A new Fire TV and Fire TV Stick software update, which makes it easier to get to both your sideloaded and official apps, will begin rolling out to both first and second generation devices soon. The new software update carries version number 5.0.5.1 and will finally allow sideloaded apps to appear in the “Recent” section of the Fire TV’s home screen. The update also adds two new ways to get to your Fire TV’s “App” section. You will now be able to double-press the Home button, on your Fire TV remote or game controller, to jump directly into your app library. Additionally, there is now a new “My Apps” shortcut in the popup that appears when you hold down the Home button.
It’s unknown at this point if the new 5.0.5.1 software update blocks rooting, so if your device is rooted and you don’t want to lose root, be sure you have updates blocked. If you’re a diehard fan of FireStarter’s home button double-press detection, this update may cause issues with that functionality. I’ll be sure to post about this new version’s rootability and compatibility with FireStarter as soon as I receive the update and test things out.
As always, the new software update will be rolling out slowly and there is no way to manually install or force the update. Be sure to let us know in the comments when you receive the update and especially if you notice any other changes it makes.
Update
If Kodi or other sideloaded apps aren’t showing up on your Home screen, follow this guide.
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Finally! Kodi officially on the home screen without any hacks. This really restores my faith in Amazon.
My Kodi has always appeared on the home screen. Don’t see what the big deal is here.
Kodi is on your home screen due to an old bug that has been patched. The patch does not go back and remove Kodi if it is already there, but if Kodi drops off your recent list, like due to a factory reset, then it would not reappear. Unless you update to this new 5.0.5.1 update of course.
Would you disable auto updates on the fire stick? Just in case they try to kill kodi ?
Smh same here
This does NOT restore my faith in amazon, because they still won’t allow Kodi in their appstore. But it IS a great change.
+1 It’s been a frustrating wait. I couldn’t even see the Kodi launcher in Apps after upgrade to OS5.
Go to your settings go to manage apps you find your list of apps there you can launch it
I would help capturing it but my capture device is on blocks LOL
Does it mean RBox will hold off releasing 5.0.5 for 1st gen and skip to this one… or will he 1st release 5.0.5 and then apply the incremental to 5.0.5.1??
Creating the pre-rooted ROM is relatively simple so it won’t delay the 1st-gen release to make the 5.0.5.1 ROM if he already has the 5.0.5 ROM, so I would expect he’ll jump to the 5.0.5.1 ROM if I can get him the stock file prior to him finishing TWRP recovery for the 1st-gen Fire TV. Recovery is the time consuming part.
I’d prefer the preroots the 5.0.5 as most rooted users love Firestarter and how his Fire TV mods help to pin it properly as the main interface without that flashing from the original Amazon interface before it settles on the Firestarter interface as with unroot devices. I found Firestarter’s internal ADB feature to detect the home button generally ineffective. Hopefully root access will help us patch the issues with Firestarter on the new update.
” You will now be able to double-press the Home button” Well that should mess up Firestarter.
All the more reason to support FireStarter’s developer so he keeps his great app updated and working with future changes.
Interesting moves Amazon. I don’t intend to root anymore devices (2 out of 5 devices rooted). That said I would love the ability to hide or remove the Music and perhaps Picture sections. Sort apps to my liking…. My Sonos and Echo does music better. Google cast support and non-html5 Youtube app.
Where is Amazon Fling?
Rbox’s Fire TV mods allow you to remove Music etc. from the main interface. I only have the Apps and Prime section displayed on mine. Rooting allows you to do a lot of things, so keep the roots.
Did we NEED another firmware update so soon? These guys are now as annoying as apple is to me. Fewer updates, more stability and more reason to want to update. This rush rush world of ours is annoying.
Will the Amazon app library “double home press” cause a problem with Firestarter and should I block this update?
If you can’t live without FireStarter and its features (like home double press detection), you should block updates until we know more. Right now it looks like this update does break FireStarter, but we’ll know more soon.
The number one FireStarter feature for me has always been how easy it is to upgrade Kodi &/or now SPMC. FireStarter makes this a four button press.
Check for update.
Download update.
Install Update.
Done or Open program.
Can’t beat that. Will continue to use FireStarter for that feature even with the new Recent sideloaded apps shortcut update.
If amazon allowed kodi in their appstore, that would not be necessary.
/sigh
I think FireStarter allows for a much faster update then the Amazon App Store from my prior experience. since it’s coming directly from the apps GitHub/site on FireStarter.
It wouldn’t allow Kodi because Kodi is used to rip copyrighted videos, including Amazon’s own original content, from its addons.
@Christopher Loughrey, That’s completely wrong. Kodi is a media player, nothing more, it does not “RIP” anything it only plays back media just like the dozens of other media players on Amazon’s app store.
It also does not supply any media and any add-on that does comes from 3rd party sources and has nothing directly to do with Kodi.
