Tuesday, September 10, 2013

How to hide apps on Apple TV


Regardless of what you call the icons on your Apple TV -- apps or channels -- you're likely starting to feel a bit overwhelmed with the extra icons for channels you don't use on your Apple TV home screen. With the most recent addition of four new channels just this morning, I know my home screen is anything but organized.

At first glance it would appear, beyond the ability to rearrange the icons, there's no other method to organize your Apple TV screen. Thankfully, that is wrong. There's actually a quick and easy solution to fix this problem.

Originally covered by Mac OS X Hints back in June, hiding channel icons is possible after digging through a few settings menus.


To get started, on your Apple TV select the Settings icon, then General, followed by Parental Controls.


  • There's no need to enable Parental Controls if you currently have it disabled. Instead, scroll down below the grayed-out area until you're scrolling through the list of channel names. Next to each name will currently be "show." Clicking on the name will change show to "hide," which in turn removes the app icon from your home screen.
With minimal effort you've just eliminated any unused channels from your view, and tidied up your home screen in just a few clicks. Of course revealing the same icons requires you to visit the same menu and select the channel again.

Thank you, Apple, for including this feature, but shouldn't it be easier to find?

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