Sony Bravia TV remote no longer controls Apple TV

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Level 1

19 points

Sony Bravia TV remote no longer controls Apple TV

Hi,

So I've been having same setup for like 6 years and its been flawless so far: I have Sony Bravia TV and Apple TV 4K.

When I turn on the TV and click "Sync menu" on the remote a menu pops on the Sony. From there I select "Select device". This sends some dark magic trough the HDMI cable that:

a) Turns on the Apple TV

b) switches TV to the Apple TV remote

c) Lets you control Apple TV trough the TV remote

Now, for some reason I can't wrap my head around, this stopped working yesterday. It was working fine in the evening, but in the morning when I tried to watch some series - the "Select device" woke up the Apple TV, changed the TV input but you can no longer control the Apple TV using the TV remote.

I baffled on what could possibly be the cause. So far I've tried the usual suspects: Hard boots, different HDMI cables and different HDMI inputs on the TV.

Any ideas?

Apple TV 4K, tvOS 17

Posted on Feb 3, 2024 2:12 AM

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Answer 1

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Carl0s- Author

Level 1

19 points

Feb 3, 2024 7:44 AM in response to Carl0s-

UPDATE:

Did some exclusive faultfinding and this is what I've found out:

If I connect my PS4 to my Sony TV using the same HDMI cable and same HDMI port, I can control the PS4 using tv's remote
If I move Apple TV upstairs where I have another TV and connect it, I can't control Apple TV using TV's remote. Once again, if I switch Apple TV to PS4 using same cable and port, I can control the device using TV's remote.

So this isolates that the problem lies indeed in the Apple TV. I've tried to factory reset it and check for updates. It's currently running on build 21L5195h and there is no updates available.

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Answer 2

jonmrife

Level 1

18 points

Mar 28, 2024 10:31 AM in response to Carl0s-

Same for me on 2 of 4 Sony TVs. I have successfully I used the Learn Remote section of 5 AppleTV4s for sometime. But now, despite my best efforts, I can’t get two of them to work. I don’t ant to go back to Google TV. Please do something, 🍎 Apple.

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Answer 3

Apr 4, 2024 6:53 AM in response to Carl0s-

Sorry only just saw this post, but same thing has happened to my Sony Bravia remote and Apple TV 4K v 17.4. Then I swapped it for another Apple TV 4K from another room and the Sony remote now works on this Apple TV. The difference being this Atv is on 17.1 as I did not have it set to auto update. No idea how/if you can downgrade to 17.1 but suspect v 17.4 is the problem

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Answer 4

Carl0s- Author

Level 1

19 points

Apr 4, 2024 7:31 AM in response to jonmrife

My issue was not with the ”learn remote” function - but with the control over hdmi feature.

This was indeed problem with the beta releases - unrolled from betas and when the next ”normal” update rolled out the hdmi control worked again 👍

btw: There is no way to downgrade apple tv. If you try to force it via the bootloader it basicly bricks the device untill there is newer then currently installed version available in the public branch (ask me how i know😅)

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Sony Bravia TV remote no longer controls Apple TV

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