What do I do if I lost my Firestick remote?

What to do when you don’t seem to find your Firestick remote, maybe it’s playing hide and seek under the coffee table or sofa, somewhere. But if you hate searching hopelessly for it, I have some useful tips to share. Read on to make sure you will never wonder what to do if you lost your Firestick remote again.

We have five methods that work amazingly for you. You can do it without being totally tech-savvy. I have thought of all the cases and problems you might encounter if your Firestick remote got lost. I am sure you will do just fine without the physical one.

What do I do if I lost my Firestick remote?

If you lost your Firestick remote, don’t worry, below are the tips for you:

Method 1: Navigate and command your FireStick without remote controller via the Amazon Fire TV App
Method 2: Use Firestick without default wifi network and remote control
Method 3: Use HDMI-CEC to control Firestick
Method 4: You can connect mouse and keyboard to TV to control Firestick
Method 5: Make use of an old Firestick remote or buy a new one.

Let’s explore in detail in case you lost your Firestick remote:

Method 1: Navigate and command your FireStick without remote controller via the Amazon Fire TV App

Users can use their iPhones or android phones to control Firestick, tablets can also do it if they can run the Amazon Fire TV App. It works excellently on Android from 5.0 and up and iOS 10.0 or up.

Amazon Fire TV App will turn your mobile into a remote with full functions to control Fire TV Stick. For iOS users, you might use Amazon Fire TV on iPod touch and Mac too. So this app is really compatible, it practically runs on any popular platform these days. You need to go to the Google Play Store or Apple App Store and download this app.

After accessing your store, you want to search with the keyword “Amazon Fire TV App” and make sure you download it from developer AMZN Mobile LLC (for iPhones and iOS devices).

And the app comes from the developer Amazon Mobile LLC (for all Android phones and tablets). If you are surfing on your phone now, you can also quickly access it by clicking on the links below:

Download link for iOS devices (iPhones and iPads iOS 10.0 and up)
Download link for Android (any Android phones 5.0 and up)

After downloading and installing the application on your phone, you should double-check that your phone and Fire TV Stick are connected to the same wifi network. It is a basic principle that the two need to be on the same Internet network to pair successfully.

Next, you will open the Amazon Fire TV App on your phone, the application will not ask you to open an account or log in, however you can use your Amazon account to log in. If you do so, Firestick device info will be stored on your phone, and it allows faster pairing. Anyway, you can proceed without an account.

Now, you will enter the home screen of the app. You should see a list of Fire TV Stick devices, you will find the name of your device at the bottom of the screen, and select that device to let your phone pair with Firestick. It can take up to a few seconds.

After selecting the name of your firestick device, on the screen of your TV, you will notice a 4-digit code. That’s the code for pairing. You will enter this code into the phone, if you enter it correctly, the two devices will be paired and ready to set up the controlling buttons.

You need to follow the instructions shown on your phone. For example, press to set navigation buttons, Home button, Press/Play button…

When you have done all these steps, your phone turns itself into a very compact and powerful controller. You now can control your Firestick without the physical remote.

You may also like: How to turn on Firestick without remote?

Amazon Fire TV’s features

Let’s take a look at the most outstanding features of this useful Amazon Fire TV app to take full advantage of its benefits.

Quick access to programs, apps, and games
It has playback controls
Simple navigation buttons, it looks exactly like a physical remote, but with a nicer interface
Feature keyboard for fast text input, more convenient than using the remote control
Voice search support (may not be available in certain countries)
Support FireTV Recast function

The advantages of Amazon Fire TV over a physical Firestick remote

Users can search quickly and accurately with the voice command function of the phone
Enter text faster by using the phone keyboard
Easy navigation buttons
No worries about running out of battery or poor signal
Improved and refreshed interface and performance and UX
Allow notifications and reminds to the user’s phone

Method 2: Use Firestick without default wifi network and remote control

In this case, Firestick will not automatically connect to the wifi network, so the steps we take in method 1 cannot be applied. But it’s not so bad.

In fact, you can easily bypass this problem and create a wifi hot-pot with the same username and password as Firestick’s default wifi network. Can you see the point here? We are replicating the default network.

