Today while I was getting ready I had YouTube on playing music because My phone was dead. I was over at my vanity doing my makeup and the video I was watching turned off. The loading sign was on the screen and new video came on. It was a video of a older woman in a night gown. Then the video changed again and this time it was a close up of two people having sex. I clicked out of it and the video would just keep popping up. I turned off the power outlet the Apple TV is connected to and turned it back on and it didn’t happen again. But I’m just wondering how could this have happened ? I didn’t touch the remote so how could a video pop up on it own. Has someone hacked it or is it haunted or something I just need answers because that was totally creepy.
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Apple TV hacked ?
- Thread starter Reaghanpoole
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If I had to guess, somebody with an iOS device in the same household accidentally triggered screen mirror mode while they were watching pornography.
That’s the thing the only device hooked up to my Apple TV is my phone and I wasn’t on it. My mom was asleep and my dad was working. I went down to tell him and he wasn’t doing anything like that.
BUSTED!!!
On a serious note, when I AirPlay from my MacBook, the MacBook screen goes black with the AirPlay logo etc. Does this not happen when mirroring? I not tried mirror.
Could also be a cheeky neighbour who also has Apple TV and clicked on the wrong one to be cheeky maybe
Scary though if Mirroring like that goes to the ATV that someone else in your house is watching if you accident switch it on DAMN!
Oh boy I know.
It’s a thing of nightmares, right. I guess that’s one way for parents to find out their child has a penchant for Asian ladyboy watersports.
I don't think a device needs to be paired with the TV as long as it's on the same Wi-Fi. That's at least the case for the older models.
Not unless they were on the same network. Airplay uses Bonjour which is not routed, so only devices on the same WiFi or LAN would be able to airplay.
There is a setting that allows you to set a password or passcode, or turn off Airplay security (actually they label it to allow anyone on the local network). You can set it to require the code always (a pain but useful for locations where a lot of users might try connecting), or just the first time (slightly less intrusive but it seems to require the code every so often) to limit what devices can connect.
If someone has hacked your WiFi, that is more troublesome. You might want to change your WiFi name and password.
Not necessarily. There is peer-to-peer Airplay (which works by setting up an ad hoc Wifi connection via Bluetooth). If there is a neighbor in Bluetooth range, they can airplay to your Apple TV without being on your Wifi network. But by default this requires entering a PIN code first, so make sure this is still set. In the latest tvOS there is finally an option to disable P2P Airplay ("allow to airplay" -> "anyone on the same network" in the Airplay settings).
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
OP: live in an apartment, condo or townhouse with close neighbors? Any chance any of them know your wifi password? Possibly neighbor accidentally pushing what they are watching to your 
TV on your network. It sounds very much like screen mirror mode.
If that is a possibility, change your wifi password. If not, I would again suspect someone within the house was looking at such stuff and accidentally triggered screen mirroring (as offered in #2).
When you powered it off, you broke the mirroring connection. I forget but that might have generated a message on the video sending device, which might have made the person aware of their (probable) mistake.
I haven't seen anything aboutTV getting hacked from the outside. If yours is the first, hackers usually want to remain invisible while they try to harvest anything valuable on the hacked device, NOT push new video content to you such that you would notice right away. The motivation for some hacker to hack TVs seems like it would be pretty low. There's not too much very sensitive info stored on TVs.
TV on your network. It sounds very much like screen mirror mode.If that is a possibility, change your wifi password. If not, I would again suspect someone within the house was looking at such stuff and accidentally triggered screen mirroring (as offered in #2).
When you powered it off, you broke the mirroring connection. I forget but that might have generated a message on the video sending device, which might have made the person aware of their (probable) mistake.
I haven't seen anything about
TV getting hacked from the outside. If yours is the first, hackers usually want to remain invisible while they try to harvest anything valuable on the hacked device, NOT push new video content to you such that you would notice right away. The motivation for some hacker to hack TVs seems like it would be pretty low. There's not too much very sensitive info stored on TVs.
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Ask yourself this, if this was your dad, would he admit to it? Like it or not, that is the simplest explanation. It may be best to let it go unless it happens again.
But to your question, your Apple TV has probably not beeen “hacked”, but it is possible that your network was been. You may consider changing your WiFi Password, or even disabling Airplay, if you don’t use it.
This was around 7 in the morning i really doubt my dad was watching porn that early.. plus he was sitting downstairs on the couch with his ipad i could have easily walked down there and caught him, just in general my dad is not like that. I changed the setting so that there needs to be a code to Airplay. So that probably should fix the problem. It was just really creepy and I guess I just wanted some explanations. If it happens somehow again I'll come back. Changing our wifi password is also probably a good idea.
