This guide will show you how to install the Android TV version of the Google Play Music app on an Amazon Fire TV or Fire TV Stick. Your device does not need to be rooted to follow this guide. Having a mouse and keyboard attached to your device, like the Logitech K400 USB keyboard w/touchpad or 1byone Bluetooth keyboard w/touchpad, will make the guide easier to follow, but it can also be done with just the Fire TV remote.
Big thanks to Moose200 over on XDA for locating versions of the necessary files that are compatible with the Fire TV and Fire TV Stick.
- Download the zip archive of APK files needed from here and extract the archive. The 4 files included in the ZIP archive are:
1 com.google.android.gsf.login v4.4.4-1215936.apk 2 com.google.android.gms v8.7.03.apk 3 com.android.vending v6.0.2.apk 4 com.google.android.music v5.7.1780Q-1590147.apk
- Sideload all 4 APK files that you just downloaded onto your Fire TV or Fire TV Stick, in the order listed above.
- Launch the Google Play Store app.
- Log into your Google account. This is a lot easier to do if you have a mouse and keyboard connected to your device, but I have verified that it is completely possible to do with only the Fire TV remote.
- After logging into your Google account, you’ll see an error message. This is expected and fine. Press the HOME button on your remote and return to your app list.
- Launch the Google Play Music app.
- Your entire Google Play Music library should now be accessible. The app may need a few minutes to download all data and images related to your music library. The Google Play Store app will not work and is just used to log into your Google account. If your device is rooted, you can follow this guide to install a functioning Google Play Store.
- If you found this guide helpful, please consider supporting AFTVnews through Patreon.
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I see google play services are installed? Wonder if this will work for apps sideloaded but not on amazon app store that require google play services?
Hello how you doing how did you get Google Play service on your firestick
Is there a way to do this same thing for Youtube Kids?
These steps should allow you to use many apps that require Google Services or a Google Account to use. Just remember that you don’t have a status bar at the top in the Amazon OS.
This is awesome…I tried sideloading
1. Youtube Kids
2. PIA VPN Android App
Both worked flawlessly. Just had to use a K400 keyboard to control.
Does this need Youtube Kids for android or just regular Youtube Kids?
Where do you get Youtube Kids for android TV ?
Can you make a guide for how to install Google Playstore to AFTV 1.Generation?
Step 1: Root the Fire TV
Step 2: Install non-Amazon OS
Step 3: Install Gapps
That’s fine xnamkcor. Do you have a guide or some shareable insight into what non-Amazon OS’s that will run on the FireTV are even available?
There is a website called http://www.aftvnews.com that has lots of good guides.
On how to install a “non-Amazon OS”?
I missed that one. Where is it?
(cough)
Really neat trick, hope it keeps working. I’ve got thousands and thousands of songs on Google Play, I’m not paying Amazon extra to upload my own music to their servers when I have it in two or three different places online already.
So this will add Google Play Store to Fire TV?
Very cool, used adbFire and had it up and going in about 5 minutes. I suppose it’s a bit redundant in my case since I already have the music from my computer (about 25,000 songs) set up to stream to Kodi/SPMC. Only about 90% of those songs are in my Google Music cloud. Although there are some things that I do like a little better about the Google Music UI as compared to Kodi/SPMC. And vice versa, different options for streaming media are always good. But beyond that it’s just fun to experiment and see what else we can do with our Fire TV boxes.
Do I have to sideload them? Or can I just install them normally? Also, If I went through the steps to get the real YouTube and Gmail apps working, will I just have to install Google Music?
Here’s a link to an iPhone app which is a great mouse:
Remote for Fire TV by Jean Alger https://appsto.re/us/E8WF6.i
Same developer has an app for sideloading:
Remote for Fire TV by Jean Alger https://appsto.re/us/E8WF6.i
They are not free apps. The mouse app is worth every penny.
Thanks for the guide, nice and easy to set up. Just goes to show off these companies worked together these devices would be great without having to jump through hoops for services that you are already paying for.
Great guide, Big thanks!
Access to my Google Music was one of the annoying restrictions on Fire TV without rooting. Now it’s all there!
If it helps anyone; I downloaded the apk’s to my tablet and copied to a USB stick with an OTG cable. Navigated to the apk’s on the FTV using ES File explorer, and installed from there.
Google photos would be another great one to have.
Thanks again.
Thanks! I successfully used adbFire (aka adbLink) to get this working on my AFTV1. However, TotalCommander was unable to open USB disk (I confirmed the disk is in FAT32 format) with the files even though it could recognize the flash drive was connected to the AFTV1. Furthermore, the K400 was also not being apparently recognized when I used its dongle (but I should test it on a different computer to confirm if its the AFTV1 or batteries in K400).
Any thoughts why TotalCommander could not open the USB disk?
I’m not seeing any stations at all. That’s all I use on Google play. Anyone getting thread to show up?
