Help! My Apple TV remote keeps turning on Front Row and messing with the volume on my Macbook Pro! How do I get my Apple TV remote to stop controlling my Macbook??!
That was the trouble I was having recently, as in our household the Apple TV is used to stream our Netflix content to the Living Room TV, where often I'm working on my Macbook Pro.
Turns out there is a really simple fix. Actually there are a couple of options, but the simplest is to disable the infrared receiver on your Macbook from receiving the remote signal at all.
To do this, just perform the following steps:
- Open System Preferences from the Apple menu, or from your dock.
- Choose the Security category which you can either find in the "Personal" row in the window, or in the "View" menu.
- Click the lock, and enter your password to make changes.
- Under the "General" tab, look for the "Disable remote control infrared receiver" check box, and select it.
That's it! Now your remote will not affect your Macbook anymore, until you uncheck that option again in the future.</li>
NOTE: You can actually pair your remote with a single device, so that if you need to keep the remote recover on your Macbook turned on - say for Keynote presentations - you won't have to worry about messing with that setting every time you are around the Apple TV and then again when you're done. But if you don't use another remote with your Macbook, you can just use the tip above.