Start here
Press the button on the TV itself before you buy batteries
Find the physical button on the television — usually underneath the panel, behind the LG logo, or on the back near a corner — and press it. If the TV responds, the television is fine and you are fixing a remote. If it doesn’t respond to its own button either, the remote was never the problem and you are fixing a TV. That single press decides which half of this guide applies, and it costs nothing.
Applies to: Infrared and Bluetooth TV remotes from Samsung, LG, Sony, TCL, Hisense, Vizio, Philips and Panasonic, including Samsung Smart Remotes and solar models, and the LG Magic Remote. Where a step applies only to a paired Bluetooth remote it says so — the pairing sequences differ completely between brands.
What happens when you press a button?
A remote that stopped working is really three possible faults: a dead remote, a TV that has stopped receiving, or a TV that has stopped responding to anything at all. They look identical from the sofa and have nothing in common as repairs. Two tests separate them in under two minutes — the TV’s own button, and a phone camera pointed at the remote — and both are worth doing before you order a replacement you may not need.
Nothing happens at all
Does the TV respond to its own physical button?
Split the problemSome buttons work, others don’t
Do the dead buttons show light in a phone camera?
Run the camera testIt works close up but not from the sofa
Is anything in front of the TV’s receiver?
Check line of sightIt stopped after an update or a reset
Has the remote lost its pairing with the TV?
Pair it again1. Decide whether you’re fixing a remote or a TV
Press the TV’s own power or volume button. Manufacturers hide it well — Samsung uses a small jog control under the centre or right of the bottom bezel, LG puts a button behind or beneath the logo, and Sony’s is typically on the rear edge near a corner — so check the manual if you can’t find it rather than assuming there isn’t one. Sony’s guidance makes the same point in reverse: confirm the TV’s standby LED on the front or bottom is lit, and try the button on the set itself rather than only the remote.
The result is the fork in the road. A TV that responds to its own button but not the remote is a working television with a remote problem, and sections 2 to 5 apply. A TV that ignores its own button as well never had a remote problem — that is a power or startup fault, and no amount of battery-swapping will touch it. Section 6 covers what to do with that answer.
One thing worth ruling out while you’re there: check you are actually pressing the TV’s remote. Living rooms accumulate them, and a cable box or soundbar remote will change volume and nothing else, which reads convincingly as a partly-broken TV remote. If the TV’s own on-screen volume bar never appears, that is a strong hint you are holding the wrong one.
2. Batteries, the remote reset, and the phone camera test
Replace both batteries with new ones from a fresh pack rather than testing the old pair — LG’s guidance is that a remote will not work if the batteries run low or are inserted the wrong way round, and half-used cells are the most common cause of a remote that works intermittently. LG also notes a simpler check first: if the LED on the front of the remote doesn’t light when you press a button, replace the batteries before doing anything else. And if a remote has sat unused for months, leaking cells may have already damaged the contacts.
Then reset the remote, which clears a stuck microcontroller and costs nothing. Samsung’s procedure is to remove the batteries, hold the Power button for eight seconds, then put the batteries back; for its solar remotes from 2021 onward, press and hold Return and Enter for 10 seconds. Sony’s is to remove the batteries, hold Power for three seconds, and reinsert them the right way round, and if that fails, to leave the batteries out for about a minute before trying again.
Now test whether it is transmitting. Point the remote at a phone camera, look at the screen rather than the remote, and hold down a button: an infrared remote shows a purple-white flash on camera that is invisible to the eye. LG suggests using this to check individual buttons — press each dead button in turn, because a remote where most buttons flash and one doesn’t has worn contacts rather than a battery problem. Which camera to use varies: most phones have an infrared filter on the rear camera and not the front one, and on iPhones in particular the front camera is the one that shows the flash. If one camera shows nothing, try the other before concluding the remote is dead.
Samsung
Remove the batteries, hold Power for 8 seconds, reinsert. Solar remotes (2021+): hold Return and Enter for 10 seconds.
