In record time, rbox has released his pre-rooted version of the latest Amazon Fire TV update. I captured and gave him the update URL a few hours ago and he has already created a pre-rooted version. As always, you can download it from my ROM page and install it in the usual manner. In order to install this pre-rooted ROM, your Fire TV must: already be rooted, have rbox’s boot menu, and be currently running pre-rooted software version 51.1.4.0, 51.1.4.1, 51.1.4.2, or 51.1.4.3. If your Fire TV is running software version 51.1.3.0 or older, whether it’s pre-rooted or stock, you should follow my starters guide to get you updated correctly to this pre-rooted 51.1.5.0 ROM. If you appreciate rbox’s work or mine, and want to show your appreciation, you can donate to rbox or myself.
@AFTVnews
AFTVnews
I’m working on installing this as we speak. Finally no more need for Stickmount to use my USB drive.
Now that there is a pre root image, How can we unmount default usb storage (Hard drive) and mount (Hard Drive) using other app (like Stickmount) which can mount NTFS format ?
10X
The guide for using usb drive for internal storage includes instructions for reverting to internal: http://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-use-a-usb-drive-as-the-fire-tvs-internal-storage/
will updating to this ROM keep the same Kodi settings i have on? LIkewise, when updating, and using stickmount, will that feature be disabled now that the FTV will have USB external storage support?
I’d like to update but just keep everything in tact with the new features enabled; keeping my current setup with a usb thumb drive storing the thumbnails and what not.
Well i just updated it everything is exactly the same.. I did notice a message from amazon saying it was checking my usb stick to see if it was compatible so external usb is definately a go.. How do access it I have no idea though. There does not seem to be any interface in any of the menus to look at my usb drive. Also was there supposed to be a way to put shortcuts on the homescreen with this update I do not see that either.
to access external it has to be formatted a specific way, i believe FAT32 but prior to that, using it with KODI you needed exFAT. To see the external storage you have to go to system > about > storage and it will show you the internal AND external storage IF you have the right format external storage attached. I have a USB hub, i think i might just get another USB drive and format it to FAT32 and it should recognize it.
I updated myself and everything seems to be the same, however, STICKMOUNT usually has a green thumbnail icon BUT mine is shaded grey. It SAYS it’s mounted but i’m unsure how to test it, running shows and saving it to the routed thumbnails folder on the stickmount.
I DID notice that the bluetooth headset feature was cool, a little lag in sound but nice. I tried running it with a TV show i was streaming with KODI and all it was static feedback, the show was a 720p 5.1 channel and didn’t get any sound, just loud static.
removed my usb drive, formatted it to FAT and plugged it back into the hub. Amazon fire tv recognizes it from the bat and when going into foldermount, it recognizes it as well and i’m able to direct my thumbnails to the drive (green pin). Don’t need stickmount now that FireTV recognizes it.
I was unsure if whether i should have the whole KODI file just routed to the thumbdrive as it could potentially store the cache inside there – but since i have my cachebuff settings to 1 with a high cachemembuff setting it doesn’t really matter right?
Does anyone use their USB drive to store anything OTHER than thumbnails or download stuff from KODI directly to the thumbdrive?
well goes to show me, when mounting the thumbnail folder to the external USB, i lost all thumbnails. I couldn’t even access the addon’s under video. Now i’m just stuck with a barebones Kodi. Would hate to just reinstall everything and setup the whole thing all over again, any suggestions on how to move the thumbnail’s back to the Kodi folder and have it back to what i use to have it?
Delete textures.db file from database folder in (kodi) userdata profile folder. It will then rebuild thumbnails and be back to functional.
You won’t get bluetooth audio with anything but stereo. I don’t know about DTS stereo; I haven’t tried it.
Can this be installed over 51.1.4.3 ? Or do I need to go back to 51.1.4.0 or 51.1.4.1
Sure it can, you need to have 51.1.4.0 or higher.
how can i put kodi on the ext usb
Any chance of a unrooted version for those of us that cant root
if you want these features just update over the air.
no over air update available for me yet
Do you have Amazon updates blocked in your router? If not just give it some time it will update.
