Installing the Google Play Store on a rooted Amazon Fire TV 2 gives you direct access to apps not available in the Amazon Appstore. This includes apps like Google Play Music, YouTube for Android TV, and much more. This guide will walk you through the process of installing and configuring the Google Play Store on the 2nd-gen Fire TV.
Before you begin…
Before you begin, it’s important to know about a couple issues with the Google Play Store app running on the Fire TV.
First off, since the the Google Play Store does not officially support the Fire TV, it does not know which apps are or aren’t compatible with the Fire TV. This results in many apps being hidden when browsing the store with the Fire TV. What’s worse is that different versions of the Google Play Store APK reveal different app libraries, so you may need to experiment with different Google Play Store APK versions if you’re looking to download a specific app. You can find various Google Play Store APKs to try here. Note that the ones marked “leanback” are made for Android TV and are better suited for the Fire TV. I’ve found version 5.10.31-leanback to be the best one to use right now, but that may change in the future.
The second issue is that the Google Play Store automatically updates itself with no option to disable this feature. This is troublesome because you usual don’t want the app to update since the latest version tends not to work well with the Fire TV. The simplest way to prevent automatic updates is to resign the Google Play Store APK before installing it. The easiest way to resign an APK is to follow my guide for changing the app icon. This results in a new resigned version of the original APK.
The Google Play Store APK I link in this guide is a resigned version of the 5.10.31-leanback launcher. It should work sufficiently for most people’s needs. If you’re unhappy with the app selection available, you should try a different Google Play Store APK or try using the MarketHelper app.
Install the Google Play Store
- Install Xposed and HDXPosed onto your Fire TV.
- Select
ARM64 ,5.1 , andnano from the options here and download Open Gapps. - Install the
open_gapps-arm64-5.1-nano-#.zip file with TWRP recovery. Note that you do not unzip this file. - Download the Google Play Store APK you wish to use. I suggest using this resigned 5.10.31-leanback version of the Google Play Store APK. See the “Before we begin…” section above for more info.
- Rename the Google Play Store APK you just downloaded to
Phonesky.apk - Boot your Fire TV to the HOME screen.
- Connect to your Fire TV via ADB.
- Send the
Phonesky.apk file to your Fire TV’s/sdcard directory by running the command:
adb push [PATH-TO-Phonesky.apk-ON-YOUR-PC] /sdcard/
(Note: Be sure to replace[PATH-TO-Phonesky.apk-ON-YOUR-PC] with the full path where you saved the file you renamed earlier.) - Run the command:
adb shell - Run the command:
su - Run the command:
mount -o remount,rw /system - Run the command:
rm -rf /system/priv-app/Phonesky/Phonesky.apk - Run the command:
cp /sdcard/Phonesky.apk /system/priv-app/Phonesky/ - Run the command:
chmod 644 /system/priv-app/Phonesky/Phonesky.apk - Run the command:
rm -rf /sdcard/Phonesky.apk - Run the command:
exit - Run the command:
exit - Disconnect ADB and restart the Fire TV.
- Once the Fire TV has rebooted, connect to it via ADB again.
- Run the command:
adb shell - Run the command:
su - Run the command:
mount -o remount,ro /system - Run the command:
exit - Run the command:
exit
Setup the Google Play Store
- If you haven’t done so already, enable Apps from Unknown Sources within the Fire TV’s settings.
- Launch the Google Play Store. Unfortunately, the Fire TV cannot launch the app directly because it is a system app. You’ll need to use an app like FireStarter that is capable of launching system apps. If you use FireStarter, be sure to enable “Show system apps” within its settings. ES File Explorer is another app that can launch system apps.
- Login to your Google account. This is actually easier said than done because the cursor of a USB mouse connected to your Fire TV is actually invisible within the Google Play Store app. You should be able to get through all but the last step with just a keyboard if you press ENTER when you’re done filling in each field. The last two screens where you need to accept the Terms of Service are the ones that require someting other than a keyboard.
