Hello dear forum members. Amazon has rolled out updates for the firestick which have made the interface full of ads and sponsored content. In this video tutorial I have shown how we can install wolf launcher on the Amazon firetv stick and make it the default launcher and get rid of the awful interface. I hope you like it and find it useful.
User Review Fix for the new horrible FireTV stick interface
- Thread starter vaibhavyagnik
- Start date
Very nicely put together video. I spoke about this PITA interface sometime back and Launcher Manager and Wolf Launcher were mentioned there. I installed these on the Firestick back at home but yet to try it on our Firestick 4k here. I am not sure if this will survive new FireOS updates though.
There is an app to block future updates to firestick.
raksrules
Elite
Man this sucks. Good thing i switched to Chromecast with Google TV
I personally am ok with the advertisement interface, may be it is to do with the fact that I am using Fire stick since 2015 and just don't want the change. But overall I like the fire stick as a streaming product so much that I have firestick attached to my main TV (since it is 11 years old non smart) and 2 other TVs I have are from amazonbasics and onida, both have fire tv as default smart OS.
Thanks Vaibhav ji
I am stuck at the tool box step
Seems despite debugging being on, can't connect to the ip address
The ip address is correct.
Ilthecdispkaurd screen first says failed and if I try again it says
Debloat toolbox
And please make sure debugging is on or restart fire tv
I am stuck at the tool box step
Seems despite debugging being on, can't connect to the ip address
The ip address is correct.
Ilthecdispkaurd screen first says failed and if I try again it says
Debloat toolbox
And please make sure debugging is on or restart fire tv
I did this because I disliked the interface as well. It worked fine for me.
However, I am discovering that Amazon has sneakily put enough safeguards to prevent users from changing launcher. The search feature of Fire stick is tied to its launcher. If you disable the inbuilt launcher, you can no longer use the search feature, not even in app store, since it relies on homescreen search.
Similarly, interactions with Echo devices also rely on the launcher. So you lose the ability to play videos directly with Echo, though, you can still launch apps.
In essence, Amazon has done enough to force our hands and make us stay with the default launcher, which basically converts your screen into a gigantic ad screen. I'll be going to the default launcher and will try to figure out a way to launch Kodi automatically on start.
However, I am discovering that Amazon has sneakily put enough safeguards to prevent users from changing launcher. The search feature of Fire stick is tied to its launcher. If you disable the inbuilt launcher, you can no longer use the search feature, not even in app store, since it relies on homescreen search.
Similarly, interactions with Echo devices also rely on the launcher. So you lose the ability to play videos directly with Echo, though, you can still launch apps.
In essence, Amazon has done enough to force our hands and make us stay with the default launcher, which basically converts your screen into a gigantic ad screen. I'll be going to the default launcher and will try to figure out a way to launch Kodi automatically on start.
raksrules
Elite
I am sure they want to earn through services by people subscribing to prime and everything else and hence the TV becomes giant ad screen. It is same with their fire tablets and there is a reason why the ad free version costs lot more than ad one.
Anyways, it is not like amazon is forcing someone to buy firestick and people can always buy Mi Box or something else but amazon too knows that they have a very capable product and is priced well. For the masses, it does the job and with it being android, sideloading is very easy and amazon too knows one of the reasons people buy this is to sideload stuff. They are making no attempts to actively stop sideloading.
I wouldn't mind it so much of they'd left at least a couple of lines of apps or customisable space. They didn't have to take the entire screen altogether. That's simply not justified.
Are you on fireos version 5?
Yes i am
try turning ADB debugging off and then on and then try again
Tried and done many times, no success
Just after that thread, I made my Fire TV 3 a primary device again with Wolf Manager and the update blocker. Shocking how much Amazon was degrading the experience with their interface. Using Apps2Fire from an Android device also makes the setup much faster than using Downloader. Would also recommend hiding unused apps from the Wolf Launcher interface for a better experience.
Also, a lot of the issues were due to the poor wireless performance of the SoC and using an Ethernet connection with a micro USB splitter solved all the connectivity issues.
Better to uninstall everything, turn of adb and do the whole process again