Lost your TV remote? What to do, and how to control the TV without it

First, check what state the TV is in

Before trying anything, answer two questions: is the TV on, and is it a smart TV connected to your home Wi-Fi? Every option below depends on those answers.

The order matters because a phone usually cannot reach a TV that is off, and never one that is offline. Roku says so plainly about its own app: the device "must already be powered on and connected to your home Wi-Fi network", and after a reset or a first-time setup the app cannot detect it at all.

Use the buttons on the TV itself

Almost every TV has at least one physical control, usually a single button or small joystick under the bottom edge of the screen. It is slow, but it switches the TV on and opens the menus, which is often all you need to get a phone app working.

On a Samsung TV, Samsung's support page puts the control button at the bottom centre or bottom right of the screen, usually where the red standby light is. A press turns the TV on or off. While the TV is on, a press brings up a control menu along the bottom of the screen; each further press moves to the next item, and pressing and holding selects it. Samsung notes that the button may not be supported on every model and that some settings still need a remote.

LG's button, which LG calls the jog button, works in a similar way. According to LG's help library, a press turns the TV on, and pressing and holding for more than a second turns it off, closing any apps that are running. With the TV on, a single press opens a small menu with four items: power off, close, change external input and settings. Some LG sets have a button that only presses, and others one that also moves up, down, left and right to change the volume and channel.

On other brands, look along the bottom edge, the sides and the back of the TV, close to the standby light. It can be small enough that it is easier to find by touch than by sight.

Use your iPhone as the remote

If the TV is on and connected to your Wi-Fi, your phone is the fastest full replacement. Three things have to be true for it to work:

• the TV is on, not in standby
• the iPhone is on the same Wi-Fi network as the TV
• the remote app has been allowed to use Local Network access when iOS asks, which the guide to the Local Network permission explains

Samsung, LG and Roku each have their own app, which works only with their own TVs. The Google TV app and Apple's built-in remote cover a platform instead, whichever company made the TV.

The brand apps do more than act as a remote, which is why most ask you to sign in. If you only need the remote, especially with more than one brand of TV in the house, a universal app saves installing one app per TV. Tivi, a universal TV remote app for iPhone from Nefarius Apps, finds the TVs on your Wi-Fi by itself and controls Samsung, LG, Android TV and Google TV sets with no account. It covers the everyday buttons: the arrow pad and OK, volume and mute, channel up and down, play and pause, back, home and menu, and power off with Tivi Pro. It can also switch a Samsung or LG TV back on, as the next section explains. It does not control Roku or Apple TV.

Setting up any of these takes a few minutes, and how to use your iPhone as a TV remote walks through the whole process. If the TV never appears in the app's list, the checklist for a TV that doesn't show up goes through the likely causes in order.

Can your phone turn the TV on?

Usually not out of the box. Phone apps reach the TV over the network, and a TV that is switched off is not listening unless a setting tells it to keep the network awake for that purpose. Both Samsung and LG have such a setting, and both are found in the TV's own menus.

• Samsung calls it Power On with Mobile. On 2022 and later TVs, Samsung's path is Settings, All Settings, Connections, Network, Expert Settings; on 2017 to 2021 models it is Settings, General, Network, Expert Settings. It works with the SmartThings app, and Samsung asks for all the devices to be registered to a single Samsung account.
• LG calls it TV On With Mobile. On webOS 6.0 TVs, LG gives the path as All Settings, Devices, External Devices, TV On With Mobile, then Turn on via Wi-Fi. LG says webOS 3.5 and later can be turned on and off from the ThinQ app, older versions only off, and that iPhones use Wi-Fi only for this.

The catch is that both settings have to be switched on before you need them. If the remote is already gone, use the TV's own button to reach Settings once, turn the option on, and the phone can wake the TV from then on. The Google TV app also lists turning the TV on or off among the things it can do.

Tivi relies on the same settings. With no TV connected, its Remote tab shows Turn On TV, which sends a wake-up signal over your home network to a Samsung or LG TV it has connected to before. It doesn't work for Android TV or Google TV, and it can't wake a TV Tivi has never connected to, so connect once while the TV is on.

