Fire TVs occasionally experience a strange bug where the home screen appears to be zoomed out and all icons, elements, and thumbnails are very small. This issue has popped up on devices from time to time for years but it seems that Fire TV Smart TVs from Toshiba and Insignia, specifically, are seeing a surge of this issue occurring. While there is no known way to make it never happen again, the fix to restore how the Fire TV interface should look is very quick and easy.
To fix the issue, simply restart your Fire TV. The fastest way to do this is to hold the SELECT and PLAY buttons, simultaneously, on your remote for about 10 seconds. A message will appear informing you that the Fire TV will restart. If you’re having trouble getting the remote button combination to work, you can also restart a Fire TV Smart TV by navigating to Settings > Device & Software > Restart or on a stand-alone Fire TV, Fire TV Cube, or Fire TV Stick navigate to Settings > My Fire TV > Restart. Alternatively, on either a Fire TV Smart TV or stand-alone Fire TV, you can install the My Fire TV Shortcut app to take you right to the Restart menu with one click.
Note that on a Fire TV Smart TV, you need to use the gear icon on the main navigation menu to access settings. Pressing the gear icon on your remote will take you to a different set of settings where there is no option to restart. It’s also worth mentioning that turning a Fire TV Smart TV off and on does not actually restart the TV. That simply puts it to sleep and will not fix this issue. You must either follow one of the restart options mentioned above or pull the power plug completely to actually restart a Fire TV Smart TV.
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Thank you. Pressing the Select and Play buttons did fix the issue on my Insignia Fire TV. My TV claimed that it did not recognize the remote control afterward but the remote worked just fine.
Thank you thank you thank you. I wear glasses and was literally standing in front of it to see anything.
I don’t wear glasses and was having to do this haha
Same!!! This has been a life saver!!!! Thanks!
Yep. Figured that one out all by myself. Only problem is, it doesn’t last. Every few days the mini icons are back…on 3 TVs. You would think they would come out with a permanent fix.
Ditto same here. MUCH appreciated!!
Me, too. It was very frustrating. This fixed it.
Thank you!!!! Pressing “Select,” and “Play/Pause,” at same time caused my screen to go blank briefly, but then returned with the app icons, and channel guide font, much larger.
same here…
Thanks for the info! Found mine today to be “zoomed out” with small icons. This helped. Appreciate it!
That just shows how Amazon is (not!) worried fixing the eternal bugs in the software…
Thank you so much!! This worked perfectly on my Toshiba. I was about to scream!
Me too. Thank God it worked
Me 3!
Thank you thank you thank you. I wear glasses and was literally standing in front of it to see anything.
Me,too. These small icons were driving me crazy.
Thank you!! Easy fix after a lot of frustrating clicking around in menus!
Thank you so much. This fixed this issue.
I restart my insignia fire edition it works thanks
Thank you. The buttons didn’t work, but restarting from settings did.
YASS glad to see I’m not the only one who woke up today with a wonky view. Now I can resume my 90 day fiance binge, thanks!
Wow fixed mine too! Love 90 day also!!
Ah thank you, I feel so much better!
Unfortunately my remote will not move anything on my screen with the tiny icons. It will only turn it on and off. The Select & Play trick isn’t working either. I’m noticing all of these comments are from 12/17/2021, so there’s obviously something that happened on Amazon’s end to cause this. I can’t fix mine at all.
To resolve this issue you have to plug-out the tv cable for 15 second, will be resolved
You can also unplug your TV, as explained above. Another fix for your remote might just be to take the batteries out for 10 seconds then put them back in.
also I was just reading elsewhere; if you sill can’t get your remote to work you an download a fire tv app (google play or apple store) to your phone and use your phone for a remote.
I can’t fix mine either by doing this so if you found a way please let me know.
This was a lifesaver! Our relatively new Toshiba did this overnight. Before finding this article I had tried everything I could think of. Thanks for helping me maintain my sanity!
Thank you!! My 2-year old Toshiba started doing this today, and this very helpful. Oddly, the voice search/Alexa function stopped working about a month ago. Still troubleshooting that but this fixed the icon problem.
I thought I’d look at the date AFTER I followed your instructions (that worked PERFECTLY) and see 2018/2019 or later. But no! It seems (at least for myself) that this is a recent issue. My Toshiba just started acting up about a week ago and it is so aggravating. Especially when a particular app can’t/won’t override the issue and I may as well be watching my tiny iPhone!
Thank you sooooo much!!
Thank you for this fix. 2 year old Insignia started doing this out of nowhere tonight. Appreciate the info.