Sony
Remove the batteries, hold Power for 3 seconds, reinsert with correct polarity. If it persists, leave them out for a minute.
LG
Check the LED on the front of the remote lights on a press. If it doesn’t, replace both batteries before anything else.
A Bluetooth remote — a Samsung Smart Remote, an LG Magic Remote, a Sony voice remote — sends almost nothing by infrared, so seeing no light does not mean it is broken. On many of them only the power button is IR. If the camera test is blank on a smart remote, skip to the pairing step in section 4.
3. Line of sight and interference
Infrared needs to reach the receiver, and the receiver is a small window usually in the middle or on one side of the bottom bezel. LG’s guidance is direct about this: remove whatever is blocking the receiver at the bottom of the TV, because a blocked receiver cannot see the signal at all. A soundbar that has crept up in front of it, a decoration on the stand, or a wall-mount that angles the panel downwards will all produce a remote that works from one seat and not another.
Lighting is a genuine and underrated cause. LG documents that three-wavelength fluorescent lamps and electronic ballasts can interfere with the remote, and suggests turning the lamp off and trying again as a test. Sunlight falling directly on the receiver does the same thing, which is why some remotes only fail in the afternoon — a pattern that looks like an intermittent hardware fault and isn’t one.
Test at about a metre, pointed straight at the bezel, before concluding anything from across the room. A remote that works reliably up close and not at distance is either weak batteries or a partly obstructed receiver, and both are cheap to fix. A remote that fails at a metre with fresh batteries has a real fault.
4. Re-pair a Bluetooth smart remote
Smart remotes hold a pairing with the TV, and that pairing can be lost — most often after a factory reset, a firmware update, or a long spell with the batteries out. The symptom is distinctive: the remote is clearly alive, but the TV ignores everything except, sometimes, the power button, which is the one command still sent by infrared.
On Samsung, stand within about a foot of the TV and press and hold Return and Play/Pause together for at least five seconds, until a message appears on screen confirming the remote is connected. If that doesn’t take, Samsung’s next step is to unplug the TV for 30 seconds, plug it back in, and repeat the pairing.
On an LG Magic Remote, deregister first and then register: press and hold BACK and HOME together for five seconds to unpair, watching for the remote’s LED to blink as confirmation. Then, with the TV on and about 20 seconds after it has settled, point the remote at the screen and press the Wheel (OK) button — or the pointer key below the D-pad on remotes that have one. The TV displays a pairing completion message when it takes.
Samsung Smart Remote
Within a foot of the TV, hold Return and Play/Pause for at least 5 seconds until the on-screen confirmation appears.
LG Magic Remote
Hold BACK and HOME for 5 seconds to deregister, then point at the TV and press the Wheel (OK) to register again.
5. Power-cycle the TV and remove what else is attached
The TV’s receiver can wedge as easily as the remote can, and a proper power cycle clears it. Unplug the television at the wall — Samsung specifies 30 seconds, Sony the same — and plug it back in, rather than switching it off with the remote you are already suspicious of. Standby is not off, and the state you are trying to clear survives it. If the TV has a One Connect Box, unplug that as well.
Then take everything else off the television. Sony’s guidance is to remove USB drives, HDMI devices and other cables to confirm whether an attached device is causing the problem, and it is more often the answer than it sounds — a CEC-capable box can capture or echo remote commands, and a faulty USB device can hold the TV busy enough that it stops responding to input. Reconnect them one at a time afterwards.
If the TV starts responding once everything is unplugged, you have found the culprit and it isn’t the remote. If a CEC device turns out to be the cause, disabling HDMI-CEC — Anynet+ on Samsung, Simplink on LG, BRAVIA Sync on Sony — is the setting that stops it, at the cost of the convenience features that depend on it.
Ordering a replacement remote before this step is the most common wasted purchase here. A wedged receiver and a dead remote look identical, and a power cycle costs two minutes.
