Our detailed guide for how to pair a Firestick remote with your TV to control everything from one place.
When you unbox your new Fire Stick, you will probably be pretty happy with the Alexa remote that comes with it. It looks sleek, should sync up with your Fire Stick in just a click or two, and you can use voice commands to find that show you’ve been waiting to watch. When you want to change the volume or turn the TV on or off, though, you have to find your other remote to execute these core TV functions.
In most cases, you should also be able to pair your Fire Stick remote to your TV so that you can control everything from just one sleek device.
In this article, I will take you through everything you need to know, from getting your remote working out of the box, to what to do if your remote disconnects from your Fire Stick, to how to take control of your TV with the Alexa remote as well.
I’ll even tell you how to take control of your Fire Stick with your smartphone if your remote starts to malfunction for any reason.
How Do I Sync A Fire Stick Remote?
The Fire Stick remote sync out of the box is pretty straightforward since the two are designed to work together seamlessly.
Once you have plugged your Fire Stick into a power source and into your TV (and once you are sure that your remote has working batteries), press and hold the home button for ten seconds. Within this time, the light at the top of your remote should start blinking quickly.
This is the remote automatically pairing itself. You will know that it has been successful when the light on the remote flashes three times. You should also receive an onscreen message from your Fire Stick.
If this doesn’t work for some reason, then use the tried and tested method of “turning it off and back on.” Unplug your Fire Stick, leave it for about 60 seconds, and plug it back in again. Try the normal syncing process again.
If it still doesn’t work, unplug the Fire Stick again and wait. Meanwhile, hold down the left button, the back button, and the menu button (three lines), at the same time for about 12 seconds. Once you have done this, you can also try changing the batteries. Plug the Fire Stick back in, boot it up, and try syncing again.
How Do I Connect A Replacement Fire Stick Remote?
If your original remote doesn’t work, or you have to get a replacement, the process for syncing is different as you will have to do it manually from the menu.
To do this, go to Settings and choose Controllers & Bluetooth Devices. Here you should find the option for Amazon Fire TV Remotes, and Add New Remote. Once you have selected this, you will be prompted to hold down the home button for about ten seconds to allow the Fire Stick to detect it.
Again, you will know that you have been successful when the light on the remote flashes blue three times, and you receive a message on the screen.
How To Use Your Smartphone To Control Your Fire Stick?
Of course, you might be wondering how you are supposed to complete the steps above if you don’t already have a working Fire Stick remote. You can also take control of your TV with your smartphone!
Start by downloading and installing the Amazon Fire TV App, which is available in the Google Play Store. Open the app on your smartphone and log in to your Amazon account. The app should automatically search for your Fire Stick and give you the option to pair up with it. If it doesn’t, choose New Devices in the menu to prompt your phone to search.
When the two try to pair, a four-digit PIN code should appear on your TV screen. Enter this into the app when prompted to confirm that you want to go ahead and pair.
When you have done this successfully, the normal Alexa remote buttons should appear on your phone screen, letting you control your Fire Stick. You can use this method if your remote stops working until you get a replacement, or permanently if it is easier for you to use your phone than find your Alexa remote.
How To Connect Fire Stick Remote To Your TV?
For ease and convenience, you will probably also want to be able to control some of your main TV functions with your Alexa remote, specifically turning your TV on and off and controlling the volume.
This is possible if your TV supports IR blasters or CEC (Consumer Electronics Control), which allows a device connected via HDMI (namely your Fire Stick) to control aspects of your television. If your TV has HDMI it probably has this functionality, but if you have trouble, it is worth checking whether this is the problem.
This functionality should start working automatically for you on most TVs. If it doesn’t work immediately, use your TV remote to go to the menu and choose System where you should find an option called CEC. There should be a toggle there that will let you enable CEC. Some companies use different names for CEC, such as SimpLink, Anynet, or Bravia Sync. If you can’t find it, you may need to Google the correct name.
You can also check whether CEC is enabled on your Fire Stick. Again, just go to the menu, Settings, this time choose Display and Sound, and then make sure that HDMI CEC Device Control is switched on.
New Fire Stick 4K And 4K Max Remote
If you have the newest version of the Alexa remote that comes with the Fire Stick 4K, you will even have power and volume buttons on your remote so it will be pretty obvious how to do it. If they don’t work already, you can play around in the settings to get them working.
