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