Firestick Remote Buttons: Instructions and Shortcut Keys
There are 16 buttons on Firestick Remote out of which 4 are App buttons that you can press to open the particular App directly on your Firestick remote.
Amazon has made some changes to its new Alexa-enabled remote that you get with the latest Firestick 4K device.
The older remotes of 1st and 2nd generation Fire TV stick had a few buttons only but with the new device, Amazon has made a few changes to its Firestick remote buttons.
The new remote has some new buttons like power, volume, and mute which were missing in the old Firestick remote controls.
The Firestick remote also has shortcut keys (which can be used by combining two or more keys) to perform different tasks such as reset, restore, or unpair the Firestick remote.
Read on to learn about all the buttons on your Fire TV Stick remote and the shortcut keys that you can use with it.
1. Power Button
The power button on the Firestick remote (as shown in the above picture) is located on the remote’s top left corner and is used to turn off your TV.
To use the power button to turn off your TV, the HDMI-CEC option on your TV must be enabled. If your TV doesn’t have this option on your TV, then you can’t use this button to power off your TV.
2. Blue Button or Alexa Button
The blue button also called the Alexa button on the new Firestick remote activates Alexa. You only have to press and hold the blue button and ask or give commands to your Alexa to open a particular app, search an App, rewind or forward a movie/show, and many more.
The older Firestick remotes have the microphone button but in the new Firestick remotes you will find a blue button in place of the microphone button.
You can search using your voice by pressing and holding down the microphone button on your old Firestick remotes.
Here are some examples of how you can use Alexa on the Fire TV remote:
- Alexa, play movie [movie name]
- Alexa, pause the video.
- Alexa, forward/rewind the video or movie to [X] minutes.
- Alexa, play the next episode.
- Alexa, show me movies of [actor name].
- Alexa, open [app name].
Apart from controlling your TV and shows, you can also ask some helpful questions, for example, what’s the weather like today, Where is my order and other sorts of questions.
3. Navigation Buttons or Circle Butto
The navigational buttons are available on all old and new Firestick remotes. This is a round button (as shown in the above picture) that acts as a directional keypad.
The button has 4 direction keys Left, Right, Up & Down which you can use to scroll left, right, up, and down respectively.
In case, you are using a web browser on your Firestick, you can use the up and down directional keys to scroll the page up and down.
In addition to these, you can also use the left and right navigational buttons to forward and rewind playing video or music, or long-press the buttons to fast forward and rewind.
4. Button Inside the Navigation/Select Button
The button placed at the center of the navigation keys commonly known as the Select button is used to select Menu or Open Apps.
You can also use this button to play or pause already playing media.
5. Back Button
The back button is located on the left side just below the navigation button (see the above picture for reference). You have to press this button to go back to the previous screen or exit an application.
6. Home Button
The Home button brings you back to the Home screen no matter what app you are using.
While the back button brings you back to the previous screen, this button will bring you to the Home screen instantly.
7. Three Bar/ Menu Button
The Menu button, also known as the Hamburger or 3-Horizontal line button, is located on the right side just below the navigation button (see the above picture for reference).
This button comes in handy while opening the Application menu or uninstalling apps quickly and directly from the Home Screen.
Pressing the Menu or three-bar button also displays setting options like audio, subtitles, watch from the beginning, and next while watching a movie or a show.
You can also use this button to watch a movie trailer of the highlighted movie on the home screen or to add it to your watch list.
8. Two Back Arrows/Rewind Button
The two black arrows button, located on the left side of the second row under the navigation keys, also called a rewind button, is used to rewind videos.
When you press this button once the playing video rewinds for 10 seconds but when you long press the button you video will rewind faster.
You can also increase the rewinding at 3x or 4x speed by pressing the button 1 time or 2 times while rewinding.
Using this key, you can rewind any movie or show playing on apps including Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, etc.
9. Play/Pause Button
This Play/pause button allows you to play, and pause any video that you are streaming online on your Fire TV device.
10. Two Forward Arrows/Fast Forward Button
The fast-forward button works the same as the rewind button. You can forward a video by 10 seconds by pressing this button once or you can long press this button to fast forward the video at 1x speed, press once more to fast forward at 2x speed, and so on.
