Mini won't recognize my apple remote

[edwardthefifth]

I gave up waiting for new Mac Mini models and finally bought a refurbished Mini from the Apple Store last week. I went with the mid 2011 2.3GHZ i5.

I'll pretty much only use this mini as a HTPC, so upon receipt, I immediately upgraded to Mountain Lion, then I installed Boxee from my old mini, and I even installed Plex to see if I wanted to give that a try.

Everything is working fine, except I cannot get the mini to recognize either of my Apple remotes. I have an old white remote that was previously paired to my older mini and I have a new silver remote that is paired to my Apple TV3.

The mini won't recognize either. I've confirmed that both still work. My silver remote still controls the Apple TV just fine, and I put a new battery into the white remote and double checked that it works with a digital camera.

I can't find any instructions on how to check the Mac Mini itself. Does anyone have any ideas? Is there any chance that I needed to unpair the white remote with my previous Mini before using it with this mini? Might I have messed with the remote settings in Boxee or Plex? The remote also isn't recognized in either of these programs.

I also use screen sharing from my Mackbook Pro to the new Mini. Might this affect the remote?

Any suggestions any has are most appreciated. Since I want to use the Mini as a HTPC, it's pretty useless without a remote!

Thanks,

Ed

 

[geeji]

Check in System Preferences/Security/General/Options that your IR receiver is not disabled or already paired with a specific Apple Remote.
Other than that, a Genius Bar...

 

[comatory]

I have an old white remote that was previously paired to my older mini and I have a new silver remote that is paired to my Apple TV3.

There is your answer. I think you cannot share the remote with ATV. Unpair it first. Have no idea why the white remote doesnt work.

 

[geeji]

That's an interesting point : I always thought the pairing, when activated, was only effective on the receiver side, and that a given Apple Remote could be paired to more than one device ?

 

[swordfish5736]

As someone already said check in system pref's to see if the mini is already paired to a remote or disabled.

There is your answer. I think you cannot share the remote with ATV. Unpair it first. Have no idea why the white remote doesnt work.

you could theoretically share the remote between devices but if both the atv and mini are on at the same time then both will receive the signals from the remote.

 

[edwardthefifth]

Thanks for the responses, everyone.

I tried everything - pairing/unpairing the remotes, double checking my security settings, etc. Everything was set up properly on the mini. So I took the mini to the genius bar, and my local genius couldn't figure it out, either. He ended up just reinstalling Mountain Lion, and that fixed the problem. He couldn't explain what happened; he told me something probably just didn't click when I installed Mountain Lion the first time.

 

[djharris]

Thanks for the responses, everyone.

I tried everything - pairing/unpairing the remotes, double checking my security settings, etc. Everything was set up properly on the mini. So I took the mini to the genius bar, and my local genius couldn't figure it out, either. He ended up just reinstalling Mountain Lion, and that fixed the problem. He couldn't explain what happened; he told me something probably just didn't click when I installed Mountain Lion the first time.

Hmm, weird! I'm glad it's working now.

I'm going to add this link on how to pair an Apple Remote to the thread for future reference.