Do you have frequent video streaming buffering issues on your Amazon Fire Stick TV? If yes, then don’t worry as you’re not alone here. Fire Stick TV is one of the best streaming devices so far whether you stream Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Pluto TV, Plex, or anything else. Meanwhile, the cost of this streaming device is good enough and anyone can easily set it up. However, the actual buffering issue seems to appear once users start using it. So, here we’ve shared some of the possible workarounds that you should try to fix it.
Needless to say that most of the buffering issues can appear due to the slower internet speed or unstable connectivity. But there is something more than these like glitch with the application data, improper configuration, background running apps, not enough memory of the Fire Stick, server region issue for the ISP, etc. As we always mention, you can’t completely prevent or stop buffering of the online streaming from your end. But you can definitely try to reduce the buffering level or quickly bypass the buffering whenever appears.
Page Contents
Fix Buffering issues on Fire Stick TV
Here, in this case, we’ll assume that you’re experiencing continuous or very frequent buffering issues with your video streaming on the Amazon Fire Stick TV. If so, try following all the mentioned troubleshooting steps below one by one until your problem reduces quite a bit.
1. Restart Fire Stick TV
- From the Fire Stick TV Home Screen, head over to the Settings menu.
- Scroll to the right side of the screen and click on My Fire TV.
- Choose Restart.
2. Improve Wi-Fi Signal
- From the Fire Stick TV Home Screen, head over to the Settings menu.
- Choose Network > Select the connected Wi-Fi network from the list.
- Once you selected, the Wi-Fi signal strength will be displayed on the right side of the screen.
- If the signal strength is Very Good then you can proceed to the next method. If not, then try to restart your Wi-Fi router and check for signal strength again. Still, have the same? Try to contact your ISP (Internet Service Provider) and upgrade to the higher package.
3. Check Internet Speed
- Open Fire Stick TV > Select Apps from the home screen.
- Choose Category > Utility.
- Select the Silk Browser app > Click on the Get button.
- Download and install the browser app on your Fire Stick TV.
- Now, open the Silk Browser app and search for fast.com or speedtest.net by using the onscreen keypad. (We’ll prefer fast.com)
- Run the test and you’ll get the average speed limit of your internet package. To cross-check it, you can run the test multiple times. Click on the “Show More Info” on fast.com for in-depth speed info.
If your internet speed isn’t that satisfactory or on the slower side than the actual speed limit according to the active package, then contact your ISP and try to fix it out.
4. Use an Ethernet Cable
If in case, you’re using a Wi-Fi connection and the speed or stability isn’t good enough, try to check the speed or buffering issue with the wired ethernet cable. A wired connection is more stable and fast enough whatsoever.
Read Also: Ways to Fix Fire TV Stick Stuck on Amazon Logo Screen
5. Turn Off Collect App Usage Data
- From the Fire Stick TV home screen, select Settings.
- Choose Applications > Select Collect App Usage Data.
- Turn it off and restart the Fire Stick TV.
6. Adjust Preferences
- From the Fire Stick TV home screen, select Settings.
- Choose Preferences > Select Data Monitoring > Turn it off.
- Then go back to the Preferences page again.
- Select Notification Settings > Choose App Notifications > Turn it off.
- Similarly, turn off Allow Video Autoplay & Allow Audio Autoplay options from the Featured Content section.
7. Uninstall Unused Apps
- Go to the Settings menu from the Fire Stick TV home screen.
- Select Applications > Choose Manage Installed Applications.
- Select an app and choose Uninstall from the list to completely remove it.
- Do the same process for other unused or unnecessary apps as well.
- Once done, restart your Fire Stick TV and you’re good to go.
8. Free Up Fire Stick TV Memory
- Simply download and install the Clean Master app on the Fire Stick TV.
- Open the Clean Master app and try clearing the temporary files, caches, etc to free up some RAM space which will also help you to reduce the stream buffering issue.
9. Use a VPN Service
VPN (Virtual Private Network) basically keeps you anonymous, doesn’t track or keep your browsing history, routes & encrypts data traveling from device to device in a layer of the mask (easily connects your IP to a different IP/server), etc. So, the VPN service can also bypass the content restriction of specific regions and increases speed which can reduce server load as well as buffering.
If none of these steps worked for you, try these below two methods which have been recommended by one of the Redditors.
10. Increase Beacon Transmit Interval
- Go to the Wi-Fi router settings page > Under the Wireless Networking option, you’ll need to change the beacon transmit interval speed level from 100ms to 1000ms.
- Once done, hit Apply/OK to save changes.
- Finally, restart your router and check for the buffering issue on the Fire Stick TV again.
11. Reduce Transmit Power of Router
- Try to reduce the transmit power of the Wi-Fi router from the default 42mW to 25mW.
- Once done, hit Apply/OK to save changes.
- Then reboot the router and check again for the buffering issue.
That’s it, guys. We hope this guide was helpful to you. Feel free to ask in the comment below for further queries.