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In order, these are the causes:

1. Different networks. The phone is on 5 GHz and the television on 2.4 GHz of a router that keeps them separate, or the phone is on mobile data. Put both on the same network.
2. Client isolation. Guest networks and many routers stop devices from seeing each other. The setting is called AP isolation, client isolation or guest mode. Turn it off, or move both devices to the main network.
3. Local Network permission (iPhone). If you declined it, iOS silently blocks all discovery. Open iOS Settings › TV Remote and turn Local Network on. On some iOS versions the phone needs a restart afterwards.

The reliable way around all three: tap Enter IP address and type the address shown on your television under Settings › Network. That path always works and is never gated.

The television draws the code full-screen, so whatever is already on screen can cover it — a screensaver, a game, or an app in the foreground. Press Home on the television with its own remote or with the app, then start pairing again.

This usually means the television has invalidated a previous pairing — some sets only keep a small number at once, and pairing a new phone can push an older one out. Remove the television from Settings › Connected devices and pair it again from scratch.

A small number of older televisions, particularly some 2018–2019 sets, have firmware bugs in this handshake that no app can work around. If re-pairing repeatedly fails on the same set, please write to us with the make, model and Android version and we will tell you what we know.

Some televisions drop stored pairings when their firmware updates, and a few keep only a handful of paired devices at a time. Pairing again takes a few seconds, and nothing else — your layout, your app shortcuts, your other televisions — is lost.

• Check Wi-Fi signal strength on both devices. A television in a cabinet behind a wall is a common culprit; an Ethernet cable to the television fixes it permanently.
• Battery optimisation on some Android phones aggressively suspends background sockets. Exclude TV Remote from battery optimisation in your phone's settings.
• Mesh networks that place the phone and the television on different nodes sometimes route traffic poorly. Try both devices near the same node to confirm.
• Run Settings › Diagnostics in the app — it reports what the app can actually see on the network and is the fastest way to tell us what is happening.

That is a codec the television cannot decode. TV Remote refuses MKV and AVI before you pick them for this reason, but a supported container can still hold an unsupported codec inside it.

Supported formats: MP4, M4V, WebM for video · MP3, M4A, AAC, FLAC, WAV for audio · JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP for images. There is no transcoder in the app, and we do not intend to add one.

Also check that the television actually has a Cast receiver — some paired Android TV devices do not, and the app will say so rather than showing you an empty list.

The limit is your hardware, not the app. A wake packet is sent without any acknowledgement, so no app can confirm it arrived.

• Works reliably: devices connected by Ethernet — an NVIDIA SHIELD, an Ethernet-attached box.
• Usually does not work: televisions on Wi-Fi, which cut the radio in deep power-off.
• Does not support it at all: Chromecast with Google TV and most streaming dongles.
• Check your television's settings for a network-standby option. Manufacturers name it differently — "Remote start" (Sony), "Screenless service" (TCL), "Network standby" (Samsung). It is usually off by default.

Open Settings › Restore purchases. That asks your store again whether your store account owns the product, which resolves it in nearly every case.

Make sure you are signed into the same Google or Apple account you bought it with. Pro is tied to the store account, not the device, so it follows the account to any device you sign in on.

If restore still does not work, email us with your store order number and we will help you chase it.

The widget reads the same encrypted credential store the app uses. If it reports a problem, open the app once — that re-publishes the current television to the widget — then press a widget key again.

If it persists, remove the widget, open the app, confirm the remote works, and place the widget again.

If it runs Android TV or Google TV, yes — Sony, Philips, TCL, Hisense, Sharp, Xiaomi, Chromecast with Google TV, NVIDIA SHIELD, Mi Box and similar.

If it runs Roku, Samsung Tizen, LG webOS, Amazon Fire TV or tvOS, no. Those are different, closed protocols and no amount of configuration will make this app reach them.

Not sure? Install the free version and see whether your television appears. It costs nothing to find out.