Top 10 Apple TV Remote Tips and Tricks

When Apple released the fourth-generation Apple TV in 2015, it also included a new Siri Remote with the set-top box (although in some regions Apple kept the original name "Apple TV Remote" due to Siri not working in those territories).


The redesigned remote features dual microphones for Siri support as well as a glass touch surface for navigating the tvOS interface by swiping, tapping, and scrubbing to fast forward/rewind content. The remote also has a Menu button, a Home button (with a TV icon on it), a Siri button, a Play/Pause button, and a Volume Up/Down button.

With the release of the Apple TV 4K in 2017, Apple tweaked the remote design to add a raised white ring around the Menu button, making it easier to identify the correct orientation of the remote by both touch and feel. The buttons and operation of the remote, however, remained unchanged, and the revised remote is also included with new units of the fourth-generation Apple TV.

In this guide, we've collected 10 of our favorite tips for controlling features of tvOS using the Apple TV Remote included with the fourth generation Apple TV and the latest fifth-generation Apple TV 4K. Keep reading and you might well discover a new trick or two.

1. Quickly Switch Between Open Apps

1 switch apps
If you have an iOS device then you'll be familiar with this feature. To quickly switch between open Apple TV apps, click the Home button twice. This will bring up the App Switcher screen, which you can navigate by swiping sideways on the Apple TV Remote's touch surface. Tap the surface to open the selected app, or swipe up to force quit it.

2. Quickly Restart Your Apple TV

2 Restart
If you're troubleshooting your Apple TV and need to restart it several times, going through the settings screens to select Restart is quickly going to grate. Fortunately, you can perform the same action simply by holding down the Home and Menu buttons simultaneously for six seconds.

3. Sleep Your Apple TV

3 sleep
Similarly, if you're regularly digging into setting screens to select the sleep option when you're done using Apple TV, then this tip's for you. Simply hold the Home button for two seconds and the Sleep option will appear at the center of the screen where you can promptly select it.

4. Quick Switch to the Home Screen

4 home screen
Apple likes new Apple TV owners to associate the Apple TV Remote's Home button with the company's native TV app, but that shortcut can start to get annoying, especially if the things you tend to watch don't even show up there (Netflix content being just one example.) Thankfully, you can reinstate the Home button's original functionality by going into Settings and selecting Remotes and Devices -> Home Button.

5. Activate the Screen Saver

5 Start screensaver
You can set your Apple TV's screen saver to come on after so many minutes have passed (Settings -> General -> Screen Saver -> Start After) but you can also activate it straight away by double-clicking the Menu button on the Apple TV Remote at any time.

6. Rearrange Your Apple TV Apps

6 Rearrange apps
Whenever you download an Apple TV app from the tvOS App Store it automatically appears at the bottom of the Home screen's grid. If you've installed quite a few apps, you might like to rearrange them. Select the app to move and then click and hold down on the Apple TV Remote's touch surface for a couple of seconds. The app icon will start jiggling, at which point you can swipe to place it where you want. Simply click the touch surface again once you have the app in your preferred location.

7. View Video Settings

7 video settings
When watching video on Apple TV, you can access a number of media playback settings with a quick swipe down on the Apple TV Remote's touch surface. The info overlay that slides into view from the top contains options to enable/disable subtitles, as well as audio settings for language, sound processing, and speaker. Simply navigate the menus using the touch surface and click down to select. A swipe up hides the overlay and returns you back to the video with your changes applied.

8. Quick-Switch Between Lowercase/Uppercase Keyboard

8 Keyboard
When using Apple TV's onscreen keyboard, you can avoid the hassle of navigating the cursor between the lowercase and uppercase layout, simply by pressing the Play/Pause button on your Apple TV Remote. This instantly switches the letters from lowercase to uppercase and vice versa, which makes entering passwords in particular less of a chore.

9. Quick Backspace and Access to Alternate Characters

This is another handy tip for using Apple TV's onscreen keyboard that makes navigating it a lot less frustrating.

9 Quick Backspace
Next time you need to correct a mistake, don't bother swiping all the way to the far right of the screen to select the backspace key. Instead, click down on the Apple TV Remote's touch surface and hold until the character overlay appears. A quick swipe left will now automatically delete the last letter you entered in the input field.

10. Change Audio Output Device on the Fly

10 Change audio output
There's a quick way to switch your Apple TV's audio output device right from the home screen. Hold down the Play/Pause button on the Apple TV Remote, and in the menu that comes up on the screen, simply select the device you want to link to by clicking the Remote's touch surface.

Got an Apple TV Remote tip we haven't covered here? Be sure to share it in the comments.

