bricked fire tv stick? - Fire TV Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I installed TVMC and settings.apk and got a bluetooth mouse working. Everything was going fine, and then I installed FiredTV launcher. After the install I turned it off, and it won't turn back on. It's stuck at the "FireTV Stick" logo screen, and restarting it doesn't help. I can't access it through adb either.
Do I have a brick now or is there a way to do a reset through recovery somehow?

gaozhongxiang said:
I installed TVMC and settings.apk and got a bluetooth mouse working. Everything was going fine, and then I installed FiredTV launcher. After the install I turned it off, and it won't turn back on. It's stuck at the "FireTV Stick" logo screen, and restarting it doesn't help. I can't access it through adb either.
Do I have a brick now or is there a way to do a reset through recovery somehow?
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Hmm, it is very unlikely that you can brick the FireStick just by installing settings.apk and TVMC. You got no root privilege so whatever you do has no effect on lower root level. Just try to reboot the FireStick. Plug it into another HDMI port or switch power source. Also, you mention about pairing a bluetooth mouse. How about turning off the bluetooth mouse and try to boot up with just the remote on. Try some of these first and see if everything is OK. Again, you CAN'T brick an Android system without root level privilege.

I've tried all these things, none seem to work. I am getting it replaced by Amazon soon, from what I can tell this happened after I installed FiredTV, so maybe I'll avoid that for now.

Related

I did something worng! Help!

