Q: Apple TV remote (4 Gen) won't work. I can restart the box with the remote, but can't select a country with it. Can anyone help me?

Welcome to the Apple Community.

A very small number of people have had a similar problem, do you have an Apple remote from another device.

Since you get the ATV to restart, the remote works at least partially.  I would suggest to return it for a good one.  Don't waste time trying to fix something that should work out of the box.

Yes you could return it but as WC suggested if you have an older Apple TV remote from an earlier model then you will likely be able to use that to get past the initial setup and then the ATV4 remote should work. At least others have reported success in using an older remote to get past the setup.

Yes indeed it's about convenience I think. I would have a 120 mile round trip to take mine back to an Apple Store so I'd personally be looking to use an older remote or even borrow one from a friend before jumping the car.

As a product engineer with 20 years experience, I always valued the customers time as the most valuable.  The only way to solve product problems is first to be aware of them.  If the customer is working around a legitimate product issue then the engineer never realizes there is a problem and it never gets fixed.

Vinceassociate wrote:

 

As a product engineer with 20 years experience, I always valued the customers time as the most valuable.  The only way to solve product problems is first to be aware of them.  If the customer is working around a legitimate product issue then the engineer never realizes there is a problem and it never gets fixed.

But at the same time it isn't reasonable to expect the customer to be put to the inconvenience of (say) a 120 mile round trip just so the engineer is made aware of a problem when the customer could resolve the matter much more conveniently.

I do appreciate your point but if you truly value the customers time as most valuable, you'd allow the customer to decide what they want to do.

The customer is always free to decide what they want to do and should do what is most convenient for them.  That may end up being to choose a product from another company.   Not everybody lives 120 miles from where they bought their Apple product so returning a product with a legitamate problem is the most convenient thing to do.  Understanding how to set up or use a properly working product or fix an out of warranty product is useful information.  Trying to repair a product that is malfunctioning out of the box or under warranty is another matter.

I had similar problem, Apple TV remote wasn't pairing. Only restarting Apple TV by holding menu and home buttons was possible.

I found that pressing menu and home buttons causing remote to emit IR, bluetooth was still dead. Apple Support told me that remote has hardware malfunction and advised me to go to the service.

I've tried one trick that in result bring remote bluetooth back to the life.

1. Lock pressed menu and home buttons on the remote with something heavy. I used additional 2 coins and credit card to ensure that buttons are pressed.

2. Leave it for some time to discharge internal battery. I leaved it for 48 hours to be sure.

3. Connect to charger and try pairing with Apple TV. In my case bluetooth became functional again.