One option is to use a virtual mouse app like Wukong. The other option is to use a USB mouse, move the invisible cursor to the bottom right, then slowly move the mouse up and to the left while clicking. You should be able to hit the accept button after a few attempts. If neither of those work for you, you can connect via ADB and try the command
adb shell input tap 1800 1000
- Once you get to the Play Store screen, you should disable automatic app updates because you don’t want the Google Play Store updating your apps from the Amazon Appstore. Do this by going into the app’s settings menu.
Special thanks to BagiMT, venkat, and elliwigy for their insights which lead to this guide.
Manually replacing the Google Play Store with a different version
If you want to update the Google Play Store APK or want to try a different version, simply follow the main guide starting at step 4.
What to do if the Google Play Store auto-updates
If you don’t resign the APK and the Google Play Store auto-updates itself to a different version that you don’t want, it’s easy to revert back. All you need to do is “uninstall” the Google Play Store with an app manager like ES File Explorer. Since the Google Play Store is installed as a system app, uninstalling it actually only removes app updates and not the original version you installed with the guide above.
@AFTVnews
AFTVnews
I cant install gapps its telling me incompatible android rom detected.
Did you select the right options (ARM64, 5.1, and nano) on the GAPPS page before you clicked the download button?
Im stuck on #13 run the command
“cp /sdcard/Phonesky.apk /system/priv-app/Phonesky/”
– is not a directory.
Help please?
Install Install Xposed and HDXPosed onto your Fire TV.
The Phonesky App you replace comes with HDXPosed and the folder therefore logically dosnt exist, before you install it.
First rule of following a step by step guide: Follow the step by step guide.
Or with gapps (which would make more sense.. ;) ). Point being – you didnt install all .zip packages the guide told you to.
I did install all the .zip packages and followed the instructions to the t the issue was that the main file does not work only the mirror file I eventually got it installed. But now that I have google play store installed nothing will install it simply gets to 100 percent and says this file cannot be installed.
Did you select the right options before hitting the download button for the main ZIP file?
The first rule of following a step by step guide is not to discuss the step by step guide.
“cp /data/media/0/Phonesky.apk /system/priv-app/Phonesky/”
same problem here
“cp /data/media/0/Phonesky.apk /system/priv-app/Phonesky/”
Hi Patrick.
I followed the instructions to a T and struggled with this issue for HOURS on my Fire TV 1.
Then I discovered this: http://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-fix-sdcard-access-issues-on-a-rooted-amazon-fire-tv/
It links to an XDA thread about flashing a fix through recovery.
“Can’t cd to /sdcard after using su? Install this TWRP flashable zip to fix it.”
http://www.mediafire.com/file/0v6uj3f974wfzjt/bueller-fixsusdcard.zip
Cheers gunna try this tonight,
Has anyone had a go at enabling chromecast support on these yet? I am gunna have a try at that tonight also.
Just to report back, I’ve done all the above, lean back launcher loading as default, Google play working great.
Sideloaded Google cast reciever apk which I backed up from my shield, but can’t get it to detect the fire when trying to cast.
Will dig bit deeper see if I can get it running
Thank you very much for this guide! I just downloaded “Real Boxing” from Play store and it plays really well on the AFTV2!
Installed here without any problems as well.
Google Music (leanback interface) rocks.
@aftvnews.com: Did you choose the Asus Nexus 7 3G in the MarketHelper Guide with the chipset in mind, or just because its a Nexus and therefore should have the best compatibility? elliwigy currently suggests to set the device in Market Helper to Google/Android TV – which might be more appropriate (to get mostly apps with leanback interfaces and controller support to surface). But then it might not be (f.e. if the leanback Play Store does so regardless)… ;)
@everyone who has problems with the mouse not showing up – and Wukong not working (probably because the keyboard was still connected) – use
adb shell screencap -p /sdcard/screencap.png
to make a screencapture, then pull that to you Dektop and use an image editor to get the exact x and y pixel values where the button you want to click on is (in my case there was another prompt to grant permission to the market application (google account query)) – then use the adb command described in the tutorial to perform a click on that position.
(To grant the account permission it was 1337 989 if I remember correctly.)
The MarketHelper guide is fairly old. At the time, the Nexus 7 was the best choice, but there’s no reason to stick with that option now. Definitely worth playing around with the different device options to see if more apps appear.