Did anyone using MountSDCARDtoUSB installed this update? Would HD still be recognized after installing 51.1.5.0? I am asking this question as I do not want to lose my updated s/w and I am not sure if I should reverse MountSDCARDtoUSB before updating or update as is. Thank you.
My advice if your installing a new ROM on any android device… Always start fresh..
The install instructions say you need ClockworkMod custom recovery, and the ClockworkMod instructions say you need to be already rooted.
I have a FireTV that is on the latest un-rooted firmware. Is there any way to root? Or are these updates only for boxes that are already rooted to continue riding the wave?
At this time there is no root for latest firmware you currently have. The recently released rooted firmware is for those who already had root from earlier firmware that was rootable.
Is it safe to upgrade from realbbb’s rom? I’m assuming it is.
Yes I did it.
And I did not do factory reset. Just installed rom zip file , in usual manner.
Thanks, Jay.
Received update on all 3 of my fire tv’s last night. Just got done updating them all to rooted firmware that was just released. I’ll post again once I know how everything tests out.
First of all sorry but my english is very poor.
Now i have a NTFS external hdd mounted with stickmount with movies and pictures. If i upgrade the fire tv i’ll need to format the hdd to fat32 or i can still use stickmount?
How can i choose if the apps will be installed in the internal memory or in the external drive?
I have this same exact question. I’m rooted, and using an NTFS-formatted hard drive which has movies > 4GB on it. Formatting at fat32 isn’t an option, as I wouldn’t be able to keep those >4GB files on the drive. Assuming I can still use StickMount with my NTFS hard drive, and also get native fat32 USB support, i might actually upgrade :)
i just got xcom and don’t have internal space anymore… is it possible to put apps on an external drive?
Any1 got a unrooted version ? to download
Here:
http://www.aftvnews.com/software/
Does anyone know why none of these links work? What is the process of forcing this update to install from the file (once downloaded) for the fire stick?
…note to self. If you wanted to download it, don’t block the website at the router level.
I updated and everything is working good. I moved all my apps into internal storage and erased some. The problem that I am having is that internal memory is still low. There is nothing I see in internal hogging that much space. How can I fix this?
If you have any of Jmandawg’s mount /data scripts running I would tread very, very lightly. I updated to this firmware this morning and have been spending the last several hours trying to fix everything as the mount partial to /data script at the very least no longer works. The update seemed to go through fine but I can no longer get the FTV to recognize the external hard drive. I’ve decided to just backup the contents of the drive, reformat it as fat32 and start over fresh. This was not how I was planning to spend the weekend :/
I’m thinking about erasing everything and starting fresh. If I factory reset everything, will I lose root, recovery, boot image and Ota block?
BE CAREFUL – this bricked 2 of my fire TV’s. Both were rooted on the 51.1.4.1 with the latest CWM. Update when just as I would expect, then on reboot all I get is the while amazon logo and a black screen. No recovery via keyboard either. Really dumb of me to try it again on a second box, but I thought there is no way, these firmware updates have been solid. This one failed me bigtime. There went two rooted fire tv’s. Anyone successfully updated from this version of the firmware?
this also happened to me
It would be nice to understand why the Fire TV has been bricked. I will not attempt to install this ROM update until confirmation from AFTVnews that it is safe to do so.
not sure but i can do the alt+i+printscreen to get to recovery because the bootmenu has somehow been disabled but i reinstalled and it did not work i am going to try to downgrade now
The same happened to me.
I’ve checked the md5 after copying the update to my FireTV.
Running the last CWM.
But alt+printscreen+i is not helping.
Any suggestions?
This type of issues need to be posted @ http://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/development/prerooted-stock-images-t2882337/page44 On the main thread so they can address one way or another…
I am waiting to make sure any issues are ironed out before upgrading all my FTV’s to the latest…
If you have a fully unlock bootloader you’re not totally bricked if the bootloader still works.
Unplug power, plug in usb A-to-A cable, and then power up aftv. It should boot into the bootloader automatically. from there you can do a fastboot flash recovery cwr_filename.img
or fastboot boot cwr_filename.img
then a fastboot boot recovery to get into it. Once there you should be able to restore one of your backups, or someone elses.
