Use an Apple TV remote with Sonos home theater products
Your Apple TV remote should automatically learn how to control your TV’s volume without any additional configuration. If you already set up your Sonos home theater product to use your TV’s remote, then your Apple TV remote should control Sonos out of the box.
If you already have an Apple TV and you’re setting up a new Sonos home theater product, be sure to use your TV’s primary remote control when the Sonos app asks you to connect your remote. We don’t recommend using the Apple TV remote when setting up a Sonos home theater product since Sonos may need to learn and receive a mute command, which is not an available button on the Apple TV remote. Once you’ve set up Sonos with your TV’s primary remote, the Apple TV remote should start to control the Sonos volume automatically.
If the Apple TV remote doesn’t control Sonos volume but your TV’s primary remote does, go through the steps in the help section of Apple’s support article to verify that your Apple TV remote is programmed and that your TV’s HDMI-CEC setting is turned on.
Eliminate annoying TV messages when using the Apple TV remote
When your Apple TV remote controls both Sonos and your television, you may see unwanted messages appear on screen. You can get around this by programming both Sonos and your Apple TV remote to use commands from a secondary remote control.
This only applies to Sonos home theater products that are connected to your TV with an optical cable or adapter.
You’ll first configure your Sonos home theater product to use the secondary remote, then program the Apple TV to use the same remote.
- Find a secondary remote control that you don’t use to control your primary TV. This can be a remote that you no longer use or that controls another TV in a different room of your home.
- Using the secondary remote, follow the steps in our article on setting up a new TV remote with your home theater product. Afterwards, your primary TV remote will no longer control Sonos.
- Program your Apple TV remote with the secondary remote by following the steps in Apple’s support article.
After both Sonos and the Apple TV are configured with the secondary remote, you should no longer see messages when adjusting the volume with the Apple TV remote.