Amazon Fire Stick Not Working? Here’s What to Do.

It's no secret that Amazon is one of the largest and most popular companies on the planet. Many of us are hooked on Amazon Prime Video, the Netflix competitor that’s also free for Amazon Prime users.

In this all-Amazon, all-of-the-time world, it’s a pain when you can’t access one of the most popular streaming media gadgets ever released. Amazon Fire Stick is a small device you can easily insert into a free HDMI port on your HD television. It connects to Wi-Fi in your house. However, there are times when it doesn’t quite work.

We can help with that! Read on to find out about the most common troubleshooting issues that arise.

Before we jump into specific troubleshooting tips, we suggest that you follow these simple steps for any problems you’re experiencing while streaming from the Amazon Fire Stick device.

Amazon Fire Stick troubleshooting tips:

• Check your internet connection. If your network is experiencing disruptions due to outside issues, like network congestion during peak times, you may need to look into getting a faster connection.
• Try disconnecting your Wi-Fi router for 10–15 seconds, then reconnecting it.
• Sign out of your Amazon Fire Stick account and then sign back in.
• Restart the Amazon Fire Stick device.

In most cases, the reason your shows don’t appear in the Amazon Fire interface using the Fire Stick is because of an internet problem. Your Wi-Fi might not be working correctly, so a quick reboot of your Wi-Fi router should do the trick. Just upload your router, wait about 10–15 seconds, and plug it back in.

If there’s a problem with the Amazon Fire Stick itself, the best troubleshooting tip is to unplug the Fire Stick from the HDMI port as well as the USB power. Wait about 10–15 seconds and plug it back in.

Another issue we’ve seen is with some of the Amazon Fire apps not working or crashing. In the age of the most popular streaming apps like Netflix and Max, this is more common than we’d like.

In some cases, you'll get actual error codes like UVP 1011 from certain apps like Paramount+ which are specifically related to the Amazon Fire Stick TV. The problem is often related to memory on the device. If you have opened too many apps and a few of them are still running in the background, your device’s memory can become overwhelmed.

Again, the solution that seems to work best is to unplug the device and the USB power, wait about 10–15 seconds, and plug them back in. This reboots the device and closes all running apps, giving your Firestick’s memory a fresh start.

In some rare cases, it might not be the Amazon Fire Stick causing the problems, but rather the television you’re using.

We tested the Fire Stick with a HiSense 8HG 65-inch television that runs Android TV and with a much older Sony Bravia 55-inch television. When tested with the Sony Bravia, the Fire Stick would sometimes reboot suddenly or the audio would drop out.

While these problems are rare, older televisions seem to be the culprit. While testing the Fire Stick with the HiSense television, for example, the device only rebooted once during a two-week period.

The reality of streaming media devices these days is that they are not perfect, sometimes crash due to memory errors, but mostly work reliably.  One solution is to increase your internet speed or upgrade your television to a more recent model.

If you’re using a VPN on your router or even on the Fire Stick itself (it’s possible using a VPN client you install on the device), keep in mind that problems can arise.

The most common issue is that the VPN you happen to be using is not compatible with the Fire Stick or that Amazon has blocked that VPN and won’t allow you to use it. The easiest solution here is to try disabling the VPN and see if the problems go away.

If they do, you may need to try a different VPN that is compatible with both the Amazon Fire Stick and Amazon Prime as well.

If you keep having issues with the Amazon Fire Stick, one option is to use a different device altogether.

Our favorite streaming device is the Roku Streaming Stick because of its smooth interface and easy search options.