Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

New Siri Remote & CEC Not Working

MacGiver

MacGiver

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 12, 2007
946
214
France
This morning I received my new Siri Remote and I paired it with my ATV 4K 1st generation. Since then, now when I turn off the ATV it turns off my TV as expected but when I turn my ATV on it does not turn my TV on. I need to turn the TV on with the TV remote. It is very annoying it it was working well with my previous remote. I have checked that the « control TV and receivers » is on and checked that CEC is activated on my TV.

Any help would be welcome.
 
Last edited:
My response may not apply to your situation, but I thought I would chime in. I just received a new AppleTV 4K. I have not plugged it in to see how it functions. As for the 1st gen 4K AppleTV, I have only been able to get those functions to work by by enabling the actual TV control sync in its' settings. I am not sure if the new remote itself extends all the AV control functions as it would with the new version of the AppleTV.
 
Having the same issue. Remote turns off the TV but does not turn it back on
 
MacGiver said:
This morning I received my new Siri Remote and I paired it with my ATV 4K 1st generation. Since then, now when I turn off the ATV it turns off my TV as expected but when I turn my ATV on it does not turn my TV on. In need to turn the TV on with the TV remote. It is very annoying it it was working well with my previous remote. I have checked that the « control TV and receivers » is on and checked that CEC is activated on my TV.

Any help would be welcome.
Click to expand...
I have the exact same issue than you since the tvOS 14.6 update. I also have the new remote. If someone has a solution, I’d be interested
 
So I’ve found that for similar CEC issues to unplug the TV for 20-30 minutes and restart it should work. I tried it and it works on my side, I can use the Apple TV remote normally. I initially tried to wait the standard 30 sec- 1 min but it didn’t work. Try a 20-30 min
 
Wesd1234 said:
So I’ve found that for similar CEC issues to unplug the TV for 20-30 minutes and restart it should work. I tried it and it works on my side, I can use the Apple TV remote normally. I initially tried to wait the standard 30 sec- 1 min but it didn’t work. Try a 20-30 min
Click to expand...
Did not work for me. :(
 
  • Sad
Reactions: fwmireault
Just received my remote late this afternoon. Unboxed it, paired it (with ATV4K) and all is well.

Then found this thread. So, I turned everything off (held down home button as I did with old remote, and tapped sleep). Waited a minute or so, pressed the power button. TV, Soundbar and ATV all turned on. Hmmm.

Tried it again (turned off, waited, then turned back on). Still working.

Immediately went to Software Updates and turned off the Automatically Update option. Still using 14.5; not gonna risk going to 14.6 for the time being.
 
I’ve come from nvidia shield which was just ok cec-wise. Av receiver would last a few weeks before needing an unplug reset.
But with this Apple TV I switched my whole receiver setup to optical as the cec seems to not work consistently at all. Unplugging everything and waiting, works, for a bit. But it a seems like the Apple TV going to sleep messes everything up. Even the basic tv on/off functionality is inconsistent. Quite annoying. I know the cec for tv power should always work, as this was always consistent with the shield, only the receiver lost it after a while.
I switched to optical because the options for controlling volume would gray out every time it lost cec(which is basically every time it goes to sleep) and gave me an annoying pop up about setting up the controller - which took me to the grayed out option 🤷‍♂️
Av being on optical is not such a big deal, but tv on/off is quite annoying
 
GLS said:
Just received my remote late this afternoon. Unboxed it, paired it (with ATV4K) and all is well.

Then found this thread. So, I turned everything off (held down home button as I did with old remote, and tapped sleep). Waited a minute or so, pressed the power button. TV, Soundbar and ATV all turned on. Hmmm.

Tried it again (turned off, waited, then turned back on). Still working.

