Apple TV 4K (2021) Ethernet switching between 100/1000Mbps in sleep mode

[staray51]

Just received my brand new Apple TV 4K and when it is turned off, the Ethernet port switches to 100Mbps for about 5 minutes,
then switches to 1000Mbps for about a minute. Then the process repeats switching back to 100M. While the unit is up and running
it stays at 1000Mbps.

This isn't normal behavior that I have ever seen for a network interface. I have several other streaming boxes like Fire TV,
AT&T TV streaming box, and 2 Apple TV HD models. All of them keep their interface up while in sleep mode.

What the heck is going on with the new Apple TV 4K? Switching between the different speeds like this seems like a code issue?

Any thoughts? Thanks for the feedback.

 

[w5jck]

It might be a FW issue. Apple certainly has had a lot of FW issues in the past with various devices. But my guess it is Apple trying to force their concept of using less when you don't need more. I would not be surprised if Apple is doing this to keep the connection at lower speed usage when not in a critical operating mode. For example, do you really need 1000Mbps when downloading updates in the background while the ATV is not on? 100Mbps is probably enough, unless you turn the ATV on, then 1000Mbps is better since you will be streaming. So perhaps they leave it at 100Mbps 80% of the time and periodically check to see if 1000Mbps is needed. If you have multiple devices connected to the internet, this would keep the over all traffic lower by throttling a device that is turned off and doesn't really need the higher 1000Mbps at that moment.

 

[aakshey]

Most certainly a defect.

 

[waw74]

It depends on how the aTV is doing it's sleep

If network cards in computers support wake on lan, a lot of times they'll drop to a lower speed when they're asleep.

so it's possible the aTV is alternating between deep sleep, and half sleep where it's doing things in the background.
the timing you're seeing makes a bit of sense for this, If something wakes it up, taking a minute to time out and go back to sleep seems like a reasonable choice.
it staying at 1000 when awake also points to this being the reason.

now as to figuring out what's waking it up, that could be a bit tougher. It could be checking for updates. if you've got homekit things, it could be related to that. It could be another device on your network is sending out a discovery packet. So the wakeup could be coming from the aTV itself, or another device on your network.

so very likely "working as intended" and not a firmware issue or defect.


you could try pinging it from terminal. While the aTV is on, get the IP address from the settings menu. once it's asleep, and showing 100, on any Mac on your network open terminal.app (in applications/utilities) and type "ping 192.168.0.99" but use the IP address of the aTV (and no quotes), if the aTV's connection jumps to 1000, then that's exactly what's happening.

 

[staray51]

It depends on how the aTV is doing it's sleep

If network cards in computers support wake on lan, a lot of times they'll drop to a lower speed when they're asleep.

so it's possible the aTV is alternating between deep sleep, and half sleep where it's doing things in the background.
the timing you're seeing makes a bit of sense for this, If something wakes it up, taking a minute to time out and go back to sleep seems like a reasonable choice.
it staying at 1000 when awake also points to this being the reason.

now as to figuring out what's waking it up, that could be a bit tougher. It could be checking for updates. if you've got homekit things, it could be related to that. It could be another device on your network is sending out a discovery packet. So the wakeup could be coming from the aTV itself, or another device on your network.

so very likely "working as intended" and not a firmware issue or defect.


you could try pinging it from terminal. While the aTV is on, get the IP address from the settings menu. once it's asleep, and showing 100, on any Mac on your network open terminal.app (in applications/utilities) and type "ping 192.168.0.99" but use the IP address of the aTV (and no quotes), if the aTV's connection jumps to 1000, then that's exactly what's happening.

I set up continuous pings to the ATV 4K while it was at 100M and the device stayed at that speed. I even tried different packet sizes. This was a good suggestion to try though. I have a firewall to look at the traffic the ATV is sending while in sleep mode and it's applications like DNS, itunes, apple-maps, apple-push-notifciations and ssl.