The reason that Kodi was removed from Amazon’s app store is due to Amazon’s own ignorance on the subject.
Agreed. This is the only thing giving me pause to uninstall FireStarter now that I can access Kodi easily on the native Fire TV ui. It is the easiest method of installing/updating Kodi.
The newest update seems to remove firestarter..I’m unable to reinstall it
+1 I can confirm that this 5.0.5.1 update removes firestarter (just updated my 1st Gen box moments ago). I have not tried re-installing yet. That is a real bummer, I used to use a double-click to launch XBMC and remotely connect with a tablet to play music. This required no monitor to be active.
I just tried re-installing Firestarter using adbFire. I just get an error message “install failed”.
i get “install successful”, but nothing appears
This seemingly little thing was REALLY a big deal to me. Glad amazon fixed it. It wasn’t the deciding factor by any means, but contributed to me wanting to stay with gen 1 and not looking forward to OS5 as much as I might otherwise.
Still considering upgrading to gen 2 so I’ll be checking in to see if this breaks root. That unfortunately is a deal breaker…
Yes. Got the new update on my 4k box. Can’t get firestarter to install. Doesn’t show in my applications list.
Also, my airfoil speakers app isn’t showing under my apps or recents, though I can find it under my applications under settings. Kind of annoying. Hope firestarter works the magic and get it fixed.
Does it fix the Play-back stuttering issues introduced with 5.0x?
I would say yes. I haven’t noticed a single framedrop since I have installed the 5.0.5.1 update.
Nope. Bevor 5,x it was possible to have a smooth Play-back with manually switching between 50 and 60Hz. Now its impossible, the Choice is between annoying and “LIKE HELL”, depending on Source Material. Maybe an issue only with European or german models.
Found the hidden “Reverse and up” Function to enable 24Hz Play-back. All Fine now! A Miracle why Amazon is not willing to let People select this normally – or make the automatic work,,,
Any info on if this is still rootable?
I guess I don’t understand Fire TV version numbers. I installed the 51.1.6.3 custom ROM in Sept and this ‘new’ version is 5.0.5.1?
Amazon moved from Android 4.2.2 to Android 5.1, so it’s not called FireOS5. It wasn’t just a mere update, it updated the entire operating system to a new version of Android, hence the different names
51.1.6.3 (and 54.1.2.3) are the last versions of Fire OS 3. With the move to Fire OS 5, Amazon switched to version numbering that reflects the OS version better and so started with 5.0.0 as the first Fire OS 5 version. Since then, it has gone: 5.0.0 > 5.0.2.1 > 5.0.2.2 > 5.0.3 > 5.0.3.1 > 5.0.4 > 5.0.5 > 5.0.5.1
I can confirm that this update blocks kingroot 4.1 from gaining root access on original Amazon fire TV. Looks like another hardware root for me
Also I was able to get FireStarter installed again but I had to uninstall the old one first via adb as Amazon had hidden it from apps menu. Then re-installed via adb and it was there again, however the double click feature no longer works but it does appear in your recent apps menu on the Amazon home screen so it can still easily be opened.
Oh and I forgot to mention that startup applications still work with Firestarter once it is re-installed too
Might be other issues at play too
“I’ve had a problem after upgrading to 3.2.3 using the update feature in fire starter. Home clicks are no longer detected. I went back to 3.2.2 and it works fine. Anything special that needs to be done in an upgrade?”
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=66083032&postcount=482
Kofi does not show up on home screen for me even though it’s side loaded and on the fire TV. I just got the update last night/this morning and found this page because fire starter does not work anymore. Do I have to do something special to get kodi to show in recent apps?
Does it show up in the Apps section? If you purchased Kodi from Amazon back when it was in the Amazon appstore, you need to go into your Amazon account and delete the app from your purchase history. If Kodi still doesn’t show up, try uninstalling it and re-installing it.
No it does not. I did install though back when they had it in the market so I’ll try that. Hope they get fire starter back up and running home screen sucks. thank you for replying.
I removed it from apps on my Amazon account but it kodi didn’t show so I factory reset my fire TV reinstalled everything and now it’s there in recents. Thank you for the advice.
how do I get kodi on fire stick if its new with nothing on it
You need to sideload it via adb. Following the guides on this websites to show you how you do that
Easiest way is to install-
http://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-sideload-apps-like-kodi-onto-the-fire-tv-using-nothing-but-the-fire-tv/
So Just got The new update andere can confirm that firestarter no länger Workshop
Kodi that I side loaded is now in The Apps section, but when I got launch it it starts then goes back
To the Amazon home screen, it does display in the recent section.
THe Mediahhh app that it’s also side loaded also appears in the apps section
And can be launched and it does work, the icon is also displayed in the recent section
Next to the kodi icon.
how is rooting going?
