The default colorful Amazon boot animation on the Fire TV and Fire TV Stick is fine, but if your device is rooted, you can install your own custom boot animation to give your device a bit more character. This guide will walk you through the steps of how to replace the default boot animation.
I began researching and writing this guide a couple weeks ago after a reader asked if changing the boot animation was possible during the Q&A section of my AFTVnewscast podcast. A big thanks goes out to Ian.Moz (aka CrashInc on the XDA forum) for figuring out the process himself and posting his own guide on how to install a custom boot animation, which allowed me to fill in the missing pieces for the guide below.
If there is enough interest, I’ll write a guide on how to create your own custom boot animations, but you can find several great guides through a quick web search. The Fire TV uses standard Android boot animations, so most boot animation files you find online should work with the Fire TV. Installing an incompatible boot animation could cause your Fire TV or Fire TV Stick to not boot, so I recommend only following this guide if you have TWRP custom recovery installed.
I created a Kodi boot animation for the Fire TV, which you can download here, by using samfisher’s awesome Kodi logo clip. The video below shows the boot animation in action.
Demo Video
Install Custom Boot Animation
- Rename the boot animation file that you want to use to
bootanimation.zip . The Kodi boot animation I created can be downloaded here. - Connect to your device via ADB.
- Transfer the
file to your device’s /sdcard/ directory by running the command:
adb push [FULL-PATH-TO-bootanimation.zip] /sdcard/
Note: Be sure to replace[FULL-PATH-TO-bootanimation.zip] in the above command with the location of thebootanimation.zip file on your PC. - Enter ADB shell by running the command:
adb shell - Enter su mode by running the command:
su - Mount the device’s system partition as read+write, so it can be modified, by running the command:
mount -o remount,rw /system - Backup the default boot animation to your device’s
/sdcard/ directory by running the command:
cp /system/media/bootanimation.zip /sdcard/bootanimation.zip.original - Remove the default boot animation by running the command:
rm -f /system/media/bootanimation.zip - Install your new boot animation by running the command:
cp /sdcard/bootanimation.zip /system/media/bootanimation.zip - Set the appropriate file permissions for the new boot animation by running the command:
chmod 0644 /system/media/bootanimation.zip - Restore the device’s system partition to read-only by running the command:
mount -o remount,ro /system - [OPTIONAL] Delete the new boot animation from your
/sdcard/ directory by running the command:
rm -f /sdcard/bootanimation.zip - Exit su mode by running the command:
exit - Exit ADB shell by running the command:
exit - Disconnect ADB and restart your device to see your new boot animation in action.
Restore Original Boot Animation
- Connect to your device via ADB.
- Enter ADB shell by running the command:
adb shell - Enter su mode by running the command:
su - Mount the device’s system partition as read+write, so it can be modified, by running the command:
mount -o remount,rw /system - Remove the custom boot animation by running the command:
rm -f /system/media/bootanimation.zip - Restore the default boot animation by running the command:
cp /sdcard/bootanimation.zip.original /system/media/bootanimation.zip - Set the appropriate file permissions for the default boot animation by running the command:
chmod 0644 /system/media/bootanimation.zip - Restore the device’s system partition to read-only by running the command:
mount -o remount,ro /system - [OPTIONAL] Delete the backed up boot animation from your
/sdcard/ directory by running the command:
rm -f /sdcard/bootanimation.zip.original - Exit su mode by running the command:
exit - Exit ADB shell by running the command:
exit - Disconnect ADB and restart your device to see the default boot animation.
Troubleshooting
If your device no longer boots due to an incompatible boot animation, one option is to simply re-install a pre-rooted ROM.
If you rather try to fix the problem, do the following to restore the default boot animation via terminal in custom recovery:
- Boot into TWRP custom recovery.
- Select the “MOUNT” option on the main menu.
- Check the box next to “system”
- Press the home button in the bottom center to return to the main menu.
- Enter the “ADVANCED” menu.
- Enter the “TERMINAL” menu.
- On the terminal screen, run the following commands:
rm -f /system/media/bootanimation.zip cp /sdcard/bootanimation.zip.original /system/media/bootanimation.zip chmod 0644 /system/media/bootanimation.zip
- Restart the device
Is it possible to disable the bootvid and replace it with verbose instead?
Hi thanks for the mention :)
I would just like to add that it should be pretty difficult to brick your Fire TV doing this as I have found some incompatible bootanimation.zip files and the stick just displays a blank black screen until the home screen loads. Also even if you just delete the bootanimation.zip file and restart the Fire TV, it loads a different “fire” boot animation so you should be ok either way. I have put a video on YouTube showing the “fire” animation that shows when there is no bootanimation.zip file in /system/media
https://youtu.be/EEZmRokrIcM
That’s really interesting! Thanks for posting the video.
The only thing is I rarely would get to see the boot animation since it just awakes from sleep. I do love it though.
I asked a few times for this in the Q&A & thanks for providing it AFTVNews & also thanks to Ian as well, I also thought that if no bootanimation was there it would just show a blank (black) screen then load as normal as the Android phones do. I also rarely see mine but I do love customising it to my liking, just like I can’t stand the click when moving around so I changed the click noise to a blank sound within the Amazon menu!
yes pls a tutorial to create a own bootanimation i have testet it to extract the zip and overwrite the pictures with mine but it dosnt work
I did it!!!
the zip was not right :)
Thanks I changed mine to a Watchdog bootanimation, looks good but when I tried to change the bootanimation it wouldn’t load & I had to do a restore via a TWRP backup. I would like a guide to create bootanimations too if possible, hopefully this will happen? Thanks AFTVNEWS as per normal
can i Install Custom Boot Animation on first gen fire tv OS 3?
As long as you are rooted, yes you can. Bootanimation.zip is located in System/Media
can i Install Custom Boot Animation on first gen fire tv OS3 wiht CWM recovery.
You can use boot animation app in play store to have same effect
Doesn’t seem to work, when I try to do
cp /sdcard/bootanimation.zip /system/media/bootanimation.zip
It tells me No such file or directory
Never mind fixed it, I had to install that sdcard flash zip.
http://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-fix-sdcard-access-issues-on-a-rooted-amazon-fire-tv/
easier to use bootanimation app in play store
Hmm, took me through that grey screen (but didn’t try to update) after putting on the alternate boot image.
Tried restoring to my fresh backup but amazon and netflix both stopped workin :(
Trying to reinstall a stock pre rooted rom and then my last backup over it.
Which did not work! Look like I will be starting again!
Here is a new Amazon FireTV bootanimation
https://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/themes-apps/firetv-boot-animation-replacement-t3913404
Nice work! Thanks for contributing it!