You can use this button to fast-forward while watching movies or shows on streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, etc., or media players such as VLC, MX Player, etc.
11. + and – Button or Volume Controllers
The + and – button allows you to increase and decrease the volume on your Amazon Fire TV Stick.
Press + to increase the volume and – to decrease the volume.
These volume controller buttons are available on the latest Alexa Enables 3rd Generation remotes which Amazon provided with new Fire TV models and Firestick 4K.
Note: To use the + and – buttons on your Firestick, you must have an HDMI CEC enabled on your TV.
12. Speaker With X or Mute Button
The button speaker X or mute button allows you to mute or unmute the volume on your Fire TV.
The mute button was missing on the older Fire TV remotes but now it is available on the new Fire Stick remote.
13. Television Button
The Television button also called as Guide button is used to open a guide for live TV channels.
Only some Amazon Fire TV remotes have this television button which works the same as the guide button present in local TV remotes.
14. Apps Buttons
The Apps buttons are the last buttons on your Fire TV voice remote using which you can directly open popular streaming Apps like Netflix, Amazon’s Prime Video, Amazon Music, etc.
What are the FireStick Remote Control Shortcut Keys?
The shortcut keys on the Firestick remote can be used to perform several functions directly including resetting, restoring, and unpairing your Fire TV device.
In the above article, we discussed Amazon FireStick Remote Control Instructions and the different buttons available on the Fire TV remote. Now, we will see how you can perform some important actions using the Fire TV remote shortcut keys.
The important and useful Firestick remote shortcut keys are given below.
How To Restore Firestick Using Remote Shortcut Key?
To restore Firestick using remote shortcut keys, press the Right navigation key + Back button.
You should use this remote shortcut to reset your Firestick to default settings when your Fire TV Stick becomes unresponsive or freezes.
When the Fire TV becomes unresponsive or freezes, you won’t be able to Navigate to settings and at that time these shortcut keys will help you get out of trouble.
Don’t try to perform this for fun as doing a device reset removes everything including your preferred settings, downloaded apps, saved files, and even your account from the device.
How To Reset Fire Stick Remote Using Shortcut Keys?
To reset your Fire Stick remote using the remote shortcut keys, press the Left Navigation Key + Menu + Back buttons simultaneously.
This shortcut key is used when you are having issues between the remote and the TV connection.
How To Unpair the Fire TV Stick Remote Using the Short Key?
To unpair the Fire TV Stick remote using the short keys, press and hold the Back + Home + Menu buttons simultaneously.
You should use this remote shortcut to unpair your remote when you are going to use a replacement remote.
If you want to know about what other functions you can perform with your Firestick remote short keys, here’s our guide on all the Fire TV remote shortcuts.
What Are the Buttons on the Fire Stick Remote?
These are the buttons that you can find on the latest Fire Stick remotes – power, headphone, Alexa voice, navigation, select, back, home, menu, rewind, play/pause, fast forward, volume, channel, guide, settings, mute, customizable and preset app.
Can I change what buttons do on the Fire Stick remote?
Yes, you can customize buttons on your Fire Stick using a remapper app and remap app buttons on your Firestick. Here’s a video showing how you can do this:
Can I control my Fire TV without the remote?
To control your Fire TV without the remote download the Amazon Fire TV remote App on your smartphone.
What Do Lights on the Fire Stick Remote Mean?
Amazon Fire TV remote has different lights to indicate different things such as Red (slow blinking) indicates Low battery, Red (fast blinking) indicates a remote issue and Orange light indicates that the remote isn’t paired with the Fire TV Stick.
Conclusion
Firestick is an amazing device that converts a standard TV to a smart TV and there are no second thoughts about it. But, recently, Amazon introduced a new remote with their latest Fire TV Sticks which is a bit confusing for new users.
I have written this guide to help those users who are searching for instructions on how to use a Fire TV Stick remote without any difficulty.
Through this guide, I have covered everything including the new keys, their functions, and how you can use them.
I have also included shortcut keys that you can use for resetting, unpairing, or restoring the device remotely.