I recently replaced my aging GoPro Hero 8 with a GoPro Hero 13 black. At the same time I bought the GoPro remote control.
I mainly use the camera on my bikes. MTB, Gravel or Road and more often on the road bike for the safety aspect, when riding on a busy route or in town. On my MTB when the terrain is fun or pretty.
The GoPro camera is fixed on front of the bike stem mount and upside down. Using a nice looking JRC Components stem mount, so pressing the record button on the GoPro is difficult to say the least. Voice control while riding doesn’t always work, it’s also an option that drains the battery plus you look pretty dozy shouting “GoPro start recording, GoPro stop recording …….”
GoPro remote control
I ordered the GoPro’s remote control from Amazon. Choosing to buy a returned one rather than a new one as it was almost twenty euros cheaper.
When it arrived. Everything was in the box still brand new but starting up the remote control it’s display was in German (Obviously a returned German unit). The display contained just four lines of text in Germain and I couldn’t find anyway to switch to English as nothing is explained on the paper that was included with it.
No worries I said to myself. Just do a reset and it’ll switch back to English. Finding how to reset it was quickly found on the web (Press and hold the Power/Mode button on the remote for about 8 to 10 seconds) but nowhere how to change the language. So I did a hard reset. But even after the hard reset it was still in the Germain language.
Strange. Resets on most gadgets normally switch back to standard English. Apparently not on the GoPro remote control. Finally I translated the four lines on the screen and the third line ‘Sprache’ is the Germain word for language, using the side buttons. Clicked on this word and switched it to English. Voilà problem solved.
For info the fourth line is reset if need be.
Now the remote control was running in a language I could understand. I needed to pair it with my Hero 13. Easy. Just choose the first line ‘Pair New‘ and put the camera into pairing mode as asked on the remote’s screen et voilà. BUT…
Yet another GoPro bug on the GoPro remote control !!
Hello GoPro it doesn’t work. Every time the pairing failed. What the fuck?
Google here I come yet again and almost immediately I found
https://community.gopro.com/s/article/HERO13-Black-Pairing-Issue-With-The-Remote?language=fr
Basically it says : delete all paired devices from your Hero including WiFi then re attempt the pairing. This time it worked and then on the camera screen it asks to update the remote’s firmware to the latest version 2.01 (I did this December 2024) this repairing the pairing bug.
And voilà the remote control is finally paired to the camera with the latest firmware that was installed on the remote. You can now re-connect your WiFi settings on the camera
Okay now everything is paired and working it was time to try it out on my road bike.
I fixed the remote to my top tube as see above with the scratch strap that came with it. Perfect
The Hero fixed in front of the bike. Upside down and under my Garmin Edge 530 computer that I use as a back up for my Garmin Epix watch.
Of I rode. I could see the bike settings that I had chosen on the remote control’s screen. These can be changed with the left hand side top button. Obviously these settings were set-up on the Hero previously. I have 1080, 2.5k and 4k bike settings.
For info the bottom left hand side button, switches from camera to photo mode.
When you want to record something you just press the round red button on the remote. It will start blinking and start recording. Press it once again to stop the recording, easy.
After a while the remote goes into it sleep settings as does the Hero. Normally when you press again the round red button, everything wakes up and the recordings start again.
Yet another bug, again…
I say ‘normally’ as here comes yet another bug from GoPro. The camera will not wake up. The remote just keeps on trying to wake it. But it won’t. You have to turn back on the Hero with it’s on/off button. Now this isn’t every time, one ride it did it twice, making me turn back on the camera using it’s on/off button. My next ride two days later. It was perfect. So there’s a random bug that’s stopping it from re starting the Hero sometimes.
Many people have it and can be read about on the GoPro forums. This bug has been around for sometime now, many months. GoPro haven’t yet found out why. Although it’s not a big deal it’s yet another pain in the but from a big company that haven’t got their software right.
Strange button selection
Although not a bug there is a strange way of operating the GoPro’s remote control.
You are in the normal using mode, ready to record …
If you repress the top button by error (wearing thickish gloves, this is easy to do)
It goes into the first boot up mode with the four lines : Pair, Orientation, Language, or Reset.
Re press the top button and it goes back to the ready mode, so that you can start the camera.
How strange. It would be far easier showing
A first line just for the screen Orientation as this can be useful straight away.
A second line maybe asking to go into Settings : Pair, Language, Reset.
This would be Cleaner with less chance of making an error also more logical and tidier.