Harmony remote not working on with Mac

[tmanto02]

hi guys,

I have a Mac mini media centre setup that I've been using for plex for years

All of a sudden my harmony remote has stopped working with my Mac/plex, just no response at all. The rest of the harmony commands work fine ( ie can still control my tv and receiver), just not my Mac. If I restart my Mac it begins to work again temporarily but as my Mac is setup to run 24/7 restarting can be a pain.

Any idea why or how to fix?

Cheers

 

[iSee]

hi guys,

I have a Mac mini media centre setup that I've been using for plex for years

All of a sudden my harmony remote has stopped working with my Mac/plex, just no response at all. The rest of the harmony commands work fine ( ie can still control my tv and receiver), just not my Mac. If I restart my Mac it begins to work again temporarily but as my Mac is setup to run 24/7 restarting can be a pain.

Any idea why or how to fix?

Cheers

Are you using any software on the Mac (I ask because I have a similar setup -- Mac mini, harmony one remote -- and I'm using remotebuddy.) if so, you can look at that software (e.g. Make sure it's up-to-date, uninstall/reinstall, etc.)

I seem to remember I "trained" the harmony remote using my Apple remote. It might be worth retraining the harmony remote. (I'd actually try this first, before looking at the software.)

 

[tmanto02]

Are you using any software on the Mac (I ask because I have a similar setup -- Mac mini, harmony one remote -- and I'm using remotebuddy.) if so, you can look at that software (e.g. Make sure it's up-to-date, uninstall/reinstall, etc.)

I seem to remember I "trained" the harmony remote using my Apple remote. It might be worth retraining the harmony remote. (I'd actually try this first, before looking at the software.)

Thanks for coming back to me mate!

No software running on the Mac, just have Plex set to Harmony remote as opposed to Apple Remote in Plex Settings.

I didn't have to train the Harmony remote either, as Plex has the Harmony mapping built in. Actually as I type this I start to think its a Plex issue, so i'll do a re-install of Plex and go from there.

Cheers!

 

[mcdj]

If it were me, I'd try the following...

Check line of sight with the Mac. My cleaning lady regularly moves my electronics into non-working positions. Kids will do it too.

Reboot the Mac.

Replace the batteries in the remote if they aren't rechargeable. The IR beam might be strong enough for other components on a tired battery, but too weak for the Mac.

 

[Etruscan]

Not sure if I've found a potential solution but I'm testing it. My situation is that Kodi on my Mac Mini would just randomly stop responding to my Harmony Ultimate One remote, even though I know the remote works with other devices, and I know the Mac works by remoting in to it and being able to control Kodi with a mouse and keyboard.

I shut down Kodi and downloaded a free Remote Control Diagnostics app from https://www.iospirit.com/labs/remotecontroldiagnostics/. This app told me XBMCHelper was using the IR port exclusively (as expected, since Kodi lets me launch it from the OS using the remote) but also:

The IR Receiver USB device is used by Google Chrome (PID 11079)
An application is accessing the IR Receiver USB device via an IOUSBDeviceUserClient. Depending on what it is doing, this may keep macOS and applications from receiving Apple® Remote button presses. The application is located at /Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome.​

Sure enough, Chrome was running in the background. I'm not sure why Google Chrome wants to use the IR receiver, but when I shut it down and shut down the XBMCHelper process, then rechecked with the app, I got green diagnostics across the board. I've now restarted Kodi and left Chrome shut down. I'll continue to test this over the next few days and see if I get any more interruptions on my remote.