Losing a Samsung remote doesn’t mean losing the TV. Almost every Samsung set has a physical button on the body — the trick is knowing where Samsung hid it, because it moved over the years. Here’s exactly where to look on your model, then how to run the TV from your phone once it’s on.
Where the button is on your Samsung
Standard Samsung TVs (most 2016–2020 sets). One button under the front panel, in the bottom-right corner or dead centre-bottom. It faces down, so you feel for it rather than see it. A single press turns the TV on.
Newer Samsung TVs (2021 onward — the “one button” models). Samsung moved to a single control that sits under the Samsung logo at the centre-bottom, or on the back of the TV, lower-right as you face it. It’s a small jog stick:
- Press to turn on, or to select.
- Push up / down for volume.
- Push left / right to change channel or move through a menu.
- Press and hold to open a menu with the input (HDMI) list and power off.
That’s enough to switch inputs and get back to what you were watching, with no remote at all.
The Frame and some QLED sets. These often have no button on the panel — the power button is on the One Connect box, the slim external box the TV’s single cable runs to. Look on the box for a small button. If your TV truly has no button anywhere, jump to the two no-button methods below.
“My Samsung TV has no buttons at all”
Some of the thinnest QLED and Frame models really don’t have a reachable button. Two ways in:
- Power on a connected HDMI device. A soundbar, console or Blu-ray player set to turn the TV on with it will wake the set and switch to its input — see the HDMI-CEC method below.
- The SmartThings app, if the TV was set up on your Wi-Fi before. A Samsung TV that has already been connected can be powered on from Samsung’s SmartThings app even from standby. A brand-new TV that has never been on the network can’t — there’s nothing for the app to reach yet.
Control it from your phone
Once the TV is on and on your Wi-Fi, your phone is the remote. Samsung’s own SmartThings app works, and so does Zapp, which adds the real input list, the apps installed on the TV, and a keyboard for search — with no subscription. If your remote is gone for good, this is a genuine replacement, not a stopgap: once a TV is paired, Zapp can even wake it from standby next time (Wake-on-LAN), so you never hunt for the body button again.
(If the remote is present but unresponsive rather than lost, the fix is usually different — see Samsung TV remote not working.)
Turn it on from a connected device (Anynet+)
If something is plugged into the TV over HDMI — a game console, soundbar, Apple TV, Blu-ray player — powering that on will often switch the TV on with it and select its input automatically. Samsung calls this HDMI-CEC feature Anynet+, and it’s on by default on most sets.
A replacement remote
A genuine Samsung remote or a decent universal remote will pair with the TV and is the right permanent fix if the original is gone. It costs money and takes a few days, so it’s rarely the answer for right now — use the button or your phone tonight.
What doesn’t work
An iPhone cannot control a TV over infrared — iPhones have no IR hardware, so any app claiming to be a universal remote for an old, non-network TV from an iPhone alone can’t deliver. Phone control only works over Wi-Fi, with a smart TV that’s on the network.
The short version
Reach under the front panel (or under the Samsung logo, or the back) and press the button — that’s almost always all it takes. Then set your phone up as the remote while the TV is on, and next time it can wake the TV for you.