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Apple TV Control

Roomie Remote provides direct network control of Apple TV all the way back to the first generation. If you experience any issues during the pairing process, restarting the Apple TV and/or iOS/macOS device should resolve it.

For Apple TV Gen 4 and up, media guides can be used depending on the app running on the device. The default Media Guide is the App Launch Media Guide for the Apple TV itself. The Plex Media Guide is provided when running the Plex app, and shown as a sub-guide selector when configured. Plex Media Guide with Apple TV requires the Plex app is running, and that the Plex app has been discovered using the “Discover Plex” button inside the associated Apple TV device panel in Roomie.

tvOS 15 support requires Roomie 7 or above. tvOS 16 support requires Roomie 8 or above. tvOS 17 support requires Roomie 8.5 or above.

The content below refers only to the legacy infrared method of controlling Apple TV.

All Apple TV models can also be well controlled using infrared using a supported infrared adapter.

Some rare Apple TVs in the third generation may have trouble waking from sleep (this is a hardware issue and can also be seen with Apple’s Remote app). In such cases it may be useful to send an infrared command to wake the box. Performing a full restore of the Apple TV via USB from iTunes may also help if you encounter that. A common cause of this is the recall of 3rd generation Apple TV units. If you see this issue and it is not resolved by a re-image from iTunes, compare your serial number to the recalled models to replace it.

Special notes for infrared with Apple TV:

  1. Make sure to unpair your Apple TV from any existing physical remote when configuring an Apple TV for infrared control. Unpairing is accomplished via the menus on the Apple TV.
  2. Some special commands are possible on the Apple TV via long-press commands. For instance in some cases holding down the Menu button or another button causes a special action. By default, Roomie Remote does not enable long-press commands with every command as it can cause problems with some devices. However, you may find it useful with Apple TV. To enable a long-press behavior for any Apple TV button, just edit the appropriate button on the Remote Design for your Apple TV to Repeat the command with the ‘While Touched’ setting. You will see Roomie Remote has already configured your volume buttons and a few others that same way, but by default some Apple TV buttons that in theory could be configured as such are not.