TV Will Not Turn On From the Remote App? Standby Is the Culprit

By Klaus Jakobsen, developer of A Decent Remote

Quick answer A phone can only wake a TV whose network stays listening in standby. If power-on fails, enable networked standby: LG calls it 'Turn on via Wi-Fi', Samsung 'Power On with Mobile', Sony and Android TV 'Remote start'. Deep eco modes power the radio down, and no app can reach it.

This is the most misunderstood behavior in the entire remote-app category, and it produces a steady stream of one-star reviews for every app on the store. The short version: a phone can only wake a TV whose network hardware stays awake in standby. Everything else about the symptom follows from that one fact.

What does “off” actually mean on a modern TV?

Modern TVs have layers of off. In networked standby, the screen is dark but the network interface keeps listening; the TV can be woken by a command or a wake-on-LAN packet. In deep sleep / eco standby, the radio itself powers down; the TV is unreachable by anything short of the physical button or an IR remote. Same dark screen, completely different reachability. And the eco mode is often the factory default because of energy regulations.

Which setting enables network wake on each brand?

LG (webOS): Settings → Network → “Turn on via Wi-Fi”. Once paired, wake works from the phone; LG sets with both wired and wireless interfaces are best woken by an app that targets both (A Decent Remote does).
Samsung (Tizen): network settings → “Power On with Mobile” / network standby. Samsung sets generally ship with this on. If wake never works, check whether an eco or “low power standby” option overrode it.
Sony / Android TV / Google TV: look for “Remote start” or networked standby in power & energy settings. Android TV has a second quirk: power is a toggle, covered in the Android TV guide.
Vizio (SmartCast): stays network-reachable in standby by design, so phone power-on normally just works. “Eco mode” in the power settings is the thing to switch to “quick start” if it doesn’t.
Roku / Roku TV: “Fast TV start” (Roku TVs) keeps the network up in standby; without it, a Roku TV that’s fully off can’t be woken. Roku sticks and boxes technically never turn off.
Fire TV sticks: never fully off while powered. If wake fails, the stick lost power (a TV’s switched USB port that dies with the TV is the classic cause; use the wall adapter).

What rules apply to every brand?

Wake requires a previous pairing: the app replays saved credentials and network details, so it can’t wake a TV it has never connected to. And after cutting mains power (unplugging, power strips, an outage), most TVs need one physical power-on before network wake resumes.

If the TV won’t even show up in the app while on, that’s a different problem with its own fix list: the network checklist.

Get A Decent Remote on the App Store One iPhone remote for Roku, Samsung, LG, Sony, Fire TV, Apple TV, Vizio, Hisense, Philips, Panasonic, Toshiba, Chromecast and Android/Google TV

When a TV remote app shows an empty device list, the cause is almost always one of seven network conditions. Work down this checklist in order. Two minutes.

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Frequently asked questions

Why can the app control everything except turning the TV on?

Power-on is the one command that must arrive while the TV is "off", so it only works if the TV keeps its network listening in standby. Deep eco-sleep modes power the radio down, and no app can reach a radio that is off.

Which setting do I change?

Every brand names it differently: LG calls it "Turn on via Wi-Fi", Samsung has "Power On with Mobile" under network settings, Sony and Android TV bury it in power/eco options as networked standby or remote start. Enable it once and phone power-on works from then on.

Does the app need to have been paired before the TV went off?

Yes. Waking uses credentials and network details saved during a previous connection. A remote app cannot wake a TV it has never met.

Why does it work for a few minutes after turning the TV off, then stop?

Many TVs keep the network up briefly after power-off, then drop to deep sleep on a timer or when eco mode is aggressive. If wake works immediately but fails an hour later, it's the eco setting, not the app.