It appears that several people are reporting that the rooting app Kingo Root is able to root some Fire TV Sticks running software version 5.0.5.1 and 5.2.1.0. When software version 5.0.5.1 was released, it blocked the previous rooting method provided by the KingRoot app, leaving no way to root devices that uppdated beyond software version 5.0.5. (Note that “Kingo Root” and “KingRoot” are two different apps.) Now it seems there’s hope for those who updated their Fire TV Sticks but still want to root.
The Kingo Root app doesn’t seem to be working for everyone. Several people, including myself, can’t get the app to root the Fire TV Stick, but several others have said it works. There is likely an additional factor that is preventing some devices from being rooted and allowing others. Nobody has yet to report that it worked on the Fire TV 1 or Fire TV 2, so it looks like this rooting method only works for the Fire TV Stick.
Even those who have managed to root successfully have reported mixed results. For some, the app works immediately and roots the device during the first attempt. For others, the app freezes at 90% during the first rooting attempt but then succeeds to root during the second attempt. Others have reported that the Fire TV Stick needs to be rebooted by holding the PLAY and SELECT button while the Kingo Root app is stuck at 90%. Running the rooting process again after rebooting has worked for some.
Even though it’s very hit or miss whether the app roots any given Fire TV Stick, it has worked for enough people that it’s worth trying out yourself if you want to root a Fire TV Stick running software version 5.0.5.1 or higher. At the very least you should block software updates until more is learned about Kingo Root and why it’s working on some devices but not others. You can download the exact version of Kingo Root that has worked for some from this link here. Just know that the trustworthiness of this app is unknown. I would recommend waiting until TWRP and a pre-rooted ROM is released for the Fire TV Stick before using Kingo Root to root your device. With TWRP and a ROM, you will be able to root with Kingo Root and then confidently wipe out anything that it may leave behind on your device.
If you do try Kingo Root, please comment below and leave as much detail about your device and the process you went through (e.g., it worked on the first try, it worked after rebooting, etc…) as possible, so that we can try to determine why it isn’t working for some people.
Update
Based on people’s experience with Kingo Root, it appears to work consistently on version 5.2.1.0, so if it’s failing on 5.0.5.1, then allow the OTA update to install (assuming it’s available for your device already) and try Kingo Root again with 5.2.1.0
@AFTVnews
AFTVnews
Device: Fire TV Stick, non-voice, purchased at launch, running 5.0.5.1
Always fails after being stuck at 90% for 45sec or more. Tried rebooting at various percentages with no luck.
I was able to root my new Fire Stick with voice remote (Fire OS 5.2.1.0) on July 24, 2016. The third time was the charm, but it may have only required one attempt instead of three and I’ll explain why. I used the latest version of adblink on my laptop to side load King Root. When I first tried it, King Root would freeze at 90%.
I reinitialized the stick by pressing the center and play button, rebooted, but it did not work. King Root did not root the device. On the third try, I left King Root to work its magic and I became sidetracked in the kitchen removing some food items from the freezer and I might have been away for 10 minutes or slightly longer.
When I return to the living room I saw a message from King Root that said the device was successfully rooted in the time I was in the kitchen. I installed the other apk(s) such as superuser.apk and RotateScreenOrientation.apk. Unfortunately, I jumped too quickly and did not read carefully this web page where it mentions TWRP recovery hasn’t been made available for the Fire Stick as of yet. So I’m stopping right here until it does since I’m not familiar enough with the Firestick to recover from disaster if something goes wrong.
I just wanted to share my personal experience with King Root. What seems like a hung or frozen FireStick at 90% might not be, instead it may just require more time to do its’ work. So if you get stuck here at 90%, take a 10-minute break while adblink installs and executes the root hack.
I wanted to add an update to my original post. I had to remove root because Playstation Vue refused to function. I am a cord cutter, I rely on cable for only internet service, and PlayStation Vue is my access to some cable channels I like to watch. So regrettably I restored the device back to normal. But I still have a Chromecast on each television and my Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 is rooted and I can cast directly from the tablet to either stick.
it does freeze at 90%. Use the Fire Stick remote, and just click the center button until the progress bar moves again. I figured a dialogue must pop-up. The select button clears it. Then restart. Boom. Done.
Hey ever since the update of the OS. The following block amazon update cmd has not been working. Do you have another cmd?
===========This one is not working===========
Block on Fire TV (Without Root)
1.Connect to your Fire TV via ADB
2.Run the command:
adb shell pm hide com.amazon.device.software.ota
(If the message “unknown command hide” appears, it’s because this only works on software version 5.0 and up, as I stated above. You need to use method 3 or 4 instead.)
3.Run the command: exit
If the user posting above is claiming ownership to the website linked in his name, then he is yet another one of the degenerates that tarnishes kodi’s good name.