Woke up to this issue today! Thank you!!!
I’m guessing it’s the new update that was pushed through with the Toshiba/Insignia’s. I always have problems with my Insignia when apps like Disney+ update. Insignia is usually last to find a working update to keep up with the apps. The button reset worked for mine.
Thank you so much for this fix….the screen was driving me crazy!
Thank you so much. I went to settings and did restart and it worked for me . I thought I did something wrong for this to happen. Much appreciated.
Thanks so much! This fixed it!
Fixed my Toshiba Fire TV right away as indicated. Thanks for putting this info out there!
Thanks it worked with my Toshiba Fire tv
Omg I believe it or not have a different looking remote so I couldn’t figure out what the buttons to restart it were but I did it in restart and solved the problem! Thanks for posting this! Godsend for frustration!
Thank you so much for this post! Restarting from settings worked for me!
Thanks! We have a Toshiba, the first option to reset with Select/Play worked perfectly!
I am almost in tears reading this tip working for everyone else. I am holding down Select and Play for 10, 20, 30 seconds. Nothing. Remote works to turn TV on and off. But will not work to move around the screen at all, so I cannot try the Settings tip. Am I going to have to buy a whole new TV? I know there’s no way to call Amazon. So frustrating!!!!
No, no new TV. If you are the same Charlotte from 12/17/21..I answered you up there.
also I was just reading elsewhere; if you sill can’t get your remote to work you an download a fire tv app (google play or apple store) to your phone and use your phone for a remote.
You can text with a rep. I did it and got satisfaction!
Thank you for this fix for the zoomed display. It works!
Fixed my issue! Started doing this out of nowhere this morning. I’ve had this tv for two years and never had it do this before. Thanks!
I woke up to this problem this morning…My TV was fine yesterday. Your fix helped my Toshiba Fire TV…THANKS!! Is there any way to ENLARGE the icons/menu?
PS…I meant to say; ENLARGE the icons/menu larger than the regular size…
This happened to me after I hit the little “TV” icon on my Toshiba Fire TV remote. Everything went so small. I unplugged the power to the TV and that resolved it. I have 2 of these same TV’s (from summer 2019), and told my husband to be sure he didn’t hit that button on the set he was watching. So what does he do? He hits the button to see what would happen. Sure enough, the same thing – everything went extremely small and became basically unreadable. Had to unplug that set as well to resolve.
Thank you! This tip helped with my 2 year old Toshiba FireTV.
Yay! the tiny icons were driving me crazy. this fixed the issue.
Thank you! I thought I touched some strange button on the remote. I feel so much better now! Lol
Thanks! It worked! I feel like I have a new TV. I appreciate this a lot.
thank you I have being trying for two days increase the size of the icons on the tv screen. Its working now.
THANK YOU!!!!!!!
I am surprised that so many are experiencing this same problem in the space of a week or so. Thanks for the info on a fix.
It’s fixed!!! Thank you soo much
Worked for me :)
thanks for the info!! It worked. It’s happened 3-4 in the past couple of weeks and I just shut it off and used another tv but like to use this one at night.
Changing batteries didn’t help but I think that may have been when it started as I had to change them a few weeks ago.
Thanks and Merry Christmas;Happy Holidays!
So glad I’m not the only one having this issue. I rebooted the tv by unplugging it for a minute or so, and yay it fixed the issue BUT BOOO THE NEXT DAY THE ISSUE RETURNED back to tiny icons. Am I going to have to reboot it every day?
Thank you so much! I turned on the Toshiba fire tv this evening, Scrolled over to an app and while waiting for it to load I left the room. Came back to tiny icons, but picture for movie was just fine. I have decent eyesight , but even that was too small for far away. Couldn’t get the select/play buttons to work at the same time, but knowing it’s in settings and won’t reset the logins is helpful.
Yaay!! Holding play and select restarted it and resolved the issue. I had no idea what was going on, I thought I must have done something to the TV to make the apps suddenly shrink. You are awesome!!
Thank you so much! It was an easy fix!
Those tiny icons have been driving me nuts for weeks! Thank you for posting this :)
Really people “omg thank you for the fix, thanks this worked great. Like I would have I would have never thought about restarting a device to fix a minor problem. Is it not everyone’s first attempt at fixing a small issue on any type of electronics these days. My 6 yo niece heard me talking about this small icon issue , she came in the room and said uncle Ray, my TV was doing that and I restarted it now I have big icons again… My god people
Thank you! It was driving me crazy! Because some apps weren’t even functions properly for streaming. I even factory reset my TV at one point which didn’t even work. Surprised the fix was so simple. But yeah seems like everyone’s TV just started acting up this month. Weird
Sad that instead of fixing an issue they merely toss up a work around/reset that you have to surf the internet to hopefully find before you can use the TV or stick you own! I tried to figure it out on my own for 30 minutes before I checked the internet. Who do I bill for my time?
