A new update rolling out to Fire TV devices has restored the ability to move apps on the Fire TV home screen and on the app grid screen. An update last month replaced the move functionality with a new pinning feature. This latest update appears to roll things back because the option to pin is gone and has been replaced with the previous “Move” and “Move to front” options.
App moving is being restored using the new system component update feature that was recently added to devices. This means that the device’s Fire OS version number will not change with this update. It only updates parts of the operating system.
These system component updates are rolling out slowly to select devices and will likely eventually roll out to all Fire TV models. You can go to the Settings > My Fire TV > About menu and scroll down to the bottom to see if the system component update is waiting to be installed. There is no way to force the update, so if there is no system component update waiting and you don’t yet have the move capability restored, then you just have to wait for your device’s turn for the update to arrive.
When the ability to pin apps last month was introduced, it was clear that customers preferred the old moving capability. Amazon immediately confirmed to me that the ability to move apps would be restored in a future update. It obviously would have been better to not have lost the ability to move apps at all, but a one-month turnaround from realizing their mistake to rolling out a fix was, at least, nice and quick.
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AFTVnews
Nice!
It sure would be nice if they sent out a survey to owners BEFORE they decide to drastically change something.
Right On!
lol hope Amazon is reading this
One of those things where the devel team has to come up with something to show they’re still relevant no matter how stupid it is.
For those of us who have rooted and blocked updates via adb, does this also block the system component update feature listed here?
I am not sure about those that blocked updates only thru an ADB command as those supposedly stopped working on latest FW a while back. So I’ve been using Method 5 Update block thru TWRP the last year. And I’ve been also Router (Tomato) & VPN-DNS based address blocking. OpenDNS should still be an option for those that don’t have access to VPN-DNS service.
I am running the latest SuperSU-less (deleted it from the install zip) PreModded ROM for the FireTV 1.
I did have to disable both the Router & VPN-DNS blocking for this system component update to smoothly install. Since at fist it would hang on download depending what address the update was being pulled from.
Once the update took hold. I reactivated the Router & VPN-DNS address blocking to makes sure I still have complete control what gets install/updated from Amazon. While always being protected of a overall FW update thru Method 5. What can I say. It’s good to be Routed.
Excellent reply, thank you!
I was unaware that the adb blocking function had stopped working; I only say that as I have ensured updates are still blocked using the internal update function within my fire tv and still get the “error…contact your administrator” message. Strange. I will have to investigate this more.
Sound like no matter if you domain block or use any other form of update blocking, you need to lower your protections momentarily to get these system specific updates pushed to your device. Ah well, perhaps if a truly ground breaking feature pops up I will give it a shot.
Thanks again!
it looks like the component app is called “amazon settings”.
Amazon, stop changing the UI. Just keep it consistent. I’m so close to throwing my devices out and getting an Apple TV.
That’s exactly what we did a month ago. Our only regret was not doing it sooner.
This is so unfortunate. I really liked the pinning feature. Not a fan of moving the apps around.
Fix apps so they stay in place when deregistering.
Wished the remote had a guide button would Mae things easier
When are they going to bring back the ability to shrink the screen size to fit it to your tv like you could do with the old generation one fire sticks? Still waiting on that one and I have no clue why they got rid of that.
Is Freedive working!? Tried on various Fire TV devices and in all I get a black screen, works fine if accessed through Prime Video.
Ah, great!
how to download downloader without a dang credit card?
Wish they would bring back the ability to use the amazon fire TV game controller.