Can you disable low battery warning for Ignite remote?

[james039]

The frequent nags to change the batteries are getting on my nerves. Is there a way to disable these pesky reminders? If I changed the batteries as soon as these nags began I would have wasted a lot of perfectly good battery life. I will change the batteries once the remote stops working.

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[-G-]

@james039 Not all users get those nag emails so there there must be some way to turn them off.  However, there is no way (that I know of) for customers to do this on their own.  I doubt that Level-1 tech support agents would know how (or have the ability) to do this either.  You might have better luck sending a private message to @CommunityHelps .  They may have some internal contacts that would be able to do it for you.

[57]

@james039 : Are these nags on-screen or via e-mail?  I also get a nag once the batteries are down to around 25%, but I also use the remote/batteries for a while after the nag.  I do find that the voice commands will stop working long before the remote stops sending signals in the normal fashion. So, if you use Voice Commands, you may need to change the batteries earlier than if you simply continue to press buttons.

[james039]

On screen as a pop up whenever turning the tv on. I’ve been getting this for about a month now and I’m down to “2%” if I believe the tv box. However, voice commands and everything is working just fine. It would have been a much better experience in my opinion if it wasn’t constantly harassing me to change the batteries when I didn’t need to.

[57]

I don't get a warning whenever I turn on my TV/box.  I got one a few days ago, but not since.  I just checked again this morning and I didn't get a warning when I turned on my TV/box. I'm down to 26%.  Perhaps it comes up more at certain increments?

I can't recall if I got more messages the first time I needed to change batteries, but I changed them pretty quickly that time because my Voice Commands stopped working shortly after the warning came up.  Like you, I don't like to change batteries before I need to and "low power" warnings are not very accurate depending on the type of battery, etc.

Perhaps it has something to do with a setting in the box like powersave, etc?  I went through all the settings yesterday to see if I could find something obvious for you, but didn't see anything...

Do you have the box connected to a power bar that turns off power to the box completely?

Do you have HDMI-CEC turned on?  Just grasping at straws...

[mebe]

I don't have Ignite Tv, so since I have zero personal experiences on this subject, I simply "cheated" and stole personal experiences from both the Rogers and Comcast forums.
I believe that Zia from the Rogers thread about low-battery email warnings (that G was obviously referring to), mentioned that the nagging emails tend to begin once the battery life reaches 5% or lower. At that point, certain functions like voice commands stop working, or only work intermittently. However, since @57 mentioned that he has voice command issues around the sub 30% range, I have to assume that either James (the OP) has a circuitry problem with his remote that needs to be replaced (highly unlikely), or simply needs to do a more thorough system boot via the ignite app (which @57 often does to make sure the problem isn't likely to be on his end).
However, the first thing I would do (because I cheated and read some of the Comcast threads) is look for another paired remote that has batteries in it (perhaps in a drawer, hidden from view). It's most likely that remote that has 2% battery life, and once it reaches 1%, it will nag you to take out the garbage, followed an hour later with an emailed divorce request.
If you don't have another paired remote, you could try a faster unplugging of the modem and tv box, or simply try pairing your current remote again.
If all of that fails to solve the problem, you might be the victim of the rumoured 28% Comcast firmware bug. If you are lucky enough to avoid having your remote battery-life warning stuck at 28% like some Comcast user mentioned, it's probably because you either changed your batteries closer to the time you got your first warning at around 30%.
@57is under the 28% mark, but perhaps he didn't stay at 28% long enough, or his box was booted enough times to avoid the bug (if there truly is an actual firmware bug in the machine). James is down to a 2% onscreen warning, so it's probably just a pairing or box reboot issue. 🐜🐛

[57]

I have not done a Restart from the Ignite WiFi app in a while. Certainly not since I got the latest battery warning.  I also haven't rebooted the box that this remote is controlling.

My wife doesn't use the remote associated with her TV nearly as much because she watches it for only about an hour a day, while we both watch our Home Theatre TV for about 4 hours per day now that summer is over.  Her remote battery is still at 70% despite being in use since late March.

[57]

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@james039 wrote:On screen as a pop up whenever turning the tv on. 

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OK, I just got this reminder on my screen - see screenshot below.  It came on about a minute after I turned on the TV/box and it goes away on its own after a few seconds.  It's pretty unobtrusive.  I may not have noticed it before because I usually turn on the TV and only start watching in earnest after a couple of minutes.