And just like that, your Firestick will be connected to the same old replicated wifi again. The problem was solved. Things now go back to what you already know, and let’s perform the same steps as described in Method 1 to have Amazon Fire TV control Firestick without a remote.

But to do this, you will need two devices to control Firestick without a remote. One device has Amazon Fire TV installed to act as your physical remote control (it can be your Android or iOS phone or tablet), a second device acts as a wifi hotspot (any device with the ability to create a wifi hotspot will work in this case).

The first device: You want to perform the same steps as in Method 1, download and install Amazon Fire TV App, and set it aside.
The second device: Needs to become the wifi hotspot for both Firestick and the first device. So you need to take the following instruction:

Step 1: Go to Settings on your device, and create a new wifi hotspot with the same name and password as the default hotspot that Firestick used to connect to. That is crucial, you must get it done correctly.

Step 2: Turn on the wifi sharing function on your phone and wait for Firestick to connect. You may need to restart your Firestick for it to connect to this wifi network.

Step 3: After Firestick has successfully connected to the wifi hotspot, you will do the same for your first device.

Step 4: Go to the Amazon Fire TV app on the first device and see if the Firestick is listed there. If it does, let’s continue with the steps mentioned in Method 1. If it doesn’t, you need to check your wifi, and network connection speed is also important.

Method 3: Use HDMI-CEC to control Firestick

CEC stands for Consumer Electronics Control, it is a function of your TV that allows the remote control of your TV to work with other apps and programs. This function is available and comes with most current smart TVs.

Simply put, if this function is on (you can enable it in the settings of the TV) HDMI-CEC allows you to use the TV’s remote to perform all the functions of other programs or software running on that TV, including Firestick. So with one remote, you can control multiple devices connected to your TV.

To enable this function, users need to go to the TV’s settings, each TV brand has a different name for CEC, check out the names of the most popular brands below.

LG Smart Tv – SimpLink
Hitachi – HDMI-CEC
Sony Smart TVs – Bravia Sync
Philips TV – EasyLink

You just need to turn on the HDMI CEC option to use the TV remote instead of the Firestick one. As a quick reminder, the navigation and text input buttons will work perfectly.

However, other function buttons may depend on your TV remote and its compatibility with Firestick, which is understandable because each brand has a different design and functional layout of their controllers. But anyway it will be more than enough for you to replace your Firestick remote.

Method 4: You can connect mouse and keyboard to TV to control Firestick

You might be surprised to learn that you can connect a mouse and keyboard to the TV and there using the Firestick without a physical remote is absolutely possible. It will also provide a pretty unique experience, I must say.

However, if you want to use both mouse and keyboard with Firestick you will need a Micro USB splitter unless your TV has enough ports to plug both keyboard and mouse in.

Is it nice to instantly transform your Firestick TV into your full-sized laptop? Navigating and controlling with the mouse will not be a problem, the pointer will work without latency, and offer precision control.

Some Micro USB splitters are recommended by Amazon’s users.

Method 5: Make use of an old Firestick remote or buy a new one.

The old Fire Sticks’ controller can work well with the new one, you can take advantage of this too. And save some money. To be able to use an old remote with your modern Firestick, it’s very simple. This is how you can do that:

First, press and hold the three buttons simultaneously: HOME, BACK, and LEFT arrow for more than 10 seconds.
After that, restart the Firestick device.
Finally, the older remote will be automatically connected to the new Fire TV Stick after it has been rebooted.

These are some tips you can try to replace or remove entirely the Firestick remote control. However, if you still feel like having a physical controller, you can buy a new Fire Stick controller, brand-new with the Alexa voice command function for less than $30.

Closing Thoughts

As you can see, losing your Firestick remote is not necessarily your worst nightmare. You have five methods to get you through. I hope the above survival tips are more than enough so that you never have to panic when the physical remote is nowhere to be found.

I think it is best if you have the Amazon Fire TV App installed on your phone. That is just a precaution, but who knows. And if you think these methods are useful, and you know someone is having this trouble, maybe they are asking the same question “What do I do if I lost my Firestick remote?”, please share this piece of information with them.

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