Mac Treat #195: Pair a 3rd-Party Remote To ATV

For Christmas this year, my Dad bought himself a Bose speaker with a universal remote to control his entire media center. Luckily for him, he had both of his technologically-inclined sons home to help set everything up.

My brother got started first, setting up the universal remote as I was off helping my mom. Everything went just fine until he tried to pair the Apple TV with the remote. He told my dad it couldn’t be done, but I wasn’t so sure. So, when I got home, I asked around the office and was told it was possible, but not how to do it. I did a little digging and found that it is actually very easy to pair any 3rd-party IR remote to the Apple TV. It just takes a few steps.

On your Apple TV, go to the Remote menu found in this path Settings > General > Remotes. Once there, you should see a menu option called “Learn Remote.” This option will walk you through some simple navigation tasks like pressing and holding the Down button on the remote for a certain amount of time. Everything is displayed on the screen for what it wants you to do and should be a walk in the park.

Apparently, you can also set up basic navigation functions but since I don’t have a 3rd-party remote to test this, I can’t say whether or not it will work. The guide that I found detailing how to pair the remote mentioned that it didn’t work for him, but it may just not have been possible with the brand of remote he had. In any case, basic navigation functions do work and we should all rejoice! Now you only need one remote to control all of your electronic devices in your media room.