What Do the Buttons on the Fire TV Remote Do?

The large round ring moves the highlight around the screen. Press its top, bottom, left or right side. Whatever is highlighted looks brighter. Press gently and one press at a time, since the screen sometimes takes a moment to respond.

The button in the middle of the ring is called Select. It works like an “OK” button. Whenever one of our guides says “press Select”, this is the one. Holding it down opens extra options in some apps.

The button with a curved arrow takes you back one screen. It is your safety net. If you enter the wrong screen, press it. Nothing gets deleted when you do.

The Home button takes you to the main Fire TV screen from anywhere. Hold it down for two seconds to reach a quick menu with Apps, Sleep and Settings.

The Menu button has three lines, one above the other. It opens extra choices for whatever is highlighted. In a TV app, it often opens settings or lets you add a favourite.

Hold the button with the microphone or Alexa symbol and speak. For example, say “open Downloader”. Let go when you finish. This saves a lot of typing, and our guide on voice commands shows more.

The middle button in the row of three pauses and plays. The outer two rewind and fast-forward movies. On live TV, they may do nothing, and that is normal.

The plus and minus buttons control the sound, and the crossed-out speaker mutes it. If they do not change your TV’s volume, our guide on controlling the volume explains how to set this up.