Sad that instead of fixing an issue they merely toss up a work around/reset that you have to surf the internet to hopefully find before you can use the TV or stick you own! I tried to figure it out on my own for 30 minutes before I checked the internet. Who do I bill for my time?
U my friend are a genius. I was getting so pissed
Just unplug the tv for a few minutes, I also took the batteries out of the remote
Works just fine now
THANK YOU SO MUCH! Select and play worked perfectly and I’m back to the large Icons.
This is a temporary fix. This continues to happen. Amazon needs ro permanently fix the issue. I reboot my TV everyday because this problem occurs more often than not.
Thank you I can’t believe we were living with such an inconvenience for so long
Help, we went from small icons to enlarged icons and the picture being too large for the screen! I’ve restarted my Insignia Fire TV all three ways explained and we have tried multiple settings on the display setting. Last restart, when the picture came up it showed a normal screen for a second before enlarging the icons.
Thank you so so much! My Toshiba Tv just did an update and this bug happened. I put up with it for a day or two and then it drove me nuts. This totally resolved it. Proves the old IT first question of “Did you try turning it on and off again”
Thank you! This was so helpful. It’s fixed now.
Mine has gone to tiny screen twice now. It’s irritating!! We need a permanent fix!
Thanks! SELECT/PLAY definitely worked instantly!!!!
This fixed it! Thanks for being awesome.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!! This was an easy fix. I was going to blame my fiancé for messing up the television because he was checking out a few apps before this issue occurred.
Bless You.
My Aunt/Other Mother called about her TV doing this for over a month.
I was able to find your posting & called her back.
In less than a minute I heard those beautiful words…
Oh, I Love you Son!
Thank you so much. My Toshiba does this almost everyday. I Haye to have yo get up and unplug all the time! Great New Year start!
Thank you so much!! It worked. This was driving me crazy. Now I’ll know what to do next time.
Yes, this actually works. Everything appears to be normal again! A surprisingly simple solution.
FINALLY!! Thank you! This has been driving me crazy trying to figure out how to word this to get to what I needed. It fixed it within 15 seconds or so!
I never had this issue until Amazon updated the menu on the fire tv.
Worked for me on my Insignia Fire TV. Now just need to figure out how to stop the TV from turning itself on at 3 in the morning. Doesn’t happen every day but about once a week. Did the easy stuff, batteries, cleaned the on/off button etc.
I bet if this problem prevented Amazon from collecting revenue it would suddenly become a priority to REALLY fix it. As it is now, every few days or so I have to restart my Toshiba TV Fire TV.
Thanks!
Thank you!!!!!!
Worked like a charm thanks so much was trying everything i could thi nk out nothing was working.
Thank goodness. Now I can enjoy tv once again!
Thanks! I have two Toshiba Fire TVs. Each are different sizes but this issue is occurring on both of them. I have been using the restart as a solution, but still looking for a software upgrade or something to resolve it permanently.
Thank you so much!! This was driving me crazy!
Having to restart my TV every other day is a huge annoyance…DO NOT RECOMMEND Toshiba Fire TV.
Thank you so much for this fix! Select/ Play worked like a charm!
Thanks for posting this. My Toshiba is zoomed out almost every day. I’m about ready to throw it away.
Thank you for the information. It worked first time. I too was ready to throw the tv to the curb.
Thanks a million. Driving me crazy for the last few weeks, especially the tiny volume indicator. And I have 20/10 vision! Wasn’t sure which buttons on Toshiba remote. I know the select button. Used the settings> app. Worked great. Thanks again.
Richard
Even when it’s zoomed in, that narrow home bar is too small for my liking. I switched back to my 2nd gen box because it was not upgraded to the new interface and still ranks near the top in terms of responsiveness.
In the scheme of things, of course, this problem was insignificant. But, like cold coffee or damp toilet paper, it was unpleasant. Thanks for taking the time to make the solution available.
Now if I can just figure out what dampened that TP in the first place….
You can also hold the physical power button on the tv until it restarts itself. Or it’s in settings device/ software-> restart if using remote app.
Thank goodness. I was using my hunting binoculars to see those tiny channels and I had to back way up into the front bedroom with the window open to see things clearly. Was tired of stepping outside just to tune in to FX.
This worked for us, thanks