How is that?
Because the Kodi community is pissed off that people are selling cheap android piracy Kodi devices. It’s giving Kodi a bad name by associating piracy with Kodi.
Plus honestly I find people are scummy that sell the service of making it so you can access pirated content on your device. While I am not against pirating, I am against people profiting off the pirating.
Nyder, I agree with you 100% but I am not scamming anyone and I am not doing nothing that you are probably not doing as far as watching things on your kodi that people are no receiving payment for. Hince piracy, and you probably are not just using your Kodi for podcasting and listening to radio fm shows either. So get out of here with that.
I provide a service for people that want to use kodi. I also provide 100% satisfaction for all my customers with top notch customer service. As you can see from my customer reviews that are posted on my site.
What television is experiencing is the just what the music industry experienced back in 1999. You every heard of something called Napster. Kodi is at the for front of revolutionizing the way we watch television and view entertaiment.
Things will change once a company like APPLE (itunes) come an buys it all up or provide content for cheap. Just wait it will happen and the new Apple will possibly be Amazon as this website posted earlier this week how Amazon surveys in Germany are asking people there how they use their fire devices and how Kodi was on the survey.
Don’t get me wrong there are some people out there that are giving Kodi & Amazon devices a bad name but not me.
Thanks for your thoughts though.
I’m sure that writing several paragraphs of bullshit in broken english helps you to believe that you aren’t a degenerate scumbag but it doesn’t actually change that fact in the slightest.
Can verify myself that I managed to get root on 5.0.5.1, I tried multiple times and failed, I then tried restarting the device at 90 percent and relaunching it as soon as fire tv stick menu loaded up and got it the second attempt.
My non/never been Rooted fire tv stick non voice version on firmware 5.0.5.1.
Apps already installed:
Kodi 16.1
Firestopper
Mouse toggle for fire tv
I sent over Kingo root 3.1 (latest version/op version) with apk to fire app on phone.
I launched Kingo root (not sure if it was launched from within firestopper or from fire tv main menu), dont think that would make much difference but its a variable to consider.
I waited for it to reach 90 percent (it sticks at various percentages for a few seconds) once it was on 90 percent I waited a number of seconds, probably around 45 to 50 seconds and held down home/play to restart.
Once it restarted and as soon as the main fire tv menu loaded (but before firestopper loaded) I launched Kingo root again and clicked root.
It started off and kicked me out to black screen for a couple seconds then firestopper loaded, I then quickly launched Kingo root again this time from within firestopper to find it already on 90 percent.
After sitting on 90 percent again for a few seconds it reported root successful.
Then send over super user.
I then restore to defaults the fire tv stick and during the restore process my stick was updated to the newest version 5.2.1.0 (unintentionally).
When it finished and loaded up I reinstalled Kingo root and without even trying to root again it reported it was already Rooted.
Adding to this, 5.2.1.0 will root straight away without any restarting.
It worked on 2 sticks I tried today.
Confirmed, far easier than trying the 45 second deal. Did not work on Fire tv1 5.0.5.1.
I updated my Fire TV stick to the latest 5.2.1.0 version. Removed FireStarter/FireStopper. Installed Kingo Root and ran it. Stopped at 90% and about a minute later it said successful. I installed SuperUser and blocked updates. Will try a second one now.
Second one worked that same.
how do you block update on fire tv stick
How do you block update on fire tv stick with the latest 5.2.1.0 update.
Device: Fire TV Stick, non-voice, purchased at launch, running 5.2.1.0
Rooted in about 45 seconds. Worked first time without any problems.
as i stated last night 5.2.1.0 is rootable using kingoroot apk its the easiest method lol
Fire TV stick, purchased at launch, never rooted before. Never connected to the web until Kingroot was announced. However, never rooted, just updated to the necessary software version. Then amazon changed to https updates, so inadvertently updated to Fire OS 5.0.5 then took off my network for several weeks until I read this post. Booted up stick without internet live connection and installed Kingo Root via Apps2Fire using my Fire tablet. Ran Kingo Root without rebooting, it stopped at 90% for about 30 seconds and then successfully rooted the stick without requiring any reboot. It worked the first time I tried. I have never installed Firestarter/Firestopper. Kodi is installed.
What about 5.2.1.0 on AFTV Gen1? Should it be the same as its the same OS Version? Anyone tried it already? Would it be safe to give it a try? :-) And – there were some stuttering issues with Kodi after 30mins, did you experience something like that?
Im excited, maybe finally i can archieve root :-)
The last time it was possible to root, it was suggested not to do so til there is a clean twrp rom – well, it took to long and amazon pushed another update :-/ I dont want to run into a same situation again if possible…
Fire TV 2 running 5.2.1.0: Stops at 90% for a while and then fails. Retries and rebooting doesn’t help.
