Apple TV

The Apple TV integration allows you to control an Apple TV (any generation).

There is currently support for the following entities within the Apple TV device:

• Media Player
• Remote

Configuration

Adding Apple TV to your Home Assistant instance can be done via the user interface, by using this My button:

Apple TV can be auto-discovered by Home Assistant. If an instance was found, it will be shown as Discovered. You can then set it up right away.

Media Player

The Apple TV media player platform will create a Media Player entity for each Apple TV discovered on your network. This entity will display the active app and playback controls.

Remote

The Apple TV remote platform will automatically create a Remote entity for each Apple TV configured on to your Home Assistant instance. These entities allow you to turn the device on/off and to send control commands.

The following commands are currently available:

• wakeup
• home
• home_hold
• top_menu
• menu
• select
• up
• down
• left
• right
• volume_up
• volume_down

NOTE: Not all commands are supported by all Apple TV versions

Service send_command

Examples

Create a script to invoke the Netflix application based on the application icon being in a fixed place on the home screen:

lounge_appletv_netflix:
  alias: "Select Netflix"
  sequence:
    - service: remote.send_command
      target:
        entity_id: remote.lounge_appletv
      data:
        delay_secs: 1.5
        command:
          - top_menu
          - home
          - right
          - select

Script using the home_hold command to send your Apple TV to sleep and turn off the Media Player:

apple_tv_sleep:
  alias: "Make the Apple TV sleep"
  sequence:
    - service: remote.send_command
      target:
        entity_id: remote.lounge_appletv
      data:
        delay_secs: 1
        command:
          - home_hold
          - select
    - service: media_player.turn_off
      target:
        entity_id: media_player.lounge_appletv

Send 3 left commands with delay between each:

service: remote.send_command
target:
  entity_id: remote.apple_tv
data:
  num_repeats: 3
  delay_secs: 2.5
  command:
    - left

FAQ

My Apple TV does not turn on/off when I press on/off in the frontend

That is correct; it only toggles the power state in Home Assistant. See the example above to use the home_hold command. This can be used on Apple TVs running tvOS 14.0 or later.

Is it possible to see if a device is on without interacting with it

No

When adding a new device, a PIN code is requested, but none is shown on the screen

This can happen when pairing the AirPlay protocol in case the access settings are wrong. On your Apple TV, navigate to Settings, find the AirPlay menu and make sure that the access setting is set to “Everyone on the same network” and try again.

The buttons (play, pause, etc.) do not work

The tvOS apps themselves decide what commands they support and when they support them. Likely, the app you are using does not support the action you are trying to perform. Before writing an issue about this, verify if the same action is possible with the Remote app in iOS. If that is the case, please write a bug in pyatv and include logs (see Debugging below).

I’m trying to play a stream via AirPlay, but it doesn’t work

The Apple TV is quite picky when it comes to which formats it plays. The best bet is MP4. If it doesn’t work, it’s likely because of the media format.

Debugging

If you have any problems and intend to write an issue, make sure you have the relevant logs included. For this integration, you can enable them like this:

logger:
  logs:
    pyatv: debug
    homeassistant.components.apple_tv: debug

By providing logs directly when creating the issue, you will likely get help much faster.