I have the firetv rooted with xposed running and the xbmc launcher running. I tried to upgrade to beta xbmc 14 nightly but it did not work. So I then tried to uninstall xbmc fully with adb. Now my firetv will boot to the firetv animation screen and then go to black screen with the error: Acitivy org.xbmc.xbmc splash screen not found. I have tried to reinstall xbmc 13.1 for adb but it will not go thru. I've tried killing xbmclauncher (se.blunden.xbmclauncher.apk) with no luck. Tried to uninstall Xposed with no luck. I can connect to my firetv thru adb and can create a su adb shell, but can't get anything to work through adb. Please help this fool!
apazrjon said:
I have the firetv rooted with xposed running and the xbmc launcher running. I tried to upgrade to beta xbmc 14 nightly but it did not work. So I then tried to uninstall xbmc fully with adb. Now my firetv will boot to the firetv animation screen and then go to black screen with the error: Acitivy org.xbmc.xbmc splash screen not found. I have tried to reinstall xbmc 13.1 for adb but it will not go thru. I've tried killing xbmclauncher (se.blunden.xbmclauncher.apk) with no luck. Tried to uninstall Xposed with no luck. I can connect to my firetv thru adb and can create a su adb shell, but can't get anything to work through adb. Please help this fool!
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Click to collapse
i recommend a factory reset
If you have got to the point of desperation and no other help is forthcoming. I ran through this guide when I had an issue and it restored my AFTV.
It won't let me post the link. So have a look on firetvnews .com and you should see a way to restore the AFTV. Or read below, I just copied it:
If you’ve managed to brick your Fire TV or for whatever reason are unable to get to the settings menu to perform a factory reset, here is how to enter recovery mode without fully booting into the Fire TV’s operating system.
To do this you will need a USB keyboard with a “Print Screen” or “SysRq” key. Mac keyboards generally do not have this key so will not work. Before you get started, plug the USB keyboard into the Fire TV and unplug the Fire TV’s power. Now plug the power in and while the Fire TV is booting, you need to press the following 3 keys simultaneously: Alt + Print Screen + i
Pressing those 3 keys sends a “kill all tasks” command to the Fire TV. If you kill all tasks during boot up enough times, the Fire TV will enter Recovery Mode. So after pressing Alt + Print Screen + i, the Fire TV will flicker and restart the boot up process. While it’s trying to boot up a second time, press Alt + Print Screen + i again. Repeat this process several times until the Fire TV displays the message “The System Update was not successful.” When you see this message, you are now in Recovery Mode.
If you are having trouble getting into Recovery Mode, a good time to press Alt + Print Screen + i is as soon as you see the colorful boot animation. Pressing Alt + Print Screen + i should cause the screen to go black and the boot animation to restart. Press Alt + Print Screen + i every time the boot animation restarts. After 4 or 5 restarts, you should see a white Amazon logo followed by the “Update was not successful” screen. You can also try holding Alt + Print Screen + i through out the entire initial boot up process.
Once on the “Update was not successful” screen, press the Home key on your keyboard. This should bring up a menu in the upper left corner. Use the arrow keys to highlight the factory reset option and hit enter.
Yeah I've seen that factory reset method. I am almost at that point! I have a wireless k400, but it doesn't seem to work. I just need to get my hands on a wired keyboard. I was hoping there may be some better adb commands to accomplish removing xposed and xbmc launcher, but I guess probably not. Time to get a wired keyboard! Thanks for the quick responses! Cheers!
apazrjon said:
Yeah I've seen that factory reset method. I am almost at that point! I have a wireless k400, but it doesn't seem to work. I just need to get my hands on a wired keyboard. I was hoping there may be some better adb commands to accomplish removing xposed and xbmc launcher, but I guess probably not. Time to get a wired keyboard! Thanks for the quick responses! Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would use command "adb shell pm list packages -f" that way you can see what apps are installed on the Fire TV and exact package name.....
Next uninstall with "adb uninstall com.amazon.app.name" (no directory or .apk specification needed)
I was playing with some Xposed mods yesterday and locked the fire TV up as well, uninstalling mod fixed it. (Xposed Additions Module)
apazrjon said:
I was hoping there may be some better adb commands to accomplish removing xposed and xbmc launcher, but I guess probably not. Time to get a wired keyboard! Thanks for the quick responses! Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only thing I can think of is to try an adb install of xbmc with the -r flag set, then an uninstall of Xposed before uninstalling XBMC. The -r should force a reinstall and get you back to a useable interface but otherwise, yep, sounds like a reset'll be required.
roustabout said:
Only thing I can think of is to try an adb install of xbmc with the -r flag set, then an uninstall of Xposed before uninstalling XBMC. The -r should force a reinstall and get you back to a useable interface but otherwise, yep, sounds like a reset'll be required.
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Click to collapse
If adb is working, adb reboot recovery should get you into recovery so you can do the factory reset.
reboot recovery does get me into the update download page but no buttons on my remote or my wireless k400 seem to get me to recovery for factory reset. Any thoughts?
apazrjon said:
reboot recovery does get me into the update download page but no buttons on my remote or my wireless k400 seem to get me to recovery for factory reset. Any thoughts?
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Click to collapse
Did you already uninstall all Xposed modules and the Xposed framework ?
trying that next. It seems that adb will only work right after I reboot for some reason. Going to try again right now.
Just went ahead and got a $10 usb keyboard from walmart. Still couldn't get the home button to work for getting my into recovery. Then i decided to press shift + home and it worked. I don't know if it was the key combo or just good timing with the home button. Who knows. Back to factory now! Time to rebuild. Everything was set up perfect! Just couldn't leave well enough alone, lol! Thanks for all the help. My adb would only work for one time at a time and wouldn't uninstal anything. Cheers!
deleted content ..
sorry ., didn't notice I would have been duplicating what others already posted ....
rbox said:
If adb is working, adb reboot recovery should get you into recovery so you can do the factory reset.
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Click to collapse
Sorry, meant "only command flag in ADB you might try before going for a full restore"
I thought the OPs core problem was that xposed was telling his system to use a nonexistent app as the launcher, and he wasn't able to get the app back in even for long enough to uninstall Xposed, reboot, and then uninstall XBMC.
Smithy71 said:
Once on the “Update was not successful” screen, press the Home key on your keyboard. This should bring up a menu in the upper left corner. Use the arrow keys to highlight the factory reset option and hit enter.
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Click to collapse
I've got a gray screen and can't get rid of it. I'm rooted and have elmerohueso's Launcher installed. All has been working perfect until the other night when I got a "low memory" pop up with a request to uninstall some apps. After that, the screen grayed and that was that. I've gotten to the“Update was not successful” screen but cannot get the menu to show up. I'm using a usb keyboard and have tried home, shift + home, and every other combo I can think of but the menu will not show up.
Anyone have another suggestion?
When you are on the update unsuccessful screen, press alt + sys rq + i to reboot back to the update screen again and then press home to bring up recovery menu. That's what I did on my keyboard
Smithy71 said:
If you have got to the point of desperation and no other help is forthcoming. I ran through this guide when I had an issue and it restored my AFTV.
It won't let me post the link. So have a look on firetvnews .com and you should see a way to restore the AFTV. Or read below, I just copied it:
If you’ve managed to brick your Fire TV or for whatever reason are unable to get to the settings menu to perform a factory reset, here is how to enter recovery mode without fully booting into the Fire TV’s operating system.
To do this you will need a USB keyboard with a “Print Screen” or “SysRq” key. Mac keyboards generally do not have this key so will not work. Before you get started, plug the USB keyboard into the Fire TV and unplug the Fire TV’s power. Now plug the power in and while the Fire TV is booting, you need to press the following 3 keys simultaneously: Alt + Print Screen + i
Pressing those 3 keys sends a “kill all tasks” command to the Fire TV. If you kill all tasks during boot up enough times, the Fire TV will enter Recovery Mode. So after pressing Alt + Print Screen + i, the Fire TV will flicker and restart the boot up process. While it’s trying to boot up a second time, press Alt + Print Screen + i again. Repeat this process several times until the Fire TV displays the message “The System Update was not successful.” When you see this message, you are now in Recovery Mode.
If you are having trouble getting into Recovery Mode, a good time to press Alt + Print Screen + i is as soon as you see the colorful boot animation. Pressing Alt + Print Screen + i should cause the screen to go black and the boot animation to restart. Press Alt + Print Screen + i every time the boot animation restarts. After 4 or 5 restarts, you should see a white Amazon logo followed by the “Update was not successful” screen. You can also try holding Alt + Print Screen + i through out the entire initial boot up process.
Once on the “Update was not successful” screen, press the Home key on your keyboard. This should bring up a menu in the upper left corner. Use the arrow keys to highlight the factory reset option and hit enter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how to connect usb keyboard same time usb power? fire tv have no usb port
roy0175 said:
how to connect usb keyboard same time usb power? fire tv have no usb port
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Click to collapse
OTG Y Cable! It's an OTG cable that can also deliver power to the FireTV while you are using it with a mouse, keyboard, etc...

