Cannot disconnect iPhone from AppleTV

[davehutch]

When I watch something on my AppleTV I use the 'Remote' app on my iPhone.
The problem is, once I've done that I can't play Music on my iPhone any more. It constantly stays connected to the ATV and just tells me nothing is playing. If I select an album and click 'Shuffle', nothing happens.
I've tried switching off WiFi and Bluetooth but that doesn't work either.
My only option is to restart the phone and then Music allows me to select tracks again and use the iPhone as my output.

What's the trick to this?

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

First thought: swipe up and close the Remote app?

Second thought: if you are using the Control Center app, there should be a little blue icon in the upper right when your iPhone is connected to your AppleTV. Click that blue icon and uncheck the link to the AppleTV. But that doesn't work. And there's not iPhone option to choose- only other airplayable devices.

Stumped. On Mac, when Mac is set to control AppleTV or other speakers over Airplay, an option to deselect the others and choose to use Mac speakers is available. This same functionality appears to be missing from iOS.

Probably bug #212 needing Apple's attention.

Hopefully someone else knows the way. Sorry I couldn't help but just confirm.

Update: a bit of further experimentation led me to find that while the bug seems to "force" iPhone to airplay to AppleTV, once you start the music playing on AppleTV, click the blue icon (upper right, left of wifi bars) or the AppleTV airplay icon in the app, and now you CAN choose iPhone again from the list of airplay targets. And that works. The apparent bug is in not including the option of "iPhone" on the airplay screen once iPhone is set to airplay to AppleTV.

 

[davehutch]

I'll give that a go, thanks. I also found a possible solution that involves selecting the 'Control other speakers' button and that should also let you select iPhone.
Very poor though and, AFAIK it's been there since iOS17 at least

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Apples OSes tend to have bugs that can last many years. They seem to be locked into a perpetual chase of new-new-new instead of making what already exists work right. They used to be "just works" Apple. Now they are "workaround" Apple.

I'd welcome a modern-day Snow Leopard year or two focused on nothing but bug fixes & refinements. But I guess gimmicky new trumps making existing code work as it should. And then it's on us users to find ways around issues like this one.

 

[LionTeeth]

I'll give that a go, thanks. I also found a possible solution that involves selecting the 'Control other speakers' button and that should also let you select iPhone.
Very poor though and, AFAIK it's been there since iOS17 at least

That’s how I do it, and yeah it’s a very frustrating experience. So annoying

 

[doogm]

When I watch something on my AppleTV I use the 'Remote' app on my iPhone.
The problem is, once I've done that I can't play Music on my iPhone any more. It constantly stays connected to the ATV and just tells me nothing is playing. If I select an album and click 'Shuffle', nothing happens.
I've tried switching off WiFi and Bluetooth but that doesn't work either.
My only option is to restart the phone and then Music allows me to select tracks again and use the iPhone as my output.

What's the trick to this?

There is a setting that really helps with this.

Settings / General / Airplay & Continuity / Automatic AirPlay - set it to "Never". That should stop the Apple Remote widget from showing up. (This was such a PITA for me when iOS 18 first arrived so I was happy to find that setting worked for me.)