Harmony Tips and Tricks: Customizing the buttons on your Harmony Remote

After setting up your Harmony remote, did you return to the Logitech Harmony Software to further customize your remote to the way you use it?

I was over at my friend’s house the other day and I observed that he continually kept pressing Devices, choosing TV and then navigating the screen to find the Picture-in-Picture command called PiP to change the setting on his Samsung TV. Many Harmony customers want to use those extra features on their entertainment devices such as Aspect for the TV, recorded programs list button for their DVR, or a sound mode for the AV Receiver. By customizing the buttons on your Harmony remote you can easily access these commands from the Activity rather than going into device mode. This is how you would customize the button on a Logitech Harmony One remote.

  1. Launch the Logitech Harmony Remote software and login to your account.
  2. From the Activities page, click on Customize Buttons for on the Activity you wish to customize.
  3. Determine whether you want to customize a Standard or Additional button.

Mapping a command to a Standard button:

  1. Find a button that doesn’t have a Device or Command assigned and appears blank.
  2. In the Device column, select the device that you want to send the command.
  3. In the Command column use the dropdown list to select the command you want the button to send.
  4. Once finished, click on the Done button at the bottom of the page to save your changes.
  5. Update your remote.

Mapping a command to an Additional button on the LCD:

  1. To modify commands on the LCD screen, click on the Additional Buttons tab at the top of the page.
  2. In a free space in the Label column, type in a name as you would want it to appear on the LCD screen.
  3. In the Device column, select the device that you want to send the command.
  4. In the Command column use the dropdown list to select the command you want the button to send.
  5. Once finished, click on the Done button at the bottom of the page to save your changes.
  6. Update your remote.

If you find yourself constantly in Device mode flipping through the various screens looking for that one command, these simple steps can make your entire remote experience simpler. By customizing the buttons on your Harmony remote to the way you need, it makes using the remote easier to use for everyone in your household. As my friend told me after showing him these tricks, that increasing the wife acceptance factor of any gadget is always a positive thing.

Be sure to check back every week for more Harmony tips and tricks and feel free to send us your comments.

Author

Product Specialist, Remote Control Business Unit

12 comments

  • I got this remote before a week and its very easy to customize the buttons on this Harmony remote in a way you need to do which makes it easy to use for every one in house.

  • Hi,

    I’ve no choice but to write to this channel. I’m having a lot of issues with Logitech customer support and i’m hoping someone can help me with the issue. If you can please help to forward this email to relevant in charge who can help me. I can provide contact number via my email.

    This is my story…

    My harmony 525 remote failed on Friday 16th Apr 2010. I called tech support and after asking me to go through some standard procedures which I’ve already done myself, they finally gave me an incident number 100416-003989. I was asked to head down to challenger superstore where i purchased my remote to get the replacement done.

    Come Sunday 18th Apr 2010, armed with receipt and the remote i went down to challenger. The customer service of challenger checked through their chain of stores and informed me that they do not have a single piece of stock for the 525 model. They were kind enough to loan me a brand new unit of harmony 885 to tide me through while they sort out the warranty/replacement with Logitech. Went home with the 885, charged and programmed the remote and discovered that it did not function properly (unlucky perhaps).

    The following Tue 20th Apr 2010, got a call from challenger and was informed that Logitech told them I’ve to wait 3 to 4 weeks to RMA the remote as Lgitech also does not have stock as well. They suggested i call Logitech again if i need to expediate the replacement.

    Called Logitech on the same day 20th Apr 2010. After some conversation with the tech support officer Marco Pangilian, Macro told me that there is nothing more they can do and will have to escalate to level2 support. When I asked him for an estimated timeline for a reply, he couldn’t give one and just told me to wait. I wasn’t pleased with that answer and asked to speak to a supervisor. Surprisingly, there wasn’t one available even though its their working hours. Marco managed to find a supervisor from peripherals by the name of Lynnet and she assured me that she will escalate this incident to level2 and will get a supervisor from harmony to call me. She asked me when I’ld like to be contacted and I told her 7pm after learning from her the next supervisor is supposed to come in at 7pm and 9pm another.

    Waited till 7:30’ish pm and no one called, frustrated, i called back tech support as tech support will close at 8pm sharp in my timezone. Joyce Kalasu (didn’t quite catch the last name) a technical support officer answered the call and told me there are no supervisors around and the 7pm didn’t come in. She asked me to wait for the 9pm supervisor and if no one calls, someone should call me the next day.

