Apple TV Weirdness

This appeared on my Apple TV last night. Needless to say, my name is not Fred. Does anyone have any idea what happened here?

Looks like someone near you was trying to connect to their Apple TV and picked yours instead.

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@MarcL how secure is your WiFi network?

I’ve been getting this a lot since iOS 12.1 came out. I have to enter the code on my devices when trying to use the Apple TV remote app at least a few times a week.

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My main Apple TV, which is the previous generation, simply won’t work with my iPhone XS after the last OS update. My secondary, which is a 4K, works like a charm.

That’s what I thought.

I’m using AirPort Extreme with WPA2 encryption.

This is beside the point, because none of my devices generated the message.

Your Wi-Fi security is also besides the point I think. If I open up some media on my iPhone now and look for devices to airplay it to, my neighbor’s Apple TV pops up in the list (even though it’s not on the same Wi-Fi as me, since Airplay doesn’t care about that). If I choose that one, and they’re watching TV, they’ll see a message like what you’re seeing.

So my guess is that someone with a device called Frank was apparently close by, and probably tried to airplay something, likely choosing the wrong device to connect to. Whether that is something to worry about depends on your living situation. :sweat_smile:

I suspect your Settings>AirPlay settings are set to allow “Anyone” to airplay – which I think means anyone within Bluetooth range with both WiFi and Bluetooth enabled, whether they are on your wifi network or not.

I’d change that setting to be “Anyone on Same Network”. This should prevent strangers from connecting, assuming they aren’t also on your wireless network!

More details: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202618

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