aware of. eg My Amazon Sony TV app has just updated and now won't let me log in.
    nolamacguycornchip
  • Reply 16 of 87
    linkmanlinkman Posts: 1,035member
    I'm surprised that nobody is complaining about people being woken up by this. It's bound to occur.
  • Reply 17 of 87
    Stock down more than 3% this morning. Let's see how low AAPL can go this year. $90? $80? $70? (Headslap!) Sog will be on long-term suicide watch.
    edited January 2016 singularitycornchip
  • Reply 18 of 87
    I guess this could be annoying, but I use a receiver to connect cable, PS4, ATV, and speakers. As long as the receiver is off, the tv isn't turning on. 
  • Reply 19 of 87
    eideardeideard Posts: 428member
    First I've heard of this.  Since I have more devices in the system than can be controlled by the Apple remote, I use the Harmony to turn AppleTV on and off.

    Right after turning everything off, I always see the wee power indicator light come back on the AppleTV box - and I use the Apple remote > press Home for 5 seconds > press touchpad once = sleep and it shuts off...and that's the way everything stays till I start again w/Harmony.  It's never sponeously turned on the Vizio TV though that's included in setup along with Yamaha sound system.
  • Reply 20 of 87
    jonljonl Posts: 210member
    The best solution is to disable the horribly unreliable, unpredictable HDMI-CEC on all your devices and get a remote with macro capability to control multiple devices. The ATV4 thankfully still supports IR for everything but the new Home button, and the stupid supplied remote is too small, thin, and twitchy with its touchpad to be the primary controller anyway.
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