This was fully expected, but much like the 1st generation Fire TV, I’ve confirmed that the new Fire TV running the latest Fire OS at version 5.0.2.1 only supports FAT32 drives. I tested NTFS and exFAT for both USB drives and microSD drives and neither one was mounted by the operating system. When inserting a non-FAT32 microSD card, the above message is displayed prompting you to format the card. Connecting a USB drive of any format, be it FAT32 or other, will not display any indication that the card was connected. It’s as if USB drive support is a hidden feature. When you connect a FAT32 USB drive, the drive will be mounted and accessible at
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I kind of expected that. Too bad. I have a huge monster collection of movies on NTFS. The 128gb limit would have been way too small anyways for my portable hard drives. I will stick with my WD TV Live which is easily the best option for me.
I meant the 128GB microSD card limit would have been way too small to transfer anything from my portable hard drives. The microSD card slot is pretty much useless for me.
I love my WDTV Live SMP also, but due to all of the other awesome things that KODI on the AFTV does, I opted to go the route of using a 8TB NAS to hold all my stuff. Works great, but a bit of an initial investment. Also, obviously not as portable or as friend-friendly one of my friends sees my setup and wants to duplicate it. Alas…I still use both.
Forgot to add….this sucks. Was hoping Amazon might be a little more consumer-friendly in this regard. Something that can be changed with a FW update in the future??
this is a duplicate post. i posted in the general and then saw this.
non techy here but on my roku i have usb port. i can put in a flash drive with personal videos/pics/music and click on the roku usb channel and view my stuff even without wifi connection.
is that possible with the new fire. i do not see a usb app in store.
how would i get to that /storage/usbotg. do i just type it in or can fire tv 2 do what i want to do.
thank you
Hi. Install KODI to access all of your Movie files. Not sure how it handles music and pics, as I’ve never done it. Plex will handle everything
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004Y1WCDE/?tag=aftvn-20
I hope that sooner or later, some developers will come with a solution to use NTFS and exFAT on the FireTV, like the “Paragon exFAT NTFS & HFS+” APP, from Paragon Technologie GmbH, that unfortunately needs Root, and is available from the Google Play Store :
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d…aragon.mounter
Or perhaps the new “USB plugin” for Total Commander, also from Paragon Technologie GmbH… That you can access FAT32 and HFS+ storage devices in the READ ONLY mode right from your Android device. NO ROOT access needed:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d…lugins_ntfs_ro
I really hope that this happens soon, because we really need urgent to use large files of over 4GB !!
Does this mean, when you load KODI, you are not going to be able to access external hard-drive with NTFS or exFAT?
In 1st gen FireTV (rooted and KODI installed), I can access external hard-drive that has files larger than 4GB and is 2TB (so NTFS).
NTFS support is half the problem
I am guessing it can’t see external disks partitioned with GPT (>2TB)
I installed a Sandisk 128 gb microSSD that advertises AFTV compatibility. I still got the format message and did the reformat, even though it was probably already FAT32 (didn’t check first though). I did notice that some of the games I installed went directly to the microSSD. When I went to manage apps I thought it was a nice touch that they had a microSSD icon to indicate which apps were in that storage.
Newbie here. What is the difference between 1st and 2nd generation? i.e. How do I know which one I have?
do u have micro sd on on your fire tv if no 1st generation if yes 2nd generation fire tv
I have a 64 GB SanDisk and FireTV 2nd Gen. (1 week ago)keeps asking to reformat in an endless loop. The card is never formatted nor loaded. What’s going on? I’d the unit defective? I used this card on an Android phone before. It works, I tested it on my Win 10 PC.
You have to format your San Disk in a computer to FAT32 and it has to be micro SD.
I have several Amazon Fire10s and love them. Many times I go to places where I don’t have Wi-Fi, and I do a lot of writing. I download movies, but hate it when I go to a place where I don’t have Wi-Fi and I get a message telling me my license for this or that app needs to be updated and it won’t execute. Bummer. So I’ve collected my APK files and put them on my tablet. That way, if I find my app won’t work I just uninstall it and reinstall it. Problem solved.
But another problem isn’t so easy. My 7th generation Fire 10 is wonderful. It takes 256 gb exFAT microSD cards and lets me use my exFAT memory sticks with no problem. But someone at Amazon came up with a really nifty scheme to screw over its customers. The problem was simple. Some of us were buying Blu-Ray movies and were converting them to mp4 video files. They tended to be 6-9 gbyte files and fit nicely on the microSD cards, which were updated to a maximum 512gbs. Customers were putting their mp4 files on their internal microSD cards and watching them instead of buying the content from Amazon.
What to do?
So Amazon hit upon a dastardly scheme to keep this from happening. It decided to use an archaic file allocation table (FAT32) that became obsolete in the late 1990s. Instead of using exFAT, the industry standard in formatting microSD, SD, and memory sticks, it decided to use FAT32. Why was that so dastardly? Because it has a maximum file size of 4gb! That way, if you have legal mp4 movie files (6-9gbs), you can’t use them on your 9th generation Fire 10s! And if you try, your Fire 10 will try to reformat them. So even if you keep all your APK files, videos and such on your exFAT memory sticks, like me, you can’t use them on your Fire 10s, because exFAT (again, the industry standard) is no longer supported!
Amazon figures it this way. When you buy its Fire 10s on sale, it’s pretty much giving them to you at cost (or below). They make it easy for you to buy stuff while you’re online. Why should they then enable you to use your own content when you could buy it from them? Makes sense, right?
On the other hand, you probably ordered your Blu-Ray from Amazon to begin with, but if they can double charge you, hey, why not? The other Amazon devices support exFAT (which has no viable file size restrictions), but then, they don’t have the same high definition video, and that’s where the rubber hits the road. My own personal view is that Amazon’s shrewd decision is based on greed. I have only about eight Blu-Ray movies I really care about and I’m not going to buy those titles again just because of a formatting policy.
Another issue is the quality of Amazon’s content. I tried to watch two movies, The Outlaw Josey Wales and 2012. Both were so dark there was no shadow detail, and with black actors, all one could see was their eyes and teeth, and even they were dark! Both needed gamma and color saturation boosts! The movies are unwatchable.
What think you? Should Amazon reverse its policy and settle on exFAT? I’m outraged by its decision and hope you join me in calling for a reversal and to do the right thing. I’m a good customer and hope they’re able to do it with a system update. And I hope you can take a few minutes and send Amazon a few lines urging it to accept exFAT as the standard in its devices. Please help change this ridiculous policy.