Hi I have followed your excellent guide and logged into my account however, I am unable to go to the Google store . I have Google Play , Home , Games, My Apps, and settings. on the left on the right – Media Apps. Music Apps, News App and Tools. How do i get to the mains store?
The store will not look the same way it does on Android TV devices. You’re seeing everything correctly. This is why some people may want to try different APK versions of the store. Some APKs will display different categories.
Did you manage get any other options to show up or just games?
FYI:
If you download per your directions from “here”, the file downloaded is named: open_gapps-arm64-5.1-nano-20160217.zip
However when you download from “(mirror)” downloaded file is named:
open_gapps-arm-5.1-nano-20160217.zip
Over at xda someone had alot of trouble installing the file but once they installed the file from the mirror…it worked.
You need to be sure to select the correct options (ARM64, 5.1, and nano) on the GAPPS page before clicking the download button. The mirror is fine to use now, but will become outdated in the future if GAPPS puts out improved versions. This is why I suggest getting the ZIP file directly from GAPPS.
Gapps mirror is down, can you re-upload please?
I downloaded the file from GAPPS page last night and it was giving me an error everytime I would flash it..
TIA
Try this: https://github.com/opengapps/arm64/releases/download/20160217/open_gapps-arm64-5.1-nano-20160217.zip
Thank you!
Is there any way to use the androidTV launcher?
I case store updates what I fund out is if you go to firetv main menu\apps, find google play store app and press uninstall twice when you go back in FireStarter it will start again as leanback version.
Hope this helps others.
In case…
For non-rooted device, can users simply download the APK files of the leanback version of Youtube…etc and install? I am assuming that would work for folks who may not be able to install the Play Store.
@Frank: Yes, you can sideload the leanback YouTube APK and it works perfectly fine– except you can’t log in.
I was having the same problems, every time I was trying to log and use my Google account, with the Youtube version for Android TV.
I solved this problem installing the following 4 Google Play Store APPs:
Google Play Store_4.6.17.apk
Google Play services_8.4.89 (2428711-036).apk
Google Account Manager_4.4.4-1227136.apk
Google Services Framework_4.4.4-1227136.apk
So, apparently to work perfectly and let logging with your Google Account, the Youtube APP for Android TV, needs these 4 Google APPs.
Please note, that although I installed the 4 APPs needed to use the Google Play Store, the Play Store NOT work at all, because you will be able to log in, but the Play Store will NOT start…
This is a workaround to use the latest version of Youtube for Android TV.
To successfully use the Google Play Store you will need to root your FireTV!!
Can’t you copy the renamed leanback Phonesky.apk to the opengapps directory >vending.tar.xz and replace, the phonesky.apk save the the open_gapps-arm64-5.1-nano. install open_gapps, then mount -o remount,rw /system
chmod 644 /system/priv-app/Phonesky/Phonesky.apk ?
You probably could – but @AFTVnews for good reasons usually tries to stick as close as possible to the packages distributed by the original maintainers on XDA.
As soon as one of them gets outdated – AFTVnews would have to replace their binaries as well. And update the corresponding tutorial.
Its the right approach not to try to please the userbase every step along the way – but to stick as close to the approach that makes sure that the process laid out works.
Well said. It’s nice that someone has noticed this. I’ve received criticism where people are annoyed that I make them download a number of files from all different sources instead of just packing everything into a single ZIP with a bow on top. That may be convenient now, but is bad a week, a month, or a year from now.
Like you said, the original creators often maintain and improve their files, so it’s always best to lead people towards the original unmodified source. Plus it comes with the added bonus of giving credit where credit is due.
Yes you can. I chose to go the route in my guide because it shows people how to swap in a different APK later (step 4 and on) without having to repack Gapps and reflash in TWRP each time.
Having people out there modify packages that are meant to be flashed with TWRP generally is a bad idea. They for the most part cant read the scripting in those packages – then there is the question what happens if they (and all the tools they use to .zip content) can be trusted to maintain the structural integrity –
and to top it off, they loose they probably will try it with full firmware images next.. ;) (Stooop!)
Then you’ll make sure that they never check md5 checksums in their life – because they’ve just jsut learned again – that a .zip file is just “another folder” – like Windows told them before…
In addition you have to introduce another tool to the tutorial (the actual -zip packager) – and the variation that comes with that. And on the other hand, you dont loose any of the tools thats already in this tutorial.
