Last Saturday, I got together with a couple of friends of mine to watch a basketball game at my home.
We tuned in to the game and got some popcorn ready.
Everything seemed fine and the game was going great.
After about half an hour, I got a call, so I tried to lower the volume, but my Samsung TV was not responding.
At first, I thought there was something wrong with the remote, but all the other buttons were working fine.
Surprisingly, I couldn’t change the volume using the buttons on the TV. That is when I realized that this was a software glitch.
Although it took lots of research, I finally found the answer within a couple of hours, and it worked like a charm.
If your Samsung TV volume is not working, you should reset the Smart Hub. To do so, go to the ‘Settings’ menu, scroll down to the ‘Support’ tab, click on ‘Self-Diagnosis’, and choose ‘Reset Smart Hub’.
Reset the Smart Hub
The Smart Hub is Samsung’s version of an app store and manager for their Smart TVs.
Resetting the Hub is like pressing one big red button that deletes the cached data of all the apps that you have downloaded.
For context, the origin of the software glitches like the inactive volume control is, more often than not, somewhere in the cached data of the TV.
You can reset your TV’s Smart Hub via these steps:
- Click the Settings button on your remote. (or the Menu button if you don’t have a settings button).
- Go to the Support tab.
- Click on Self-Diagnosis.
- You will see the option to Reset the Smart Hub.
- You may be asked to enter a PIN. If you have set a PIN, simply enter that, and you will be good to go. If you have not set a PIN already, it will be ‘0000’.
Delete Unused Apps
Samsung TV apps are all extremely memory hungry and can take up a lot of resources as automatic updates are enabled by default on Samsung TVs.
This makes it very important for you to scout out any apps that you may not have used in a long time and delete them.
This is because even if you are not using the app, the app is using your TV’s resources.
If your TV’s resources are being used to their limit, it will not be able to carry out even the most basic tasks like changing the volume.
To remove apps:
- Go to the ‘Apps’ menu, located at the bottom-left of the home screen.
- Go to ‘Settings’ by clicking on the gear icon on the top right-hand corner of the screen.
- Delete all apps that you have not used in a long time by clicking on them.
Do not worry about any apps that you can’t delete, like Netflix and Hulu, as they are quite few and are usually well-optimized and not part of the problem.
Power Cycle Your Samsung TV
Power cycling can help eliminate a lot of software glitches and fix the volume on your Samsung TV.
To power cycle your Samsung TV:
- Switch off the TV.
- Unplug it from its outlet.
- Wait for about 60 seconds. This helps drain any residual electricity bouncing around in your TV.
- Plug the TV back in and switch it on.
Factory Reset Your Samsung TV
Factory Resetting your Samsung TV will return it to the state that it was in when you bought it.
It is the ultimate solution to the issue of not being able to change the volume of the TV.
Factory resetting your TV will delete all downloaded apps, and you will have to re-login into user accounts, so it’s more convenient to try out the rest of the solutions that I have mentioned in this article first.
If your TV was released in 2019 or later:
- Press the Home button on your remote.
- Go to Settings.
- Click on the General tab.
- Click on Reset.
The TV will restart a couple of times and then display the start-up screen.
If your TV was released between 2016 and 2018:
- Press the Home button on your remote.
- Go to Settings.
- Click on the Support tab.
- Select Self-Diagnosis.
- Click on Reset.
Your TV will restart once and display the setup screen.
If your TV was released in 2015 or before:
- Press the MENU/123
- Select MENU
- Select Support
- Select Self-Diagnosis
- Click on Reset.
Your TV will restart, then display the setup screen.
You can also reset the TV without using the remote by following these steps:
- Press the power button of your TV, which may be on the left, right or bottom of the TV.
- Click on Settings
- Click on General
- Click on Reset
You can also connect to your TV using a USB keyboard or the Samsung SmartThings app on your smartphone, allowing you to navigate the Menu and reset the TV.
Gain Control of Your TV’s Volume
Samsung TVs have amazing picture quality and pretty good sound. They are quite reliable entertainment systems, but being unable to control the volume can entirely ruin this experience.
Resetting the Smart Hub fixed the problem for me instantly and required almost no effort.
You can try power cycling the device if that does not work for you.
A factory reset should be your final solution.
If none of the given solutions work for you, you should contact Samsung Support.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I soft reset my Samsung TV?
You can soft reset your Samsung TV by unplugging it from its power source for about 60 seconds and then plugging it back in.
Can my Samsung TV’s audio issue be related to the speakers?
The volume not increasing or decreasing is a software issue. If there is an issue with your Samsung TV’s speakers, you will still not lose the ability to increase or decrease the volume.
How can I factory reset my Samsung TV?
You can reset your Samsung TV by entering the Settings menu, clicking the Self-Diagnosis tab, and then selecting the option to Reset the TV.
