Develop Bugs

Kindle Fire: Install Apps outside US

Hello there everybody
Nice to meet you all
I come before you with a grave problem: Is there another way to install apps on a rooted kindle outside the US? For sideloading, you need a free app from the Amazon App Store, which, I had to find out, was not available outside the US.
In retrospect, it was quite a stupid thing to buy the device. Lesson learned.
But maybe you might know a way? (I can't install the google market without a file explorer)
Thank you.

I contacted Unblock-Us and they told me they are working on supporting the Amazon App Store. If they do, then it's just a matter of setting your router's DNS according to what they give you and it'll be possible. They have a week of free trial which is enough to download the file explorer you want.
Outside of that, I'm in the same problem. The second option would be to have someone in America register a dummy Amazon account onto his Kindle Fire, click "buy" on the free file explorer app, then de-register, and when you register your own Kindle Fire to the same account, you could sync the app with your kindle. As far as I know, Amazon still allows syncing your bought content into the device even outside the US (I never tested this though).
If anyone can please volunteer to try the second option that would be awesome. Till then we need to wait for Unblock-Us.

Google is ur friend:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=157358
lots of different options in the above thread. Enjoy.

Shftup said:
Google is ur friend:
lots of different options in the above thread. Enjoy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't really see anywhere in that thread where you can sideload apps without the ES Explorer or some other sort of app.. we can't download apps at all.
Another thread on that site says that you can install apps as long as you have a US account on Amazon.. which is not true. I have an account with a US address, US credit card and US location for the kindle and it says my location is not the US on the Fire, meaning it tracks IP.

Could adb be used, So download ES to the PC and use adb install ? That should work fine

or get the ES apk file from google, upload to dropbox, access dropbox from fire, it will automatically install it for u.

Shftup said:
or get the ES apk file from google, upload to dropbox, access dropbox from fire, it will automatically install it for u.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait.. you can just download APK files and install it? Is it really that easy?
All the guides said you need ES Explorer which is what was so misleading. There's no issue here at all and you don't need an explorer for anything, just Google.

Side loading
Hi, did you try side loading the ES file explorer?

bikkou said:
I don't really see anywhere in that thread where you can sideload apps without the ES Explorer or some other sort of app.. we can't download apps at all.
Another thread on that site says that you can install apps as long as you have a US account on Amazon.. which is not true. I have an account with a US address, US credit card and US location for the kindle and it says my location is not the US on the Fire, meaning it tracks IP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had you tried using a proxy? is this even posible? (to use a proxy I mean).
BTW, in wich country are you? I was going to buy a kindle fire for my wife but know I dont think so. We live in Mexico...

MacaronyMax - my hero
Just a little detail on what got my file explorer working in the UK:
Downloaded the needed apk file (don't ask - probably a really dodgy source). I copied it into my Program Files\Androidzandroid-sdk\platform-tools folder (for ease of install).
Then installing was as easy as "adb install *****.apk" (enter your filename).
Complete success, and now with my root file manager I can now do all the other things.
I'm one who has an american amazon account with bank account and everything. Seems as if some geo-ip mapping is stopping purchases from outside america, even on US devices.
Hope this helps.

You don't need additional apps to install APK files
Hey bikkou, that's right, you don't need additional apps to install APK files on your Kindle Fire. I agree, all threads out there seem misleading in this point.
I emailed myself an APK file, accessed my email account with the built in browser, downloaded the file, and then, when I tapped the file (which was listed in the downloads section) the device offered me the option to install the application.
My wife is playing Angry Birds Rio on my Kindle Fire right now

leopignataro said:
My wife is playing Angry Birds Rio on my Kindle Fire right now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your finding, really nice solution

IdrisBengoch said:
Just a little detail on what got my file explorer working in the UK:
Downloaded the needed apk file (don't ask - probably a really dodgy source). I copied it into my Program Files\Androidzandroid-sdk\platform-tools folder (for ease of install).
Then installing was as easy as "adb install *****.apk" (enter your filename).
Complete success, and now with my root file manager I can now do all the other things.
I'm one who has an american amazon account with bank account and everything. Seems as if some geo-ip mapping is stopping purchases from outside america, even on US devices.
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did what you said and now I can install all the apps that I want
Thanks

Rooted kindle not detecting books

Hey guys,
I successfully rooted my Kindle Fire 6.3 and it was running fine. After few days I got a notification of available update for Kindle app and I updated it.
Now, I am not able to see any books in the books section of KF. I think KF is still rooted as I am able to install new apps from google play and they are running fine.
I can open the e-book files present in the books section, if I browse through a file browser and use other e-book software like Aldiko. But I am not able to see any of them in the books section.
Please Help!!
Thanks a lot!