Which cwr_filename.img are you referring to?
if you want to go back to stock – check this guide
http://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-revert-an-amazon-fire-tv-back-to-stock-recovery-and-stock-software/
*don’t do factory reset you’ll regret later.
I’m keeping my current stable rooted version 51.1.4.1_514013920 by rbox until all the kinks have been ironed out. Hate to lose some of the USB functionality.
after doing alt+i+printscreen i reinstalled 51.1.4.3_514020320 and it is working fine now i will wait for this to get a update
I have “51.1.4.0_514006420 updated ” version on my firetv. But is a rooted version since i had an earlier version which was rooted and then i moved to this.
My Qtn: Can i install the rbox boot menu as its a rereq for this 51.1.5.0_515020820 update?
Yes, you can and need to install rbox’s boot menu before installing 51.1.5.0
Thanks.. I realized that i do have a CWM also installed for me. do i still need to unlock the bootloader when i have a CWM recovery installed? What guide should i follow for my case
For the people who are having problems, did u check that the md5 matched on your download of the ROM?
i figured it out if you have install 51.1.4.3_514020320 not by rbox then you have to first reflash rbox bootmenu then install all working fine now
That’s not true. Many, including myself, have installed pre-rooted 51.1.5.0 over pre-rooted 51.1.4.3 without first reflashing the boot menu and have had no issues.
The burning questions for me would be:
1. speed of the USB storage as compared to using the existing (Link2SD or Jmandawg’s scripts) methods. Is it more sluggish, or faster or about the same?
2. Using more than one storage device on a hub? Is it possible with the new update or are we limited to one storage device?
3. If we use a USB HDD will the system be able to sleep/wake the drive as needed? Or is Amazon thinking most people will just use flash or SSD drives and so no need to try and deal with constantly spinning HDDs?
the weird thing is that they recommend usb 3.0 and it is only a 2.0 port
I did install the costume firmware and now my Amazon Fire TV is BRICKED. I check the Md5sum and is correct. Any Advice or procedure to unbricked ????????
did you have 51.1.4.3_514020320 installed
yes I have 51.1.4.3_514020320 installed
that is why you need to reflash rbox bootmenu then you can install the new update
also you can just install 51.1.4.3_514020320 back over your bricked firetv just hook up a keyboard and keep pressing alt-i-printscreen it will restart do it 3-5 times and the recovery menu will finally come up then just reinstall 51.1.4.3_514020320 reflash rbox bootmenu then update to the new one
You mean to reflash rbox boot menu by doing the guide posted here in AFTV News. Following the commands ect… To end up with the boot screen with multiple choice boot screen???
Angelo – Try this to unbrick the device.
http://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-unbrick-by-entering-recovery-mode-and-factory-reset-the-amazon-fire-tv/
Good luck!
MK
Thanks it works!!!!! Now restoring to stable pre rooted 51.1.4.1.
until a fix come out.
Not sure what happened but I feared the worst and thought I had a brick with my first device, used this trick I’d never heard of and was able to get back into root and install my previous fw…thanks so much for pointing out this tip.
I may try again in a day or two.
I’m on 51.1.4.3_514020320 by:realbbb
is there a prerequisite i should know about before updating to insure i do not brick?
if you have not reflashed rbox bootmenu since you have installed this 51.1.4.3_514020320 then you need to before you update or it will brick and you will have to downgrade
it won let me it keeps saying that it already exists.
I don’t believe the issue people are having is related to the pre-rooted 51.1.4.3 ROM. Myself and many other have installed the pre-rooted 51.1.5.0 ROM over a Fire TV running the pre-rooted 51.1.4.3 ROM without having any issues.
The issue seems to be very isolated, so I don’t know the cause, but my gut tells me it’s either caused by an improperly installed boot menu or by a corrupted 51.1.5.0 ROM transfer/push over ADB.
If your Fire TV can’t boot or if you are not confident in the stability of your boot menu installation, my advice is the same:
You should install pre-rooted ROM version “51.1.4.0_514006420
updated”. Installing this version will overwrite (remove) the boot menu and reset your Fire TV. You should then install the boot menu and then install pre-rooted ROM 51.1.5.0.
You should also check the md5 hash value of any ROM you push to the Fire TV by using busybox’s md5 utility on the Fire TV itself. You can see how to do this in my boot menu installation guide.
