If your TV keeps switching itself on, often in the middle of the night, it’s almost always the TV box starting up by itself and taking the TV with it. It’s annoying for you and worse for a guest who’s trying to sleep, so here’s why it happens and the one setting that fixes it.
Why it happens
While your TV is in standby, the BetterSTR TV app checks in with us every couple of minutes. That’s what lets you turn the TV on from your dashboard or the phone remote, even when nobody is in the room.
Most boxes do this quietly in the background and the screen stays off. A few boxes (we’ve seen it on a Xiaomi TV box) drop into a deeper sleep after a while and do a full start-up for each check instead. When the box starts up, it tells the TV to switch on over HDMI, so you end up with the TV turning itself on, sometimes every hour.
How to fix it
- Go to your dashboard and open Android TV.
- Click Edit on the TV that keeps turning on.
- Open Advanced and find the Standby section.
- Set Standby checks to Off and save.
The TV picks up the change the next time it checks in, within a few minutes while it’s on.
What the three options mean
- Auto (recommended): the default. The TV checks in while in standby, but if it notices the box keeps starting up by itself, it stops checking on that TV. When that has happened you’ll see “Paused on this TV since…” under the setting.
- On: always check in while in standby. Pick this if you rely on turning the TV on remotely and your box behaves itself.
- Off: never check in while in standby. This stops the TV turning itself on for good.
What still works with Off
With Standby checks off, the TV still turns on at guest check-in (if Auto power with bookings is on) and for scheduled messages that are set to wake the TV, and it still goes to standby at check-out.
The one thing you give up: turning the TV on from your dashboard or the phone remote only works while the TV is already on. Turning it off remotely is unaffected.
Still turning on?
Standby checks need the latest version of the BetterSTR TV app, so make sure the TV is up to date first. If it still switches itself on with the setting on Off, the cause is somewhere else. Check:
- The TV’s own settings for an on-timer, or a “power on with the source” option in its HDMI-CEC settings (Anynet+ on Samsung, BRAVIA Sync on Sony, SimpLink on LG).
- Anything else plugged into the TV, such as a games console, soundbar or another streaming box, which can turn the TV on over HDMI too.
- How the box is powered. If it’s plugged into one of the TV’s USB ports, the TV can cut and restore its power, which makes the box start up. Use the box’s own power adapter in a wall socket instead.
If none of that sorts it, get in touch at support@betterstr.com and we’ll look at what’s waking your TV.