Pair or unpair your Apple Remote with your Apple TV (3rd generation or earlier)

Follow steps to pair or unpair your Apple Remote (aluminum or white) with your Apple TV.

Before you begin

  • Your Apple Remote uses IR technology. If there are other nearby Apple devices with IR, like a Mac or second Apple TV, prevent interference by pairing your remote.
  • If there aren't other Apple devices with IR nearby, you don't need to pair your remote. 
  • Your Apple Remote (aluminum or white) can only pair with Apple TV (3rd generation or earlier).
  • Siri Remote and Apple TV Remote* don't support Apple TV (3rd generation or earlier).

Pair your Apple Remote (aluminum or white)

There are two ways to pair your Apple Remote with your Apple TV (2nd or 3rd generation). You can go to Settings > General > Remotes and choose Pair Apple Remote, or press and hold the Menu and Right buttons for five seconds.

After you successfully pair your devices, you should see a chainlink icon above an icon of a remote on your Apple TV. 

Unpair your Apple Remote (aluminum or white)

To unpair your Apple Remote, go to the main menu of your Apple TV. Choose Settings > General > Remotes, then choose Unpair Apple Remote. Or you can use any Apple Remote (aluminum or white) and press and hold the Menu and Left buttons for six seconds.

After you successfully unpair a device, you should see A broken chainlink icon above an icon of a remote on your Apple TV.

Get help

If the light on your Apple TV flashes three times quickly and doesn't otherwise respond to a button press, unpair and re-pair your remote.

*Apple TV (4th generation) ships with the same remote everywhere. In countries and regions that support Siri, the remote is called Siri Remote. Elsewhere, it’s called Apple TV Remote. Siri works on either remote as long as your Apple TV (4th generation) is set up with a language and country that supports Siri. Back >

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