Pairing a phone for the first time without a remote

The first connection between a remote app and a TV needs a confirmation, and how that confirmation works decides how easy it is without the remote.

On an LG TV, the screen shows a PIN that you type into the app on your phone, and on an Android TV or Google TV it shows a code you type in the same way. Nothing has to be pressed on the TV, so the lost remote is no obstacle. The LG pairing PIN and controlling an Android TV from an iPhone cover those steps in detail.

A Samsung TV works the other way round. It shows a box asking whether to allow the device, and the answer has to be given on the television, not on the phone. Without the remote, that means the TV's own control button. Samsung doesn't document whether that button can answer the box, so it depends on the model; if it can't, the first connection has to wait for a remote. Samsung's allow-device prompt explains what the box does, and why an accidental Deny keeps refusing until it is cleared on the TV.

Let another remote do it through HDMI-CEC

If a streaming stick, a games console or a set-top box is plugged into the TV and you still have its remote, that remote may be able to switch the TV on and change the volume. The feature is HDMI-CEC, a standard that lets devices connected by HDMI send each other basic commands.

Roku documents it most clearly. On a Roku player, the setting is in Settings, System, Control other devices (CEC). With One-Touch Play on, and CEC enabled on the TV, Roku says most TVs turn on and switch to the Roku's input when you press any button on the Roku remote except volume or mute.

CEC has to be switched on at both ends, and TV makers give it their own names. Samsung calls it Anynet+ (HDMI-CEC), found on 2022 and later models under Settings, All Settings, Connection, External Device Manager, and on older ones under Settings, General, External Device Manager. On other brands, Roku suggests looking in the TV's System or Advanced settings.

If the TV isn't smart or isn't on Wi-Fi

A TV that is not on your network cannot be controlled by any phone app, whichever you install. The phone has no other way to reach it: no iPhone has an infrared emitter, the part a traditional remote uses to send its light signal. Why an iPhone can't use infrared covers the alternatives, including Wi-Fi-to-infrared bridges.

If it is a smart TV that has not been connected to Wi-Fi yet, the TV's own button may get you to the network settings; LG's jog menu includes Settings. Typing a Wi-Fi password with a single button is slow, though, and a replacement remote is usually quicker.

Getting a replacement remote

The safest replacement is the remote made for your exact TV, and finding it starts with the model code. Samsung puts the model and serial number on a silver sticker on the back of the TV. If the set is wall-mounted and the sticker is out of reach, the model code is also in the TV's menu: Settings, All Settings, Support, About the TV on 2023 and later models, and Settings, Support, About this TV on 2017 to 2021 ones.

With the model code, you can order the matching remote from the manufacturer or a retailer. Roku, for example, sells both simple and voice remotes on its own site and through large retailers, and notes that voice remotes need a compatible device. A universal infrared remote is the cheaper fallback for basic controls on almost any TV.

The short version

When the remote goes missing, start with the TV's state. If it is off, use the button on the set to switch it on. If it is a smart TV on your Wi-Fi, a phone app gives you a full remote within minutes, whether that is the brand's own app or a universal one. A streaming stick's remote can cover power and volume through HDMI-CEC, and a replacement remote matched to the model code fixes the problem for good.

Two settings are worth turning on while you are in the menus: Samsung's Power On with Mobile and LG's TV On With Mobile, so the phone can switch the TV on next time. For the full phone setup, start with how to use your iPhone as a TV remote.

Common questions

Sources

• Samsung (2026). How to Control a Samsung TV without a Remote.
• Samsung (2026). Power on your TV with the SmartThings App.
• Samsung (2026). Understanding Anynet+ (HDMI-CEC) on your Samsung TV.
• Samsung (2026). How to Find the Serial Number and Model Number of your Samsung TV.
• LG (2025). How to Use the Jog Button.
• LG (2024). LG TV - How to Set Up the LG ThinQ App on Your LG Smart TV.
• Roku (2026). What to do when you have lost your Roku remote.
• Roku (2026). Use the 'TV Off' shortcut and control your TV with a Roku streaming player.
• Apple (2026). Set up the Apple TV Remote on your iPhone or iPad.
• Google. Cast, connect and control your TV with the Google TV app.