Why do LG TVs turn on randomly?

In the middle of the night, your LG TV may suddenly turn on, which, depending on whether you’re awake or not, can scare you a bit. Fortunately, there are no ghosts taking over your TV remote; instead, there are more plausible and proven factors that can turn on your TV without prompting. The two main factors are usually due to incorrectly set specific timers on the TV, while the other may be due to external devices plugged into it.

External devices that behave like remote controls, such as the LG ThinQ app on your mobile device or even another universal remote app that can replace the actual remote, can be used as another way to turn on the TV – but if you’re completely asleep and not browsing your phone, that probably wouldn’t be the case. Additionally, Smart Home integration with Google or Alexa can also turn on your LG TV with voice assistant commands. Still, again, if you’re not in the room or sleeping (unless you’re chronically sleep talking), this should be rarer.

That then leaves another culprit besides the power timer feature: HDMI-CEC, which LG refers to as Simplink. Simplink is a built-in feature for HDMI connections that creates a unified system. While having a unified system sounds good on paper, it can also mean that if a device turns on while connected via HDMI (think your PlayStation 5 console), it could accidentally turn on the TV at the same time.

The good news is that if your TV randomly turns on or wakes up because of power timers and Simplink, you can adjust your settings to fix it. For the Simplink problem:

1. Select the Settings button (gear icon) on your remote.
2. Choose All Settings.
3. From there, search for Connections or General and select it.

The next option mainly depends on the version of WebOS you are using; newer versions from 2020 will show devices or device connection settings, while older versions will jump directly to the HDMI/Simplink section. Once you are in the HDMI Settings or Device Connection Settings menu:

1. Click to access Simplink (HDMI-CEC).
2. From there, select On or Off.
3. To fix the TV turning on randomly, set it to Off.

And if you find that it’s not turning on the TV at unpredictable times, consider checking the power timers set on your TV. Besides timers which usually designate a time to turn off completely, it can also be programmed to turn on at that specified time. To check:

1. Open Settings by clicking the Settings button (gear icon) on your remote.
2. Choose All Settings.
3. Go to General.
4. Select System (if you’re using an older version, the System option won’t be there; just locate the timers on the screen).
5. From this menu, select Time & Timer or Timers.
6. Then make sure the power-on timer is set to Off.