Unpairing a remote without a remote

[JonHimself]

i forgot my paired remote at home and want to know if i can unpair it somehow or pair a new remote. I have another apple remote from my laptop but cant get it work

 

[roland.g]

you can use your other remote with the apple tv but if it is paired with the laptop you need to unpair it first from the laptop for it to work with the apple tv.

System Preferences > Security > General tab > Unpair

 

[JonHimself]

Thanks. I tried that and it did not work. Just in case it wasnt clear, the remote i do not have was paired with the appletv. Is that why it will not work with my second remote?

 

[sandman42]

There is a way to do it. Apple thought of that. I read a post here on MR about it a while ago, and it linked to something on Apple's support site. Sorry I don't have it at my fingertips, but I just wanted to let you know that you're not out of luck. It may require holding a combination of buttons on the un-paired (new) remote until the TV 'unlocks' and accepts commands from the new remote.

 

[sandman42]

Here it is:

"You can use any Apple Remote to unpair Apple TV from the lost remote by pressing and holding the Menu and Previous/Rewind buttons for 6 seconds."

 

[JonHimself]

I found an article on apple.com that suggested holding menu and fwd for 6 seconds but that didnt work either

 

[cgray24]

I found an article on apple.com that suggested holding menu and fwd for 6 seconds but that didnt work either

fwd pairs (if there is no remote already paired) and rwd unpairs.

I had a simular problem the other day when I misplaced the paired one but had two others from macs sitting around.
Holding Menu + Rwd will unpair the apple tv and allow you to use any apple remote on it.

 

[JonHimself]

Worked perfectly! Thanks for helping