Have you ever wondered what could you do with your Apple Remote? Which it came together with your iMac, Macbook/Macbook Pro? You can mess up people’s setup by pressing the ‘Menu’ button, in other word, you can use the same remote control to mess up with other people’s Mac. Awesome eh? But of course on the other hand you wouldn’t want that to happen to you, so thanks to Zanoradiel, he sent an article that talks on how you can make your Mac Product recognize only YOUR apple remote, which is better known as ‘pairing’.
First of all, you will need to have the Apple Remote in your hand, and the only key needed for this process are the Menu and Play/Pause key. And of course you need to switch on your computer before proceeding.
By placing your remote close enough on the Infrared Red sensor on your Imac/Macbook/Macbook Pro, hold on to Menu and Play/Pause key at the same time. Hold it on for 5 second or more.
As soon everything is in the right place, you will suprisingly see one ‘chain’ icon and the apple remote appeared in the middle of the screen indicating that only remote can control your Mac product.
Of course you would also interested to know on how to ‘unpair’ it incase you have changed the remote on a newer one. By going to Apple -> System Preferences , choose Security from the menu.
By take a quick look at it, look at the bottom and you’ll see an option to ‘unpair’ your remote. Enjoy!
Other interesting links on the Apple Remote :
Filed under: Apple, Hardware, Mac, Technology, Tips
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Hi ManMeng, thanks for the tips. It looks like I needed more tutorial on “How To Do” list with my Mac.
Thank you for posting this!
I was inadvertently controlling my girlfriends computer.. no es beuno!
thanks for a way over it!
Many, many thanks!
I’d been fighting with this question about every time I played with my video Mini, and had my other computer around. I bought the iTV, which pairs in the setting, so was very puzzled why the Mac didn’t have that listed in Front Row. Curses! But good ol’ Apple… they had a secret some kind fellow was good enough to put on the web. You saved the day, and lowered my blood pressure about 24%.
Cheers,
jaekib
Thanks so much for posting this!
I am currently attending a college that is requiring us all to have MacBooks and I was getting sick of the stupid screen flipping back and forth every time some jerk felt like messing with other peoples Macbooks, so a friend set it so that my remote was the only one working for my Macbook… and at some point my remote got swapped with someone else’s and I couldn’t get it to work again! THANK GOODNESS! All fixed again!
Thanks, an actually enjoyable fix it!
If nothing happens when you try to pair. Make sure that the ‘Disable Remote Control…’ checkbox is *unchecked* under Apple -> System Preferences -> Security (it’s at the bottom)
I just updated from Tiger to Leopard on my i-mac and now my remote will not work at all. My first thing will be to change the battery in the event that, by some great coincidence, it failed on the same day I did the upgrade. Here is my conern… I look at Apple> System Preferences> Security and the last two line, the ones about remotes , are not even there. Just the password stuff. There is nothing about remotes, pairing, unpairing etc.
Any ideas?
I was curious if there is a way to set this remote up with a Mac Pro Desktop – I got the remote with my mac book pro. I understand it needs that sensor , but is there something you could install? or is there a type of remote you can get for the Desktop Pro?
Regards there Drew,
I assume that it would be the same process for all Macs (desktop or laptop) with the remote. This is because they are all running exactly the same o/s, with only the difference in the hardware.
Salutes,
ManMeng
Hi, do you know where the sensor is on Mac Pro? i tried to do this od the front and a back of the computer and it didnt work. i hope the sensor is there, cuz if not i bought the remote for nothing. 😦
Thanks! I finally got my girlfriends remote working on my Macbook
This is an AWESOME old (2007) post! In 2011 I fixed my Apple TV issue and I learned how to turn to the remote off from my MacBook Pro at the same time!
Now when I use the new “aluminum” remote with Apple TV and I don’t start something random up in iTunes or elsewhere!!
THANK YOU!!!
On my macbook from 2006 it only shows the links, not a graphic of the remote. But it still works the same 🙂
The link for “Control other application using your Apple Remote” seems to be broken.
Michael
Regards there Michael,
Thanks for the note and updated the broken link.
Salutes,
ManMeng
Just bought the remote – installed it – but menu didnt show up
Talked to Apple – they say because Ive installed Lion that
function doesnt work!?
I was told that there might be a program available to get it to
work
Anyone knowing about this?
Olle
hey.. i did this and now my remote doesn’t work with my mac.. there was this Chain icon but no remote icon. And now its not working. And i don’t find any thing related to remote and unpairing it in System >> Security
Please help 😦
Does the remote function with Mac book air?
Thank you SO much I was thinking about buying a new remote to go with my new mackbook pro bit now that I can use my old one I get to save that money!!! WOO HOO!!!!