5 must-know Apple TV suggestions and methods

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

As an example, why does the TV button on the Siri Distant ship you to the Apple TV app quite than the primary Apple TV dwelling display screen? What’s with these Apple TV+ video promos that begin enjoying routinely, full with sound? And don’t get me began on making an attempt—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 screen

Again within the early days of Apple TV, the Residence button on the distant did what it stated it could do: It took you to the Apple TV’s dwelling display screen, 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 Residence button on the Apple TV distant (later dubbed the Siri Distant) jumped you to the Apple TV app quite than the house display screen. Discuss annoying. 

Repair: Change how the TV button on the Siri Distant works

Fortunately, there’s a option to make the Residence button—OK, advantageous, the TV button—on the Apple TV distant do what we really need. 

Go to Settings on the Apple TV, choose Remotes and Units, scroll to the TV Button setting, then choose an choice: both Residence Display screen or Apple TV App. Decide the previous, and also you’re all set. 

Quirk: “Scrubbing” movies is manner too finicky

If 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 generally is a royal ache, because it’s all too simple to overshoot the spot you’re looking for. And the extra you attempt, the extra you’ll want you’d by no means began scrubbing within the first place.

Repair: Use the rim of the navigation wheel

In the event you’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 somewhat simpler to pinpoint a precise spot on a video. 

Ben Patterson/Foundry

Quirk: Auto-playing movies within the Prime Shelf

So, you understand once you scroll over the app icons within the prime row of the Apple TV dwelling display screen, and promo pictures and even auto-playing movies seem on the very prime of the display screen?

Apple calls that promo space the Prime Shelf, and for essentially 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, nonetheless: 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 routinely, full with sound (extra on the annoying auto-play audio in a second). However for the Apple TV app, you might have the choice to alter 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 all the way down to the Residence 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 screen (assuming you retain the Apple TV app within the prime dock), you’ll see what’s in your Up Subsequent queue, useful for leaping again into what you’ve been watching or teeing one thing you already need to watch. 

Bonus tip: You possibly can set the Up Subsequent promos to indicate both the quilt artwork for the TV present or film you had been watching or a still-frame of the video; simply toggle the Up Subsequent Show setting.

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 routinely 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 can mute their sound (you possibly can at all times scroll up in case you do resolve you need to hear the preview). 

Repair: Silence the auto-playing previews 

Go to Settings, click on Apps, TV, scroll all the way 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 generally is a tedious course of, significantly in terms of switching from one app to a different.  

For instance, in case you’re deep contained in the Netflix app and resolve you need to try Hulu, you’ll doubtless have to click on the Again button a number of occasions to return to the house display screen, and then you definately’ll have to navigate to the Hulu app icon and click on that to start, say, your binge-watching session of The Bear. 

In fact, you possibly can simply click on the TV button to zip again to the house display screen (assuming you’ve adopted my recommendation above), though you’ll nonetheless have to navigate to the app you need to open. 

FIx: Double-click to change apps 

As an alternative, do that: Double-click the TV button.

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 not too long ago 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 one of the best media streaming units.