5 annoying Apple TV quirks, solved

With its silky efficiency and razor-sharp video decision, the Apple TV 4K has been my streaming field of alternative for years, but it surely has some quirks that drive me up the wall. 

For occasion, why does the TV button on the Siri Remote ship you to the Apple TV app slightly than the primary Apple TV house display? What’s with these Apple TV+ video promos that begin enjoying mechanically, full with sound? And don’t get me began on making an attempt—fruitlessly—to pinpoint a specific second in a video by clumsily swiping the distant’s touch-sensitive navigation pad. 

Luckily, you may nip these Apple TV 4K annoyances within the bud with a number of easy tweaks within the Settings menu. Read on for fixes to 5 quirks that perpetually annoy Apple TV customers.

Quirk: the Siri Remote TV button doesn’t take you to the house display

Back within the early days of Apple TV, the Home button on the distant did what it mentioned it could do: It took you to the Apple TV’s house display, the place you possibly can discover all of your ATV apps, similar to on an iPhone. 

Then the Apple TV app got here alongside, and earlier than we knew it, the Home button on the Apple TV distant (later dubbed the Siri Remote) jumped you to the Apple TV app slightly than the house display. Talk about annoying. 

Fix: Change how the TV button on the Siri Remote works

Luckily, there’s a solution to make the Home button—OK, tremendous, the TV button—on the Apple TV distant do what we really need. 

Go to Settings on the Apple TV, choose Remotes and Devices, scroll to the TV Button setting, then decide an possibility: both Home Screen or Apple TV App. Pick the previous, and also you’re all set. 

Quirk: “Scrubbing” movies is manner too finicky

When you pause the video in your Apple TV, you may swipe the contact floor within the heart of the navigation pad to “scrub” ahead or backward.

But scrubbing with precision is usually 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.

Fix: Use the rim of the navigation wheel

If you’re getting annoyed, do that trick: Instead 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. Using that gesture makes it somewhat simpler to pinpoint a precise spot on a video. 

Ben Patterson/Foundry

Quirk: Auto-playing movies within the Top Shelf

So, you realize while you scroll over the app icons within the prime row of the Apple TV house display, and promo photographs and even auto-playing movies seem on the very prime of the display?

Apple calls that promo space the Top Shelf, and for essentially the most half, you may’t management the content material what seems there as you scroll from one app to a different. 

There is a key exception, nevertheless: the Apple TV app.

Normally, while 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). But for the Apple TV app, you might have the choice to vary the Top Shelf’s habits to one thing extra helpful. 

Fix: Change the Top Shelf setting for the TV app to Up Next

Try this: Go to Settings, then click on Apps, TV, and scroll right down to the Home Screen setting. Finally, toggle the Top Shelf setting from What to Watch to Up Next. 

Now, while you scroll over the Apple TV app on the Apple TV 4K’s house display (assuming you retain the Apple TV app within the prime dock), you’ll see what’s in your Up Next queue, helpful for leaping again into what you’ve been watching or teeing one thing you already wish to watch. 

Bonus tip: You can set the Up Next promos to point out both the duvet artwork for the TV present or film you had been watching or a still-frame of the video; simply toggle the Up Next Display setting.

Ben Patterson/Foundry

Quirk: Auto-play previews have sound, too

One of the 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 may’t do something concerning the auto-playing movies, however you can mute their sound (you may at all times scroll up in the event you do resolve you wish to hear the preview). 

Fix: 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 is usually a tedious course of, notably in terms of switching from one app to a different.  

For instance, in the event you’re deep contained in the Netflix app and resolve you wish to take a look at Hulu, you’ll possible must click on the Back button a number of instances 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. 

Of course, you possibly can 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 wish to open. 

FIx: Double-click to modify apps 

Instead, do that: Double-click the TV button.

Ben Patterson/Foundry

Doing so will set off the Apple TV app switcher, which is able to splay a stack of home windows for all of your just lately opened tvOS apps.

Swipe the Siri Remote’s contact floor to scroll by the home windows, then click on a window to launch its app. Easy. 

This story is a part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best media streaming devices.