Amazon finally fixes the most annoying issue with Fire TV app sideloading

Posted by Elias Saba on — 31 Comments

If you have a Fire TV devices running Fire OS 7, like the 3rd-gen Fire TV Stick or Fire TV Stick 4K Max, and you sideload many apps, you’ve probably experienced the annoying bug where the icons of some sideloaded apps appear as grayed out missing icons. This bug has been present since at least early 2020 and is a result of the Fire TV home screen launcher not checking all possible locations for an app to store its icon image file. After over 2 years of Fire TV owners living with this bug, Amazon has finally addressed it in a recent update where all sideloaded app icons are now being correctly displayed. Read more ›

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Fire TV Apps can now be sorted by App Size to easily find the chubby ones

Posted by Elias Saba on

Fire TV apps have gotten bigger and bigger over the years and the number of pre-installed apps from Amazon continues to grown each year, however, the internal storage of nearly all Fire TV models is still the same 8GB it was back in 2014 when the first Fire TV was released. This has made running out of free internal storage one of the biggest problems that Fire TV owners face. To help figure out which of your Fire TV apps is hogging the most of your precious space, Amazon has added the option to sort your app list by app size, making it a lot easier to know which apps you might want to delete first. Read more ›

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Clearing app cache on a Fire TV is now easier than ever thanks to this recent change

Posted by Elias Saba on — 8 Comments

Whether it’s to free up space on the paltry internal storage of a Fire TV Stick or to try to fix an app that is acting up, clearing the cache data of an app on a Fire TV can get to be a chore that needs to be frequently done. With a recent update to the app management screen in the Fire TV settings, it is now quicker and easier than ever to clear the cache of an app and move on with your streaming. Read more ›

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Amazon significantly improves Network Status Test on Fire TVs with new speed test feature and more

Posted by Elias Saba on — 23 Comments

Amazon Fire TV devices have had a rudimentary network status check for a while that did very little. Usually, it just reported that the network was either disconnected or fine. At best, I’ve found that the tester would sometimes recommend a different WiFi channel to use if the one that is currently being used is congested. Amazon has now completely overhauled the Fire TV’s built-in network test with vastly more information as well as a built-in network speed test. Read more ›

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Amazon removes Developer Options from Fire TVs with latest software update

Posted by Elias Saba on — 22 Comments

Amazon is rolling out a new software update to Fire TV devices that removes the Developer Options menu from the device’s settings menu. This is the menu that allows users to enable ADB debugging, for connecting to the Fire TV from a computer, and, more importantly, it is the menu that allows customers to enable the installation of apps from unknown sources for APK sideloading. Thankfully, the Developer Options menu has just been hidden and can easily be restored. Read more ›

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Fire TV’s new Navigation Menu is now official

Posted by Elias Saba on — 11 Comments

Nearly two months ago, Amazon began rolling out a new navigation menu to Fire TV devices that replaced the text menu with icons and shuffled contents of the various tabs a bit. While a lot of people received the new menu initially, many people never saw the updated menu arrive. It seems as though Amazon has now pushed the new menu out to everyone and made the update official by sending out an email to various news sites, including myself, about the change. If you’re still seeing the old navigation menu, try checking for updates during the next few days.

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Fire TV updated with new Home Screen Navigation icons and menus

Posted by Elias Saba on — 40 Comments

A new software update is currently rolling out to Fire TV Sticks, Fire TV Cubes, and Fire TV Smart TVs that changes the main navigation menu on the Fire TV home screen. Gone are the text navigation menu items, like “Home” and “Find,” that have been part of the Fire TV interface since the beginning. In their place are new icons without any text. However, the change isn’t simply a cosmetic update as the new icons come with revamped screens to go along with them. Read more ›

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Amazon blocks custom Home Launchers with latest Fire TV software update

Posted by Elias Saba on — 79 Comments

It was inevitable, but a new software update that is currently rolling out to Fire TV devices appears to break the ability to circumvent Amazon’s own Fire TV interface and use custom launcher home screens, as reported by Finnzz on Reddit and XDA. Amazon has a long history of quickly patching workarounds that allow Fire TV owners from using anything but Amazon’s own home screen interface on Fire TVs, but, for over a year now, it has been possible to do just that through a Launcher Manager that first appeared in late 2020. That seems to now be coming to an end as the workaround used by the launcher utility no longer works in the latest software updates for the Fire TV Cube, Fire TV Stick 4K, Fire TV Stick 4K Max, and other Fire TV models. Read more ›

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Amazon adds Input selection in the menu bar of the new interface for Fire TV Smart TVs

Posted by Elias Saba on — 13 Comments

The new Fire TV interface update for Fire TV Smart TVs seems to have recently resumed its rollout and with it comes a small, but very welcomed, addition to the main navigation menu. Amazon has added a new Inputs button to the menu bar, between the profile selector and the Home button. This makes it much easier to change inputs since inputs no longer appear in the Recent row on the home screen. Read more ›

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New Firestick and Fire TV Smart TV software update appears to resume new interface rollout

Posted by Elias Saba on — 13 Comments

About a month ago, the new Fire TV interface began rolling out to 2nd-gen Fire TV Sticks and to Fire TV Smart TVs for the first time. Those were the last two device groups to get the new interface but many with those devices have still not received the update, which indicates that the update was likely halted due to an issue. It now seems like the rollout of the new interface to those devices has resumed again since a pair of new software versions have popped up. Read more ›

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