It might seem like a trivial thing for experienced Amazon Fire TV users, but simply uninstalling an app on the Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, Fire TV Cube, or Fire TV Edition television/soundbar isn’t entirely obvious for some people. Here’s a step-by-step guide for how to remove regular Fire TV apps, as well as instructions for removing hidden apps that don’t appear in the default list of apps.
Uninstall / Remove Apps – Amazon Appstore & Sideloaded Apps
These instructions will guide you through the steps to uninstall standard apps, like those installed from the Amazon Appstore. If the app you want to uninstall is not showing up in the list on step 4 below, go to the next section of this guide for uninstalling hidden apps.
- Go to Settings using the Fire TV’s navigation bar.
- Select the Applications menu.
- Select the Manage Installed Applications option.
- Scroll to and select the app that you want to uninstall. (If the app you want to uninstall is not on this list, see the next section of this guide.)
- Select the Uninstall option.
- Select Uninstall on the confirmation message that appears.
- The app has now been removed from your device. If you’re still seeing the app icon, it’s because you have cloud apps visible. If you only want to see apps that are actually installed on your device, go back to the Application screen in step 2, select the Appstore menu, and scroll to the bottom to turn ON the Hide Cloud Apps option.
Uninstall / Remove Hidden Apps – Specialty Sideload Apps Only
Some specialty apps, such as select apps that are sideloaded, may not appear in the Fire TV’s list of installed apps. These apps must be uninstalled using ADB commands with the following steps.
- Connect to your Fire TV via ADB. If you don’t know how to do that, follow this guide.
- You need to know the package name of the app that you want to uninstall. If you already know the package name of the app that you want to uninstall, you can skip to the next step. To view a list of app package names that you’ve installed, so that you can write down the correct package name that you need, run the ADB command:
adb shell pm list packages -3 - Once you know the package name that you want to uninstall, run the ADB command:
adb uninstall PACKAGENAME
Be sure to replace “PACKAGENAME” with the package name retrieved from the previous step. For example:
adb uninstall com.netflix.ninja
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AFTVnews
Awesome!!! It’ good to have you back!!!
How about the ESPN app that uninstalls automatically all the time on the Fire Stick 4k
I good refresher on the “basics”!
Personally I have been using the X-plore File Manager App for many years on my FTV’s – it functions quite well with just the standard remote and I have full control over all my apps including “hidden”
The down side: the APK must be sideloaded, the version offered on the Amazon Appstore is not compatible with my FTV’s
I definitely considered replacing the ADB instructions with a file manager guide to adding a 3rd file manager section, but the availability of file managers on Fire TV is so flakey that I decided not to include it. But, as you said, a good alternative for uninstalling hidden apps is to use some file manager with the ability to manage apps.
I’d love to see a guide, maybe the 3 least flakey? I still use an old version of esfile explorer. I’m surd your readers would have plenty of input re which ones work well for them.
The best file explorer for Android and also Fire TV hands-down is FX File Explorer. It also let’s you manage apps and if you’re rooted you can do basically anything with this app
How do I uninstall the bloatware apps I don’t use?
You don’t!
That sucks! I’d have a lot more room if I could.
You can uninstall the bloatware apps by rooting your Fire Stick.
Nope! You don’t need to root your Firestick to uninstall bloatware apps. I already did it using Firestick Debloat Tool v3 (https://www.techdoctoruk.com/firestick-debloat-tool/)
Does this just shut them down from running in the background or does this completely delete the app to make room in storage?
Completeley disables stock Amazon bloatware apps and terminates all unwanted/ unnecessary Amazon processes. Frees up a ton of memory/storage!
I find it easier to hit the hamburger button (three bars) and select uninstall from menu.
That is definitely an option, but I chose the Settings menu route for this guide because it’s a flat list of all apps. Some people have trouble finding the app they want to uninstall in the default app interface, so going to Settings is a universal way to see all apps, even though it may take a few more clicks.
I wish I could get to Settings menu again to even look at these options! I’ve not been able to for some time. Amazon helped me try all remote button combinations to do a factory reset but none work.
Apart from that my 2nd Gen FireTV works OK!
@elias I had sent you a Twitter DM about this a couple of months ago on the off chance you knew of anything
Tell me more. What exactly happens when you try to access Settings?
I just get a blank screen with the ‘loading’ three dots in the bottom right hand corner. You can leave it for as long as you want, nothing appears.
As I said, with Amazon’s help we tried doing many factory reset options via the remote and they even connected to my box remotely. No luck. I even tried the ‘hack’ with a USB keyboard to kill tasks upon boot but it did not work for me.
A ticket was then with Amazon to investigate for about 1.5 months with no result. In the end they just gave me a 15% off voucher for a Fire Stick which I didn’t use as when they are on sale there is more % off.
So I have 2nd Gen box where everything works except anything under the Settings menu.
Oh well…
@elias Very strange but it seems that today I can access the Settings menu! I’ve not been able to for months but today everything seems back to normal! There does not look to have been a recent update but still, my 2nd Gen box lives on… :-)
Awesome! Since everything else was still working, the box probably got a silent update to just the Settings which fixed the issue.
Can you uninstall pre loaded apps
Hi Elias! Just wondering if there will be a fix for the Downloader app not loading webpages any longer? It was working a few weeks ago, but no longer on Shield and AFS4k. That app has been so succesfull, it’s incredible how well it has worked up until now. We are all grateful!
App is working fine for me and others. Try restarting your device or uninstalling/reinstalling the app. If that doesn’t work, shoot me an email to app@aftvnews.com with some pictures/video of what’s going on and we can try to figure it out.
Okay I will email you now.
It looks like it’s intermittent. FS4K is fine now, but 2017 Shield displays this msg when going to browser in Downloader:
‘Loading web pages is not supported on Android TV devices because Google has required that the built-in browser in this app be removed. A solution is being worked on, so please check back soon.’
I’ve been using Downloader for years without issues, this just started happening last week. I am of course only using official Downloader from Play store or Amazon Store.
I will send a screenshot now.
Google doesn’t allow the Browser on Android TV, so you have to install my Downloader Browser Plugin. Just enter browser.aftvnews.com into the URL on Downloader’s Home screen and sideload the plugin that downloads.
Is this what you’re referring to?
New fix for Downloader to be a Google Browser…After the http….Type in browser.aftvnews. com
Is there any way of repairing the ‘greyed out’ 3rd party icons for certain sideloaded apps?
Not all sideloaded apps suffer this issue.
Is Amazon working on a firmware fix for this issue?
The Fire TV Cube 2, Fire TV Stick Lite, and Fire TV Stick 3 have a bug that causes the icon of some apps to not appear. You can fix it, but it’s a bit involved and has to be done on a per-app basis and repeated every time you update the app.
See here: https://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-fix-missing-or-broken-icons-for-sideloaded-apps-on-amazon-fire-tv/
I’m rooted but still can’t get rid of this stupid IMBD TV app from the launcher. I think because it’s not truly a standalone app, but is just part of the Fire TV launcher unfortunately :-(
You don’t need to root your Firestick to uninstall bloatware apps. I already uninstalled IMBD TV app using Firestick Debloat Tool v3 (https://www.techdoctoruk.com/firestick-debloat-tool/)
In the Firestick Debloat Tool v3 find the line “com.amazon.imbd.tv.android.app” and just delete it.
The Debloat Tool does NOT delete Amazon bloatware, it simply deactivates them from running processes in the background. If you go to ADP Shell and run “pm list packages” you’ll see that all the bloatware apps you think you deleted are still there.
Thank you so much! Glad to see we can finally get it on the firestick app. This was extremely helpful. Thank you again