Then you have the support problem that comes with not maintaining file integrity – and you potentially have the need for additional manual changes to the tutorial every time a new gapps version is released – and you have the stacked up risk of doing all that – every time people want to install an updated version of either the package or the individual app.
Also doing this via the shell is much faster.
And all of this is being requested, because people dont want to learn how the adb shell works. And because a good percentage of them still confuses it with adbFire, and the majority of them probably still refuses to install it – because trying to replicate every step in gui based apps – is so much more fun… (last part was sarcasm).
Like I said over on the other forum. Calm the f*** down…
You need a vacation my friend.
But seriously I do thank you for your input and yes most people do want simple step by step instructions. And why not? Most people just want things to work and don’t really give a flying f*** why our how it works. This is just the way it is my friend.
This place too is meant for people who share a common interest to help and guide and sometimes instruct with the hope that one may learn and gain knowledge.
You, my friend, with your lack of patience, are not the greatest teacher…
Actually, having thought about it, my above post is not fair. Frustration got the better of me. Please ignore my rant above and make sure you all read the guides and instructions people have provided carefully.
Great guide, thanks
up and running np!
same method for amazon fire tv1 5.0.5 os with root?
Instead of the clicking blind with your mouse, use a keyboard. The tab will move you to the input fields and next buttons to enter your google account
Is it possible to reverse this and uninstall gapps somehow? I got it to work successfully, but I really don’t see a need for it.
Thanks for this and all your great guides! I’m having some trouble with this one, every time I try it the Play Store does not show up in the list of system apps in FireStarter. I’ve gone through a few times to double check the directions and the options for Open GApps, and I can get through steps 1-24 just fine but when I try to open the Play Store it’s just not there. Any other suggestions? Thanks!
I bought and rooted a new AFTV2 today. I followed the Elia’s instructions and everything went very smoothly. After the root was completed, I followed these instructions to install the Google Play store and, again, the whole thing went very well. I can see the Google Play store in Settings>Manage installed apps but whenever I try to open it (through ES File Explorer or FireStarter) it gets stuck on a blank screen with a blue band in the top which says “Checking info…”. I have tried repeating the process from Step 4 a number of times, but so far nothing has worked. It always opens and hangs on that “Checking info…” screen. Has this happened to anybody before? How can I fix it? Is there a way to uninstall it and reinstall it again?
Thanks.
I’m getting failed license verification check on many of my apps that I own. Do you guys know why this could be happening? I followed the above procedure on my AFTV2 w/ 5.0.5 Pre-Rooted.
Thanks.
Anyone have any other options to click accept when installing Google Play? Mouse can’t seem to get where it needs to go and the app WuKong can find but can’t connect. Ugh. Thanks.
I got past all the way through each screen, input tap 1800 1000 actually worked. But when I got to choose account – I choose mine and then okay (with input tap 1800 1000) and it goes back to the previous screen “Google Play Store would like to:” So I accept it then it goes back to “choose my account” and then back, and forth again. It’s in a loop.
Somehow I canceled out and started Google Play Store again, and it went to a different screen, I agreed, and I was in. Huh. Thanks :-)…
When I try to mount -o remount,rw /system I receive “Permission Denied”
I have a AFTV2 & I used the King Root method.
Same here.. anyone??
help I’m stuck on #8 I this is my input, please tell me if this is correct: adb push C:\Users\-\Downloads Phonesky.apk/sdcard/
i have followed the guild and it went all the way though, i’m at the point of open google play store, and it just sitting there on checking info. i can high light next and hit select and nothing happends.
Well i made it through all the way to where i can run Play Store, when i select an app and select install it closes.
what am i missing?
I’ve been stuck at the screen “gathering information” for like a week now. I left it running in case its just super slow… but a whole week!? There were several reasons why I bought the Fire TV, but most of them depended on being able to load and launch google play. Guess I will restore it and put it up on ebay. (i already through away the box)
Youtube for Android TV isn’t allowing me to login. Other google apps like Play Music are logging me in without issues. Anyone else run into this and fix it? I’m rooted and installed the PlayStore without issues using this guide.