Batt Rem

[james039]

I think what I mind about this is how it starts asking you to replace the remote batteries when there is still nearly a third of their useful life remaining. For me, the best warning to change my batteries is that my remote stops working. I tried disabling all the notifications on the box, but this still comes up. Also, anywhere below 10% the warnings are far more heavy handed sounding “Your remote’s batteries are critically low. Replace them to continue using your remote”. Anyway the meter has been at 2% for over a week now so it’s clearly wrong. It’s probably doing a voltage curve thing to detect the remaining life, but good alkaline batteries will deliver useful life at a slightly lower voltage for quite a long time before fading completely. 

[57]

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@james039 wrote:

For me, the best warning to change my batteries is that my remote stops working. 

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I definitely agree with you on that. I have temperature sensors in my fridge and freezer.  The low battery indicators for these came on on the display unit a year ago but the sensors are functioning just fine a year later.

I also agree that it should be possible to turn off these "nags" (although some people like them).

People talk about changing batteries in smoke detectors on your birthday, or when there is a time change. That would be very wasteful as my smoke detector batteries last 4-5 years.  I have 4 smoke detectors in my house, two wired, two battery. 

I have a spreadsheet that tracks battery life for all the devices in our home that use batteries. I also track the battery manufacturer so that I can compare life vs battery cost.  MarketPlace had a segment on batteries and their results were similar to mine. Although Eveready or Duracell may last a bit longer, Panasonic or PC alkalines that I purchase from Dollarama or NoFrills last almost as long but cost half as much.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/marketplace-cheat-sheet-1.6405510

I use AA, AAA, C, 9V alkalines in everything, unless the item requires Lithium which is usually a special size like CR123.  Sometimes you may be able to get a really good price on sale, but don't buy so many that they get "old".

[57]

A few days ago, while the nag was onscreen, I pressed the Info button, which told me I still had 26%.  Since then I have not seen the nag and I've been looking for it, unless the first button I pressed just after starting the TV/box was Info, in which case the information on the programme was displayed, along with the "nag" at the top of the screen.

Perhaps when you press Info while the nag is onscreen, it acknowledges the nag and leaves you alone for a while?  Before that, the nag only seemed to appear after the box/TV had been off long enough to go into standby, so once a day for me.

[mebe]

On the image of the battery-replacement nag screen that @57 posted earlier, it does mention (top right-hand corner of nag screen) to press the Info button, so perhaps if you disobey a direct request by the remote, it punishes you with more frequent nagging. 🔔📢
By the way, if your remote is stuck on a certain percentage, or you know the % is wrong (since you just switched to fresh batteries), what happens if you try the Comcast/Xfinity Reset remote procedure (same as Ignite), listed below:
"How do I reset my Xfinity remote after changing the battery?
Press and hold the A (triangle) and D (diamond) buttons at the same time for three seconds until the status light changes from red to green. Press 9-8-1. The LED will blink blue three times to indicate that the remote was reset."

"Here's how you can reset your Ignite TV remote: 
Press and hold the Setup button (or press and hold the A and D buttons, if you have No Setup button on your Remote) until the LED light changes from red to green.
Enter 981.
The LED will flash at the top to confirm the remote has been reset."

[57]

If you do a reset of the remote, you will likely need to re-pair the remote with the box and also programme in the TV and audio device if applicable.

[57]

My battery level was 26% 3 weeks ago, then it went directly to 14% about 10 days ago, then it went directly to 4% a few days back.  I was using the voice commands all this time, but today I got the message on screen that voice commands would not work due to critical battery level. The button commands all worked fine.

The on-screen battery warnings came up occasionally, depending on what I did after turning on the TV/box - like changing channels or bringing up the guide or pressing Info, and how soon after startup I did these button presses.  I didn't find them annoying though.

[james039]

After over 2 weeks at 1% the voice feature finally stopped working so I popped in some new batteries and now I am starting over at 100%

[mebe]

That's good, but what happens if you use a fresh battery with one of the 1% batteries? Does voice command then work?
And do you still feel like your remote is harassing you when you get the nags, or have you simply accepted the nagging and pressed the Info button to get rid of them, each time you see a nag appear?
I'm also worried about the state of mind of your now 1% batteries. They are not yet dead, yet you discarded them as if these 1%ers are valueless. At least try to find something for them to do in their final days of health. Assault on batteries is not a victimless crime!
Thanks for the update, but please remember what your batteries have sacrificed, simply because you love the sound of your own voice. 💯%🔋=👅🎤