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No our neighbors don't know our password and we have a pretty difficult password to just guess. Wouldn't me exing out of the video make them receive a message? Because each time i clicked out of it, it quickly re appeared over and over again until I turned it off. And yeah that makes sense I couldn't see any reason for someone to do that I honestly just don't know. Another thing if someone used mirroring wouldn't i have been able to see them go from one video to the next? It didn't seem like mirroring to me because i was able to ex out of the video but if thats what it sounds like i guess I'll take it. Im just a little reluctant now to even use it anymore haha.
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OP: live in an apartment, condo or townhouse with close neighbors? Any chance any of them know your wifi password? Possibly neighbor accidentally pushing what they are watching to your
If that is a possibility, change your wifi password. If not, I would again suspect someone within the house was looking at such stuff and accidentally triggered screen mirroring (as offered in #2).
When you powered it off, you broke the mirroring connection. I forget but that might have generated a message on the video sending device, which might have made the person aware of their (probable) mistake.
I haven't seen anything about
No our neighbors don't know our password and we have a pretty difficult password to just guess. Wouldn't me exing out of the video make them receive a message? Because each time i clicked out of it, it quickly re appeared over and over again until I turned it off. And yeah that makes sense I couldn't see any reason for someone to do that I honestly just don't know. Another thing if someone used mirroring wouldn't i have been able to see them go from one video to the next? It didn't seem like mirroring to me because i was able to ex out of the video but if thats what it sounds like i guess I'll take it. Im just a little reluctant now to even use it anymore haha.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I don't know if exiting out would trigger a message to them. The system may be set up to retry- I haven't worked with it enough to know for sure. There may be a difference between connection lost (unplugged) and connection temporarily lost (clicked out but device for mirroring is still available)... much like if your cable/satt blinks off for a while and comes back vs. you unplugging your cable box and it definitely can't come back on it's own.
Reluctance to use it shouldn't apply. They very, very likely can't see what you are watching. And they can't see you. If I'm you, I change my wifi password to rule out the neighbor with whom the password was shared at some point (and then it was forgotten that it was shared with them, or maybe one of the other people in your house shared the password with some neighbor who was trying to mirror the video to their own Apple TV (or accidentally clicked mirroring to yours)). All that takes is:
However, unfortunately, I'm more suspicious of those INSIDE your home. Clicking mirroring is not difficult and it's not hard to accidentally click it (I've accidentally turned it on myself). Is there maybe more than 1TV in your home and perhaps someone was trying to mirror to the OTHER one? Nobody is going to confirm they were looking at such video. By the time you got to them to check with them, they've stopped. Rather than confront, you might just let this go- whoever it was, inside or outside your home- knows they made a mistake and will probably avoid it going forward.
Yes if the nightgown video was a separate clip from the second video, mirroring should have shown them stopping one clip and switching to the other, but maybe it was the same video (2 scenes), or maybe they switched quickly while you might have been looking at other things (or were exited out) trying to figure out what was happening.
Again, I'd change my wifi password to eliminate the neighbor possibility. If it still happens again, light would be cast on those INSIDE your home to which you could softly communicate that it happened again or potentially escalate it by confronting those most likely and potentially looking at browser histories (if necessary).
Reluctance to use it shouldn't apply. They very, very likely can't see what you are watching. And they can't see you. If I'm you, I change my wifi password to rule out the neighbor with whom the password was shared at some point (and then it was forgotten that it was shared with them, or maybe one of the other people in your house shared the password with some neighbor who was trying to mirror the video to their own Apple TV (or accidentally clicked mirroring to yours)). All that takes is:
- "my wifi is down, could I get on your's until they fix it?"
- "Sure the password is ________"
However, unfortunately, I'm more suspicious of those INSIDE your home. Clicking mirroring is not difficult and it's not hard to accidentally click it (I've accidentally turned it on myself). Is there maybe more than 1
TV in your home and perhaps someone was trying to mirror to the OTHER one? Nobody is going to confirm they were looking at such video. By the time you got to them to check with them, they've stopped. Rather than confront, you might just let this go- whoever it was, inside or outside your home- knows they made a mistake and will probably avoid it going forward.Yes if the nightgown video was a separate clip from the second video, mirroring should have shown them stopping one clip and switching to the other, but maybe it was the same video (2 scenes), or maybe they switched quickly while you might have been looking at other things (or were exited out) trying to figure out what was happening.