Related Roundup: Apple TV
Buyer's Guide: Apple TV (Don't Buy)

Popular Stories

iPadOS 26 App Windowing

Apple Explains Why iPads Don't Just Run macOS

Friday June 13, 2025 7:46 am PDT by
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why. In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
Logitech Logo Feature

Logitech Announces Two New Accessories for WWDC

Friday June 13, 2025 7:22 am PDT by
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro. The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
iOS 26 Screens

Here Are All the iOS 26 Features That Require iPhone 15 Pro or Newer

Thursday June 12, 2025 4:53 am PDT by
With iOS 26, Apple has introduced some major changes to the iPhone experience, headlined by the new Liquid Glass redesign that's available across all compatible devices. However, several of the update's features are exclusive to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models, since they rely on Apple Intelligence. The following features are powered by on-device large language models and machine...
CarPlay Liquid Glass Dark

Apple to Let iPhone Users Watch Videos on CarPlay Screen While Parked

Thursday June 12, 2025 6:16 am PDT by
Apple this week announced that iPhone users will soon be able to watch videos right on the CarPlay screen in supported vehicles. iPhone users will be able to wirelessly stream videos to the CarPlay screen using AirPlay, according to Apple. For safety reasons, video playback will only be available when the vehicle is parked, to prevent distracted driving. The connected iPhone will be able to...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

Hate iOS 26's Liquid Glass Design? Here's How to Tone It Down

Wednesday June 11, 2025 4:22 pm PDT by
iOS 26 features a whole new design material that Apple calls Liquid Glass, with a focus on transparency that lets the content on your display shine through the controls. If you're not a fan of the look, or are having trouble with readability, there is a step that you can take to make things more opaque without entirely losing out on the new look. Apple has multiple Accessibility options that ...
Mac Studio Feature

Apple Begins Selling Refurbished Mac Studio With M4 Max and M3 Ultra Chips at a Discount

Thursday June 12, 2025 10:14 am PDT by
Apple today added Mac Studio models with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips to its online certified refurbished store in the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and many European countries, for the first time since they were released in March. As usual for refurbished Macs, prices are discounted by approximately 15% compared to the equivalent new models on Apple's online store. Note that Apple's ...
iOS 26 Feature

Apple Seeds Revised iOS 26 Developer Beta to Fix Battery Issue

Friday June 13, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple today provided developers with a revised version of the first iOS 26 beta for testing purposes. The update is only available for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models, so if you're running iOS 26 on an iPhone 14 or earlier, you won't see the revised beta. Registered developers can download the new beta software through the Settings app on each device. The revised beta addresses an...
maxresdefault

Everything Apple Announced at WWDC 2025 in 10 Minutes

Monday June 9, 2025 5:21 pm PDT by
At today's WWDC 2025 keynote event, Apple unveiled a new design that will inform the next decade of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS development, so needless to say, it was a busy day. Apple also unveiled a ton of new features for the iPhone, an overhauled Spotlight interface for the Mac, and a ton of updates that make the iPad more like a Mac than ever before. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel ...

Top Rated Comments

Botanique Avatar
95 months ago
('https://www.macrumors.com/guide/top-10-apple-tv-remote-tips-tricks/')


When Apple released the fourth-generation Apple TV in 2015, it also included a new Siri Remote with the set-top box (although in some regions Apple kept the original name "Apple TV Remote" due to Siri not working in those territories).



The redesigned remote features dual microphones for Siri support as well as a glass touch surface for navigating the tvOS interface by swiping, tapping, and scrubbing to fast forward/rewind content. The remote also has a Menu button, a Home button (with a TV icon on it), a Siri button, a Play/Pause button, and a Volume Up/Down button.

With the release of the Apple TV 4K in 2017, Apple tweaked the remote design to add a raised white ring around the Menu button, making it easier to identify the correct orientation of the remote by both touch and feel. The buttons and operation of the remote, however, remained unchanged, and the revised remote is also included with new units of the fourth-generation Apple TV.

In this guide, we've collected 10 of our favorite tips for controlling features of tvOS using the Apple TV Remote included with the fourth generation Apple TV and the latest fifth-generation Apple TV 4K. Keep reading and you might well discover a new trick or two.


Click here to read more... ('https://www.macrumors.com/guide/top-10-apple-tv-remote-tips-tricks/')

Article Link: Top 10 Apple TV Remote Tips and Tricks ('https://www.macrumors.com/guide/top-10-apple-tv-remote-tips-tricks/')
[doublepost=1519728906][/doublepost]These suggestions are helpful - but the fact remains that this is the worst remote I have ever had to deal with. There is a reason my Apple TV sits unloved and unused - the idiotic and frustrating remote. Swipe to change a setting....nothing happens, swipe again - the selection moves five steps across the screen....swipe once more....no movement. Here's a thought....have a look at the Amazon Fire TV remote....simple, functional, it works and I don't need to load an app on my phone as a work around for poor design.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mefisto Avatar
95 months ago
I like these kinds of articles. Most of the stuff above I already knew, but there were a few nuggets of really useful, new info as well! Thanks.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ljonesj Avatar
95 months ago
I hate the remote I use the old aluminum Apple remote it works a lot better I can fast forward and reverse easier with the older remote
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mike MA Avatar
95 months ago
Very interesting read and collection. The majority of those were not known to me I have to admit. Appreciate it.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
timborama Avatar
95 months ago
The fact these tips require explaining is a huge fail. Nothing about Apple products is intuitive any longer. Worst remote EVER!
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
imola.zhp Avatar
95 months ago
The fact these tips require explaining is a huge fail. Nothing about Apple products is intuitive any longer. Worst remote EVER!
These types of comments crack me up. None of these tips are required for the easy use of the remote, these are just shortcuts. I knew most of them but still learned a few new ones and appreciated the tip about turning the double click of the home/tv button back to home as opposed to the tv app (which I still haven not really used).
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)