Apple TV remote app won't connect

I had the same issue with my wife’s new phone. (A 13 pro max) tried every solution offered here with no luck.

Because I have multiple Apple TV’s and still

have one physical remote, I was finally able to fix it by performing a factory Reset on the Apple TV. This required then pairing my physical remote with it, and reinstalling apps, but no changes were required on her phone. At that point it just worked.

One quirk is that I performed the initial setup using my phone. That meant that my iCloud account had a generically named “Apple TV” registered along with the “Living Room” device. I just removed it from the iCloud/Apple ID settings page on my phone.

Solved…!!!!

On your Apple TV go to:

Settings >Remotes and Devices>Remote App and Devices.

Remove all devices that have been previously connected to this Apple TV and start connecting them again using the remote app on your iPhone.

you shouldn’t have a connecting problem after doing those steps.

Good Luck,

Mohamed Darwish

Literally tried everything recommended by apple and nothing works, remote says go to settings yet settings gives no ability to use my iPhone the way the remote app works. Everything is connected on same WiFi…Dear Apple…WHY JUST WHY WTF…Apple has reverted to their updates not working for months on end 🤦🏻‍♀️

Same thing. It’s paired with Apple TV, and I can send video to the Apple TV, but it will not let me use the remote. Apple TV doesn’t show up in the remote app. Neither does my iTunes and I can’t pair it with my Mac (older model) at all. It also doesn’t pick up my airport, so I can’t send music to that either. Incredibly frustrating. Can someone just fix it for me please?

Same thing here since Apple disabled the phone app an moved it to control center my phone looses connection to the Apple TV after about a min. If I don’t select a show quickly to watch I’m back to recycle the power on the Apple TV. So annoying. I have 5 Apple TV’s…. With remotes that all have gone bad. Phone remote was nice and readily available…not anymore :(

This happens to me consistently now, too. The remote will work for a little while and then disconnect when I want to restart something after pausing or whatever and then will refuse to reconnect. The original remote app worked fine. And the physical remote works fine. Frustrating.

I have been same problem for a while. Just downloaded new iOS and it showed up for a second then disappeared again. BUT I think I got it fixed. I changed the name of the apple tV (from master bedroom to a ‘bed’ ) and now it works. Other steps I took were to ‘forget’ my iPhone in the settings->remotes menu on apple tv. Then brought the phone close to re-pair and add it to home in the apple TV set up. Even then it still didn’t work until I changed the name. Give that a try. Hopes this helps.

This also happening to me, my remote app will not stay connected after I use it for the first time of the day. For the rest of the day it will just act as if it cannot recognize my Apple TV or connect to it anymore please hot fix.

Funny enough, it works for me it I connect it for the first time and I can control the Apple tv normally, 2 minutes later it disconnects and it refuses to connect (showing the connection wheel then nothing happens)

if I leave it for few hours then try again it works, and again after 2 mins it stops

How can we update the AppleTV when it doesn’t connect to our phones?

It is recommended to have a functional physical remote available for your Apple TV, even if you prefer the software remote. Borrow one temporarily if needed. Or buy a replacement remote separately.

Updating the Apple TV (4th generation or later) isn’t essential for connecting the iPhone remote (when running tvOS 11.1 (2017) or later, which was current when the Control Center remote was introduced).

Updating the Apple TV (3rd generation) isn’t essential for connecting the iPhone remote (when running Apple TV Software 7.5 (2020) or later, which was when that functionality was introduced for this model).

I also wasn’t able to connect my phone to my Apple TV and I couldn’t figure out why because it was logged into the same Wi-Fi network. Seemed that my phone needed to verify my iCloud account and then it started working. Hope this helps someone!

For me, I had my other Apple TV's apart of a home and the one I was having the issue with was acting as a hub for another home. I removed home information from all devices and recreated a single home with all devices. Now I can control them all with the IPhone remote app.

This answer is not helpful and Apple is not properly maintaining this software. The Apple TV software as well as all the help assume you are connecting the Apple TV with Wi-Fi. This is silly as all Apple TVs have RJ45 connectors making it possible to connect the Apple TV via an ethernet cable. Exactly what I do. Apple should fix this software to not search via WiFi to connect, but to search on the same LAN, regardless whether any connection is done via Wi-Fi or not. In my case I want to run the app from my iPad, connected via WiFi, but going of course to the router, which connects to the Apple TV via cable. The make the connection is always a hassle. Awful that Apple cannot make software that matches its hardware.

1. Make sure both devices are logged into with the same account.

2. Go to the home app on iOS and delete any homes setup.

3. Reboot both devices. You should now be able to manage which devices will have control from the AppleTV settings.

4. If you wish to use the Home App to manage your devices make sure every user is added to the home you create.

I'm glad things are working out for you. I understand how frustrating it can be to have issues like this. As a personal customer and professional admin for Apple Products for over 14-3years, I completely agree with some of the buggy releases and their lack of effort to resolve some of them in the manner they used to do. Personally, I liked having the official app lol. It was a lot more consistent for me than the CC widget.