Bricked Fire TV, what are the options?

Well this day has been a long time coming and it finally happened
In short I had reflashed my device with RBox prerooted rom via TWRP without any issues. In order to use certain applications I was using "hide my root" only to find once the su binary was hidden the application was unable to restore.
When I shouldve reflashed the rom I decided to take a short cut and install Super Su directly via TWRP, big mistake.
Device is now stuck on the Amazon logo (not the colourful splash screen) I've attempted to access the system recovery menu via the keyboard hotkey but the keyboard is unresponsive, in fact there seems to be no power coming from the USB. Which got me thinking, this is more than likely related to drivers, perhaps using an older keyboard with P/S2 and a USB adapter would work. I am yet to try this.
Any advice?
Would opening the device and unsoldering certain components perhaps initiate a reset of some kind?
Just throwing ideas around at I'm stuck with a paper weight
Any suggestions?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/development/firetv-2-unbrick-image-t3313349
This should help. The shorter option didn't work for me. I've used you the longer on mine and two other peoples ftv. It's worked every time.
I have a Fire TV 1, do you know of there are any recovery images available for this edition

Stock FireTV 1st generation - stuck in boot

Hi,
My stock fire tv is stuck in boot process. When I turn it on loads the b/w amazon logo and, about 30 seconds after, the colorful amazon fire tv logo comes up. And that's it, nothing else ever happens. No reboot, noloop, nothing else.
I have tried to factory reset it by pressing alt+i+print-screen hundred of times while booting with no success. I have tried with 4 different keyboard (including a logitech k400).
I have tried to connect a USB-A to USB-A cable from the fire tv and the PC and installed adb drivers (all devices are recognized by windows and display and device manager) but I can't detect the device with adb devices at any stage of the boot process at all.
Does anyone have any other possible way to un-brick it? O any other suggestion to revive it?
btw, It "bricked" itself. One day I turned on tv and I saw empty menus and nothing happened if I tried to navigate on it... So decided to reboot it and... there you go, the way it is now.
Thanks in advance.
Anybody can help please? I've got a precious brick os plastic and circuits on top my desk right now....

