Managing soundbar volume with Siri remote.

When “learning” the new remote, hold the volume up on the original remote then press and hold volume up on the apple remote. Then repeat for volume down.

The apple remote needs to read the original remote signals for volume up and down so it can replay them when pressing those buttons.

The on-screen instructions do not tell you that.

When I tried to teach the Apple my new Soundbar it did not go over well, (LG TV & Bar) however once I set up HDMI-CEC for the TV & Bar (physically connected through HDMI ARC), I set the Apple TV to 'Auto' for volume control and everything fell into place!

Though now, a few months later, I'm having an intermittent problem where I'll press the volume up on my Apple TV remote, and instead of going up one digit it keeps climbing and climbing until reaching the max volume. Same for turning the volume down. I don't know if it's Apple or the bar, but I'm leaning towards apple. It's also been cross reacting and turning on my fireplace (a simple IR remote I haven't even tried to teach to a universal device) without any apparent pattern.

I had this issue and it is fixed in the Apple Remote Firmware Version 245. They specifically call out a bug fix for Samsung Soundbars but there may be another. There are directions on how to force the update here (and googling it as well.) The first time I tried the manual update it never worked. The 2nd time I plugged in the Apple remote to a Lightning cable to charge and that did the trick. My guess is you can't be below a certain percentage of battery.

Apple TV4 Remote Firmware Update

I haven't figured out a way to connect the typical way with my samsung soundbar hkw-450 but there is a way to directly connect to the sounbar and bypass the apple tv device. Restart your sound bar and hold the "sound" button for 5 seconds until the sound bar read, "ON - tv remote." At that point you just press the volume up and down buttons on the apple tv remote and it connects!

Little late to the party...but I've never had this problem until a few days ago. I would connect via Bluetooth then turn on home theatre control & volume control. It would work but would not control the recover just a gray box that popped up on the tv that slightly changes the volume.

To fix this I disconnected it as Bluetooth. Set up volume controls under home theatre section on Apple TV and that worked. Seemed to me having it as Bluetooth and using my tv optical out caused it to not control the receiver directly.

Same problem - HDMI-CEC works great to turn the TV on and switch input when I start using the AppleTV 4, but when I tried to control the volume, nothing.

I trained it with the remote from my sound bar and the ATV claims it learned, but when I hit vol-up or vol-down, the ATV light blinks but the sound bar doesn't recognize it. (My TiVo remote never worked either...) I trained the ATV off the sound bar's remote. I have a Logitech Harmony and that works fine.

I cant help, but I have an LG sound bar and it automatically connected, the remote will also turn on/off the TV also, which is an LG, both are 2015 models. I also have the Harmony which works fine. Is the sound bar connected wireless or wired? Mine is wireless.

I have a Samsung HW-FM35/ZA Soundbar and even after several attempts at training the remote it will not control my soundbar. So everything works great with one remote except the volume. I hope they can fix this via a software update.

Hi all, I have a cheap Phillips Soundbar and it "learned" the remote volume first time, and works great.... however..

When I change the TV input away from the ATV ( To watch a traditional TV Channel ) AND I then change the volume (using the ATV remote) it switches the input channel back to the ATV HDMI channel !

SO I can only change the soundbar volume when watching traditional TV Channels by using the original Phillips remote... frustrated

MY TV is a 50" 2014 Sony.

I think thats the way its supposed to work.

I have a samsung sound bar and same problem, how to fix??

I have the same problem. Samsung soundbar as well. Hoping we can find a solution.

I'm guessing samsung soundbars will never work. Are we SOL?

I'd think this should be fairly simple for Apple to fix. There's obviously a widespread issue with soundbars. We just need to find a way to bring it to their attention. We should all call support with this issue.

Like I saw another user say, a $10 universal remote can be made to work with a soundbar, so the ATV4 remote should have no problem. It's not rocket science, and Apple should be able to figure it out.

I'm wondering if it has something to do with HDMI-CEC. I wonder if the ATV sees that my TV is HDMI-CEC compatible, and is trying to control the sound via that instead of using the IR to control my soundbar. It feels like it could be a bug where the ATV is not obeying the settings regarding how to control volume, and always opts to use HDMI-CEC.

SSame Samsung and same volume issues with me. I tried an el cheapo iLive sound bar remote for a bedroom TV and it worked for that one, but not my Samsung sound bar.