6. Controlling the TV meanwhile, and when to replace
You don’t need a working remote to keep using the TV or to finish this diagnosis. Every major brand offers a phone app that acts as a remote over the network — SmartThings for Samsung, LG ThinQ for LG, and Google Home, Google TV or BRAVIA Connect for Sony sets. Sony explicitly suggests these as a temporary remote. They need the TV and phone on the same Wi-Fi, which means they can’t help if the TV isn’t connected — but if the app works, that is also a useful data point: the TV is receiving commands fine, so the fault is the remote or its receiver.
Replace the remote when the evidence points there specifically: the TV responds to its own button and to a phone app, fresh batteries changed nothing, the camera test shows no light from an infrared remote, and a re-pair failed on a Bluetooth one. LG’s conclusion is the same — if troubleshooting fails, the remote needs replacing. Original replacements are available from the manufacturer, and a universal remote works for basic functions on most sets, though it will not reproduce voice control or the Magic Remote’s pointer.
If the television ignores its own button as well, none of this applies — that is the fault to pursue, not the remote. When you contact support, tell them whether the TV responds to its own button, whether a phone app can control it, what the camera test showed, and whether re-pairing was attempted. Those four answers separate a remote from a receiver from a TV that isn’t starting, which is what turns a vague call into a specific repair.
Frequently asked questions
Why has my TV remote stopped working?
Press the button on the TV itself first — that splits the problem in two. If the TV responds, you have a remote fault: fresh batteries, a remote reset, and a phone camera test to see whether it is transmitting. If the TV ignores its own button too, the remote was never the problem and you are dealing with a power or startup fault instead.
How do I test whether my TV remote is transmitting?
Point it at a phone camera, watch the screen rather than the remote, and hold a button down. An infrared remote shows a purple-white flash that is invisible to the eye. Use the rear camera — many front cameras filter infrared — and test individual buttons, since one dead button among working ones means worn contacts rather than flat batteries.
My smart remote shows no light in the camera test. Is it broken?
Probably not. Samsung Smart Remotes, LG Magic Remotes and Sony voice remotes communicate over Bluetooth and send little or no infrared — on many, only the power button is IR. A blank camera test on one of those tells you nothing. Re-pair it to the TV instead: Samsung uses Return and Play/Pause for five seconds; LG uses BACK and HOME to deregister, then the Wheel button to register.
How do I reset my TV remote?
On Samsung, remove the batteries, hold the Power button for eight seconds, then reinsert them; on 2021-and-later solar remotes, hold Return and Enter for 10 seconds. On Sony, remove the batteries, hold Power for three seconds, and reinsert with the correct polarity — if that fails, leave the batteries out for about a minute first.
Why does my remote only work when I’m close to the TV?
Weak batteries or a partly blocked receiver. The receiver is a small window in the TV’s bottom bezel, and a soundbar, ornament or downward-angled wall mount will obstruct it. LG also documents that fluorescent lamps and electronic ballasts interfere with infrared — switch the lamp off and test again. Direct sunlight on the receiver does the same thing, which is why some remotes only fail in the afternoon.
Can I control my TV without the remote?
Yes. Use the TV’s own physical button for basic functions, or the manufacturer’s phone app over the same Wi-Fi network — SmartThings for Samsung, LG ThinQ for LG, and Google Home, Google TV or BRAVIA Connect for Sony. If the app controls the TV, that also confirms the television is fine and the fault is the remote or its receiver.
Sources and review notes
Checked on . Compiled by Glitchary from manufacturer troubleshooting documentation. Button locations, pairing sequences and app names vary by brand and model year — check the manual for your exact model, particularly for the position of the TV’s own control button. These are diagnostic checks rather than a guarantee of repair, and a TV that does not respond to its own button needs a qualified technician rather than a new remote. Glitchary is independent of Samsung, LG, Sony, and the other manufacturers named here.