SOLVED: My problem seemed to be with the Google Play Services being blocked in only certain apps (YouTube, Play Games, and any game using those services).
I found that the issue seemed to be tied to using a resigned Play Store APK. So instead I installed an unmodified APK (Google Play Store 6.3.08.B-xhdpi [8] 2624459) and I’m using an app called DisableService to block the updates. In DisableService, go to System > Play Store and then scroll almost to the bottom and uncheck “ReschedulerUsingAlarmManager$CheckWifiAndAutoUpdate”. I’ve been running this way for a few days now with no real issues. Occasionally I’ll have the Play Store seem like it loses network connection and I’m guessing that’s due to this block but you just back out of the prompt and it continues to work fine.
Also noting that I haven’t run into any issues with 6.3.08.B-xhdpi and it even loads the featured app categories like it does on Android TV.
Hope this saves someone else a bit of head scratching.
I couldn’t install any app from Play store after flashing 5.0.5.1 ROM today. Do I need to redo everything?
Never mind. Xposed installer needs to be reinstalled and add HDXPosed module. That will resolve the problem.
I’ve installed both 5.10.31 and 6.3.08.B and several others, but those 2 specifically are the only ones that have worked for me. My problem is they both give me that “lean back” UI and in this UI when I click on the search icon it brings up the voice detection instead of just letting me type in what I want. And of course voice search in the Play store doesn’t with the Fire TV remote. So, the only apps I’m able to install are the featured apps that Google recommends (which I’m rarely interested in). Does anyone know how I can do regular text searches in the “lean back” Play store or alternatively does anyone know of a version of the Play store that will work on the Fire TV that will run in the regular phone/tablet UI?
Same problem for me. I can´t typing with keyboard looking for apps
Does this apply for rooted fire TV 1 boxes that just upgraded to OS 5? I did the arm64, but it says I need to use arm. It isn’t working for me
same then when i use arm I get a insufficient system space error Not enough room on nano oi
I’ll be updating this guide soon to work on the Fire TV 1.
Thanks
Looking forward to it!
I have everything in place and google as system file but only fc after 3 4 sec would like to uninstall
Tried today for ftv1 with open gapps pico package (because of not enough system space). Everything fine except the search in google play store is not working. If I start the search the app just quits. This has probably to do with missing voice recognition and leanback playstore version.
On FireTV 1 with 5.0.0 or newer:
– Install the ARM and PICO version:
open_gapps-arm-5.1-pico-20160531.zip
– Instead of:
cp /sdcard/Phonesky.apk /system/priv-app/Phonesky/
– use (for some reason it did not recognize /sdcard/ while on su:
cp /data/media/0/Phonesky.apk /system/priv-app/Phonesky/
I’ve just tried upgrading the google play store to the leanback version 6.0.2 on my FireTV2 on OS 5.0.5. It doesn’t work – throws an error that device isn’t compatible.
So i tried reinstalling the version linked in the article, think i followed the instructions properly – but i still have version 6.0.2 installed… Is there something else i need to do to downgrade back to the resigned 5.10.31 version?
Hi and thank you for these awesome tutorials
I installed play store but looks like the search option is not working
I fall back in firestarter homepage whenever i choose search icon on playstore
Same problem for me. I can´t typing with keyboard looking for apps
I am having a strange issue I haven’t had before… I cannot copy phonesky from the sdcard to system (step 13) because my root shell can’t seem to access /sdcard/ at all. I can access /sdcard/ in the shell just not as superuser. When I run ‘ls’ as root the /sdcard/ directory appears, but any attempt to cd into it outputs “No such file or directory”. But I can access it perfectly fine when not logged in as root. Any tips?
Dak try following DarkSupremo’s advice from May 31st. It seems he was having the same issue.
Oh men, this guide is so great and totally worked for me. Thank you brilliant guys who have spent your time to research about these things. Love you
Worked perfectly.
Is there any way to install play movies and play services that will work with this tutorial (with resigned version of the 5.10.31-leanback) ?
Actually Google play movies works fine UNTIL you replace the google store with this resigned 5.10.31-leanback version , then you get a prompt that your device isn’t supported.