I tried to install boot menu on 51.1.4.3 and it is stuck on Amazon logo(white logo) on reboot, can’t go anywhere from here, alt + prt_screen doesn’t help either, any inputs on this?
rbox boot menu then firetv logo then reboot and repeat. same thing happened to me. luckily i was able to use a usb keyboard at boot menu , whent into cwm then adb’d the latest rooted firmware and it worked.
Does your Fire TV have a fully unlocked bootloader? If it does, you can try using an A-to-A USB cable to connect it to a PC and run the command:
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
(Download the .img file from AFTVnews.com/recovery)
I haven’t tried this yet myself, so I don’t have a guide, but it should work. After flashing recovery, you should be able to enter recovery using the alt+print_screen method.
Hi,
Does CWN has to be the same as what was installed previously or any version will do it? Jus curios. Thank you.
hi. i cant get this to work. it bricked everytime i try. i have a qustion. do i keep the Rbox’s boot menu for the new update to work. cause i have the new CWM reconvery on it. it boots to it with no problems. ?
Tried update, now I think I am bricked.
Did get something like – “Amazon kernel detected not patching”
read in an older thread that this was ok.
checked md5 sum on aftv
Was on 51.1.4.1_514013920 – fixed – rbox
Chose not to implement fully unlocked boot loader per this comment on guide –
“For now, the average person will gain very little from fully unlocking their Fire TV’s bootloader if they’ve already partially unlocked the bootloader. So there’s not much reason to follow this guide yet, but hopefully that will change as custom ROMs get developed for the Fire TV. At which point this guide will become more useful.”
Tried this –
http://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-unbrick-by-entering-recovery-mode-and-factory-reset-the-amazon-fire-tv/
to no avail. It did seem to reset a few times, but no recovery option or CWM.
Sniffing on router/dhcp log shows no network activity from aftv.
Should have waited, but the functional usb disk mounting was too tempting.
Ideas anyone?
Thanks
justino – You can try to install clockworkmod and recover back to an older pre-rooted rom. Good luck!
http://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-install-clockworkmod-custom-recovery-on-the-amazon-fire-tv/
You may need to downgrade as well so check this out.
http://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-manually-upgrade-or-downgrade-the-amazon-fire-tv/
Good luck!
Thanks MK, but I cannot get into anything. Just first white logo, colored boot logo, then the normal boot logo. then have to power cycle.
When alt-i-prntscreen nothing, except after 3 to 6 tries it will flicker a bit then go back to the colored logo then boot logo. I think it is trying to enter CWM/recovery here, but it does not.
Is there any other key combo that might do something?
Thanks
1. Have usb keyboard connected.
2. power on FTV.
3. Press and hold alt + print + i screen button
4. Now tricky part is to keep pressing i button for 2 seconds so that the screen flickers for about 4-6 times until FTV reboots.
5. When it reboots you will see a red exclamation mark and u should Now hit your home key button.
try this at the colored logo – as its booting hold right arrow(outside of circle on remote)and back button at same time for 10 to 15 seconds You will see light on unit turn yellow and it will come on to ok or cancel a factory reset .
If continue to fail, last resort – Return to Amazon if its still under warranty.
Hi MK, thanks – I did try all these steps already, but tested again today. I will try tomorrow with a different keyboard just to be 100% sure.
I would recommend anyone else prior to trying thi risky update –
Fully unlock boot loader and test that you can connect via adb per recovery method – and/or test that you can get back into CWM without ‘adb reboot recovery’ from a booted system. Having current and new ROM versions in /sdcard/ would also be a very good idea!
Cheers
Holy cra! I let it sit for ~10 minutes it rebooted on its own. I let it do it again and then on the next reboot tried alt-i-print and behold CWM!
was able to adb push the old rbox ROM and install and boot that! – So back on 51.1.4.1 – fixed.
Note – adb in CWM does not seem to route, so you must be on the same subnet!
Cheers!!!!!
Hi AFTVnews!
I have “51.1.1.0_user_511070220″ version on my FTV. And I have BusyBox installed, but not sure how to check whether I have the boot menu now?
Do I need to downgrade, to install this Pre-Rooted 51.1.5.0 Custom Rom?