Again, I'd change my wifi password to eliminate the neighbor possibility. If it still happens again, light would be cast on those INSIDE your home to which you could softly communicate that it happened again or potentially escalate it by confronting those most likely and potentially looking at browser histories (if necessary).
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##Disclaimer - I only have hands on experience with the 3rd gen TV.
Most hackers aren't black hats who hack for notorious purposes, like steeling your credit card details. Most hacks are done to see if you can.
No they wouldn't get a message in that case, because the mirroring device would assume that whoever controls the Apple TV and exits out of the video is with the person mirroring, and so it'd be obvious to that person.
But it doesn't sound like full-on screen mirroring. You can mirror your entire screen, or you can just throw a video to the Apple TV, and it sounds more like that's the case. In that circumstance, you wouldn't see the switching between videos, but as soon as the person streaming video to the TV switched, the next video would indeed come onto your screen. Their device would also say "Displaying on TV" or something like that
Just to be clear, I also doubt you've been hacked in any way.
I haven't seen anything about
Most hackers aren't black hats who hack for notorious purposes, like steeling your credit card details. Most hacks are done to see if you can.
No they wouldn't get a message in that case, because the mirroring device would assume that whoever controls the Apple TV and exits out of the video is with the person mirroring, and so it'd be obvious to that person.
But it doesn't sound like full-on screen mirroring. You can mirror your entire screen, or you can just throw a video to the Apple TV, and it sounds more like that's the case. In that circumstance, you wouldn't see the switching between videos, but as soon as the person streaming video to the TV switched, the next video would indeed come onto your screen. Their device would also say "Displaying on TV" or something like that
Just to be clear, I also doubt you've been hacked in any way.
The people who keep writing here that your Wifi password is required are wrong. Apple introduced peer-to-peer Airplay a few years ago specifically so that visitors etc. can show content on your ATV without knowing your Wifi password. Of course that also means that the neighbors next door can do so as well. However, you can restrict Airplay to only people on your network in the settings. It may also help to give your ATV a unique name instead of the pre-configured names so a neighbor immediately knows it's not their ATV. Also, as you noted, requiring a PIN code helps (but can be annoying if you're watching something and the code pops up).
Not a message, but they are able to see on their device that the display has switched back.
It isn't necessarily mirroring. It could also be real app-supported Airplay, in which case you won't see anything but the video being streamed.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Agreed but that even more so supports the point. OP suspects a potential hack and perhaps jokingly questions whether they want to keep using it. Why would someone be wanting to hack this ONE
TV? If it's to see if they can, how can they know they succeeded by pushing a video to this one TV? Etc.Both you & I get to the same assumption- likely not a hacking job.
Whether it's someone living there or perhaps a neighbor close enough to be able to toss video to OPs
TV seems to be the key question here.
Bluetooth range will generally prevent neighbors from seeing your ATV unless you are in a small apartment. So, wrong may be a bit strong.
That said, I agree naming the ATV something unique, restricting to local LAN only, these are reasonable steps with minimal inconvenience.
Agreed but that even more so supports the point. OP suspects a potential hack and perhaps jokingly questions whether they want to keep using it. Why would someone be wanting to hack this ONE
Both you & I get to the same assumption- likely not a hacking job.
Whether it's someone living there or perhaps a neighbor close enough to be able to toss video to OPs
Indeed very true - although they'd likely be able to see on their device if they did indeed succeed in casting the signal to the TV, as feedback is returned from the TV, to, for instance, allow the device to show the TV notice instead of any video streams the device otherwise would - but irrelevant to the larger point, yes. Likely not a hack.
I live in a single family home in a suburban development and I can see the Apple TV of one of my neighbors (whose house is maybe 15ft separated from mine) from my couch (which is close to the exterior wall). I imagine in apartment buildings you'd probably be able to see ATVs in the apartments directly above, below or next to yours.
Yep.
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The same thing happened to me. We cut the Apple TV off and it text my mother's pH and asked her why she cut the Apple TV off .they said her name .how the heck does it know her name and number. saw the same sex video .
You are getting trolled by someone who has gotten access to your Wi-Fi. You probably know them. If you are worried, lock down AirPlay and change your WiFi password.
It is simple enough to enable a password for Airplay to AppleTV. That is set up in the Airplay menu. It require the user to type the onscreen code into the iOS or OSX device before enabling the screen. Obviously if the screen can be seen outside the house (through a window), that can be compromised. It will keep someone from randomly throwing content onto YOUR TV.
Yea, it seems OP is in denial. But according to Dr. Occam, and his razor, that the most likely explanation.