What i did was install everything I needed from the Google store, then reinstalled gapps … and then all works fine.
I am having a huge problem. So I installed everything and got to the point of signing in on the play store. Once I entered my Google Play info, it just said checking information. I got a notification on my s7 of a newly registered device and approved it. After that, I can’t access the Google Play store. I initially installed the resigned apk in the guide and then tried the 6.0.2 resigned version with no luck. I have the “gaming edition” which I believe is no different than the Fire TV 2. Any suggestions?
I have a si please question for the Op… For which version of the FireOS was this HOWTO targeted? And, if he’s aware of the new service “Not In My Home” (com.amazon.tv.nimh.apk), who’s sole purpose in life is to blacklist unwanted Apps from the FireOS? And if he thinks that disabling this service.. Which is straight forward enough. Would have any knock on effect or not?
*I have a simple…. (Stinking Tablet!)
Thanks for the guide.
FYI, I just installed (21st Oct 2016) the pico version of Open GApps (bare minimum install) and it works ok.
I cant download apps directly so just sideload them, but my apps that need license verification work fine.
As of now,
Xposed is up to v86
Xposed Installer is up to v3.1
One question, for a Fire TV 1st Gen running OS 5, is it the same procedure except I use the normal ARM (32-bit) build of Open GApps instead of the ARM64 64-bit build?
That is correct… The Snap600 in the older FTV1 was a 32bit SoC. While those with the newer MediaTek FTV2 need the 64bit version.
AFAIK this only applies to the actual Boxes!
I’m not aware of what might be in any of the Fire Sticks out there.
Since unfortunately I have little interest to care seeing as I haven’t got such a Device. But, it’s worth noting that they probably use something entirely different to either the AFTV 1, or 2.
On that note though I’d probably would say that with the possible exception of the recently released FTVS2. You’ll probably want the 32bit versions there as well.
Has anyone figured out how to log OUT? I’ve installed GApps perfectly through this, but I can’t find a way to logout. Thanks!
I wonder if people see this and reply back several months later. I have Fire TV box recently purchased with 5.2.1.1 which can’t be rooted but not sure if this procedure will work on latest FireOS.
I used this to install on a Fire TV 1 and while it works with the regular ARM gapps pico version and sdcard fix, it seems like apps that request a license from google play don’t work. Or I should say droidmote server says it can’t verify license. Also when I try to do anything from Google Play Services, I get “Something went wrong. Please try again later.” I realize this isn’t a guide for ftv 1, but does anyone have any ideas at a solution? Thanks for your time.
Can’t i run the google play store in the application folder in settings?
Does this work on the fire stick?
I installed Google play store and choose a app and push install button every time . but after downloading, it just always move to home screen and never act installing. I do many trying ..but I don’t what’s the matter of it.
And some app show out update button and I push , it always go amazon app store. Somebody help me!!!
can you tell me how uninstall this, please.
I tried to resign the apk myself using your guide about changing the icon but I used an app on my Fire HD8 called apk editor to edit the android tv version released 12/16 and it unfortunately keeps updating the only thing that will prevent it is if I freeze google services framework on my fire tv2 any ideas?
I, like many of you, have had trouble making this work. So, I figured out what was wrong. It appears the issue is that the newer releases of Open Gapps isn’t installing everything that it’s supposed to be installing. So this guide lays the foundation of everything you need to get to make it work, but there are some additonal steps to take and additional files to sideload to finish the job and get the Play Store running on your Fire TV 2.
First, instead of downloading a -leanback verison of the Play Store, download the newest one that has the [8] designation stating that it’s for Android TV. This is ideal for the Fire TV – for me, it works great. At the time of writing the version I used was Google Play Store 7.5.08.M-xhdpi [8], only a few days old. You also don’t run into the issue of some services not working because the .apk has been resigned.
Secondly, you’ll need some additional tools:
lzip, which you can download here: http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/lzip/lzip-1.11-w32.zip (Windows, other versions are available at http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/lzip/ – to make it work easier I copied lzip.exe to C:\windows\system32)
7zip, which you can download here: http://www.7-zip.org/download.html (choose the version of your choice, if you’re using Linux you don’t need it since you can just use tar)
Follow the guide up to step 8 and then stop. Before you proceed you’ll need to sideload the missing files.