Everyone who received the new update can they confirm IanMoz’s claim that the new update blocks Kingroot ?
Yes, it’s confirmed that the 5.0.5.1 blocks KingRoot, but rooting via an A-to-A USB cable is still possible on the Fire TV 2.
Should just move My Apps to recent instead of doing the shortcuts button. Amazon just making it difficult.
I meant home
New update does not allow me to play DTS or Dolby Digital in Kodi 16.0. Passthrough is enabled. It worked perfectly before the update and now after I just get the buzzing noise
New update works okay with older Kodi 15.2 through optical out and DD5.1. Not sure about DTS.
My 4K Fire TV Box has updated and now the Kodi App will appear on the “Recent” section so nice bonus there. However my 1st Gen Fire TV Box has also updated but wierdly whilst the Kodi App appears in “My Apps”, which it did before, it refuses to display in the “Recent” section. Anyone else found this?
No worries, the De-Register Amazon Account / Re-Register account trick sorted it
The de-register re-register trick worked great. Many thanks
So I guess we’re all in the same boat. Firestarter gone, but KODI still there in My Apps & (for most of us) Recent Apps. Which is something of a consolation.
But… how are we supposed to upgrade KODI versions in future? Are we forever stuck on the current version?
I would always be inclined to do a clean install by side loading of the updated Kodi app using eithe ES Explorer or ADB Fire.
Sideloaded apps do appear in Recent menu. However, the icons are very low resolution. Intentional perhaps?
That’s because the official apps get their icons from Amazon’s servers, where as unofficial apps must use the icon embedded in the APK itself, which is a lower resolution than the ones Amazon makes developers upload to their servers.
You can follow this guide to use your own high resolution icons.
At first blush, it seems that the FireTV Gen 1 is running more efficiently. Appears that the Dolby Digital 5.1 content on both Netflix and Amazon is nicely synchronized now over optical audio. Installation involved an optimizing function that I don’t recall seeing in previous updates.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/editpost.php?do=updatepost&postid=59631865
I added an apk for AGK Launcher for people interested in a temp solution till the Fire Starter issue is sorted out. This version of AGK Launcher will show up in your apps list and recent apps list.
Thanks Gopi.
Where can we download the AGK Launcher?
I have Kodi side loaded. Now how can I get it appear on the home screen? It isn’t appearing in Your Apps Library.
See this guide for instructions.
I can’t seem to find the image cache where the sideloaded apps icons are stored. The new update just uses the tiny thumbnail size icons for sideloaded apps in the Recent menu. These icons are then enlarged, making for a poor quality image when sideloaded app icons are viewed in the Recent menu. Recall that we could insert our own preview icons in the image cache directory with the earlier OS.
Sideloaded app icons are loaded from within the APK itself. You can change those icons to a higher resolution version by following this guide.
My kodi doesn’t want to show up on the recent line no matter what I try. Any ideas to make this side loaded app appear?
Don’t worry I got this sorted :)
Mind sharing how you got Kodi to reappear in “my apps”?
How did u resolve it
Adding Kodi to recent and killing firestarter made most jump onboard with the current update. How long till they decide kill Kodi on recent once again? Just a matter of time. :(
What the frack! I had Firestarter 3.2.3 re-installed and working after the 5.0.5.1 update and then overnight it disappeared again. Now that’s what I call a sneaky move. It appears as though Amazon definitely doesn’t want us using Firestarter. It’s not that big a deal because I usually leave Kodi launched on my Fire TV and Kodi does everything I need the Fire TV for. I can watch all my TV shows, movies and my own content libraries within Kodi, so once it’s launched that’s it. If I have to boot Kodi occasionally from the App menu I don’t mind. I’m sure Firestarter will be fixed eventually so I’ll happily wait.
after my update my Kodi is in recent app I click on it it says you have exceeded the device registration limit . please unregister unused devices.But when I hold home button and go to kodi through settings and manage application’s it will launch . I can’t see any apps in app store HELP!!
have had my firestick working for about 5 months and yesterday went to use it to get onto Kodi but now wants my Amazon account log in which it has never asked for before. Is it safe to use Kodi?
Still have not received the 5.0.5.1 update on my 1st gen Fire TV or Fire Stick. Currently on stock, never rooted 5.0.5. Any ideas why I would not get the update on either device? Have tried rebooting but not factory reset. Thanks!
My Fire Stick with the newest updated does not has Kodi on Home screen nor App session. is there anyway to put it on the Home screen of App session for easy access? Thanks in Advance.
I also have noticed that Kodi no long shows up as a recently used app. Anyone have a fix for this?
My kodi was acting a little funny on my fire stick so I Uninstaller it expecting to put it right back on… now it will not install using fire installer or app to fire… I don’t think the update has gone through but do you know of another way I can get it back on there?