Remote app in control center won't connect with Apple TV after successful pairing

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Level 1

5 points

Remote app in control center won't connect with Apple TV after successful pairing

Hi,

I've paired my remote app from the control center with my Apple TV. However it won't connect. The remote on my iphone does connect when I put my iphone in airplane mode. But this is really slow to connect and it should work over wifi. This issue started with ios 14, but as ios 15 does not let the standalone remote app work anymore it has become a much bigger issue.

Oddly enough screen sharing with my Apple TV works perfectly fine. The issue is only with the remote from the control center.

Using my wife's iphone on the same wifi network the remote from the control center works perfectly fine. (So it's not a network issue)

Re-pairing does not help. Resetting the networks on my iphone also does not help. A factory reset and restore from backup does also not help. I've tried all these.

To me it feels like somehow the settings of the remote from the control center got corrupted, but I do not know of a way to wipe those settings.

Any ideas?

Ward

iPhone 7 Plus

Posted on Sep 21, 2021 11:58 AM

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Answer 1

ward181 Author

Level 1

5 points

Sep 23, 2021 11:05 AM in response to Jeff_W.

Hi,

For some reason logging into iCloud on the appletv and adding it to homekit on my iPhone "fixed" this. It should not make a difference as it worked perfectly fine with my wife's iphone without this, but I'll count my blessings and see this as a win.

Ward

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Answer 2

Jeff_W.

Community Specialist

Sep 22, 2021 12:02 PM in response to ward181

Ward181,

That may be the best option. You can contact Apple by going to Get Support

They should be able to look into this and check on available options.

Good Luck!

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Answer 3

jdo_apple

Community Specialist

Sep 22, 2021 10:24 AM in response to ward181

Hello Ward181,

It sounds like your remote app isn't working as expected. We understand how important this is to you and we are here to help.

Let's review all of the recommendations outlined here: If an app on your iPhone or iPad stops responding, closes unexpectedly, or won’t open

If the issue persists can you provide a few more details? When did you first notice this? What happens when you attempt to use the stand alone app? Also, which Apple TV are you currently using?

Cheers!

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Answer 4

Eric--F

Community Specialist

Sep 22, 2021 11:12 AM in response to ward181

Ward181,

Thank you for those details. We've found another article that may be helpful:

Set up the Apple TV Remote on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Specifically the section titled "If you can't set up the Apple TV Remote."

If the issue persists, we would recommend reaching out to Apple directly.

You can contact them by going to: Get Support

Hopefully this helps.

Take Care!

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Answer 5

Bee2b

Level 1

8 points

Oct 20, 2021 4:17 PM in response to ward181

Thank you for replying. I did finally get my remote app to work on iphone 12. I turned on icloud for homekit on my iphone and tried to add the appletv. I didn't successfully get appletv added, so I turned homekit icloud back off. But the weird thing is all of a sudden my iphone 12 remote app started working. So thank you for the ideas!

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Answer 6

ward181 Author

Level 1

5 points

Sep 22, 2021 10:51 AM in response to jdo_apple

Hi,

Unfortunately none of these suggestions help.

I cannot delete the remote app that is built into the control center. Nor can I close it and reopen it in the usual manner. Which is a shame as reinstalling an app works to reset its settings.

In the past I've also tried a factory reset of my iPhone. With a restore from backup. That did not fix the issue either.

I have ios 15 on my iPhone.

The stand alone app that still used to work with ios 14 now only gives the message "TV Remote had moved to control center".

I can't put a date on when the control center TV remote app stopped working. A long time ago. Maybe it never worked at all with ios 14.

My Apple TV is one of the 4K ones. It's also updated to the most recent OS.

Wadd

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Answer 7

Bee2b

Level 1

8 points

Oct 19, 2021 8:38 PM in response to ward181

Same exact issue here! Frustrating! Was on the phone a long time with Apple, with no resolve! IPhone 12 and Apple TV 4K.

The remote app on my iPhone 12 works on my Apple TV 3rd gen, but not Apple TV 4K.

My hubbies iphone 11, remote app works fine on the 4K Apple TV.

How did you do the HomeKit thing to get it to work. I still couldn’t get mine to work?

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Answer 8

ward181 Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 20, 2021 4:42 AM in response to Bee2b

Hi,

Well, I don't actually use homekit and it's been a while, so I'm not sure I remember this 100% correctly. But I think I just opened the homekit app on my iphone, clicked the "+" at the top right, and held the iphone close to the active appletv.

This was after I logged the appletv into icloud. Which I also don't use with my appletv, it's just logged in.

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Answer 9

ward181 Author

Level 1

5 points

Sep 22, 2021 11:54 AM in response to Eric--F

Hi,

Well the problem is not that I cannot setup the remote in control center. The problem is that it won't connect after successfully setting it up.

I'll try to contact apple directly.

Thanks

Ward

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Answer 10

ward181 Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 11, 2021 4:17 AM in response to xxChristopher

Hi,

Good to hear this actually helped someone besides myself! I was getting the feeling I was the only person on the internet having this issue ;).

Ward

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Answer 11

Oct 10, 2021 11:50 PM in response to ward181

Ward,

thanks so much for pointing us to Homekit. I can confirm this is working like a charm.

Same situation here, iPhone not connecting via controlcenter since around iOS 14, no problems via separate app. iPad connecting flawlessly.

After adding to Homekit, tv comes up with a message "finish configuration for iCloud" which leads to a connected iPhone.

If you're like me w/o smarthome configuration, deleting "Home app" afterwards won't affect the again-working remote.

Thanks again,

Christopher

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Remote app in control center won't connect with Apple TV after successful pairing

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