How to Turn On Art Mode on a Samsung Frame TV

The short answer surprises most new owners: you turn Art Mode on by turning the TV off. There is no menu item called "Art Mode" waiting to be found. Press the power button once, and instead of going dark the Frame switches to displaying artwork.

That single design decision is behind almost every "how do I turn on Art Mode" search, because it is the opposite of what a lifetime of televisions has taught you to expect.

The one-press method

1. Have the TV on and showing normal content.
2. Tap the power button on the remote — a single short press.
3. The picture fades and the Frame moves into Art Mode, showing whichever artwork was last selected.
4. Tap it again to return to what you were watching.

To switch the television genuinely off — screen dark, drawing almost nothing — press and hold the power button instead.

Short press for art. Long press for off. Once that distinction lands, the whole product makes sense.

Three other ways in

The remote is not the only route, which matters when it has gone into the sofa.

• The button on the set. Most model years have a small control button on the underside or rear of the panel. A single press does the same thing as the remote.
• The SmartThings app. Select your Frame in the app and you can put it into Art Mode from your phone, along with changing the artwork.
• Automatically. Art Mode has its own auto setting that brings artwork up when the TV has been idle, and the motion sensor can wake the screen when you come into the room. Both are optional and both live in the Art Mode settings.

Why it looks like the TV is broken when it isn't

A Frame in Art Mode in a dim room can look like a television showing a still image for no reason, or like one that has failed to switch off. It is neither.

Art Mode is a deliberately low-power state. The panel dims to match the room, the motion sensor blanks it when nobody is nearby, and it wakes again when you walk back in. In a dark room the dimming can go far enough that the screen reads as off.

If your Frame seems to blank while you are sitting still, that is the motion sensor rather than a defect — it is looking for movement, not occupancy. Our guide on keeping Art Mode on covers the three separate settings that cause this and how to change each one.

When the power button does nothing

Work through these in order.

1. Check you tapped rather than held. The most common cause by a distance. A long press is "off"; the TV is behaving correctly.
2. Check Art Mode is enabled at all. On some model years it can be switched off entirely, and then the power button behaves like a normal television's. This is worth confirming before assuming hardware trouble.
3. Check the One Connect cable. If the box is hidden or the television was recently moved, a partly seated or pinched cable produces odd behaviour rather than a clean failure. See where to put the One Connect box.
4. Try the button on the panel. If that works and the remote does not, the problem is the remote or its pairing, not Art Mode.

Menu wording moves around between model years and software versions, so the exact path to the Art Mode setting differs depending on when your Frame was made. It sits with the Art Mode or general power options; the name is stable enough to find even when the route to it is not.

If Art Mode is enabled and still not appearing, our guide to Art Mode not working goes through the remaining causes in order.

Choosing what Art Mode shows

Once you are in Art Mode, the on-screen menu lets you pick the current artwork, change the mat, and adjust the frame style. Your sources are:

• Samsung Art Store — a paid subscription library, curated and licensed, refreshed regularly.
• Your own images — anything you upload, free, no subscription. Photographs, prints, or public-domain masterpieces.
• The bundled artwork — a small starter set that ships with the TV.

The third option runs out fast. The first is a recurring bill. The second is where most owners end up, and it is the reason this site exists: the world's greatest paintings are in the public domain, so the images themselves cost nothing. What they need is preparing properly for a 4K 16:9 screen.

Getting your own art in

The usual route is the SmartThings app: select your Frame, open its Art Mode collection, and upload. The image joins your personal gallery and can be set as the active artwork from there.

Two things trip people up.

Resolution. Art Mode displays at 3840 × 2160, and anything much smaller looks soft on a panel that size.

Shape. Most paintings are not 16:9 — we measured all hundred works in our own collection and only five are wider than the screen, while forty-four are square or taller. An uncropped upload gets letterboxed or awkwardly filled, which is why the mat settings matter so much.

Our free Frame TV image resizer handles the shape problem in your browser, with nothing uploaded anywhere. For resolution, every Everframe Gallery download ships a true 4K master alongside a 16:9 crop made for exactly this screen.

What to put on it first

A Frame showing a stock abstract looks like a screensaver. A Frame showing van Gogh's Wheat Field with Cypresses, matted in warm off-white, looks like something you bought.

Start with a painting that has a wide, calm horizon — landscapes suit the shape of the screen without cropping away anything that matters. Browse the full collection of 100 remastered masterpieces, or read how to display fine art on a Frame TV for the mat and bezel settings that finish the illusion.

Last reviewed 15 September 2026.