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The LG Magic Remote is a strange beast, because by default, the signals it sends to LG TVs tend not to be picked up by other IR controls (I don't know if that means it's communicating some other way, or whether the IR frequency it uses is really unusual). As a result, the Apple TV's "Learn Remote" functionality does not work straight away when operating the LG Magic Remote.

Nevertheless, there is a feature of the LG TV to configure its remote to serve as the universal remote of various inputs (i.e. select DVD player on HDMI 2, pick a make, verify it works, and then the remote will start sending IR signals whenever HDMI 2 is active).

The Apple TV is officially not supported by LG (per their phone support) and Apple does appear as a valid make when selecting a remote type. So I figured based on googling, that if I picked any nonsense DVD player, the remote would at least start sending IR signals that could be learned using the Apple TV "Learn Remote" feature.

Those linked threads report success, but in fact their advice of "rapidly mash buttons" for the Apple TV to learn the IR signal didn't work in my case, and I suspect it's a function of the newest 2017 version of the remote (I'm testing on an LG OLED65C7P). I've tried a dozen different "set top box" and "dvd/blu ray" device types, and in each case the IR signal for the arrow buttons is not strong enough for the Apple TV to register them at all.

Any ideas on how to overcome this?

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4 Answers 4

Reset to default
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I found a really gross workaround.

  1. Buy a learning universal remote. I used this old thing
  2. After selecting any "DVD/Bluray" make from the LG TV UI, have the learning remote learn the keys you want to use for ⬆️
  3. With both remotes, sit by the Apple TV and hold and/or mash that key. After a dozen or so tries the Apple TV should eventually fill its progress bar and accept it.
  4. Repeat for ,⬇️,⬅️,➡️, OK, and Menu. Note that the button in the center of the magic remote and most settings buttons around it are not programmable, so I had to settle for "O" to mean "OK" and "8" to mean "Menu"

Not ideal, but better than nothing. LG Magic Remote now works fine for navigating the Apple TV

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  • What do yo do if you already have a DVD player setup? It seams you can only have one profile per device. So I guess you can't hook up 2 DVD players or 2 cable boxes to the same Tv?
    – Lou
    Aug 3, 2017 at 0:07
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For me, this was working:

  1. Make sure the Apple TV is not assigned a specific device in the Input Manager app. Delete it if it has one.

  2. Turn off the LG TV's Quickstart mode.

  3. Turn off the Simplink mode which turns off the device (Apple TV) when TV power is turned off.

  4. Set the Apple TV to never go into standby.

  5. Use the LG TV Magic Remote to turn on the TV.

Source

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I got mine to work by activating HDMI-CEC on the TV (I have an E7), but with Apple TV I have found if I leave it too long and go back and see the Apple Ariel screensaver is on, the remote becomes unresponsive and you can’t get back to the Apple TV menu main screen. The only way to get it back is reboot Apple TV and the it reconnects with lg magic remote.

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I have the new lgb7 and after going into the SAP button on the remote and selecting input button in the lower right corner the remote started working with the Apple TV. All buttons work with exception of the Siri that I can tell!

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  • After putting the Apple TV in never sleep mode I was able to get it to turn on and off with the TV.
    – Big happy boy
    Aug 14, 2017 at 6:25

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