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Rigby

macrumors 603
Original poster
Aug 5, 2008
6,258
10,215
San Jose, CA
Am I the only one having trouble getting the Siri remote to wake up after not using it for a while? Sometimes it only works after several button presses. Then when it finally does wake up, it sends the button presses to the Apple TV all at once and I usually end up starting or leaving an app, playing a video, or turning the volume way up/down inadvertantly. Is there some way to wake it up without side effects? I wish they'd use the inbuilt accelerometer to wake the remote when it's picked up.
 
Have you tried pairing it again it might help. Menu button and volume up at the same time for 15 seconds.
 
Mine is behaving in somewhat the same fashion, except that I don't think I get multiple events after it wakes up, the touch surface seems to get in a state where it doesn't register swipes, taps, or clicks. However, the other button seem to respond and after that the touch surface starts to work again.

Frankly, I think the behavior I'm seeing may be the "normal" for the Siri remote. Unless you use the Apple TV heavily you might not even notice this behavior since it happens infrequently and somewhat randomly and only after the Apple TV has been idle for a period of time. I have the sleep timer on the Apple TV set to "Never" but it does appear that the Bluetooth connection drops after several minutes of inactivity on the Apple TV (i.e. the Bluetooth goes to "sleep"). It seems like maybe 10% of the time after the connection is dropped the touch surface gets into a non-operational state and you have to "wake" the system by pressing one of the other buttons on the remote.

I've also seen what I'd term phantom taps to the touch surface. Every once in a while the timeline scroll bar will pop up on the video even though I haven't touched the remote (the remote is sitting on a table unused for several minutes). This seems to happen about once every three or four hours.

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Anyone else who is having problems with the Siri remote should take my poll question that in in the thread entitled "Siri Touch Surface Intermittently Fails to Work (Poll)"
*****
 
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This happens to me too. Maybe just wake it up with the volume button. If you click up then down it gives you a couple clicks to wake up the remote but doesn't do anything major that would affect playback.
 
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Mine is behaving in somewhat the same fashion, except that I don't think I get multiple events after it wakes up, the touch surface seems to get in a state where it doesn't register swipes, taps, or clicks. However, the other button seem to respond and after that the touch surface starts to work again.
Yes, the touchpad definitely cannot be used to wake it from sleep (it's very likely turned off to save power). I think in my case the remote sometimes buffers multiple button presses while the Bluetooth connection is being reestablished after sleep.
Frankly, I think the behavior I'm seeing may be the "normal" for the Siri remote. Unless you use the Apple TV heavily you might not even notice this behavior since it happens infrequently and somewhat randomly and only after the Apple TV has been idle for a period of time. I have the sleep timer on the Apple TV set to "Never" but it does appear that the Bluetooth connection drops after several minutes of inactivity on the Apple TV (i.e. the Bluetooth goes to "sleep").
I never had this behavior while watching something, even if I don't use the remote for a while. It only seems to happen after not having used the ATV at all for a few hours or more.
****
Anyone else who is having problems with the Siri remote should take my poll question that in in the thread entitled "Siri Touch Surface Intermittently Fails to Work (Poll)"
*****
I don't have that problem, but then I don't use screensavers (frankly I don't understand why anyone would, since burn-in or ghosting doesn't really happen with modern TVs unless perhaps if you have a plasma screen).
This happens to me too. Maybe just wake it up with the volume button. If you click up then down it gives you a couple clicks to wake up the remote but doesn't do anything major that would affect playback.
Yup, that seems to be the least disruptive way do to it.

Still curious if it would be possible to wake it up using the accelerometer though (and if it's at all possible to update the remote's firmware).
 
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I think in my case the remote sometimes buffers multiple button presses while the Bluetooth connection is being reestablished after sleep.

for me, when waking up, i also turn on the TV.

so i hit the power (home) button, the white LED on the aTV comes on, the TV comes on (most of the time) , and by the time the TV powers up, the remote is ready to go.
 
so i hit the power (home) button, the white LED on the aTV comes on, the TV comes on (most of the time) , and by the time the TV powers up, the remote is ready to go.
Sure, but you'll also be back on the home screen, rather than where you previously left off. There should be a way to wake the remote without any side effects.
 
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