It is too easy to loose Apple TV Remote (physical one named Siri Remote), which I did few years back and have been using the “Apple TV Remote App” ever since. All members in my family has been be using the remote app from their respective iPhones’ comfortably.
In iOS 11, “Apple TV Remote App” was no longer a “App” and it was accessible from Control Center instead. Initially this transition was not intuitive but we figured it out and it was working fine.
With iOS 15.1 update, other than me, other family members have not been able to connect to Apple TV using the control center “Apple TV Remote”. Whenever we tried it kept searching and it would eventually give up.
"Searching for Apple TV" - connectivity issueAnother issue, I have been running into is that “Apple TV Remote” from control center looses connectivity whenever iPhone sleeps or locks (Apple Discussions). The result would be the same as the above image.
How to fix these two issues?
Fix for Issue #1
In order to fix “Apple TV Remote” (from control center) unable to connect with Apple TV, we had to “Add New User…” from Apple TV Settings for all family members. I figure this out by randomly exploring the Apple TV Settings
Adding family members to Apple TV fixes the issue. Settings -> Add New User...I ran into this user guide much later from Apple
Add a family member to your Apple TV
1. Open Settings on Apple TV.2. Go to Users and Accounts > Add New User, then enter a new Apple ID.
https://support.apple.com/guide/tv/multiple-users-atvb59ec8e2e/tvos
Once this settings is tapped on the TV, the follow setup appeared on iPhone of family members
Steps to Join Apple TV for Family MembersIssue #2 – Fix
I also figured a work around solution for “Apple TV Remote” looses connectivity whenever iPhone sleeps or locks which is still unanswered in Apple discussions (on Dec 6, 2021)
So far phone restart has been helpful for me. After phone restart this issue gets fixed by itself but it pops back again after sometime.
At this point, phone restart seems to be best work around until Apple comes up with a fix in next iOS release, potentially in iOS 15.2 or later.