The Kindle app that is available in Google Play is not the same as the Kindle reader that is incorporated in the Fire. If you update using the version on Play you lose functionality, as you discovered.
To fix it you need to go back into Play, to the Kindle app and uninstall it. After you tap uninstall it will give you the option to just uninstall the update, select that and you should regain full functionality. You should never update any of the Amazon apps that came built into the Fire through Play (mp3 player, video player). I also found out that updating Pulse through Play can mess things up.
Sent from my Kindle Fire using xda premium

tanwar said:
Hey guys,
I successfully rooted my Kindle Fire 6.3 and it was running fine. After few days I got a notification of available update for Kindle app and I updated it.
Now, I am not able to see any books in the books section of KF. I think KF is still rooted as I am able to install new apps from google play and they are running fine.
I can open the e-book files present in the books section, if I browse through a file browser and use other e-book software like Aldiko. But I am not able to see any of them in the books section.
Please Help!!
Thanks a lot!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Aldiko only supports epub format books. The kindle app uses prc and mobi.

I had the exact same problem. Solved it by moving the files (using File Explorer) from
/mnt/sdcard/documents/ to
/mnt/sdcard/kindle/
All the books showed up though I think it forgot what page I was on.
If that doesn't do it, copy and paste the files to both directories.

Third party books go in your "kindle" folder. Books downloaded from Amazon are installed to your "Android/data/com.amazon.kindle/files" folder. They can be renamed and put back in the "kindle" folder so you won't lose them every time you install a new rom or de-register the app.

THANK YOU CreeDO
CreeDo said:
I had the exact same problem. Solved it by moving the files (using File Explorer) from
/mnt/sdcard/documents/ to
/mnt/sdcard/kindle/
All the books showed up though I think it forgot what page I was on.
If that doesn't do it, copy and paste the files to both directories.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just went through the process of rooting my KF and after being joyous over finally having access to Google Play, I realized that I couldn't see my eBooks anymore. Your tip worked great.
My question: When I purchase books from a 3rd party provider that have the option to send books to my kindle, do I use the original KF send to email or the send to email address assigned to the Kindle App?

This was exactly my experience. I inadvertently checked the 'Auto update' box and my books went missing. De-installing the update from Play put the book reader back the way it was. Thanks!
Sent from my Kindle Fire using XDA

Will side loading orginal KF app work on CM10?

I have CM10 running on my KF with the stock Kindle App running from the playstore.
If I side load the original KF app from before I zapped the factory will it work? Reason being I accidentally rented a movie from Amazon and I would like to watch it. And it will download to the KF for offline viewing but that option is not available in the Play store App.

85gallon said:
I have CM10 running on my KF with the stock Kindle App running from the playstore.
If I side load the original KF app from before I zapped the factory will it work? Reason being I accidentally rented a movie from Amazon and I would like to watch it. And it will download to the KF for offline viewing but that option is not available in the Play store App.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah that's one of downfalls of using a modified KF. The Kindle Reader, Video On Demand, and other such proprietary software packages are specific to the stock OS and haven't been ported to Android (seems unlikely they ever will).
Your best bet would be to make a full backup in recovery (including sdcard), save it to your computer and prepare the device for a dual-boot (CM10 w/MoDaCo). Some features specific to Amazon will only work on a non-rooted os, so use something like Rootkeeper to temporarily disable root privileges to use those features.
When you're finished doing whatever you need in the stock OS, restore your partition table and use TWRP to restore your backup.

soupmagnet said:
Yeah that's one of downfalls of using a modified KF. The Kindle Reader, Video On Demand, and other such proprietary software packages are specific to the stock OS and haven't been ported to Android (seems unlikely they ever will).
Your best bet would be to make a full backup in recovery (including sdcard), save it to your computer and prepare the device for a dual-boot (CM10 w/MoDaCo). Some features specific to Amazon will only work on a non-rooted os, so use something like Rootkeeper to temporarily disable root privileges to use those features.
When you're finished doing whatever you need in the stock OS, restore your partition table and use TWRP to restore your backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I borrowed a stock kindle fire from someone, then set it up for my account, could I download it that way on that kindle fire?

This is not piracy what I want to do, but I want to snag the movie after it has downloaded and move it to something else so I can watch on my TV.
AFAIK you an't download it to your PC.
Only the Movies feature in the OG KIF app.
I have glanced at some guides, but not sure if after I DL and root it, if it will trigger the DRM.

Urahara said:
You would have to deregister their account and the register your's, but as long as their kindle isn't rooted, it should work. I can't be completley sure, but if it's registered under your email adress, I would think it would work.
Also, @soupmagnet
Why go through the trouble of dual-booting and then undual-booting? Why not just make a back up, flash GR9 Modaco, download it, wipe, and restore the backup? Why the need to dual boot? Is there something I'm missing?
Cry, Benihime!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right. I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking. Maybe I just like doing things the hard way :/
"That's a special kind of stupid. The kind that makes me laugh."

