There’s an issue that seems to be affecting select Fire TVs which causes all images and icons on the home screen to be blank. The issue also affects the app row, making it impossible to distinguish one app icon from another. The Fire TVs suffering from this issue are otherwise working fine, but it makes navigating the main Fire TV interface very difficult.
All images within the Fire TV launcher are pulled down from Amazon’s servers and cached (i.e., stored) locally on the Fire TV. This is also true for the app icons on the home screen and in the grid of all apps, but is not how the app icons in the Manage Installed Applications menu under Settings. While icons on the home screen are pulled down from Amazon’s servers, the icons in the settings menu are stored within the apps themselves, which is why they are not affected by this issue.
This issue is likely caused by the Fire TV either not being able to download images from Amazon’s servers, Amazon’s servers refusing the connection, or the Fire TV incorrectly storing/retrieving the downloaded images from its cache storage. Issues like these tend to eventually resolve themselves, but here are some things to try that has worked to, at least temporarily, fix the issue.
The first thing you should try to fix this issue, and any other issues for that matter, is to reboot your Fire TV. You can do so from the My Fire TV Menu under settings or by simply pulling the power cable out for a few seconds.
If your Fire TV is using VPN or DNS settings that hide or redirect your internet traffic, this could also be the cause of the issue. If you have a VPN configured, try disabling it and then restarting your Fire TV. If you have custom DNS settings, try changing your DNS settings to either Cloudflare’s servers, which are 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1, or to Google’s servers, which are 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, and then restart your Fire TV. If this solves the issue, then note that restoring your previous VPN or DNS settings will likely cause the issue to eventually reappear.
Something else you can try is to reset the Fire TVs launcher home screen app. To do so, connect to your Fire TV via ADB and then run the following ADB command:
After resetting the launcher, it’s a good idea to also restart your Fire TV. Your Fire TV may feel a bit sluggish for a few minutes while its launcher tries to repopulate all of its data due to the reset. Resetting the launcher with the ADB command above will not clear your apps or settings. It will, however, reset the customized order of apps that you had set.
A final possible solution is to check how much free space your Fire TV has. If your Fire TV is full, then it won’t be able to display images because it doesn’t have room to download them. If your Fire TV has less than 100MB of free space, then it’s a good idea to, at least temporarily, uninstall apps to free up space. Alternatively, you can try clearing the cache of all of your apps individually to free up some space without removing any apps. Clearing the cache will not reset any of an app’s settings, but clear the app’s data will.
If any of the solutions mentioned above worked for you, be sure to let everyone know in the comments. If you’ve found a different solution to this problem, be sure to mention that as well.
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Glad to know I’m not the only one experiencing it. Issue is it’s only one of my four 4k Fire sticks doing this. I currently have 500 mb free on that one so would think I’m good there. I’ve rebooted, cleared the cache on Amazon Appstore as recommended on an old post with different issue and that helped for maybe a day or 2. Odd thing is days it shows fine and others it doesn’t. Home screen is only affected, I can see settings icon as well as all my apps icon and when going there things display fine.
I don’t have this issue, my 4K Firestick connects to my router which has Cloudflare’s DNS servers on it.
Thank you Elias. I saw this first on our bonus room Toshiba Fire TV Edition (2020). Had to go into settings and restart the Fire TV, and then show my wife why simply restarting the TV itself was insufficient. Also saw it yesterday on the Fire TV Stick attached to my office TV. Another reason I have multiple streaming media players on our frequently used TVs. Still cheaper than a cable subscription.
I’ve been seeing blank spots in the first row for like a month now both the new Firestick and old one. Where there should be an image there’s just nothing. No X or no symbol, just one blank space.
I have this issue too. No app icon for Hulu at all.
I have had this same issue on a Fire TV Stick 4k for several weeks now. After a restart the icons show up but after opening an app and getting back to Home they are gone again. Tried all of the above without any success. Free space is 500MB. Fire TV Stick Lite on the same network does not have this issue. DNS settings have not changed for years now and are configured on the router. This issue is new.
I’m having an issue with installing news on app and vuit app. It want allow me to open, says must login to run this app. Then when I try to login it goes blank. I sideloaded both apps to my 4k firestick and they want open.
I don’t have this exact problem. My home screen on only one of my four 4K installations locks up. Graphics are fine but are locked up and can’t be cleared. Although I can select programs, half the screen is covered with non-dismissable graphics.
I noticed this a month or so ago. I think I just restarted it and it was working again. Haven’t had it happen since.
Glad I am not the only one.. Is there a way ( seen before ) on how to use a usb storage device to store most apps ?
I have the same problem with my fire stick 4k I though my tv was going out this is a relief.
Had this going on for at least a month .Tried everything Kind of lived with it until Kodi had an update Deleted old installed new and within 3 days all is well. ..
I have 5 fire tv 4K and only one has this problem I need to go to settings and reboot and then everything is fine.
