Turn Off MacBook Pro IR Sensor

There are a lot of times I find myself in the living room working on my laptop while either listening to music or watching Netflix on my AppleTV.  But one of the most annoying things I discovered is when I used my Apple Remote to control the AppleTV my laptop would start going crazy. If I wanted to change songs or videos without starting iTunes or changing the volume on the laptop I would have to cover the Infrared (IR) sensor.  I have found myself actually putting a cover over the IR sensor before to make sure my remote doesn’t interfere with the laptop.

I went searching through my Mac OS X Lion (10.7) settings to find discover how to turn the IR port off and it wasn’t that hard once you know where to look.

-> Open up the System Preference Folder -> and select Security and Privacy.

**To make any changes in this box you might need to click the padlock in the bottom left corner and enter your admin password to enable changes to be made.

Once you have enabled changes to be made, simply but a check in the “Disable remote control infrared receiver” box and you will be good to go.