One last question. Where is the downloaded movie stored? I assume that it is in with the other Kindle stuff. From the quick reading i have been doing it is in wmv format. I assume it is on the sdcard instead of system area. So flooring the borrowed Kindle wouldn't be necessary.
Sent from my Kindle Fire running CM10

85gallon said:
One last question. Where is the downloaded movie stored? I assume that it is in with the other Kindle stuff. From the quick reading i have been doing it is in wmv format. I assume it is on the sdcard instead of system area. So flooring the borrowed Kindle wouldn't be necessary.
Sent from my Kindle Fire running CM10
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Open a terminal emulator and enter the following, to find all files larger than, say 400 MB on the /sdcard:
Code:
cd /sdcard
su
find -size +409600k
That should find it for you. If not, reduce the size and try again.
"That's a special kind of stupid. The kind that makes me laugh."

soupmagnet said:
Open a terminal emulator and enter the following, to find all files larger than, say 400 MB on the /sdcard:
Code:
cd /sdcard
su
find -size +409600k
That should find it for you. If not, reduce the size and try again.
"That's a special kind of stupid. The kind that makes me laugh."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, I found it. I cannot strip the DRM. Everything out there is for stripping from WMV (which is what Amamzon used to do I guess). This one is in mp4. NOTHING is working on it. Assholes.

85gallon said:
Wow, I found it. I cannot strip the DRM. Everything out there is for stripping from WMV (which is what Amamzon used to do I guess). This one is in mp4. NOTHING is working on it. Assholes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See? You should have dual-booted it.

85gallon said:
Wow, I found it. I cannot strip the DRM. Everything out there is for stripping from WMV (which is what Amamzon used to do I guess). This one is in mp4. NOTHING is working on it. Assholes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have a PS3, Xbox 360, Roku or even some bluray players, you can legitamely watch a movie you have rented from Amazon Instant Video on your tv.
Sent from my Amazon Kindle Fire using Tapatalk HD

[Q] Connecting Kodi on Fire TV to Mac on the Same Network

How do I go about connecting Kodi on my FireTV to my Mac on the same network? I'd like to back up Kodi and save the backups externally on my Mac, but I'm not sure how to access my Mac from the Fire TV. For example, when I go to the "Install from Zip File" window, I don't see any references to my Mac's hard drive listed in the sources there.

Raymondo17 said:
How do I go about connecting Kodi on my FireTV to my Mac on the same network? I'd like to back up Kodi and save the backups externally on my Mac, but I'm not sure how to access my Mac from the Fire TV. For example, when I go to the "Install from Zip File" window, I don't see any references to my Mac's hard drive listed in the sources there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can try NFS or FTP (however ftp makes your password visible in Kodi's sources list). SMB and AFP shares never seem to work right for me on OSX with Kodi. Actually NFS can be a pain too.
You may just what to push the file to the SDcard with adbfire
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2786505
To add the sdcard to the Install from zip file source selection list in Kodi:
System>File Manager>Add source>Browse>select root filesystem>select sdcard
click ok
give it a name like #sdcard, the Hash tag is only to put it at the top of the source list alphabetically.
You can delete the zip file when you are done with ADBfire too.

I appreciate the reply. Yes, I've been using the SDcard as my connection point, but I was hoping to be able to connect my Fire TV to my Mac so I could schedule Backup to automatically store backups off of the Fire TV. In lieu of my Mac, I attempted to use my Dropbox account, but ran into difficulties there as well, which I'll post in a new thread.

Create an smb (windows) share on your Mac. If you want to use a password for the share create a user for network shares or use your own (gives a warning about not secure password storage). Otherwise enable the guest account on your Mac for network shares and add your destination folder to the list of shares in system settings.
Sent from my GT-I9195 using XDA Free mobile app

Success! Thank you, superkoal, for pointing the way. I was able to finally connect my Mac to my Fire TV.
The only bummer is the Backup program add-on still throws an error when I try and do a backup to my Mac. (I thought it might be a problem with using Dropbox as a backup location). But at least I'm finally connected, and that will certainly come in handy elsewhere.
Many thanks!

Could someone please post this method with more details for us newbs? The only method I have been able to figure out (and I've tried LOTS of guides and a parade of programs) is using SSHDroid and Yummy FTP on my Mac. Something is lacking here as if you send a large file it seems to hang at 2.14 GB and never complete. Don't know if that's a SSHDroid issue or not.
Wound up moving to es file explorer and have a more stable connection with no issues sending that large file. Guide is on my site as it's loaded with pictures. I can't post links so go to hackthatphone.com, click tutorials, click the fire tv icon and you'll see the short guide list I have.
My next goal: learning how to unmount and remount an external hard drive through a powered hub, if it's even possible....