My (Never before rooted) Fire TV Stick was updated to 5.2.1.0 while I was away over the last three days so tried “Kingo ROOT v3.1.apk” copied over with adbFire v2.03 (Mac) and it worked first time for me.
I am now going to re-add the OpenDNS server info to my router to prevent any more updates.
SuperUser seems to have been installed as part of the process as I didn’t do it any when running “su” from the ADB Shell it “automatically?” authorised it and gave me the root command prompt?
shell@montoya:/ $ su
root@montoya:/ #
why use open DNS? i mean now that you have root can’t you just block updates internally?
also is this root method working properly with kodi because there were reports of kodi buffereing when fire stick was rooted with king root so this is not an issue with kingo root and the latest FW?
You are quite correct, I misread “Non-rooted Fire TVs and Fire TV Sticks on version 5.2.1.0 can no longer block updates internally” and assumed I couldn’t block them on the Stick at all, thanks.
Checking Kodi performance now…
Updates now blocked on the Stick itself and so far Kodi seems to be working fine (streaming 1080p mkv files).
ok thanks for the confirmation , so is this like a full root? like can we install xposed framework and youtube ad block module and also use sixaxis to get a ps3 controller working on fire stick?and also does firestopper work?
so if we manage to get rooted on 5.2.1.0 then we can block updates and install firestarter/firestopper ?
AWESOWE, worked for me. I was so pissed when I accidentally let the stick update to 5.0.5 a couple of months while rooting with Kingroot.
So after I rooted all of my Fire Sticks in my house and blocked future updates with the AFTV method #1, I can no longer use PlayStation Vue. When I open the PSVue app it just goes to a black screen and says “This application is not available for your device” with an exit button below that. Now I’m thinking it sees the root and denies the app from opening, is there anyway to hide the root from the PSVue app or is my only option to restore to remove root?
I know there are some Modules on Xposed available, who try to hide root. Mainly for Banking-Apps or due to Security Guidelines. But you could give it a try if you get xposed working.
riiiight
How can one install XPosed Framework _without_ a custom recovery on a firetv STICK?
you can try with “Hide my root” or similar App
has been working on my rooted Tablet..
downloaded from their main website – AVG found Adware and a trojan horse in the .exe file
Using adblink, you can sideload the apk. file linked to in this article, which seems much safer. However, while the program claimed the apk. file had installed, there was no pop up on the fire tv stick to confirm – so I’m not entirely sure if this has worked…
Has worked with the kingoroot app given on this page on the first try on my firestick having 5.2.1.0 firmware.
Thanks !!
Well I got my Fire TV stick to root successfully on 5.0.2.1. I then ran SuperSU, and it said it needed to be updated. I selected the “Normal” method, but it just sat there trying to update. I rebooted it (it said to if I saw that message for more than 5 minutes), but after I rebooted, my stick is now stuck on the Amazon splash screen during boot and never leaves that. I believe I just bricked it.
Be careful guys.
You going to need the one-click-unbrick-aftvs-tool stock file and push it via adb. Persto… Problem solved.
Brad,
You going to need the one-click-unbrick-aftvs-tool stock file and push it via adb. Persto… Problem solved.
Installed all 3 apks with adblink. used rotatescreen to lock in portrait. ran kingoroot and stuck on 90% for a little over a minute and came back with success! Installed SuperSU and everything is perfect! Thanx!!
would not root stick
allowed ota update 5.2.1.0
kingo root APK
root successful
** please edit instructions
Kingo FAQ explains the app can only try one exploit per run. If failed, try try again. I likely could have root on the prior OS :(
Now I need instructions for installing XPosed Framework _without_ custom recovery. (FlashFire)
**
Can I use the chainfire SuperSU instead of the questionable Kingo SuperUser?
friend of mine gave me the stick, telling me that it was rooted before, but something happened and root went away or some sh…
so I got home, hooked up the stick to tv, and hooked up the usb to my PC.
Installed the ADB, since he didn’t even have the remote for it, so I had to configure WIFI to get my phone connected fire stick.
After all that was done, I checked my Version, it was 54.1.2.3
and I checked the next version of update, it showed it would be 5.0.5.
So I decided to update it.
After update was done, I installed the Kingo Root software.
Run it, it found my stick, click root, and Hurray, ROOTED SUCESSFULLY! :)
Thank You Guys!
Hi managed to root my firestick with the first try and installed supersu but how can you really know if your rooted or not. Opened supersu it works fine but when i installed luckypatcher, SuperSu crashed right away. Any ideas?
Lucky likes supersu….kingoroot not so much plus u need busybox….you can try to install busy box it might work