What makes streaming so great is its convenience. These days, you can stream and cast most media whenever you want. But sometimes, malfunctioning equipment can throw a spanner in the works and prevent you from reaping from this key benefit.
In this case, your Amazon Fire Stick may be restarting erratically. But what’s causing it and how do you fix it? The following guide will answer these questions and more.
Why Does My Amazon Fire TV Stick Keep Restarting on Its Own?
The Amazon Fire TV Stick is a very simple device. Thus, it’s relatively easy to figure out why it is malfunctioning in this way. Common issues behind your Fire Stick restarting include:
- An improper or damaged power/charging block
- An ineffective power supply
- A damaged USB power cable
- Overheating and hardware damage to the Amazon Fire Stick
- Corrupted firmware and software
- Extremely low storage space
The following guide will focus on solutions for the above causes.
Connect the Amazon Fire Stick to an Adaptor
As you may know, your Amazon Fire TV Stick is powered via a USB connection. If your TV has a USB port, you can use it to power your Fire Stick device. However, this may not be enough to supply constant power to it. The recommended power supplies specifications for Fire Sticks (regardless of the generation) is:
- Voltage: 5.25 Volts
- Amperage: 1 Ampere
- Wattage: 5 Watts
If your TV cannot deliver a stable current with the above figures, your Amazon Fire Stick will experience issues running. You should connect the firestick to an adaptor or charging/power block to remedy this.
Alternatively, you can connect it to a power bank. Whichever option you choose, make sure that it has a sufficient power rating to feed your Amazon Fire TV Stick. Alternatively, you can purchase a special power cable that manages and increases the power drawn from your TV’s USB port.
Completely Disconnect Your Amazon Fire Stick and Reconnect It
Completely disconnecting your Amazon Fire Stick and reconnecting it will fully reboot it. This may help clear out any cache or RAM-related bugs or errors. It seems counter-intuitive considering that your Amazon Fire Stick keeps restarting anyway. However, the issue here is it may not be restarting correctly.
It’s a bit like being constipated. Your body needs to expel waste, but it can’t – at least not fully. So in this situation, you’ll need a laxative to help you. In the case of your Amazon Fire Stick, performing a hard reboot will act as the laxative. Nevertheless, you can fully restart your device by:
- Disconnect it from all connections (HDMI, USB, etc.)
- Wait 20-30 seconds (or more)
- Reconnect the Amazon Fire Stick
Hopefully, this solution will stop your Amazon Fire Stick from restarting erratically.
Replace the Power Cable
Your Amazon Fire TV Stick may be using a faulty USB power cable. It might be causing it to restart on its own. Generally, Amazon Fire Sticks use micro-USB cables. Contrary to popular belief, not all USB cables are made equal.
If you need to purchase a new one for your Kindle Fire Stick, make sure you buy a charger cord that is fully optimized for your Amazon Fire Stick. Even if you’ve been using an official power cord with your Amazon Fire TV stick all along, it may have suffered a short or a break. Using a damaged USB power cable will cause your Amazon Fire TV Stick to malfunction.
Disconnect Additional Connected USB Devices
If you have no other option but to use your TV to power your Amazon Fire TV Stick, you should try removing all other connected USB devices. Your TV may not be capable of powering all these devices simultaneously. This goes for multi-port charging blocks too. Ensure that the only device connected to your power source is your Kindle Fire TV Stick.
You can also try disconnecting any other HDMI devices connected to your TV. These may also be drawing power from it, causing it to feed your Amazon Fire Stick insufficient power. In turn, it will cause it to restart constantly. Before moving on to the other solutions in this guide, ensure that your Amazon Fire TV Stick is the only device connected to your TV’s USB and HDMI ports.
Connect USB Cable Directly to the Power Supply
USB power cables tend to be short. This fact is especially true for the Amazon Fire TV Stick’s accompanying power cord. To allow it to connect to a power source, you may have implemented a USB extension cord (male to female) to increase the length of the power cable.
Unfortunately, it may not be delivering sufficient uninterrupted power to your Amazon Kindle TV. Try connecting your Amazon Fire TV Stick directly to a power source using its un-extended power cable.
However, if you have no other choice but to use an extender, try using a high-quality active extension cable. They come with a signal amplifier that ensures that your Amazon Fire Stick receives a steady input of current.
