Firestick Overheating Overview
Whenever your Firestick feels hot to the touch, it may produce issues that can affect the performance of your Firestick. Overheating places the device at risk of continual damage if it’s not being taken care of. It won’t only slow the Firestick’s performance, but you will experience more lags, connectivity problems, and more buffering.
Fortunately, not all Firesticks overheat. However, if you are reading this, then yours probably did. Don’t worry, there have been many complaints online about this issue and that is why this article is made.
What is an Amazon Firestick?
An Amazon Firestick is a popular streaming device that you connect to your television and enables you to stream any content over the internet. The Firestick is branded officially as the Amazon Fire TV Stick. However, it is more commonly known as Firestick.
Causes That Lead To Firestick Overheating
Aside from checking your Firestick device from time to time, your device will notify you with a warning message like “Device overheating”, which will be displayed on the screen.
If not taken care of immediately, you will face at least one of these issues:
- Menu freezing when scrolling.
- Streams buffer.
- Loss of internet connection.
- Lagging hardware that will take minutes before an app is launched.
- Regular rebooting or restarting of your device.
There are some cases where users will find out too late that their Firestick device has already melted away.
There are many apps that need more processing power than other apps, such as the Kodi app. When using these “heavy” applications, you will notice that your Firestick will feel warmer than how it actually is, which is expected.
Techniques To Prevent Firestick Overheating
1. Use an HDMI extender
A Firestick comes with its own HDMI extender. The extender is there for a reason. It’s a great idea that you use the HDMI extender when plugging your Firestick on the TV.
Without an extender, your Firestick will be too near to your TV, which bars the airflow. More importantly, the TV also produces heat. This will prevent your Firestick from cooling down. It partakes in your Firestick overheating.
Using an HDMI extender will assist in making space between the two resulting in the Firestick having better airflow. This will help your Firestick from overheating.
2. Insert the Firestick in a different panel or another HDMI port
This is something that you should keep in mind, many TVs have multiple HDMI ports. You will see that there are ports on the side and on the back of the TV.
You can plug the device at the back panel of the TV. However, it will be compressed and have less exposure to airflow. While the side ports are better exposed to more airflow.
Even if you use the HDMI extender, its length is enough to hide your Firestick behind the TV. It will maintain to be uncluttered and neat.
3. Clear the unneeded cache from heavy apps
When using an app on your Firestick, it produces caches in your device’s storage. The heavier the app, the larger the cache size. Even though it’s stored temporarily, it will still consume your storage space.
Streaming applications such as Kodi makes larger caches than others. It’s a great idea to maintain the clearing up of the cache from time to time.
To remove the cache, here are the steps:
- Open the Settings in your Firestick device.
- Click on the Applications tab.
- Then open the “Manage Installed Applications”.
- Select the app you want to clean. For example, Kodi.
- Then click on the “Clear Cache” option.
4. Force close other apps from running in the background to prevent Firestick Overheating
Oftentimes the app will continue to run even if you have closed the app. For example, when an app freezes, usually you press the Home button to return to the home screen of your Firestick because pressing the back button won’t work. With that, it is likely that the app continues to run in the background.
When apps are running in the background, it eats the device’s resources which results in overheating. Luckily, you can forcefully close them.
Follow these steps:
- Access the Settings in your Firestick.
- Click on the “Applications” tab.
- Then open the “Manage Installed Applications”.
- Click on the app that you want to close.
- Finally, click “Force Stop”.
5. Unplug Firestick to Reset
Forcefully closing apps and clearing up caches avoids your Firestick from overheating. However, for each app, you must do that individually. With many cache files, there is a chance that there are multiple applications running in the background.
Clearing up the cache and forcefully stopping the apps will consume a lot of time. The remedy for that is to power down your device. However, the Firestick doesn’t have a built-in shutdown option, so you will have to do it manually.
You will unplug your Firestick from the power source. Unplug it for 2 to 3 minutes until the device has cooled down. After that, you may plug the device back. This will automatically clear up the cache and close running apps in the background.
6. Uninstall unnecessary apps to prevent Firestick Overheating
One of the downsides of a Firestick is that it has limited storage. Both the Firestick 4K and Firestick only comes with a storage space of 8GB. With that size and the size of files and apps today, it’s likely to fill up easily.
When your Firestick is running out of storage, it will work harder which then leads to overheating. Hence, it’s suggested that you remove any applications that are not needed.
There are 2 methods that you may follow. Here are the following steps:
Method 1:
- Open the Settings of your Firestick.
- Access the Applications.
- Click on the Manage Installed Applications tab.
- Select the app you want to uninstall.
- Then click on Uninstall.
- Click on Uninstall again when asked again.
Method 2:
- On your Firestick home screen, go to the second row labeled Your Apps & Channels.
- Move to the left and click on See All.
