Your new 4th-generation Apple TV may cause you to lose sleep if you become a victim of a bug that’s been reported. According to AppleInsider, some owners are reporting that the devices spontaneously wake up, often resulting in the connected HDTV also turning on.
While the device itself uses very little power, turning on an HDTV unnecessarily could waste electricity. For those who own older plasma TVs, possible plasma burn-in could be an issue if the tvOS screensaver fails to kick in.
Users on Apple’s support forums have offered various workarounds, from disabling HDMI-CEC support in tvOS settings to quitting all apps prior to putting the device to sleep. There’s no word on whether or not a fix will be available from Apple in the upcoming tvOS 9.2, which is now going through developer beta testing.
There’s something far worse than some devices waking up and wasting a few cents of electricity. There’s the enormous hassle of people in the house be awakened when their TV turns itself on. Apple needs to put a high priority on fixing this one.