First, on your PC, extract the Open Gapps .zip file. Inside it go into the Core folder. In here are two apps that are missing that are in .lz format: gmscore-arm64.tar.lz and gsflogin-all.tar.lz. This is where you open a command line and navigate to where you have extracted your Gapps folder. Use lzip.exe to extract the files:
C:\AndroidSDK\platform-tools\open_gapps-arm64-5.1-nano-20170218\Core>lzip -d gmscore-arm64.tar.lz
C:\AndroidSDK\platform-tools\open_gapps-arm64-5.1-nano-20170218\Core>lzip -d gsflogin-all.tar.lz
C:\AndroidSDK\platform-tools\open_gapps-arm64-5.1-nano-20170218\Core>
If it works properly you won’t see any other feedback. Now you have the same two files, but now they’re .tar files. Use 7-zip to extract them – I just right-clicked on them in Windows Explorer, selected “7zip -> Extract here” for each one. Now you have two folders named gmscore-arm64 and gsflogin-all.
Inside those folders you need the following files:
\gsflogin-all\nodpi\priv-app\GoogleLoginService\GoogleLoginService.apk
\gmscore-arm64\nodpi\priv-app\PrebuiltGmsCore\PrebuiltGmsCore.apk
\gmscore-arm64\common\priv-app\PrebuiltGmsCore\lib\arm64\libAppDataSearch.so
\gmscore-arm64\common\priv-app\PrebuiltGmsCore\lib\arm64\libNearbyApp.so
\gmscore-arm64\common\priv-app\PrebuiltGmsCore\lib\arm64\libWhisper.so
\gmscore-arm64\common\priv-app\PrebuiltGmsCore\lib\arm64\libconscrypt_gmscore_jni.so
\gmscore-arm64\common\priv-app\PrebuiltGmsCore\lib\arm64\libgcastv2_base.so
\gmscore-arm64\common\priv-app\PrebuiltGmsCore\lib\arm64\libgcastv2_support.so
\gmscore-arm64\common\priv-app\PrebuiltGmsCore\lib\arm64\libgmscore.so
\gmscore-arm64\common\priv-app\PrebuiltGmsCore\lib\arm64\libgoogle-ocrclient-v3.so
\gmscore-arm64\common\priv-app\PrebuiltGmsCore\lib\arm64\libjgcastservice.so
\gmscore-arm64\common\priv-app\PrebuiltGmsCore\lib\arm64\libleveldbjni.so
\gmscore-arm64\common\priv-app\PrebuiltGmsCore\lib\arm64\libsslwrapper_jni.so
\gmscore-arm64\common\priv-app\PrebuiltGmsCore\lib\arm64\libtango_utility_lib.so
\gmscore-arm64\common\priv-app\PrebuiltGmsCore\lib\arm64\libwearable-selector.so
Sideload all of them to your Fire TV, the same as you did in step 8 for Phonesky.apk.