- Using your remote, select the app or apps you want to uninstall.
- Press the menu button on your remote to display the popup menu that is in the bottom right corner.
- Click on Uninstall.
- Then, click on OK at the next pop-up.
7. Delete the APK files of installed third-party apps to Avoid Firestick Overheating
For you to sideload third-party applications like Tea TV or Cinema HD, you will have to download APK files on your Firestick. When the app has been installed, you won’t need the APK files anymore. However, these files don’t automatically get deleted, you will have to remove them manually to prevent your Firestick from overheating.
If you are using a downloader app to sideload these apps, it will have an option to delete the APK files.
Follow these steps to do so:
- When the app you want has been installed, click on the Done button but don’t click on Open.
- Then, click on Delete.
- Click on the Delete button again to remove the APK file that you installed.
8. Manually reset Firestick
If some of the ways mentioned don’t work, then the only troubleshooting left is to reset your device. Resetting will return your Firestick to its factory default settings. It will delete all of your apps and clear out your custom settings. With that being said, you will have to set your Firestick again, just like when you first got it.
Here are the steps to reset Firestick:
- Access the Settings of your Firestick.
- Scroll down the page and open the Reset to Factory Defaults option.
- Then click on Reset.
- The device will then automatically reset.
9. Turn off Video and Sound Autoplay
One of the best things about the Firestick is that it constantly plays videos in replay on the screen. However, it does not play any videos. The device’s algorithm chooses the videos that you would like based on your streaming history.
The only issue with this feature is that it adds a lot to the device’s CPU load. Luckily, it can be easily disabled. Switching off the Autoplay feature will help in saving your Firestick’s power, which will avoid it from overheating.
Follow these steps to do so:
- Access the Settings on your Firestick.
- Then click on the Preferences tab.
- Open the Featured Content option.
- Finally, switch off both the Allow Sound Autoplay and Allow Video Play.
10. Use the TV USB port instead
Everyone knows that the Firestick uses the power adapter to boot which can be used from an adapter or directly on the TV. So, this will create issues when using the adapter due to the light voltage rising too high and will result in your Firestick overheating.
However, it is highly advisable to use the USB port of the TV instead because it only provides a specific amount of power to the Firestick. This will prevent your device from overheating and the issue will be fixed.
Always Use FireStick with a VPN
The Amazon Fire TV stick is the best device for streaming online videos. Install apps that you want for watching TV shows and movies. You can also install other apps for many purposes. Unfortunately, ISPs may impede you streaming rate. We recommend you to get Surfshark to stop ISP throttling. Nonetheless, many Firestick or Fire TV Stick users prefer Surfshark VPN service for privacy, price, and speed. It is recommended to use Surfshark service, the fastest, trusted, & most secure Virtual Private Network available.
Install Surfshark on Firestick
How to Install Surfshark VPN on Firestick
If your Firestick still has the older interface, read this article to learn how to update it: Update Firestick Interface.
Follow our screenshots below to install the SurfShark VPN app on your Fire TV stick.
1. Go to the Home screen of your Firestick.
2. Navigate towards the Find tab. Press the Search button from the resulting dropdown.
3. Type in the keyword of SurfShark and select from the suggestions that will appear.
4. Click the official SurfShark icon from your search results.
5. Press the Download (You own it) button.
6. The SurfShark VPN installer will download on your device.
7. SurfShark VPN’s app will automatically install itself on your Fire TV stick.
8. Press the Open button after completing SurfShark VPN’s installation process.
9. Please wait for the SurfShark VPN to load its user interface.
10. You can now log in with your SurfShark VPN account credentials.
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Install Surfshark on Firestick
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YOUR INTERNET ACTIVITY IS BEING WATCHED
ReviewVPN cannot attest to the legality, security and privacy of the applications discussed on this site. It is highly recommended that you use a VPN service while streaming or using Kodi.
Currently, your IP 18.97.9.173 is visible to everyone and your Browser is being tracked by Advertisers & ISP Provider.
Here are the main reasons why you must use a VPN:
- Your activities are hidden from your ISP, the government, and from the apps you are using.
- You can access additional movies and TV streams.
- ISP attempts to throttle are thrwarted thus reducing buffering issues.
- Geographically restricted content like Netflix and Hulu can be unblocked.
A VPN works be replacing your ISP-assigned IP address and creating an encrypted tunnel. We recommend the no log service offered by IPVanish. It works well on a Firestick and offers the fastest possible speeds.
Conclusion
The Firestick has been designed to tolerate heat. However, it cannot be denied that it happens. Above are some of the easiest ways that you can fix Firestick overheating. All of the steps function well. Moreover, be sure that you have read through all the listed ways so that in case one does not work for you, then surely the others will. If we happen to miss or forget something to mention, then feel free to leave a comment below.