Navigate to Settings and select Equipment Control. From there, select TV, and you will be asked what brand of TV you have. You should find the appropriate choice on the menu. Once you have made your selection, press the Power Button on your remote, which should turn the TV off, and then wait ten seconds and press it again to turn it back on.
Your Fire Stick will ask you whether your TV turned off and on again, and if it did, you can select yes. It is not unusual to need to try this a few times before it works properly.
Once it does, try turning the volume up and down. You will again be asked whether this worked, and you can say yes or no depending on your success. You may also need to do this a few times as the remote and TV scan for one another.
Older Fire Stick Remote
If you have an older Fire Stick remote, you will notice that there are no volume or power buttons available. Once your remote is synced to your TV, you can use the Alexa voice command to do these actions for you.
If this doesn’t work as well as you would like, you might want to upgrade to a newer version of the Alexa remote which is available on Amazon for $29.99.
How To Connect A Fire Stick Remote To An Echo Speaker?
If you have an Amazon smart speaker, such as an Echo Dot, you may want to control your Fire Stick with your speaker, rather than having to reach for your remote.
Fire Sticks can be synced up with almost any of the Alexa speakers including the Echo, Echo Dot, Amazon Tap, and Echo Show, but you will want to ensure that your firmware is updated to make sure they are compatible.
To do this, go to Settings, choose My Fire TV, select About, and then Check for Updates. If there are any available, you’ll be able to choose Install System Update. When the installation is complete you will want to reboot your device. You will also want to update the Alexa app on your speaker.
If your speaker and your Fire Stick are your own Alexa-enabled devices in your home, they should pair up automatically if they are both signed into the same account.
If you have multiple Alexa-enabled devices, you might need to manually help the process along. On your speaker go to Settings and choose TV & Video. Choose Fire TV Stick and choose Link Devices.
What Voice Commands To Use With Your Fire Stick?
While you know that you can use your Alexa remote or speaker to control your Fire Stick, which commands will your Fire Stick actually understand?
- Say, “Alexa, watch ‘title’” to start watching a movie, TV show, or music video. You can also say “play” instead of “watch” to get the same result.
- Say, “Alexa, search for ‘title’” to command Alexa to search Prime Video and your other streaming apps for the content you would like to watch. You can search by genre and actor as well.
- Say, “Alexa, play, stop, pause, or resume” to control programs while you are watching.
- Say, “Alexa, rewind or go back ‘timeframe’ or fast forward or jump forward ‘timeframe’” to rewind or fast forward.
- Say, “Alexa, next or next episode” to jump to the next episode, or say, “Alexa, watch from the beginning” to restart an episode.
- Say, “Alexa, launch or open ‘name of app’” to open a different app than the one that you are using.
- Say, “Alexa, go home” to return to the home screen.
- Say, “Alexa, turn Fire TV Stick on or off” to turn your device on or off.
- Say, “Alexa, set the volume to ‘preferred level’ or mute Fire TV Stick” to control the volume.
You can do a variety of other things with Alexa, but you need to play around and practice to find the right commands. Alexa is pretty smart, so she’ll often figure out what you want after a while.
Read our complete review of the Fire Stick here. If you want to use Kodi on your Fire Stick, read our recommendations for the best Kodi builds for Fire Stick here.
FAQs
Why is my TV not responding to my remote?
If your Fire Stick or your TV stops responding to your remote, it often means that the batteries in your remote are low. You can check out your batteries by making sure that you are pointing the remote directly at your device and that there are no obstacles between the remote and the device. If your batteries are fresh, look for anything blocking the Fire Stick sensor.
Can you use a different remote for Fire TV?
You can pair another Bluetooth remote to your Fire Stick, but if it is not an Alexa remote you can expect to have reduced functionality. If you buy a replacement Alexa remote, it should sync with your Fire Stick seamlessly. If you have an older Fire Stick, you can sync it with the newer generation three remote.
The Verdict
The Fire Stick is one of the best devices on the market for smartifying your TV. It is affordable and comes with lots of excellent functionality including Netflix in 4K, voice command, and smart home integrations.
The remote that comes with the Fire Stick, especially the newer 4K versions, is great and can be used to control both your TV and your stick for complete and integrated viewing. While it should work seamlessly on its own once you turn on your device, things don’t always go according to plan.
If you have trouble getting your Fire Stick remote to do exactly what you want, follow the steps in our guide and you’ll be navigating with ease in no time.
What are your top tips for getting the most out of a Fire Stick? Share them with the community in the comments section below.