Immediately went to Software Updates and turned off the Automatically Update option. Still using 14.5; not gonna risk going to 14.6 for the time being.
Click to expand...
It has nothing to do with 14.6 for me. My issue was when paring the new remote with my 4K 1st gen. All works well except when I turn my ATV on it does not turn the TV. I received this morning my brand new ATV 4K 2021 and it was not up to date but came with TVOS 14.5. Nevertheless it is the same..when I turn the ATV off with the new Siri remote it turns the TV off but when I want to turn it on the TV down not go away from its sleep mode. I have tried to turn on the ATV with the menu button but still no luck the TV does not turn on. I use my other new Siri remote now with my 1st gen ATV 4K on a Sony TV and it works well. But It does not with my Philips TV in my living room. Not sure why as it was working perfectly well with my old Siri remote.
 
  • LG: SimpLink
  • Philips: EasyLink
  • Samsung: Anynet+
  • Sharp: Aquos Link
  • Sony: BRAVIA Sync
According to an Apple support document, these are the names some brands have for HDMI-CEC. Go into your TV settings and make sure the feature is turned on.
 
MacSE1987 said:
  • LG: SimpLink
  • Philips: EasyLink
  • Samsung: Anynet+
  • Sharp: Aquos Link
  • Sony: BRAVIA Sync
According to an Apple support document, these are the names some brands have for HDMI-CEC. Go into your TV settings and make sure the feature is turned on.
Click to expand...
Thanks but it is obviously the first thing I checked among other set up and everything is properly set up. CEC seems to work during the “turn off process” but does not during the “turn on process”.
 
  • Like
Reactions: locoboi187
MacGiver said:
This morning I received my new Siri Remote and I paired it with my ATV 4K 1st generation. Since then, now when I turn off the ATV it turns off my TV as expected but when I turn my ATV on it does not turn my TV on. In need to turn the TV on with the TV remote. It is very annoying it it was working well with my previous remote. I have checked that the « control TV and receivers » is on and checked that CEC is activated on my TV.

Any help would be welcome.
Click to expand...

I hope this info will lead someone to solve this.

Even if your TV has HDMI-CEC, Apple TV/Siri remote (1st and 2nd gen) use IR for TV Volume and Mute. This is because very few if any TVs support the HDMI-CEC functionality of Volume + - and Mute. When a device implements HDMI-CEC it is up to the manufacturer what CEC command are supported. For some reasons TVs (or most of them) do not support HDMI-CEC Volume Up or Down or Mute commands so Apple had to use IR for these.

I read that ATV for some TVs when sending Sleep/Power Off use CEC and sends an IR off from the siri remote. Not sure why Apple does that? They don't send CEC On and IR, just CEC Off and IR Off.

Maybe the new Siri remote and your Apple TV 4K (1st gen) are not sending CEC or incompatible CEC to your TV?
Can you check if the Power Off in your case is done by IR?

You can check if your Siri Remote is using IR or CEC by holding one hand in front of the remote to block the IR signal from reaching your TV, if it stops working the Siri remote is sending IR to your TV (not Apple TV) for that command.
 
Last edited:
If it helps. Im using the new remote with a 1st Gen ATV 4K and the power button turns my Vizio TV on and off. Also, I hide my APTV out of sight so I know it’s not IR.
 
perezr10 said:
If it helps. Im using the new remote with a 1st Gen ATV 4K and the power button turns my Vizio TV on and off. Also, I hide my APTV out of sight so I know it’s not IR.
Click to expand...
Sorry for the confusion the IR, is sent from the Siri remote to the TV (not Apple TV).
 
Last edited:
Thanks for your feedback. Weirdly since this morning it works better. I swear I did not change anything. They only thing I did is pairing a PS5 controller I bought for my son yesterday so can play on Apple Arcade.
I can also confirm that when I hold my hand in front of the remote or if I am in another room the Siri remote still shuts down the TV. I also tried to turn it on and it did well this morning but I have the feeling it takes more time than before (maybe just an impression). I can also confirm that the PS5 controller turns my ATV and TV on when pressing on the PS logo in the center of the remote (this works when I do it via another room). So it means that my Siri remote and PS5 controller are interacting with ATV via bluetooth, correct?
I will report out if anything changes.
 
