With its silky efficiency and razor-sharp video decision, the Apple TV 4K has been my streaming field of alternative for years, however it has some quirks that drive me up the wall. For example, why does the TV button on the Siri Distant ship you to the Apple TV app relatively than the primary Apple TV dwelling display? What’s with these Apple TV+ video promos that begin enjoying mechanically, full with sound? And don’t get me began on attempting—fruitlessly—to pinpoint a selected second in a video by clumsily swiping the distant’s touch-sensitive navigation pad.
Fortunately, you possibly can nip these Apple TV 4K annoyances within the bud with a number of easy tweaks within the Settings menu. Learn on for fixes to 5 quirks that perpetually annoy Apple TV customers.
Quirk: the Siri Distant TV button doesn’t take you to the house display
Again within the early days of Apple TV, the House button on the distant did what it mentioned it will do: It took you to the Apple TV’s dwelling display, the place you would discover all of your ATV apps, identical to on an iPhone.
Then the Apple TV app got here alongside, and earlier than we knew it, the House button on the Apple TV distant (later dubbed the Siri Distant) jumped you to the Apple TV app relatively than the house display. Discuss annoying.
Repair: Change how the TV button on the Siri Distant works
Fortunately, there’s a option to make the House button—OK, high quality, the TV button—on the Apple TV distant do what we truly need.
Go to Settings on the Apple TV, choose Remotes and Units, scroll to the TV Button setting, then decide an choice: both House Display screen or Apple TV App. Decide the previous, and also you’re all set.
Altering what the Siri Distant’s TV button does takes only a few clicks.Ben Patterson/Foundry
Quirk: “Scrubbing” movies is method too finicky
Once you pause the video in your Apple TV, you possibly can swipe the contact floor within the middle of the navigation pad to “scrub” ahead or backward.
However scrubbing with precision could be a royal ache, because it’s all too simple to overshoot the spot you’re looking for. And the extra you strive, the extra you’ll want you’d by no means began scrubbing within the first place.
Repair: Use the rim of the navigation wheel
For those who’re getting pissed off, do that trick: As an alternative of swiping the contact floor in the midst of the navigational wheel, slide a finger across the rim of the wheel itself—clockwise for ahead, or counterclockwise for reverse. Utilizing that gesture makes it a little bit simpler to pinpoint an actual spot on a video.
Simply swipe clockwise or counterclockwise alongside the rim of the Siri Distant’s navigation pad to “scrub” ahead or backward on a paused video.Ben Patterson/Foundry
Quirk: Auto-playing movies within the Prime Shelf
So, you recognize once you scroll over the app icons within the high row of the Apple TV dwelling display, and promo photos and even auto-playing movies seem on the very high of the display?
Apple calls that promo space the Prime Shelf, and for probably the most half, you possibly can’t management the content material what seems there as you scroll from one app to a different.
There’s a key exception, nevertheless: the Apple TV app.
Usually, once you scroll over the Apple TV icon, you’ll see a screen-dominating What to Watch preview that begins enjoying mechanically, full with sound (extra on the annoying auto-play audio in a second). However for the Apple TV app, you may have the choice to vary the Prime Shelf’s habits to one thing extra helpful.
Repair: Change the Prime Shelf setting for the TV app to Up Subsequent
Do this: Go to Settings, then click on Apps, TV, and scroll right down to the House Display screen setting. Lastly, toggle the Prime Shelf setting from What to Watch to Up Subsequent.
Now, once you scroll over the Apple TV app on the Apple TV 4K’s dwelling display (assuming you retain the Apple TV app within the high dock), you’ll see what’s in your Up Subsequent queue, helpful for leaping again into what you’ve been watching or teeing one thing you already need to watch.
Bonus tip: You may set the Up Subsequent promos to indicate both the quilt artwork for the TV present or film you have been watching or a still-frame of the video; simply toggle the Up Subsequent Show setting.
Put your Up Subsequent row again the place it belongs.Ben Patterson/Foundry
Quirk: Auto-play previews have sound, too
One of many extra aggravating options of the Apple TV app is its behavior of mechanically enjoying a preview—full with sound—for any present or video that the Apple TV’s cursor occurs to be hovering over.
Now, you possibly can’t do something concerning the auto-playing movies, however you possibly can mute their sound (you possibly can at all times scroll up in case you do determine you need to hear the preview).
Repair: Silence the auto-playing previews
Go to Settings, click on Apps, TV, scroll right down to the Video and Audio heading, then toggle Autoplay Video Sound to Off.
Ah, that’s higher.
Quirk: Switching from one app to a different is a ache
Navigating the Apple TV 4K’s convoluted screens and interfaces could be a tedious course of, significantly with regards to switching from one app to a different.
For instance, in case you’re deep contained in the Netflix app and determine you need to take a look at Hulu, you’ll seemingly must click on the Again button a number of occasions to return to the house display, and then you definitely’ll must navigate to the Hulu app icon and click on that to start, say, your binge-watching session of The Bear.
After all, you would simply click on the TV button to zip again to the house display (assuming you’ve adopted my recommendation above), though you’ll nonetheless must navigate to the app you need to open.
FIx: Double-click to modify apps
As an alternative, do that: Double-click the TV button.
Double-click the TV button to launch the app switcher.Ben Patterson/Foundry
Doing so will set off the Apple TV app switcher, which can splay a stack of home windows for all of your lately opened tvOS apps.
Swipe the Siri Distant’s contact floor to scroll by means of the home windows, then click on a window to launch its app. Straightforward.
This story is a part of TechHive’s in-depth protection of the perfect media streaming gadgets.