Please advise.
the usb hdd won’t work unless stickmount is loaded and the usb is mounted.
No issues upgrading from prerooted 51.1.4.3, here.
Do you have installed rbox boot menu???? Before you installed the pre rooted update???
same here, no issues, and I did not do factory reset.
A few months ago, I followed the guide to move all of my storage to external. I’m using a 1tb drive constantly connected to my AFTV. How will this affect my moving to this new update? Is it even possible, considering I’ve (assumedly) altered the paths in the drive to use my external HDD instead of internal storage?
Are there files needed in .3 that’s not in .1 to install the .50 build?
This update bricked my Fire TV. I have been updating these custom ROMs for 2 Fire TVs for the past 6 months and follow the steps to the T. Not sure what happened this time – the screen is stuck in Amazon fire Tv logo . Alt+printscreen+i not working :(.
Alt+printscreen+i must do it multiple times like 5 times before it will take you to recovery
Thanks. After pressing alt+printscreen+i multiple times I can get to recovery screen but since I didnt have recovery.img in /sdcard I tried factory reset. It erased all the data and not doing anything else. Again stuck at Fire TV logo. Since I did factory reset not able to use adb as well. Not sure what else I can do at this point.
Hi AFTVnews!
I have “51.1.1.0_user_511070220″ version on my FTV. Do I need to downgrade, to install this Pre-Rooted 51.1.5.0 Custom Rom?
Please advise.
Much thanks to AFTVnews and rbox. I just updated to 51.1.5.0 from 51.1.4.1. I have followed AFTVnews’ guides line by line. After I originally updated to 51.1.4.1, I installed BusyBox, per the guide. For those of you that haven’t updated yet, be sure to install BusyBox first, per AFTVnews’ new guide he just posted (http://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-install-and-setup-busybox-on-the-amazon-fire-tv/). I’m guessing those that updated to 51.1.4.3 did not reinstall BusyBox afterwards and now are partially bricked.
I cannot thank AFTVnews enough! All your hard work is much appreciated!
I successfully updated mine with the new pre-rooted version. No problems here. I was running rbox’s boot menu before the update. I’m very happy with the usb storage!
Finally updated to 51.1.5.0 from 51.1.4.3 successfully. It appears that the Pre-Rooted ROM used is not an issue. You just have to follow AFTVnews guides to the letter and not skip anything. I freely admit that it was rather nerve racking doing so after seeing all these Fire TV brick reports.
I need help guys.
I loaded and installed the latest firmware and once I completed the process in CWM it booted and won’t go pass the Amazon fire TV logo.
I was able to get back into CWM by pressing alt prt scr and I on my usb keyboard
So now what? When I am at the CWM screen I have the options to install a zip file, clear partitions, restore to factory…
What can I do at this point to bring my fire TV back to the home screen?
Try this: http://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-unbrick-by-entering-recovery-mode-and-factory-reset-the-amazon-fire-tv/
I tried this but it just brings me back to clockwork mod. Not sure what to do from here
Thanks a lot! Successfully updated my 2 Fire TVs from prerooted 51.1.4.1. Installation was no different from the other roms 51.1.4.1+.
as with most people that get plagued with storage space, is there any other way to have thumbnails store onto the external hard drive? Has anyone tried storing the repositories or “add ons” to an external drive?
Don’t know why rbox insist on linking updates to his ‘boot menu’, all these inter-dependencies just make it more risky to update.
How about releasing a clean prerooted firmware like realbbb’s that doesn’t require rbox boot menu.
Hi,
I am unable to downgrade from 51.1.1.0_user_511070220 to 51.1.0.2_user_510058520 in order to eventually upgrade to rbox’s Pre-Rooted 51.1.5.0 Fire TV Custom ROM.
I followed all the steps here http://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-manually-upgrade-or-downgrade-the-amazon-fire-tv/. I even followed the steps in case downgrading fails on the same page but I continie to get a message that System update failed.
I noticed that adbfire 1.22 allows you to unlock bootloader – can I try this to unlock bootloader?
Please advise!
Thanks!
I have the boot menu installed and the rbox ROM before this one from late Nov 2014 I think, is it safe to update?