Contributor I

Can't get LG Magic Remote volume control to work with Playbase

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
June 12, 2022
39 replies
2519 views

Hello everybody,

I’ve been unable to use my LG magic remote to control my Sonos Playbase for a whole year.

I’ve got an LG C7 OLED, a Sonos Playbase and 2 Sonos Play:1s set up for surround. I want to get a Sonos Sub and a couple of Sonos 1s to have around the house, but being unable to control my existing Sonos products with my TV’s remote control is not really inspiring me to spend more. I’ve already spent around 1000 euros for the existing setup as it is. Internal TV speakers just don’t cut it.

To this date the only similar topic I have found on this forum is this one by user earplugs: Playbase and LG Magic remote | Sonos Community

It was all working fine until about a year ago, when I moved country. Everything remained in storage for a period of time, and I started setting it all up again probably in early July. I remember the TV got a firmware update as soon as I took it online, and since then the TV’s menu options have changed massively. Device Connector on my LG TV is no longer giving me a manufacturer list (I remember I used Phillips once when setting it up in 2019), and the new remote setup process on the Sonos app is only working when the TV is off (and of course the moment the TV is on the remote becomes useless again).

This process on the Sonos support website also doesn’t work: Unable to adjust the volume using the LG Magic Remote | Sonos

Has anyone else had this problem? Is there a solution? The only way to remotely control the volume now is through the Sonos app, which is OK, but not ideal, as I don’t want to be holding my phone constantly when watching a movie.

At this stage I am almost ready to factory reset both TV and Sonos equipment and set up everything from the beginning again. But I am wondering if that will not work either.

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Pinned Reply By LGRemoteNotWorking

I fixed it. Holy *** , I fixed it, after 18 months. It had to do with the Location settings of the TV.

The guy on the phone from LG earlier briefly said that it may be due to the country change, but it didn’t immediately click. By sheer chance, as I was typing my previous post 20 minutes ago, this topic came up on the right side of the screen:

Configure LG OLED Magic Remote (2018) with Playbase | Sonos Community

I had never seen it before, but the poster had the same issue I was having. The solution came by @markymos, who briefly mentioned the LG service country in a post of his, and then @Jools23 confirmed that it worked for him.

So I went to settings, general, location, and changed the location for everything to UK, rather than Greece. I am not sure how that had gotten changed, and if it happened automatically or if the TV asked me at some point.

Now that I’ve changed it back to UK, I get the option to select the manufacturer in the device connector. I set the remote up again, and lo and behold, I can now use my LG magic remote control to control the Playbase’s volume!

Thank you everyone, and especially @Ken_Griffiths who has been suggesting things and coming back to this topic for months.

*Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.*

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L

LGRemoteNotWorkingAuthor

Contributor I

Update: I still haven’t been able to fix this. A few weeks back I reset the TV to factory settings and tried again, but no change.

At this point I believe it is an issue with the specific TV firmware, since the menus have changed.

I’ll try again with a new TV at some point.

Ken_Griffiths

Update: I still haven’t been able to fix this. A few weeks back I reset the TV to factory settings and tried again, but no change.

At this point I believe it is an issue with the specific TV firmware, since the menus have changed.

I’ll try again with a new TV at some point.

Perhaps see this thread and note the case sensitive search needed to find Sonos as the Soundbar manufacturer in the ‘device connector’ (universal remote) or whatever LG call it these days:

L

LGRemoteNotWorkingAuthor

Contributor I

Update: I still haven’t been able to fix this. A few weeks back I reset the TV to factory settings and tried again, but no change.

At this point I believe it is an issue with the specific TV firmware, since the menus have changed.

I’ll try again with a new TV at some point.

Perhaps see this thread and note the case sensitive search needed to find Sonos as the Soundbar manufacturer in the ‘device connector’ (universal remote) or whatever LG call it these days:

Thanks again for your help, but the menus on my C7 are completely different.

Ken_Griffiths

Perhaps see this thread and note the case sensitive search needed to find Sonos as the Soundbar manufacturer in the ‘device connector’ (universal remote) or whatever LG call it these days:

Thanks again for your help, but the menus on my C7 are completely different.

They are different on the LG C9 and different again on the LG G2, which has a different device connector called ‘Universal Control Settings’, but it seems both search the same online universal database - have you double-checked things? … and note too that the LG online database search is case sensitive.

H

Hros

Contributor I

Just bought a new LG OLED TV and having the same issue that the remote despite being paired will not control the Sonos volume. Did anyone find a fix?

Ken_Griffiths

Just bought a new LG OLED TV and having the same issue that the remote despite being paired will not control the Sonos volume. Did anyone find a fix?

Yes the LG magic remote is working fine f here, I have both the MR-2019 & 2022 versions with LG TV’s a C9 OLED with Sonos Arc and an LG 24TQ510S-PZ with Sonos Ray and both work when setting the device manufacturer to Sonos (case sensitive), but if not using an Optical connection, it should work anyway using LG Simplink (CEC) control in any case. See the links earlier in this thread.

H

Hros

Contributor I

Thanks @Ken_Griffiths - unfortunately I have a Sonos playbase which only has optical connection. The problem seems to be that the magic remote only sends an IR signal when the TV is off and I can’t get the tv to talk to the playbase via the optical connection. Super frustrating as I have spent hours on what should be a very straightforward point to fix (never an issue with my Sony Bravia). Am hoping someone else might be able to help

Ken_Griffiths

Thanks @Ken_Griffiths - unfortunately I have a Sonos playbase which only has optical connection. The problem seems to be that the magic remote only sends an IR signal when the TV is off and I can’t get the tv to talk to the playbase via the optical connection. Super frustrating as I have spent hours on what should be a very straightforward point to fix (never an issue with my Sony Bravia). Am hoping someone else might be able to help

Have you tried it with Simplink off? - I have the MR2022 working here with the Sonos Ray (connected over optical) - let me take a photo of the settings for you to see.. in my own case, I goto ‘Settings/General/External Devices’ on the TV and select ‘universal control settings’ and select Sonos as the manufacturer for the optical out port. (See attached)…appreciate that the settings may vary slightly on your TV, but I have not had any issues with the ‘magic remote’ on either LG TV.

I hope the ‘example’ photos attached perhaps go some way to assist you to resolve the matter.

H

Hros

Contributor I

Thanks again @Ken_Griffiths - super helpful. I’ve tried this a number of times and it hasn’t worked (in conjunction with fiddling with the SONOS app itself)

I just tried it again (no luck), turned off the TV and went upstairs, went back down to try fiddling again and by some sort of magic it now seems to be working properly. Not entirely sure which bit “fixed” it but thank you for the prompt - hopefully I don’t lose it next time I turn the TV off!!

Ken_Griffiths

Thanks again @Ken_Griffiths - super helpful. I’ve tried this a number of times and it hasn’t worked (in conjunction with fiddling with the SONOS app itself)

I just tried it again (no luck), turned off the TV and went upstairs, went back down to try fiddling again and by some sort of magic it now seems to be working properly. Not entirely sure which bit “fixed” it but thank you for the prompt - hopefully I don’t lose it next time I turn the TV off!!

Fingers-x’d 🤞

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