Now, continue with step 9. When you get to step 12, I’ll bet that there isn’t a /system/priv-app/Phonesky/Phonesky.apk file to delete, and when you try to do step 13 you’ll get an error saying that the directory doesn’t exist. That’s because Open Gapps didn’t install it at all in the first place! Time to make the directories yourself so that you can upload the files. Perform these commands:
mkdir /system/priv-app/Phonesky
mkdir /system/priv-app/GoogleLoginService
mkdir /system/priv-app/PrebuiltGmsCore
mkdir /system/priv-app/PrebuiltGmsCore/lib
mkdir /system/priv-app/PrebuiltGmsCore/lib/arm64
Now, just like step 12, copy all of the files to their proper locations:
cp /sdcard/Phonesky.apk /system/priv-app/Phonesky/
cp /sdcard/GoogleLoginService.apk /system/priv-app/GoogleLoginService/
cp /sdcard/PrebuiltGmsCore.apk /system/priv-app/PrebuiltGmsCore/
cp /sdcard/libAppDataSearch.so /system/priv-app/PrebuiltGmsCore/lib/arm64/
cp /sdcard/libNearbyApp.so /system/priv-app/PrebuiltGmsCore/lib/arm64/
cp /sdcard/libWhisper.so /system/priv-app/PrebuiltGmsCore/lib/arm64/
cp /sdcard/libconscrypt_gmscore_jni.so /system/priv-app/PrebuiltGmsCore/lib/arm64/
cp /sdcard/libgcastv2_base.so /system/priv-app/PrebuiltGmsCore/lib/arm64/
cp /sdcard/libgcastv2_support.so /system/priv-app/PrebuiltGmsCore/lib/arm64/
cp /sdcard/libgmscore.so /system/priv-app/PrebuiltGmsCore/lib/arm64/
cp /sdcard/libgoogle-ocrclient-v3.so /system/priv-app/PrebuiltGmsCore/lib/arm64/
cp /sdcard/libjgcastservice.so /system/priv-app/PrebuiltGmsCore/lib/arm64/
cp /sdcard/libleveldbjni.so /system/priv-app/PrebuiltGmsCore/lib/arm64/
cp /sdcard/libsslwrapper_jni.so /system/priv-app/PrebuiltGmsCore/lib/arm64/
cp /sdcard/libtango_utility_lib.so /system/priv-app/PrebuiltGmsCore/lib/arm64/
cp /sdcard/libwearable-selector.so /system/priv-app/PrebuiltGmsCore/lib/arm64/
Now, do step 14 to change the permissions for all of them:
chmod 644 /system/priv-app/Phonesky/Phonesky.apk
chmod 644 /system/priv-app/GoogleLoginService/GoogleLoginService.apk
chmod -R 644 /system/priv-app/PrebuiltGmsCore/
(The difference in the last one gets all of the files at once, rather than you having to do them individually.)
Now, continue with Step 15 to cleanup the files you uploaded. From here on out it should be smooth sailing. When I rebooted and opened up the Play Store (I used ES File Explorer, but you can sideload AppStarter if you’d like) it popped right up and let me log in! I used the “adb shell input tap 1800 1000” command to do the phantom mouse click referred to in step 3.
I’ve successfully downloaded and run games purchased. Play Games works and my cloud saves from my phone sync to the Fire TV! I had trouble getting Play Music to work, though, not sure what’s up with that, but I’ll figure it out later. Hope this helps y’all out!
BTW to give credit where credit is due, the two posts I got this information from to piece together what was missing were:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/34291902/android-studio-emulator-does-not-come-with-play-store-for-api-23
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/android-rpi/vH_xwFFjOVM
Please tell me use fire os version.
I use sloane-5.2.4.0-rooted_r1. but it can’t launch Google Play Store.
For me there are no
libNearbyApp.so
and
libtango_utility_lib.so
files so what to do & where to get them ??
Used your instructions step after step but these files aren´t there Bro
Sorry for the naiveté, but what role do Xposed and HDXposed play in this?
Halestorm – many thanks, plan to try your method tonight, have experienced some of the same issues. Have successfully installed on a Fire TV Stick 1 but at this point it is a mixture of several methods and I’d like to redo from scratch to know how I got there. I currently do not have Xposed installed, and the 5.10.31 leanback Play Store starts to download apps then stops.
For your method – was Xposed required (or did you try without)? Does manually installing all the framework files you’ve listed take the place of flashing Gapps, or must you do both (or did you try without flashing?)
Thanks!
This is driving me nuts. I had Google Play Store installed previously on Fire TV Gen 1 and went through this entire tutorial and got everything installed. When I open Google Play I get an error on “Authentication is required. You need to sign in to your Google Account”. Problem is I can’t figure out how. Google Play Services showed my proper email, but wasn’t any way to input password. I know I’ve changed my password within the last several months. Help please.
Is this supposed to still work? I had it installed and working great last year following this but I reformatted and updated my fire tv 2 and now I can’t get it to work.
I’m about the try this method, but a little later, I just spend a couple hours trying several other methods.
I’m writing now though to ask: Wouldn’t it be simpler (or is there a way to simplify this) using adbLink? Or some other program that can install apks directly to a Fire TV from a PC? AdbLink has always worked for me, and installation is always flawless.
That seems better than any kind of command line method. Thoughts?