Turn Off the User Profiles Screen on Apple TV 4K - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Turn Off the User Profiles Screen on Apple TV 4K

by

Starting with tvOS 26.2, Apple TVs began displaying a user profile selection screen every time you wake the device from sleep. The feature helps households with multiple users maintain separate viewing histories and recommendations, but it can feel like an unnecessary step if you're the sole user.

tvOS 26 Profiles
Fortunately, Apple lets you disable this prompt entirely. Here's how to turn off the user profiles screen and go straight to your Home screen.

Disable the User Profile Selection Screen

  1. Open Settings on your Apple TV.
  2. Select Profiles and Accounts.
  3. Toggle off Choose Profile on Wake.

With this setting disabled, your Apple TV will skip the profile selection screen and take you directly to the Home Screen when you wake it.

What Happens When You Disable Profile Switching

Turning off the profile switcher doesn't delete your user profiles or their associated watch history and recommendations. It simply removes the prompt that appears each time you turn on your TV or Apple TV.

If you share your Apple TV with others and want to switch profiles manually, you can still access profile options by going to Settings ➝ Users and Accounts and selecting a different user profile from there.

To learn more about how user profiles can be genuinely useful, check out our dedicated hands-on article.

Top Rated Comments

Mr Todhunter Avatar
14 weeks ago
I needed that. Thank you.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
14 weeks ago

This is the most redundant article ever. What kind of self loathing, split-personality narcissist would create multiple AppleID/iCloud accounts, then manually add and configure all those accounts on their AppleTV, even though they are the "sole user" of that AppleTV.
Am I a self loathing, split-personality narcissist because my family has four user accounts, but the Apple TV in my office is only used by me?

The one in the living room is used by the whole family, so the account selector is there, but not every room has multiple users.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
14 weeks ago
Of all my Apple devices the Apple TV is by far the least user-friendly. The remote control is still an issue after all these years.

And the user profiles are so annoying because they don’t sync with the third party streaming apps.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
aespana Avatar
14 weeks ago
The first thing I did when the Apple TV auto updated it self was disabling this. My mother asked why there was a new screen of choosing profiles or faces and because that, she couldn't go to YouTube and use the app.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
14 weeks ago
Also a useful tip for families that don’t bother with an ATV profile because all of the apps have their own profile selections (except ATV itself, of course)
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
14 weeks ago

This is the most redundant article ever. What kind of self loathing, split-personality narcissist would create multiple AppleID/iCloud accounts, then manually add and configure all those accounts on their AppleTV, even though they are the "sole user" of that AppleTV.
Somehow I'm not surprised you live alone!
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

imac video apple feature

Apple Released Yet Another New Product Today

Friday March 20, 2026 2:39 pm PDT by
Apple has unveiled a whopping nine new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the all-new MacBook Neo, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, AirPods Max 2, and now the Nike Powerbeats Pro 2. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as...
HomePod mini and Apple TV Sage

New Apple TV and HomePod Mini Remain 'Ready' to Launch

Sunday March 22, 2026 6:33 am PDT by
Apple has unveiled nine new products this month, but the wait continues for the next-generation Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini models. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said new versions of the Apple TV and HomePod mini have been "ready" since last year, but he reiterated that Apple has held off on releasing them until the more personalized version of Siri and other...
iOS 26

iOS 26.4 Adds Two New Features to CarPlay

Tuesday March 24, 2026 1:55 pm PDT by
iOS 26.4 was released today, and it includes a couple of new features for CarPlay: an Ambient Music widget and support for voice-based chatbot apps. To update your iPhone 11 or newer to iOS 26.4, open the Settings app and tap on General → Software Update. CarPlay will automatically offer the new features so long as the iPhone connected to your vehicle is running iOS 26.4 or later....