How to turn on a Samsung TV without the remote

Samsung hides the power button so well that plenty of owners are convinced there isn't one. There is. And once the TV is on, your iPhone can take over for good — LazyBinger speaks Samsung's own protocol over your Wi-Fi.

Where Samsung puts the button

Samsung calls it a jog controller — a tiny joystick you press to power on and push in four directions to change source and volume. On current sets it sits in one of three places:

• Under the centre of the panel, just behind the Samsung logo — reach up from below and feel for a nub.
• Bottom-right of the panel, seen from the front (bottom-left as you reach behind).
• On The Frame and some lifestyle models, on the One Connect box rather than the panel.

Press once to switch on. Press and hold to switch off. If your set is old enough to have a row of touch buttons instead, the power one is at the end of the row.

Turning it on from your iPhone instead

A TV in standby keeps its network chip awake, which is what makes Wake-on-LAN possible: a small "magic packet" addressed to the TV's MAC address tells it to boot. LazyBinger sends that packet when you tap power on a TV it has already paired with, so the phone genuinely replaces the button.

Two conditions decide whether it works on your set. In the TV's settings, look for Network → Expert Settings and enable the option that keeps the network alive in standby — Samsung has called it Power On with Mobile and, on other model years, Wake on Wireless / Wake on LAN. And pair the TV once while it's on, so it remembers your phone.

Why the first pairing needs the TV switched on

Samsung TVs from 2016 on run Tizen, and the first time anything asks to control them they show an Allow prompt on screen. You accept it once, the TV hands back a token, and every later connection is silent. That prompt is the one thing you cannot do from a dark screen — so set the phone up before you need it.

Frequently asked

Can I turn on a Samsung TV with my phone over Wi-Fi? Yes, if standby networking is enabled and the TV has been paired once. The phone sends a wake packet, then connects normally.

Does the SmartThings app do the same thing? It can, but it routes through a Samsung account and the cloud. LazyBinger stays on your own network, with no account at all.

My TV is older than 2015. Pre-2015 Samsungs (the D to H series) use a completely different binary protocol that modern apps don't speak. The jog button is your route in.

More: Samsung remote not working and turning any TV on from your phone.