Firestick bought in 2016 is painfully slow. Replace?

Firestick bought in 2016 is painfully slow. Replace?

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MitchT

Original Poster:

15,788 posts

208 months

Tuesday 21st March 2023
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My Amazon Firestick is painfully slow. I bought it in 2016. When I look online at the things you can to do speed up a slow Firestick I don't even have the menu options that it tells me to enter to address the issue. I guess this, and the fact that it's so slow, are due to it being bought in 2016. Should I just buy a new one or is there a way to speed it up? It works fine, it just takes forever to do do anything, like it's running on a dial-up connection when I try to navigate through the menus, load an app, start a show, etc., though once a show is running it tends to play fine.

Douglas Quaid

2,271 posts

84 months

Tuesday 21st March 2023
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Can you do a full reset, update it then sign in again?

If not then I suggest launching it into a fire then giving Jeff bezos a bit more money.

MitchT

Original Poster:

15,788 posts

208 months

Tuesday 21st March 2023
quotequote all
Douglas Quaid said:
Can you do a full reset, update it then sign in again?
It's an option, but I think this wipes all the apps except the ones that are hardwired in. I don't mind having to install them again but my concern is that if the unit is so old the current versions of the apps I use might not be compatible with it.

Mr Penguin

906 posts

38 months

Tuesday 21st March 2023
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I had the same thing and ended up replacing, which worked.

Paddymcc

929 posts

190 months

Tuesday 21st March 2023
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How about replacing the software on the Firestick with Android TV software

https://www.androidpolice.com/you-can-now-install-...

mcflurry

9,079 posts

252 months

Monday 27th March 2023
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The firesticks are on offer today at Amazon, as part of their spring sale, if you want a shiny new one..

cobra kid

4,906 posts

239 months

Tuesday 28th March 2023
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I did the same. The old one was painfully slow. I just bought two last autumn in the sale and they run like lightning. They were also the basic ones.

joropug

2,547 posts

188 months

Tuesday 28th March 2023
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I've had 3, an early stick, a 4k box, then a 4k stick - all got painfully slow after a couple of years.

It gets very little use now as both TV's are smart, with all the common apps - that said they too will probably be slow/unsupported in the future and will end up going back to them.

Not sure what causes it but at least they are cheap to replace.

MitchT

Original Poster:

15,788 posts

208 months

Wednesday 29th March 2023
quotequote all
Thanks all. I think I'll get a new one. Mine is so old that the options for "cleaning it up" that I've found online don't even seem to be available in the menus!