[anacrisan]

Hi,

I have been having a weird problem lately with the Apple Remote: it does not work at all with XBMC (it does not even start when I press the "Menu" button and if I start XBMC with the mouse it still does not respond to commands). The only way I have found to make it work again is to disable it in the "Input devices" section in the settings, then exit XBMC and finally start it again and re-enable the remote. But obviously this is not a good work-around as it requires using the mouse or the keyboard and restarting XBMC every time.

This all leads me to think there's a glitch in one of the configuration files - it just does not seem to remember the pairing with the remote. I've tried reinstalling XBMC and using a different skin, but that didn´t solve anything.

I am using OS X Lion, XBMC 10.1.

Does anyone have any idea how this can be fixed? Thanks in advance.

Edit: When XBMC does not respond to remote key presses, the usual key mappings for the remote are active - global volume up/down, play/pause in iTunes, etc.

[MrHipster]

I've had a similar problem with XBMC and my Apple TV 1 gen. It's counter intuitive, but it usually works. I unpair the remove - push menu and left scroll arrow until you see the unpair symbol on the screen (assuming u r using a TV) then press menu and it works ?

Also I've rebooted the ATV, this has worked, and for my last bit of totally unprofessional, but it works for me, advice, I turned the TV off, then on and scrolled thru the input sources on the TV until I got back to HDMI (ATV) and it works.
I upgraded to Dharma 10.1 last week and so far this has not happened....yet !
Hopefully someone with more professional ideas will give u the solution, as this might be a bandaid for the moment.

[MrHipster]

Sorry, meant to write "remote" not remove !

[anacrisan]

Thanks for the reply.

I tried your solution but it doesn't seem to work for me. My setup is a Macbook Pro running Lion connected to an external screen.

So if anyone has any other suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them

I've had a similar problem with XBMC and my Apple TV 1 gen. It's counter intuitive, but it usually works. I unpair the remove - push menu and left scroll arrow until you see the unpair symbol on the screen (assuming u r using a TV) then press menu and it works ?

Also I've rebooted the ATV, this has worked, and for my last bit of totally unprofessional, but it works for me, advice, I turned the TV off, then on and scrolled thru the input sources on the TV until I got back to HDMI (ATV) and it works.
I upgraded to Dharma 10.1 last week and so far this has not happened....yet !
Hopefully someone with more professional ideas will give u the solution, as this might be a bandaid for the moment.

[Tuby]

Hi, I had similar problem yesterday, but I'm not sure if your workaround worked. Anyway I found program called candelair, which have also kind of diagnostic tool. I had some helper program running in background, it was there after removing Plex, which I was trying. So if you have this issue still, you could try this diagnostic.

[anacrisan]

Hi, I had similar problem yesterday, but I'm not sure if your workaround worked. Anyway I found program called candelair, which have also kind of diagnostic tool. I had some helper program running in background, it was there after removing Plex, which I was trying. So if you have this issue still, you could try this diagnostic.

Hey Tuby,

Thanks for the reply. I'm still having the problem but will try the diagnostic tool from Candelair, hopefully it will help.

[anacrisan]

I've made a bit of progress with Candelair - the diagnostics tool said System Preferences had exclusive access to the remote, so I killed the process. Now I can start XBMC by pressing the Menu button on the remote, however the remote still doesn't work after XBMC is open. Also, Candelair now says XBMCHelper has exclusive access to the remote.

[Tuby]

My diagnostic also says, that XMBC Helper has exclusive access to the remote, so I think it's because of starting xbmc with menu button. Unfortunately I've no idea what to do next. Maybe you should try to install candelair drivers or look to the warnings in diagnostics. That's what I wanted to do before I found out what's my problem. Anyway it's strange, that your remote was used by System Preferences, maybe you've got some panel or app installed, which is still blocking media keys from remote. I cannot do for you more, I'm still new to osx, I've got my macbook only for a month.

[activate]

I don't know if there is a solution to this issue. I am using lion on macmini and using your results, I saw the issue was the eyetv helper hogging the remote. My aim was to use eyetv through the advanced launcher. Not sure if it can work with the standard apple remote.

[valentinico]

i stoped manually xmbchelper and Apple Remote work fine... anybody know if xmbchelper is 100% necessary? for what?

[Ned Scott]

XBMChelper is used in an attempt to give XBMC priority of the Apple Remote.