Lost Samsung TV Remote and Can’t Press “Allow”? The Catch-22, Solved

Samsung’s phone-remote pairing has a one-time security step: the TV shows “Allow this device to connect?” and something has to press Allow on the TV side. If the remote is lost, that reads like a catch-22. It isn’t — there are several ways to press Allow without the remote. In order of likelihood:

1. The hidden physical button (every Samsung TV has one)

Samsung builds a control button into every set; the location moved around over the years:

• Front-center, under the bottom edge of the panel — a small joystick: press = select/power, flick left-right/up-down = navigate. Most models from ~2017 onward.
• Front-right or back-right corner, behind the panel near the IR window — older sets and some budget series.
• The Frame and some lifestyle models: back of the TV, bottom-center behind the panel, near the One Connect cable.

Run your fingers along the panel’s underside; you’re feeling for a nub or a small rocker. When the Allow prompt is on screen, press the button once (a single press acts as “select” on the highlighted option, which defaults to Allow).

2. A game controller or anything in an HDMI port

Via HDMI-CEC, a plugged-in device can drive the TV’s menus: a PlayStation or Xbox controller (through the console’s TV controls), an Apple TV remote, a cable box remote. If the Allow prompt is up, arrow keys + OK from any CEC device will land on it. Wireless keyboards plugged into the TV’s USB port also work on many Samsung sets — arrows + Enter.

3. Samsung’s SmartThings from an already-trusted phone

If anyone in the household paired their phone to this TV in the past, that phone is already trusted — no new Allow needed. Use it to approve, or just use it to navigate while your own phone pairs.

4. The nuclear option: a $10 universal IR remote

Samsung TVs still have an infrared receiver, and generic IR remotes (petrol station / Amazon basics tier) ship with Samsung codes. Any of them can press Allow. It feels absurd to buy a remote in order to stop needing remotes — but it’s a one-time $10 unblock, and afterwards your iPhone handles everything.

Once Allow is pressed — you never do this again

The approval is stored: Remote Pro keeps the TV’s pairing token and reconnects silently from then on, including across the token rotations Samsung TVs perform. The full setup flow (and the same-network checklist if the TV isn’t showing up at all) is here: how to use an iPhone as a Samsung TV remote.

One honest note: if your goal tonight is just watching something, the hidden joystick button from option 1 can also change inputs and open apps by itself — clumsy but workable. Pair the phone anyway; future-you is one couch-swallowing away from this page again.