Google Play Store not showing in the list of installed apps. Located in Canada – anyone up here successfully installed this?
Val Live in Ottawa. The Google Play store and the other apks show up fine. Weird thing…Play store crashed before I could login. Then tried the Google Music app, just to see. Boom, all my music was there! Playing now just fine.
Google play store doesn’t work without root and a workaround. Just adding for the sake of others reading this.
Thanks for this guide it worked perfectly on my direct stick. Also I installed Google play videos after doing this and it works too which means now my fire TV and TV stick can now do everything I want them to do.
Further update for some reason when I did the same thing with the video app on my fire TV 1 the movies won’t play but I installed the Android TV YouTube app and am able to watch my movies from Google play on there so that is good enough for me. Though I do wonder why they play on the fire stick but not the regular fire TV. I have 3 TV devices a gen 1 fire TV fire TV stick and a nexus player My biggest thing was I wanted my fire TV in the living room because it has fiber-optic for my sound bar but I wanted to be able to watch my Google play movies, use my play music subscription as well as. The nexus player is in my kids room because it is great for games and the stick is in my room because all it needs to do is play movies while I fall a sleep.
I installed the YouTube app as well on my Gen 1 Fire TV and had no issue playing movies from the purchased section. Was surprised they worked at all.
My bad, have 2 Fire TVs and installed on the wrong one. Now that I cleared that up – working fine :)
As a side note, I have 2-step verification on my Google account and even that works fine – it just asked for the numeric code then logged me in. That was cool!
Cheers,
Is it possible to “cast” to the app using Chrome? I’d like to just stream some radio since I have no library… so can’t really play anything unless I create one
Can i use this same method to to load Google video service?
Just installed the google video app from the shield tv onto the fire tv and it seems to work.
I got the video app to work on my fire TV stick but when I tried it on my fire tv1 it didn’t work
I did install Google movies & TV app after this and it works like a charm on FTV1:
com.google.android.videos_3.10.10-tv-31010004_minAPI21(nodpi)
Thanks! I grabbed something similar from here: http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/google-play-movies/google-play-movies-3-10-10-release/google-play-movies-android-tv-3-10-10-tv-android-apk-download/
and it’s working. Sadly all of my movies appear to be SD, not HD. Very bummed.
Installed above APKs and then was about to install Dish Anywhere. Worked great but the App itself is awful … cannot stream live channels.
I was also hoping for a MSNBC App. But an Android version does not exist! So have to continue using Airplay with Apple TV. A little annoying.
Does the Youtube app play 5.1 encoded videos or just stereo?
Thanks for the guide. I mainly use google play music for my own library, but a few things will prevent me from using this app:
1. It doesn’t appear to show my playlists
2. You can’t cast to Chromecast audio
I have the same problem. Playlists are nowhere to be seen. I have tried with the APK linked from this guide (version 5.7.1780Q), and also with two newer versions (5.9.1854R and 5.9.1863) and get the same result
Hmmm… I get:
“/Applications/adbFire.app/Contents/MacOS/adbfiles/adb” -s 192.168.1.223:5555 install -r “/Users/choward/Desktop/Google Play Music files for Amazon Fire TV/2 com.google.android.gms v8.7.03.apk”
197 KB/s (46706765 bytes in 231.343s)
pkg: /data/local/tmp/2 com.google.android.gms v8.7.03.apk
Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_VERSION_DOWNGRADE]
Any suggestions?
youtube kids not working for me
any special youtube kids needed?
Awesome. Install went fine and everything works except… the search function.
It seems to crash and reload the app, meaning all the library seems to refresh.
Browsing is fine, but i’d like to be able to search too… Anybody else have this problem or even found a solution?
Totally awesome! Works flawlessly. Any similar hack with Google play movies?
THANK YOU!!!! I worked on this for over 4 hours last night to no avail! Then I was informed that it doesn’t work with a streaming stick (DUH!) So…bought a second Amazon TV and a little less than an hour and I’m all set!!!!
THANKS AGAIN! You’re the best! Love and light to you all!
I sent in a tip to the guy that runs the website but just in case any of you are following the comments here there’s an updated zip here on XDA-Developers that includes a new version of Google Play music we were trying to track down. It came from the Nexus player and is version 5.9. It includes recommended, Library, radio stations, and manage subscriptions. Check it out! We only need to update the Google Play music APK.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/help/google-music-root-t3348756/page4
Thanks for this! I already have a file installer on my firestick so I just downloaded the zip and installed each all straight on the device. Everything’s working great!
Parsing error. Thanks though.
Copied all 4 apk files to firestick using es explorer. Installed each in turn, in order stated, by clicking on and choosing install directly from firestick. All installed but Play Music loads and then crashes straight back out to main menu 99 percent of the time. When it does stay none of my music is there? How are all of you able to use this? My firestick is not rooted, is this the problem?
