By Klaus Jakobsen, developer of A Decent Remote This is the one problem a remote app cannot solve, so it is worth saying up front rather than three screens in: every phone remote app reaches your TV over the network. No network, nothing to reach. Ours included.
So this page is about getting the TV onto Wi-Fi with no remote in your hand. Four methods, ordered by how little typing they involve, because typing a Wi-Fi password on a TV with no remote is the actual difficulty here.
1. Use an Ethernet cable and skip Wi-Fi entirely
If the TV is anywhere near your router, this is the answer and it takes thirty seconds.
Nearly every smart TV has an Ethernet port on the back, next to the HDMI inputs. Plug a cable from there to any spare port on your router. Most sets detect a wired connection and use it automatically, with no password, no on-screen keyboard, and no menu navigation at all. That is the whole appeal: the hard part of this problem is text entry, and Ethernet deletes it.
Once the TV is online, a phone remote app can reach it, and you can do everything else, including switching to Wi-Fi later, from your phone instead of from the buttons.
The exception is streaming sticks. A Fire TV stick or Chromecast has no Ethernet port unless you bought the powered adapter.
2. Plug in a USB keyboard or mouse
This is the trick most people do not know, and it turns a twenty-minute ordeal into a one-minute one.
Most smart TVs accept a standard USB keyboard or mouse in any USB port, with no setup. Plug it in and it just works: arrow keys navigate, Enter selects, and the keyboard types your Wi-Fi password directly instead of you hunting letter by letter across an on-screen grid with a joystick.
| Brand | USB keyboard and mouse |
|---|---|
| Samsung | Works, both |
| LG webOS | Works, both. A mouse is especially good here, since webOS is built around a pointer |
| Android TV and Google TV | Works, both. Standard Android input handling |
| Sony (Android-based) | Works, both |
| Roku and Roku TVs (TCL, some Hisense) | Inconsistent, model dependent. Try it, but have a fallback |
| Fire TV | Awkward. Sticks need a powered OTG adapter, which you probably do not have |
Any old wired USB keyboard works. So does a wireless one with a USB dongle, which is usually easier to hold on a sofa. Bluetooth keyboards are the wrong tool here: pairing Bluetooth is itself a menu you would have to navigate first.
3. Use the TV’s own buttons
Every television has at least one physical button. Manufacturers hide them so they do not spoil the front view, but each brand has habits:
| Brand | Typical button location |
|---|---|
| Samsung | One small jog button on the underside, dead center behind the logo |
| LG | A joystick under the center of the bottom bezel |
| Sony | Lower right rear edge: a power button with a volume rocker, or one combined button |
| Vizio | A column of buttons on the rear left edge (some models: rear right) |
| TCL and other Roku TVs | A single joystick behind the rear right corner, or center rear |
| Hisense | Underside right corner, or a joystick on the lower rear |
| Philips | A joystick on the lower rear, center or right |
| Panasonic | A button cluster on the lower left rear |
| Toshiba and Insignia (Fire TV) | Often a power-only button: no menu navigation at all |
A joystick is enough to complete Wi-Fi setup. It moves like a tiny gamepad: left and right, up and down, press to select. That is exactly the four directions and one confirm that the setup wizard needs. It is slow, and picking out a sixteen-character password one letter at a time is genuinely unpleasant, but it works.
A single flat button is much harder. Those stack functions onto press patterns: a short press cycles between options, a long press confirms the highlighted one. You can get through a menu with patience, but this is the case where it is worth finding a USB keyboard first.
The classic trap with both: holding when you should tap. Hold too long on many sets and you power the TV off instead of selecting.
4. The hotspot trick, if the TV knew your old network
This is the best method on the page when it applies, because the TV does the work and you type nothing on it at all.
If the TV was previously connected and you changed router or password, it still remembers the old network name. So give it that network back:
- On your iPhone, go to Settings → General → About → Name and set the name to the exact old Wi-Fi network name, character for character
- Go to Settings → Personal Hotspot and set the password to the exact old Wi-Fi password
- Turn the hotspot on and wait
The TV sees a network it recognises and rejoins on its own. Nothing typed on the TV, no menus, no joystick. And because your phone is the hotspot, phone and TV are now on the same network, so a remote app reaches the TV immediately, and you can use that to enter the real Wi-Fi details properly.
Two caveats. Wi-Fi names are case sensitive, so “Home_WiFi” and “home_wifi” are different networks to the TV. And hotspot data counts against your mobile plan if the TV starts updating itself, so switch it back once the real network is set up.
Can another remote in the house drive the TV?
Often yes, and it costs nothing to try. HDMI-CEC lets a device’s remote control the TV it is plugged into, so a soundbar, Blu-ray player, games console or cable box remote can frequently move around the TV’s own menus with its arrow keys and OK button.
Every manufacturer gave CEC its own trade name, which is why you may have switched it off without realising:
| Brand | What CEC is called |
|---|---|
| Samsung | Anynet+ |
| LG | SimpLink |
| Sony | BRAVIA Sync |
| Philips | EasyLink |
| Panasonic | VIERA Link |
| Toshiba | CE-Link or Regza Link |
| Sharp | Aquos Link |
| Vizio, Hisense, TCL | HDMI-CEC, plainly named |
It has to already be enabled on both devices for this to work, which is the catch: if it is switched off, turning it on requires the TV menu you are trying to reach. Worth trying before you go hunting for buttons, not worth planning around.
Once the TV is online
That was the hard part. From here your phone is a full remote, and there is no more crouching behind the TV.
Put your iPhone on the same network as the TV and open A Decent Remote. It scans the network and lists what it finds: Samsung, LG, Sony, Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Vizio, Hisense, Philips, Panasonic, Toshiba, Android TV, Google TV and Chromecast. Some brands show a one-time allow prompt or a PIN on the TV screen, which you can accept with the same joystick you just suffered through, once.
The part that matters after tonight: typing. The next time this TV wants a password, a search term or an email address, you use the iPhone keyboard instead of an on-screen grid. That is the difference between the setup you just did and the setup you will never have to do that way again.
If the TV is online but the app does not list it, that is a different problem with its own checklist: why your TV does not show up.
When you are genuinely stuck
Two honest cases where nothing above works.
Streaming sticks have no buttons. A Fire TV stick has none at all, a Chromecast has only a reset button. There is no way to drive their setup screens without their remote, and no app can substitute, because the app needs the network the stick has not joined yet. A replacement remote is the only route.
Some TVs need the remote for first-time setup specifically. A handful of sets will not let a USB keyboard or CEC through the very first out-of-box wizard, before any settings exist. If you have a brand new TV and no remote at all, Ethernet is your best chance, and after that a replacement remote is cheaper than the afternoon you will spend fighting it.