Update Your Amazon Fire TV Stick’s Software
Like any other smart electronic device, your Amazon Fire TV stick uses an operating system to run. It’s unfortunate, but developers can often release buggy updates of software. Mistakes happen, right? Just look at Windows 10 and its history of many buggy updates.
However, as soon as the developer is aware of bugs in the software, they will roll the changes back or implement quick fixes before rolling out an emergency update.
It may be a little tricky, but if you can manage to find a reprieve from your device’s rolling reboots, you can try updating the Amazon Fire TV Stick’s software/firmware. To update the Amazon Fire Stick, do the following:
- Press the Home button on your Amazon Fire Stick remote
- Navigate to the Settings (⚙) option – it should be at the end of the list of menu items
- Scroll down and select the My Fire TV widget
- Navigate through the list until you find the About option and select it
- Scroll down and select Check for Updates or Install Updates
Note: Your device constantly checks for updates. Sometimes it may miss some. When it finds an update, it usually downloads it in the background. If your Amazon Fire Stick hasn’t recently found or downloaded updates, the last option in the About menu will read as Check for Updates.
However, if your device has updates waiting to be installed, the option will read Install Updates.
If your Amazon Fire Stick finds new software/firmware updates, it will install them and restart your device. Hopefully, this should stop your Amazon Fire Stick from restarting on its own in the future.
Disable HDMI CEC Device Control
Your TVs HDMI Consumer Control feature allows devices to connect back and forth between your TV. A good example of this is how your gaming console (Xbox 360+ or PlayStation 3+) automatically turns on when you turn your TV.
Nevertheless, the modern applications for CEC include the ability to control all HDMI devices using a single remote control. Thus, you can manage your Amazon Fire TV Stick using your TV remote.
While this is a nifty and convenient feature, it may cause issues with your Amazon Fire Stick. Especially if the Amazon Firestick’s CEC capability is incompatible with your TV’s CEC. It may result in freezing or erratic restarts. To disable the CEC feature, do the following:
- Press the Home button on your Amazon Fire TV Stick remote
- Navigate to the Settings (⚙) option and select it
- Scroll down to Display and Sound and select it
- Navigate to the HDMI CEC Device Control and toggle it off – the option should be located at the bottom of the list
Erase App Cache
As with other smart or computing devices, your Amazon Fire TV Stick keeps a cache for its various applications. This cache primarily helps applications load faster (among other things).
Sometimes your Fire Stick or its applications fail to perform a simple garbage collection, resulting in a bloated cache. It may slow your device or cause it to restart continuously. To solve this you’ll have to perform your own manual cache garbage clean-up.
To clear your Amazon Fire Stick’s app cache, do the following:
- Press the Home button on your remote
- Navigate to the Settings (⚙) option
- Direct the cursor to the Applications widget
- Scroll down to the Manage Installed Applications option
- Select an app
- Scroll down to the Clear cache option and select it
Perform the last two steps for every application on your list.
Restore Your Fire Stick to Factory Settings
Your Amazon Fire Stick may constantly and randomly restart because of a firmware or software issue. This issue may be due to a bug-filled update, misconfigurations in the device’s settings, or an erroneously installed application.
Nevertheless, the best way to fix this is to factory reset your Amazon Fire Stick device. You can perform a factory reset using the Amazon Fire Stick’s interface or your remote controller.
Because your device keeps rebooting in intervals that make accessing the factory reset option through the interface nigh impossible, we won’t cover that option. Nevertheless, to factory reset your Amazon Fire Stick using the remote:
- Hold the Amazon Fire Stick device in the palm of your hand
- Press and hold the select button and play button in unison
- Hold these buttons for 10 seconds
A message should appear on your TV informing you that your Amazon Fire Stick device is reset to default settings. After it is reset to default settings, the device will restart. You will need to set up and configure the Amazon Fire TV Stick from scratch, as all your apps and settings will be erased.
Conclusion
When setting up your Amazon Fire Stick, ensure all cables are seated and connected carefully. Try not to place the device in any awkward positions. Furthermore, please refrain from leaving it hanging from any wires or cords.
If none of the fixes in this guide have worked for you and your Fire Stick is still restarting randomly, your last option is to contact Amazon support and book it for repairs or a replacement.
Of course, we are assuming that your device is still under warranty. If not, Amazon recommends that you book it for repairs with Communications Test Design. It is an authorized company that specializes in fixing and servicing Amazon-related devices such as the Fire TV Stick.
Nevertheless, which solution in this guide worked for you? Leave a comment down below.
