Prevent Apple TV remote from working with Apple TV 4

I figured it out!!

1. Pair your Apple Remote to the Apple TV (Menu+Right for 6 seconds) make sure there are no other devices in range.
2. Go to the device you want to actually use the Apple Remote on and pair it using (Menu+Select for 6 second) this will pair and increment the ID of the remote.

The Apple TV will be expecting ID 1 but the Remotes new ID will be 2 which the device you just paired with will be expecting. The Apple TV will now ignore the input from the Apple remote. 😉

Enjoy.

I had the same problem and I couldn't unpair the Aluminium Apple Remote from the AppleTV 4 initially with the way Apple describes it in their support pages.

Here's the method I used to unpair from the AppleTV 4 but leave the pairing intact on the Apple Mini (I use it for PLEX mainly);

1. Shut down the Mac Mini (I even pulled the power cord but this is probably not necessary)

2. Turn on the AppleTV 4

3. In the main menu point the Aluminium Apple Remote at the ATV4 and press and hold MENU and SELECT (round silver button within the navigation dial) for about 6 seconds, when the remote becomes unpaired the ATV4 white light will be flashing.

4. Try using the Aluminium Apple Remote and it shouldn't work anymore with the ATV4.

5. Slumber the ATV4.

5. Boot up the Mac Mini and try using it with the Aluminium Apple Remote, it should still function without bringing the ATV4 out of slumber, otherwise pair it again with the Mac Mini (but if you need to do this shut down the ATV4 completely first by pulling it's power cord).

Good luck!

Danny

There doesn't appear to currently be a way to configure the Apple TV4 to ignore input from any other Apple Remote. Oh boy I've tried.

Only remedy is to stick something over the IR port on the Apple TV4 seeing as though the Siri Remote is Bluetooth anyway.

I really do hope apple fix this up soon though.

the first step pairs the remote with the apple tv with the original ID of the remote. The second step pairs the remote with the device you actually want to use the remote with, you do this a little differently so that the ID is changed from what the Apple TV is expecting. Now when you use the remote it will not work with the apple TV because it thinks the remote is different to the one you paired it with.

MENU+Right Direction = Pair Remote, do this with the Apple TV. Do this first.

MENU+Select (Middle Button) = Pair and Change ID, do this with the device you want to use the remote with. Do this last.

Hope that explains it.

Okay so i just tried this method and after doing it my harmony One remote does NOT control the apple tv 4 anymore, it just does that quick triple flash. so this method not only stops the aluminium apple tv remote from working with the new apple tv 4 (which is what we want ) but it also stops the Harmony One Universal remote from working with the Apple TV 4 as well. (which is what we DONT want ) i want to use my harmony one universal remote with the new apple tv 4.

also, i want to note that i wasn't able to do the first step ,

"

Pair your Apple Remote to the Apple TV (Menu+Right for 6 seconds) make sure there are no other devices in range."

when i held the MENU and RIGHT buttons together nothing showed on the TV to confirm the apple tv 4 and the aluminum remote got linked?

This is a summary of my problem, i got my new apple tv 4 2 days ago, excellent device but i want to keep my Apple TV 3 Connected to my home theatre system along with my new Apple TV 4, my problem is that i want to make it so that the original ALUMINIUM apple tv remote will be the ONLY remote that will control the old Apple TV 3, i noticed that the new SIRI remote that comes with the apple tv 4 only controls the apple tv 4 which is fantastic because its bluetooh and it doesnt interact with the old apple tv 3, however im using a harmony one universal remote which i want to use with my new apple tv 4, i dont plan on using the SIRI Remote.

again, i do NOT want to use the harmony one with the Apple TV 3, i want the original aluminum apple tv 3 remote control to be the ONLY remote in the home that can control the Apple TV 3,

is that possible to do?

if i follow these steps will my Harmony one Remote still work with the APPLE TV 4 after doing this? because i want to use my harmony one remote with the apple tv 4, i dont use the SIRI Remote.

you didnt mention if i need to first PAIR the aluminium apple remote with the APPLE TV 3 first before doing these steps.

This worked for me, thank you. The OP needs to mark your's as a solution. The only down side so far is that even though it doesn't respond or wake from the input, the aTV4 blinks several times whenever the aluminum remote button is pressed.

Please go ask your question elsewhere. This is a question regarding Apple remotes not Harmony remotes. We are not obliged to answer your question so please pay a little bit of respect to the people volenteering their time to come here and answer people's questions.

You aren't going to get an answer in this thread. People are reading this because they are having issues with their Apple remote not a harmony remote. Please post a new thread on the support forum with your own question so others can help you.

I Can't assist you as I don't have a harmony remote.

Hi Patt,

Glad it worked for you as well! Indeed you can't stop the Apple TV 4 from blinking however I see that as a positive now as it will give me direct proof when the battery is low on the Apple Remote...

If the OP doesn't mark it as a solution, you could mark my post as 'This helped me' (bottom left).

Regards,

Danny

Hi GuyM458,

You have to read things carefully, like many people mentioned this whole post is dedicated to unpairing an Apple Remote and not concerning a universal remote like your Harmony, it seems no-one answering here has a Harmony Remote and we are all volunteering to help each other in our spare time so that's more of a friendly gesture than a right to troubleshooting for you.

There are two different suggestions to fix the Apple Remote unpairing issue on these pages of which I think mine really does unpair it properly (I happened to find out how by trial and error) and the other method seems just a work around to me. My post was clearly a reply to the OP and not to your request.

From reading your posts it seems that you have been mixing both suggestions even though it does not concern a universal remote.

Now a few suggestions that may help you;

How to pair your Harmony remote with just the ATV4 I don't know as I don't own one, this is something you will have to use the Harmony remote instructions/forum for or make a new specific post yourself, also if the work around method you have applied has disabled infrared detection of the ATV4 you will have to find a way to turn it back on again (maybe reversing the steps or possibly returning the ATV4 back to factory settings?).

If the Apple Remote is still working with both your ATV3 and ATV4 then I am sure you can unpair it from just the ATV4 by using my solution (where my Mac Mini becomes your ATV3), just make sure that only the ATV4 is on before unpairing by removing the power cord from the ATV3 first so it does not change any ATV3 settings/pairings.

Good luck!

Danny

Hi Danny,

Your method for unpairing an Apple Remote from ATV4 is the only one that worked for me. For what it's worth, before I started I turned off my other device (a Mac Mini) but did not unplug the power cord. Subsequently, unpairing the remote from ATV4 also unpaired it from the Mac Mini as well, but that was easy to fix.

Thank you for the detailed instructions!

Edin

Hello GuyM458

This thread might be of interest to you

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7484007

Cheers

Johnny

The IR sensor seems very good, since I covered the entire front and still the apple tv responds to the old remote. Very annoying!