What Happened to simple 4 way navigation?

By Zivan Krisher, 24 September, 2021

Forum
tvOS and Apple TV Apps

Hello,

I'm having trouble navigating my Apple TV. This began on IOS 14.7 and continues on IOS 15.
he only option on my rotor that is not a setting, is vertical navigation.

I can't simply go up, down, left, right, to move between elements on the screen.
I went to the rotor in settings and there are no extra functions that are not included and have to do with navigation mode.

Is anyone else experiencing this?
Am I missing a setting?

Should I try to reset my Apple TV 4k?

Thanks,

Options

Comments

By Survivor Wolf on Friday, October 1, 2021 - 21:55

Starting in TV OS 14, there are two navigation modes, one of which comes in two slightly different flavors.

Explore Mode

In this mode, the rotor acts traditionally, and contains elements such as characters, headings and so on. Swiping left or right will move to next focusable item, just like on iOS while up and down control the selected rotor setting.

Navigation Mode

This mode acts in the way you described, where up, down, left and right movements send focus to the next focusable item on screen in that direction. This mode has two styles, follow focus and direct touch, which can be toggled in Voice Over settings. With follow focus, movement always goes one element at a time. With direct touch, behavior more closely follows behavior when Voice Over is off. In this case things like speed of swipe are interpretted, so it is possible to skip over multiple items at a time.

Switch Modes

You can switch between explore and navigation mode by tapping the touch surface with two fingers. There may be some slight differences if you are using the new, expensive remote, but the principles should be the same

Hope this helps out!

Thanks, it worked.

It's was a 2 finger triple tap to switch modes.

I forgot that this was even an option and was confused by Explore Mode.

Regards,

Zivan