    Waited again and at about 9:15pm, a supervisor – Mia from harmony called and at approximately the same time, i received an email informing me that I’ve to get my remote replaced at a Ban Leong which is a different company from where i purchased my remote. I asked Mia to make arrangement for the replacement to be send to challenger instead because of the following reasons

    1. Challenger where i bought my remote from and Ban Leong whom they arranged for me to get my replacement is very far away from each other, and

    2. I’ve to return the remote which challenger loaned me, and

    3. I shouldn’t be asked to collect the defective unit from challenger and bring it to Ban Leong to get replacement as this should be done by Logitech

    Mia said that’s all she can do and anyway this case is off her hands (in her own words), so i have the option to either do the legwork myself and get my replacement from Ban Leong OR to wait 3 to 4wks for a replacement which Logitech is not even sure to commit. I told her since its off her hands, i need to speak someone who can make the decision and help me out. Mia simply ask me to reply to that email which i received and someone will get in touch with me to help. When i asked her if i’ll get a response immediate via the email channel and is it realtime because I’m done waiting, to this she replied “yes”. Unconvinced, I’ve asked her to get someone else who can make decision to call me instead and she said she will put in a remark. I’ve also asked for a channel i can go to to file a customer complain, to that she said there is none available. To that end i told her off that if Logitech is expecting the customer to sort out the logistics, then it is only fair that Logitech compensate me with an higher end model remote for all the work that should have been done by Logitech themselves, but are not willing to.

    After ending that conversation, I’ve replied to the email as suggested by Mia and also mentioned that if they want me to hand the logistics, then i should be compensated. Waited till 1212am (21st Apr 2010) and unsurprisingly, there was no reply or calls.

    About 1:51am my time, i received an email reply and the customer support told me that if i want an upgraded remote, then i have to call HK to sort things out. There was NO mention that Logitech is going to sort out the logistics issue in that email.

    21st Apr 2010, 9’ish am, i called tech support again….this time i asked them who or which department i should ask for if i do call HK. No one knows.

    Frustrated, at 11’ish am to 12’ish pm i attempted to call HK out of my own expense. After listening to some cantonese and some button pressing, finally got through to someone from sales & customer support i think…Mareen (spell correctly?) was the person whom i spoke to and after some struggling with language problems…she managed to tell me to drop an email to rma@star-ww.com as Tony Tong the manager in charge is out for lunch. She also mentioned that she will inform Tony and i’ll get my reply once he is back. I dropped an email to that account and…..

    It’s 4:37pm now and i’ve not gotten any reply either through emails or calls. I’ve tried calling HK just a while ago and was put on hold for more than 5mins! Who is going to pay for the overseas charges? and further more from Mareen’s response, Tony doesn’t seem interested to resolve my issue.

    Now, I’m seriously very unhappy with Logitech service and the way the support personnel handles this incident. I want Logitech to compensate me for all the trouble and overseas calls which i shouldn’t be made to do in the first place.

    PS: it’s 5:17pm and i’ve just called HK again and after putting me on long hold many times, Mareen told me she will get her manager Tony to drop me an email. Anyway i just realised the HK number i was given routes to Guang Zhou. I spent a total of more than 22mins with her trying to figure what each other is saying.

    I’m at a lost to what i can do or who i can speak to to get things done. I hope you can help forward this to the relevant person in charge and help sort out my problem.

    Thank you and god bless.

    Alvin

  • I wish to express gratitude of company Logitech. For a long time I use your production. Faultless quality, excellent design, good service! Guys, you super! Good luck! THANKS from Russia! 🙂

    Excuse for my English…

  • As Customise Buttons is one of the three initial options on the Activities tab it should be obvious that this is one of the most important and valuable options that are available to any Harmony owner. It is surprising to find that many users do not use it – maybe don’t even see it! – and restrict themselves to using their Harmonys as if they were the old-fashioned remotes on which you have continuously to keep switching from one device to another.

  • When I got this Harmony remote,I also did not know its tricks.Well I am already using some of these tricks but some are new for me so I will definitely apply those.I like that you have given some useful tips for Harmony remote.This will be helpful for me.

  • Well this is Easy to use. Its have some great feature like it is very fast to program and one button activities are amazing. I like the button layout and battery backup will last longer.

  • I see the icon/button pictures above – I was hoping to use red, green, blue, yellow for my DVD player but all I see is text – how did you get those icons to show?

    • Hi Brian,

      Unfortunately, there isn’t a way to get the icons to appear in a DVD activity. The icons only appear within certain activity types, and for devices that support those specific icons.

      Regards,
      Dane

  • Hi,
    I have had this remote for over 7 months now and dont know how i survied without it. I would like to share a link with everyone. It is the link i used to customise my favorite sky channels. Having the tv logo’s image as the button makes the useability of the remote fool proof and also means i dont have to remember each individual sky number to access my channels. This page has every icon you could imagine from around the world.

    http://www.lyngsat-logo.com/tvsat/tvsat.html

    Many thanks Logitech for creating such a great product.

    • Hi Chris,

      Thanks for the great tip. It’s really nice to hear that you are getting the most out of your Logitech Harmony remote, and enjoy personalizing it to your needs.

      That is a great link you provided. Even though the following isn’t affiliated with Logitech, it is created and run by another avid Harmony user who hosts and will even create icons on request. You can see the page at the following link;

      http://www.iconharmony.com/icons/

      Enjoy,
      Dane

  • Well thats pleasant customisation i check the major details of it and find it functionalitic.I think that there some modifications still required to get more compatible with other kinds of system.

Comments are closed.