Directory Bind and AFTV2

I'm trying to bind the "Android" folder on my Fire TV 2 to the "Android" folder on my HDD but it doesn't seem to work using the all "directory Bind". Has anyone been able to bind directories on the 4K Fire TV after acheiving Root access?
Edit: OK, I'm stuck. I tried Directory Bind with absolutely no luck. Then I tried Folder Mount but that required a bind of every individual folder. That's just not happening! Lastly I tried Link2SD but this app will not pickup on my USB drive. this really sucks. What's the point of having a 1tb hard drive and root access if I can't bind the damn drive. Hell, even the OUYA doesn't have these issues. WTF Amazon?!

Updated Findings for "Directory Binding"
I guess nobody around here gives a damn that the storage on the Fire TV 2 is seriously gimped. With that said, here are my findings.
NOTE: THIS IS ALL ABOUT THE AFTV2
Directory Bind
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vanpit.android.directorybind
DOES NOT WORK
Folder Mount
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.devasque.fmount
Works with some MAJOR limitations on the Fire TV side of the fence.
* First off, Folder Mount has a issue where you can't add your license for the full version onto your Fire TV. This is due to there being no proper Google Play solution. I've already sent an email to the developer so hopefully that person can help me around the issue.
* Secondly, with the free version of Folder Mount you can bind up to three games. Sadly you cant do the whole "Android" folder as well as "data" and "obb"
* You can however, bind a game's individual folder WITHIN "data" or "obb". The catch is, you need to have a "stub" (to use a term from the Wii hacking scene) folder in the original location.
For example​
Let's use Asphalt 8. The meat of this game (BEFORE binding) is within this location: storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com/gameloft.android.AMAZ.GloftA8AS
the folder is 1.56 GB
- before binding, copy/paste this folder onto your desired location within your external USB hard drive.
- Go back to the original folder and erase everything out of it. By doing this, you are creating the "stub" that the Fire TV needs so it can believe that the files are still in the proper location
- head back to Folder Mount and create a binding, giving proper folder locations and...
- Start game and play.
If you check your internal storage within the Fire TV settings, you can clearly see that the space the game used to occupy has now been freed. This alone would be a perfect solution if it wasn't for one thing. We need a place to stick the original APK files. I tried mapping the ASEC folder. - needless to say, it was a f***ing mess! From what I can see, the ASEC folder is used primarily for apps that have been pushed to the SD card. The moment I tried binding that folder, most the apps pushed to SD was in a "not found" state for Fire OS. If someone could figure out where apps are "installed" to, on the Fire TV 2, I would be willing to test a bind.
Speaking of the SD cards Fire OS does this hocus pocus bulls**t with them. Bind the ASEC folder and you might get 2 or three SD removed apps to show but all others will be "not found". Try binding the entire SD card to a folder of your choice and Fire TV will get VERY "sometimey" with you. Sometimes you might have a card at the capacity of whatever card you have (in my case 4GB for testing). Sometimes it will show that you have a card inserted with NO space available. See what I mean? utter bull****! It's as if the Fire TV reads the physical capacity and locks things there.
One more note. The freggin Fire TV 2 is obsessed with stub folders. It makes things a pain in the ass when you're trying to figure out which folder is the "real" one. At one point I had stubs in three locations. Talk about an annoying patchwork system for file management. Ugh!
I'm done for now. Hopefully this will give someone a starting point for helping this community fix the biggest problem with this Android device. Seriously, the team behind the 4K Fire TV should be kicked in the rear end for this screw up! I get wanting to lock things to some degree but at least let me install as many games from YOUR store that I want and not limit me to 5 really good ones at a time.

Have you tried using ln from an adb shell? Was able to get this working for a single file earlier today with this method, not sure how well it works for directories.

thepacketslinger said:
Have you tried using ln from an adb shell? Was able to get this working for a single file earlier today with this method, not sure how well it works for directories.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haven't tried ADB shell yet. I'd like to see what others can come up with at this point. I'm also waiting for a response from the dev of Folder Mount. Hopefully I'll get a response within a few hours. Otherwise I'll be waiting for someone to bring property Google Play support so that I can use my Folder Mount license.

@lightykd thanks for sharing your findings. The tiny storage of the Amazon FireTV has always been an annoyance. It became a hindrance once I started using an app that downloads media files. FolderMount seems to work for my purposes. It has allowed me to pair the local media folder ("source" in FolderMount terminology) with a matching folder on my SD card ("destination") so that files written to and read from the source are transparently redirected to the destination.