I had this problem with one of my fire TV sticks. What I did to correct it was roll back whatever app was not showing the icon to the previous version. Then somehow it cashed the icon then I could install the new version and it would apply it.
Thanks for this. How do you roll back an app to an older version?
I just went into my fire TV and restarted it and it came on normal
Not only problems with icons not viable but I cannot get cache to clear. Had to return to using 4k stick.
I’ve seen this issue once on one of my sticks but it cleared up. The problem I am having, and it happens too often, start up the fire stick and get a message “Home unavailable, go to network settings”. I reboot the stick and sometimes it’s fixed for a while and sometimes not. I reboot router and sometimes that fixes it for a while. This happens on both my fire sticks but seldom at the same time. I’ve gone so far as to get my service provider to replace my modem/router. Seems to improve for a while but then issue returns. Also have done factory reset of one stick but eventually the issue comes back. Anyone have this problem and know of a solution?
It’s not you firestick, It’s you cable company. They throttle your service and when that happens it glitches the firestick network. The way I found this out is that when I went away for the summer I had a different cable Co. and had no problem with throttling. My firestick was fine until I returned home after 3 months and had the same problem with my cable Co.
If that was the case then why would it not affect both my fire sticks at the same time? One will be fine and connected and the other will have the “Home not available” issue.
Home not available usually is an Internet connectivity issue I can’t explain why one is working in your house and the other is not I just know that that’s the case when I’ve seen it that my Internet connection is down
But the internet is not down when this happens. Laptop, cell, VoIP phone all connected to same network and working fine. It’s only the fire stick/s. Generally rebooting firestick and or modem takes care of it but last week one day I spent 30 minutes continuously rebooting both things before finally getting connected. Ugh.
I’m guessing your services that work are wired and the firetv is wifi. Sounds like your wifi signal is weak or your channel is getting stepped on by your neighbors.
That happens to me too sometimes. One works one doesn’t. They are both wifi. I’m clueless
Sadly so is Amazon support. The best they can do is tell me to factory reset or they’ll replace the unit. That’s all a pain to deal with.
Different problem. I am using an ethernet connection and firestick wont recognize the San disk external storage. I did format the San disk
New 4k max will not clear cache. Made sure I had current operating system. Rebooted system. Reset to factory defaults. Still have same problem. Cache will show cleared and when you press back the same amount of cache is back. Will not clear. Is anyone having this problem or know of a solution.
I have the same problem with clearing cache on the firestick 4kMax. Have you gotten any help on how to resolve the issue? If so, please let me know!
I have had the same problem with my fire stick. After an hour on the phone with Amazon, trying all of their tricks, ended up having to do a factory reset. No issues since!
This issue plagued me for several weeks on one of my units. I tried everything mentioned, only fix was to do a factory reset. Since then I have not had any further issues. The factory reset was not that big of a deal since it was able to restore apps from prior backup.
My thoughts exactly!!!
Same problem on 2 tvs, had to reset to factory default and repopulate aps. Both stable now. Also found using a cache cleaning app will result in an all gray screen, has to be done manually. Hope this helps someone.
I had this problem on my main TV & it was so irritating, it happened when they changed the Fire Stick Setup over, but I called Amazon & stayed on the phone for 2 1/2 hours because the 1st Rep couldn’t figure it out so I asked for a supervisor & we got working
I’ve had this issue for weeks now but only on one FireStick/TV. I have tried everything and occasionally it will work but as soon as I turned the TV off and back on the next day nothing but blank icons. It was suggested by one forum staff member for me to call customer but after being on hold for over a hour I hung up.
I posted for help on the forum and they are clueless. Going to try the suggestions in the article and see what happens.
I restarted the tv and the icons came back. I am unsure how long the fix will last but it worked for now.
Had this issue for a few days after Amazon sent out their latest update that changed the “home” line, icons are different now. Reset my older (OS 5) stick 3 times before it looked normal.
If Amazon would stop filling my stick with apps I don’t use and don’t want, my memory would stay above 500mb – I’ve seen it as low as 320mb and I get “low memory” messages.
Used ES Explorer to get rid of 2+mb of stored .jpg files from my KODI folder and that helped – KODI stores every icon you see when using KODI.
Rebooting from My Fire TV Menu worked for me. Thank you!
I have never been able to clear the caches 4K fire stick and now it’s not showing the pictures on my front screen on the apps and I don’t know how to fix it I’ve done everything they said and every since I’ve got the 4K I’ve had nothing but problems it’s been so aggravating I thought I would pay more and get this one and it’ll be a lot better and how I was so disappointed did nothing but trouble
I have a Pioneer Fire TV, and this randomly happened to me today. After clearing cache & data, I restarted and then reset to factory settings (regrettably) and neither worked. Something in my head told me to unplug my modem and router for a minute (since it seemed a tad bit sluggish), and then restart my fire tv – and that did the trick. Just wanted to share in case it works for someone else.