Amazon Fire TV 2 and TWRP

Hello,
I just joined the forum this morning and wanted to say hi to everyone. Hopefully someone can help me here. I have an Amazon Fire TV 2 and it has been rooted and I have Teamwin Recovery Project 3.0.0-5 on it. It has been working for years, but one day a few months ago, I switched the TV input to the Fire TV and just saw the Teamwin splash screen sitting there and blinking. I disconnected the Fire TV and connected it to another TV and it booted up normally, however, without the option to select Boot Normal or Launch Recovery. I then disconnected the Fire TV again and reconnected it to the original TV, it did not boot and got stuck at the splash screen again. Finally after numerous attempts at restarting the device, it booted (without the option to choose Boot Normally or Launch Recovery). I used the Fire TV for a month or so and have restarted it a few times and always was able to get in, but still without the option to Boot Normally or Launch Recovery.
Last night, I was watching a movie and it ended. I tried to use the back button on the remote to go back to my Emby server to watch another show. The Fire TV was not responding and I did not see the white light on the Fire TV at all, but I still had the picture of the finished movie on the screen. I pulled the power plug on the Fire TV and plugged it back it. I'm back to the Teamwin splash screen and it just sits there and blinks every few seconds or so. I never get beyond it and cannot get back into my Fire TV. The white light on the Fire TV also blinks slowly.
I saw a post about the Fire TV 1 and a new 3.0.0-7 recovery that is supposed to resolve that issue, but I did not see anything for the Fire TV 2.
Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?
Thanks,
Chris
AFTV2 as in Model DV83YW? (found on the bottom of device).
If so, I've found that sometimes a faulty power cable can cause this kind of behaviour - try plugging the device into the wall & a computer/laptop (at the same time) with a USB-A to USB-A cable - for some reason allows the box to draw enough power to boot if the power supply is faulty.
If this doesn't work your power supply is probably fine - you could probably re-flash the pre-rooted rom and it would probably boot again, but honestyly I'd recommend unlocking your bootloader via the unlock.zip method (found here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/unlock-root-twrp-unbrick-firetv-2-sloane.4222331/) if you're running FireOS 5.2.7.2 or below, or the brick method if running 5.2.7.3 or above.
Of course, you will need to backup your /data partition via TWRP (to a external SD), but I think this is the best option for future proofing & would allow you to recover from something like this a little easier if anything were to happen to your AFTV in the future.
Thanks for the reply. Don't think it is the power cable as I have another power cable I had purchased a while back and it does the same thing with that, but I'll still try connecting it top the computer and see what happens.
I'll also try the methods you linked. Unfortunately, since I cannot boot into the Fire TV, I cannot determine what version of FireOS I'm running.
You mention backing up via TWRP, but I can't get into TWRP, that's the issue. It just sits there with there with the TWRP splash screen and it blinks. No options to boot normally or boot into recovery.
I try what you suggested and report back.
Thanks again,
Chris

Fire TV Stick 4k half dead open for suggestions

2 days ago I came back to my Fire TV Stick 4k only to find black screen with "loading..." letters in corner, and at that moment pressing home button did nothing, seemed that remote isn't working at first or device froze.
3 Hours before that I has using device, and only thing I did i power toggled it 3 times in few seconds using power button on remote (don't ask why it irrelevant now)
After I power toggled the device, and after "Fire TV" logo it stated that it can't find my remote. So i changed fresh batteries, tried to resync remote to device and all other stuff, but nothing helped. So I decided to try my remote on another device, and concluded that remote is perfectly fine and connects to other device without problems, and that it's nothing wrong with it.
At the same time it baffled me that device didn't load home screen after boot, just notification that it cant find remote and black screen after that.
Later I discovered that remote is in fact working (built in firmware restore functions and menu that is accessed by long pressing home button for few seconds).
So I decided to do factory reset by pressing key combination.
Factory reset menu came up, and after I pressed "OK" nothing happened, device didn't reboot.
Pressed key combo again, and let the timer for factory reset count down to zero.
When it came to '1' it froze.
Pressing key combo again factory reset menu would come again and do countdown from start.
I can also invoke menu accessed by pressing home button for few seconds, but what ever I choose from there it freezes, but if I press home button again it opens same menu again and move left-right and even enter "profiles", so it's not frozen, it just seems that it can't open any menu entry for some reason.
At he same time I can access it via wifi ADB and run ADB shell commands, so it is connected to wifi that has internet access.
I tried running "adb reboot recovery", device reboots, comes up with Fire tv logo and "no command" on screen.
It sits there for a minute and after it reboots and goes into normal boot.
I also tried "am start -n com.amazon.tv.launcher/.ui.SettingsActivity" folowing "am broadcast -a com.amazon.tv.intent.action.MASTER_CLEAR" but no avail.
it states "Broadcast completed: result=0" and that is it.
How do I factory restore / flash firmware, whatever ?
I will take any suggestion before tossing it into bin, because I think memory got corrupted somehow and device is processing and executing fine.
Edit 1 :
Safe mode method using USB keyboard on OTG cable doesn't work. Tried ctrl+alt+menu+prtscr+i several times, it invokes nothing.
Edit 2 :
Tried rooting using shorting to ground exploit, but it doesn't work since serial number of device is too high thus bootloader locked.
Edit 3:
I can see all the installed packages over ADB and uninstall ony of them normally.
Hi mate, try my solution up for the bootlooping firestick
Travel_Mate said:
Hi mate, try my solution up for the bootlooping firestick
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for suggestion. The main question is how do I format USB stick to Android "internal memory" if I don't have Xiaomi 4K stick, like you mentioned in your original post ?
I have another working Fire Stick 4k, and have formatted USB stick using that device, but since Fire Stick 4k uses Fire OS 6, and possibility to format USB stick to "internal memory" is a feature of Fire OS 7, I don't think it will work.
At the moment I just formatted this stick using Fire OS 6, connected using OTG to malfunctioned stick, I can see Fire TV accessing it few times on boot (LED flashes), but after boot I don't see any activity. I will let it sit for a few hours.

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