Happy to hear it is working for you. Yes the new Siri remote is using Bluetooth 5.0 to communicate with the Apple TV box and IR to communicate with your TV, the older black touchpad Siri remote uses Bluetooth 4.0 for ATV and IR for TV. Not sure about the PS5 controller.

Why does the Siri Remote use both Bluetooth and IR?
The Siri remote uses Bluetooth 5.0 to communicate with the Apple TV 4K/HD, Apple uses Bluetooth because it needs enough throughput to send data to Siri from the microphone to the Apple TV.
The Siri remote uses IR to control devices when they do not support HDMI CEC or when specific HDMI CEC commands are not supported by the device, for example volume control for many TVs are not supported via HDMI CEC even if the TV has HDMI CEC. IR has very broad support among TVs and AV Receivers & Soundbars.

From: News, FAQs, User Guides and Tips & Tricks for the new Siri remote.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Blowback
Something weird happened to me today. A said to be Apple support person called me telling me he read my post on MacRumors and wanted to know more. He told me he is from Apple support based in Minnesota. He asked me to confirm my issue, my workflow, my TV brand and reference, etc… I felt like each time I answered a question he had another to ask. He called from +1 (800) 275-2273. He called twice, when I answered the first call it was a voice mail like when you ask for the support to call you back, on the second call I got the guy directly. I believe it is a scam and therefore stopped the conversation (he did not ask for personal info), I called Apple to let them know and changed my iCloud PW. Not sure how the got my number. I am based in France so that was even weirder to receive that call. Just wanted to share this…
 
TV: 2019 LG - used the 1st gen ATV4K Siri controller for 2 years with CEC active. Pressing Siri button wakes both. Press and hold the TV button calls up the little side window with the on-screen sleep button, which when pressed, puts both the 1st gen ATV4k and LG to sleep.

When I swapped out the 1st gen ATV4K with the 2021 ATV4K, I assumed the new Siri controller would work the same, even with the buttons in those locations labeled differently. It does.

Press the '<' button to wake, press the TV button to call up the sleep button, then both sleep.

No idea what would happen if I pressed that new side-mounted Siri on / off button.

For all I know, pressing any of the new Siri buttons might wake both - 2nd gen ATV4k wakes, then that toggles the LG to wake via the CEC/HDMI connection.

Does this work for anyone else?
 
MacGiver said:
Something weird happened to me today. A said to be Apple support person called me telling me he read my post on MacRumors and wanted to know more. He told me he is from Apple support based in Minnesota. He asked me to confirm my issue, my workflow, my TV brand and reference, etc… I felt like each time I answered a question he had another to ask. He called from +1 (800) 275-2273. He called twice, when I answered the first call it was a voice mail like when you ask for the support to call you back, on the second call I got the guy directly. I believe it is a scam and therefore stopped the conversation (he did not ask for personal info), I called Apple to let them know and changed my iCloud PW. Not sure how the got my number. I am based in France so that was even weirder to receive that call. Just wanted to share this…
Click to expand...
That is REALLY weird. How did they know your number from MR? Did they seem to know about our issue?
 
countryside said:
That is REALLY weird. How did they know your number from MR? Did they seem to know about our issue?
Click to expand...
Good question. I also wonder what happened. The Apple team I alerted told me I should report this to the authorities. I will do it later on Monday. I believe this was a hacking tentative. This really not a method Apple is used to imho.
 
MacGiver said:
Good question. I also wonder what happened. The Apple team I alerted told me I should report this to the authorities. I will do it later on Monday. I believe this was a hacking tentative. This really not a method Apple is used to imho.
Click to expand...
Makes me wonder if MR was hacked.
 
This happens when your CEC isn't turned on in your TV settings, not the Apple TV settings.

I had to dig to find mine in my new LG TV.
 
  • Like
Reactions: satcomer
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back