Samsung TV Remote Not Working, Blinking Red Light: 4 Fixes

Of all of the brands of smart TVs out there, few are as synonymous with quality as the Samsung brand. Having been around for a long time now, they have successfully crafted a reputation for themselves as the luxury brand of smart TVs – but without the price tag to match. 

And, overall, we rarely have anything to write about when it comes to diagnosing issues with their equipment. That is, until recently. 

Having trawled the boards and forums, we noticed that there are quite a few of you out there having problems with your Samsung remotes. It’s a strange problem to begin with, but it gets stranger again when we discovered that this same issue was cropping up in regard to quite a few different models. 

Of course, we are talking about the situation where your remote will start blinking a red light and will just stop working entirely. Luckily, this issue is really easy to fix. So, we would expect that nearly all of you will be able to fix it using our troubleshooting guide. Speaking of which, we had better get started!

How to fix the blinking red light and the Samsung TV remote not working 

1) Try re-pairing the remote with your TV

In nearly every case, the whole root of the problem will be that your remote just isn’t communicating correctly with your TV. Effectively, there is a message being sent, but something is getting lost in translation. 

So, the only thing to do in this case is to simply re-pair them. To do this, just press the up button on your remote and the back button at the exact same time, making sure to hold them down for at least ten seconds. 

After this time, you should have noticed that the red light has stopped flashing. After this, hopefully, the remote should start working again as normal. If not, let’s get into the next tip. 

2) Change out the batteries

Even if you have changed out the batteries relatively recently, we would still recommend taking this step regardless. Just remove the casing on the remote and change those batteries out. 

Make sure that the batteries you put in aren’t in any way loose while you are changing them out. As a general rule, it is always worth spending a little extra and opting for batteries from a highly reputable brand. 

They will last much longer and actually probably end up saving you a bit of money in the long run. However, there is also a lot of sense to opting for rechargeable batteries too as they have less of an impact on the environment and only need to be purchased once. 

3) Make sure you are not too far away 

There is no doubt about it, Samsung TVs are among the best out there. However, even with that, you do need to make sure that you are using the remote while you are close enough to the TV. 

In addition to that, you also need to make sure that there isn’t anything in the way that could be blocking the signal getting through. Another thing to consider is that you may be accidentally holding your finger over the top of the remote, thus preventing the signal getting over. 

On the topic of interference, there are also some unseen factors that can be jamming the signal. For example, keep a close eye out to make sure that there aren’t any other wireless devices in the way. 

These will put out signals that will interfere with the ones being sent out from your remote. So, remove any of these devices from the equation and then try re-pairing the remote and the TV again. 

As a general rule, you will always need to be within 30 feet of the TV while you are trying to use the remote. Beyond that, the remote will probably stop working and might even un-pair entirely. If all of that is in order, it is time to continue to the next step. 

4) The remote may just be broken

If you have managed to make it all the way through to this step without any change, you can definitely consider yourself as more than a little unfortunate. At this point, there really isn’t anything left for you to do. 

The most likely cause of the problem that you are having is that there may be some internal components that have burnt out over the course of time. Though it is possible to have a remote repaired, we would still suggest that you go for a new one to improve longevity. 

Whatever you do, just make sure that the remote is the exact one that it is meant to be. Don’t settle for any substitutes or a universal remote.