 

[macbuzzr]

Hi,

I observed the same behaviour with my ATV4K (2021) when it was a few days old. As mentioned before, it seems to be kind of a power saving mode for the LAN port. Once You turn on HomeKit (enable home hub mode by "connecting" it to a home; normally activated during first setup), it stays at 1 Gbps. That solves the "problem".

 

[staray51]

Hi,

I observed the same behaviour with my ATV4K (2021) when it was a few days old. As mentioned before, it seems to be kind of a power saving mode for the LAN port. Once You turn on HomeKit (enable home hub mode by "connecting" it to a home; normally activated during first setup), it stays at 1 Gbps. That solves the "problem".

I don't have any HomeKit devices for doing home automation. I could try making this 4K the homehub but i need some directions. How do you enable the Apple TV 4K to be the homehub? I went to Settings > AirPlay and Homekit > Airplay=on, Allow Access=Everyone, Conference Room Display=off, Airplay Display Underscan=auto, and Room = Select a room... if i highlight Room, message says Currently syncing with icloud. this may take a few minutes.. nothing ever show up for selecting. I am signed in to icloud with my apple id and Home Sharing under Users and Accounts shows my apple id.

 

[macbuzzr]

You just have to select a room, this enables the homehub functionality. If the wheel is spinning ("this may take a few minutes"), then You haven't activated two-factor authentification in iCloud. That is required for HomeKit to work. I didn't have it activated at first, too... Just head to https://appleid.apple.com, log in and enable it.

 

[staray51]

You just have to select a room, this enables the homehub functionality. If the wheel is spinning ("this may take a few minutes"), then You haven't activated two-factor authentification in iCloud. That is required for HomeKit to work. I didn't have it activated at first, too... Just head to https://appleid.apple.com, log in and enable it.

Thanks... I'll give that a try.

 

[Rigby]

There have been reports about this behavior for a long time. See e.g.:

Apple TV 4K - Ethernet constantly connect… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

It's probably some kind of power saving feature (Energy-Efficient Ethernet) that doesn't interact well with some switches/routers. Personally I don't see it (my wired ATV4K is connected to a Cisco switch), but that may be because I use my ATVs as Homekit hubs.

Does this behavior have any actual negative effect in your case?

 

[staray51]

I tried to enable the ATV 4K to be a home hub, but I just see the icon swirling saying it is syncing. Not sure what's going on there. I do have two-factor authentication enabled. One thing i did notice when i look on my iphone > settings > apple id > the new Apple TV 4K shows as an Apple TV (not Apple TV 4K).

I have a Cisco 2960G gigabit switch and the shifting between 100 and 1000Mbps speeds show up my logs which fills up the log file. I would have to turn off logging for that specific port.

If I don't have any Home kit devices, can one still assign the Apple TV has a hub? Sorry, just don't use of these devices. Just use it as a streaming device.

 

[Rigby]

If I don't have any Home kit devices, can one still assign the Apple TV has a hub? Sorry, just don't use of these devices. Just use it as a streaming device.

Not sure. But you can check in the Home app on the iPhone if it's recognized as a hub. Tap the "house" in the top left corner, and then Home Settings (if you don't see that, you may first have to add a home). Then you can see the recognized hubs under "Hubs & Bridges".

 

[staray51]

Yeah, go it to finally work. One doesn't need to have any home kit devices, but you do have to use another Apple device like an iphone or ipad and go to the Home app as Rigby suggested. Now the Gigabit interface stays up all the time.

 

[macbuzzr]

Yes, opening the Home app on any iOS device connected to Your home triggers some sync (keychain maybe).

Nice that it works now for You, too!

 

[chaicka]

I think this is what used to be called 'Green LAN' in the not-too-distance days where some Windows laptops come with higher quality wired ethernet chipset that do exactly the same - dropping to lower speed when laptop is asleep.

To me, this is not a new technology nor a defect. Just a feature that never did work on Macs before.

During the '100Mbps' mode, it does occasionally quick and short wakes which is part of macOS (and perhaps tvOS and other appleOS too) years-old feature of background update probe activity.