Throughout the existence of Samsung Smart TVs, the remote control has undergone several types and modifications. The intelligent remote with Samsung TVs today have a shape that has mostly stayed the same since 2016. The first change was in 2021 when the remote got a battery and the ability to charge it, and the second change was in 2023, when the remote got smaller.
Some buttons have multiple functions, and here is a little guide to using the Samsung Smart Remote.
How to use the buttons on the Samsung remote control
- Power: The button that turns the television on and off. When you turn on the TV, it is in standby mode; to turn it on, point the remote at the TV and press the button, as it uses infrared signals to turn it on. You can turn the TV off in the same way. For The Frame TVs, the power button has additional functionality. You can turn off The Frame TV by pressing and holding the button for a few seconds. You can also use this button to switch the TV to Art Mode.
- Press the button to enter Art Mode while watching television for The Frame TV.
- In Art Mode, press the button to switch to Media Home Mode and continue watching TV.
- To turn off the TV completely, press and hold the button.
- MIC / LED: You may notice a small round hole labeled Mic (microphone) on the remote control. In fact, as well as being a hole for sound waves to pass through to the microphone, it also houses the remote’s charging indicator. When you plug the remote into a charger or USB port, a red light will appear in this hole, indicating that the remote is charging. When the remote is fully charged, the red light goes out. To avoid damaging the microphone, do not put anything in this hole. If the TV does not pick up your voice, take the remote apart to see if the hole is dirty.
- Voice Assistant: Start the voice assistant. Depending on the TV settings and the application running, this button is just a button to switch on the microphone. It can activate the voice assistant or fill in the search bar of a search engine. To use this button to call the voice assistant, you need to switch on the corresponding setting in the TV menu. Press and hold the button, say the command, and then release it. Remember that the microphone is in the remote control.
- Settings – Number – Color button: This button has three functionalities; the settings are accessed one by one. To access the digital panel, you must press the button twice.
- First press: the settings menu will open.
- Second press: a virtual number pad will appear, which can be used to enter a channel number or code in various applications. Use the ring to select the desired digits and press enter to apply the selected digit.
- Third press: colored buttons appear. These buttons appeared on the first digital devices. The colored buttons may only work in some applications or settings. They are hardly ever used nowadays.
- Directional button up, down, left, right: The control ring moves the selection of items on the TV screen.
- Select a button for selecting or entering a command similar to a computer keyboard.
- Return: This button has several options.
- Press once: returns to the previous menu.
- Press and hold for more than 1 second: return to the initial state, return to watching TV if you are in settings or another menu screen.
- Pressing while watching a program: go to the previous channel being watched.
- Smart Hub: opens the home start screen where you can choose to access various settings, ports, and applications.
- Play/pause:
- When watching streaming video: This button can control streaming video, pause or resume playback. This button can also control playback from an external device connected via HDMI (HDMI-CEC activation required).
- When the game mode is active and in use, pressing and holding this button will display the game bar.
- Volume: This button is designed as a joystick and has several functions.
- Volume control: if you press the up or down button, you will respectively increase or decrease the sound on the TV.
- Accessibility shortcuts: pressing and holding the sound control button will take you to the Accessibility menu; this is done to quickly configure the main TV settings that can affect the viewing experience, e.g., Voice Guide, Audio Description, Caption, Sign Language Zoom, Sign Language Guide, Learn TV Remote, Learn Menu Screen, Picture Off, Multi-output Audio, High Contrast, Zoom Menu and Text, Grayscale, Color Inversion, Slow Button Repeat, Accessibility Settings, etc
- Channel: This button is also made like a joystick and has four functions.
- Short press up or down: change channels
- By pressing up or down and holding it in the end position: to move quickly through the channels.
- One press: opens the channel information.
- Press for more than 1 second: call up the channel list.
- Launch app button: block of buttons for launching the most popular applications. The name of applications may vary depending on the region. The app must be installed on your TV to start quickly.
Which Samsung Smart TV remotes are available?
You should know that there are many modifications to Smart remotes. This variety is because there are original remotes, which are remotes made for Samsung. And there are replacement remotes; these are not original remotes, and the functionality of such remotes depends only on the manufacturer. Such remotes can have different colors and slightly different functionality.
There are remotes with microphones, remotes without microphones, remotes with batteries and solar panels, and remotes with batteries. Some remotes may have different buttons for quickly launching applications. Some remotes look like intelligent remotes but don’t have Bluetooth.
For example, Smart remotes for Samsung 2023 TM2360e TVs have different modifications.
Remote control part BN59-01432A (TM2360e 2023) has the same functionality described above.
The remote control with part number BN59-01432J 2023 has differences, there is no access to the Accessibility menu via the volume button, and a browser shortcut button has replaced the button for quick access to the Samsung TV Plus app.
What to do if some buttons don’t work on Samsung remote control?
It is important to know that smart remotes work with your TV via Bluetooth. Therefore, several options are possible.
Only the on/off button works: there is no Bluetooth connection. The TV is switched on and off using infrared signals, then the control is transmitted via Bluetooth. A possible solution is to unplug the TV for 2 minutes; if that doesn’t work, unplug the remote and reconnect it to the TV (disconnect and recreate the Bluetooth pair). It is most likely defective if all these actions do not restore the remote control’s functionality.
Some buttons don’t work: if the remote is new, check if it is compatible with your TV model. If the remote worked fine before, you need to disassemble and clean it.