This sure sounds great, but I’m stuck at step 4 as all I get is the following error message when I open Google Play, “Error while retrieving information from server. [RH-01]”. The only option I have is a retry button, which results in the same error message. Anyone got any suggestions?
This only works for Google Music. There’s no fix to get Google Play operational on the FTV or FSN yet afaik.
I see, thing is, I was just following the steps above, step 3 being ‘Open Google Play Store app’. Do I login somewhere else instead? Thanks kindly for the help!
But you may have missed step five.
Reread your comment. Maybe I misunderstood it the rust time.
Ok, are you site you downloaded all of then in order then chaired to make sure you were opening the right files as you installed them, in the same order add the list. When reading some of them in es explorer or you side loading app they look awfully similar and you can get them confused.
If that is done correctly, are you sure your not logged into Google some other way?
I’m pretty positive I installed them in the correct order as they were prefixed in order (1-4). Was I supposed to open each of them as I installed them? I just installed them and selected ‘Done’. And then once all four were installed I opened up Google Play Store as directed. I can’t think how else I would be logged into Google, unless I’ve messed up something previously, I can’t see any other Google apps installed though. Is there anyway to be sure you’re signed out? Thanks again for your help.
Yes they did need installed in the exact order for it to work. I think it’s because it sets up certain coding or “drivers” that the next software needs. I’m kind of guessing at this, but it seems the login is needed to be installed first so that the software isn’t trying to update it from the Play Store server, which we can’t access from the Firestick or FTV yet. Installing that apk first puts out on the Fire Stick so it can find it without going online.
Got all the apks installed, see play store, get login error, go back to home, see play store if on, but no play music icon. So close and yet so far.any ideas
The only thing I can say is to delete everything including the apk’s, download in the order listed and double fleck that you are installing in the exact order of the list. Mine was working on first try, but I noticed when I went to install the apps that they weren’t listed in the order above on my device, and the full name want showing so they looked like the same apk’s, confusing the intaglio order. I had to go into another file manager to double check which were which.
Ok finally see play music icon, but it is asking me to select an account, only choices are Amazon account OR sync Amazon content. Why is this so difficult. I’ve has less issues rooting a phone
Any ideas?
I am never really logged into my Google account. I go thru the login, but errors says can’t log me in, so naturally google music doesn’t know who I am . How are we supposed to get logged in, if the plsy store login errors.
Frustrated.
Thank you for this guide. I installed Google Play Services to use the Met Opera On Demand app which is offered only through the Play Store. It worked perfectly.
How can I change my account?
My wife would also use it…
How can i register google play store acount?
I kept getting a bad zip file error when downloading the files in ES Explorer, but when I used Downloader to download the files, and then ES Explorer to open and install each of the four files, it worked seamlessly. Thank you so much for this! It is very nice to be able to listen to the music collection I have paid for on my TV! :)
Following the instructions from the main post i had no problems getting this to work with a
Fire TV Stick (1st Generation) with Fire OS 5.2.4.1 installed, thank you.
This still works with Fire OS 5.2.6.0 on Fire TV Stick v2.
It was also the solution for sideloaded Slingplayer.apk (Android tablet version) not starting.
Does this method still work on All New Fire TV? The google services login wasn’t working for me when I attempted, just hung at “This may take a minute…”
Absoloutle garbage does not work for me, keeps saying retry then go to music nothing.
My method for getting the files was to download and unzip files to my old HP Media Vault NAS. I then used ES Explorer on the 2nd gen Fire TV to attach to the NAS. Clicked on each unzipped file in turn and they installed quickly. Logged in to Google account and authenticated with code texted to my phone.
I’m sorry to learn that others have had problems; instructions worked flawlessly for me. Am now listening to music from My Library. My customized Playlists are unfortunately not working. I’ll probably continue to use Kodi or Google Play Music via Chromecast, but it’s nice to have options, and something else to play around with.
Many thanks to Elias and everyone else who contributed.
Thank you for this guide. I’ve been enjoying this for over a year. Has anyone tried to upgrade Google Music to a more recent version?
Afraid to break what has worked so well.
The 4th apk “music” will not install. Any ideas?
Also. Now keeps losing connectoon and will not rescan. Have to reboot
This installation is missing an important element to allow search to work! If you click the magnifying glass, all you see is a prompt that says “Speak to search Google Play Music”, and then it returns to the main page.
FIXED: just install this API after you’ve installed everything else. https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/voice-search/voice-search-2-1-4-release/voice-search-2-1-4-android-apk-download/download/
I just got a fire tv3 and it looks like this method no longer works. Still working on my Sticks though. I suspect the issue comes down to the version of google account manager, though I haven’t tracked down a working version
Does anyone know if this guide still works or not? It’s getting pretty old and a lot of software updates have come out since this was published.
It doesn’t work on a Firestick 4K. When trying to log in to the Play Store app, it enters into a continuous wait state and does not register the login.
DF-DFERRH-01 ERROR !!! =(