Amazon’s Fire Stick is a popular streaming device that has gained wide recognition among TV lovers over the years. The device offers users the platform to stream all kinds of movies from TV networks using apps. Despite impacting digital entertainment positively, many users have had their Fire Stick freeze at one time or the other during their movie sessions – a situation that can be frustrating for the users.
So, if your Fire Stick keeps freezing and you want to know why then you are at the right place. Your Firestick can freeze for a number of reasons. A weak internet connection and a slow internet speed may be the reasons why your Fire Stick keeps freezing. In some cases, it could be that your Fire Stick is running out of space or its operation is being interrupted by malware.
Several reasons can contribute to the freezing of your Fire Stick, so you need to troubleshoot your system before you can diagnose the situation. You can then apply the appropriate fixes based on your troubleshooting once you identify the cause of the problem. If you want to know how to fix the problem as well, then read on because I’ll discuss other causes and how to fix the freezing issues on your Fire Stick below.
Why Does Amazon Fire Stick Keep Freezing Up?
Okay, so you got your Fire Stick now and have been using it impeccably for some time now. But recently, you just realized that it keeps freezing up on you, especially when you are at that electrifying moment in your movie.
One important thing to consider when you using streaming devices Ike the Fire Stick is that the success of these modes of TV viewing is largely based on an internet connection.
All video and audio transmissions from the TV channel to your TV at home are based on an internet connection, so if your internet is not that good, your TV viewing experience is going to be hell.
So, your Fire Stick will freeze up on you if there are:
- Poor internet connection
- Slow internet speed
- Low storage on your Fire Stick
- Overheating of the Fires Stick
- Malware in system
- No battery in remote
Now let’s take a look at them in detail.
Slow Internet Speed
As I said earlier, all streaming activities thrive on good internet connection and speed. Streaming content on your Amazon Fire Stick is no exception.
If you decide to go in for streaming devices like the Fire Stick, then you should be really confident about your internet speed otherwise, it will be disastrous.
The thing with streaming content over the internet is that Fire Stick must be able to download sufficient video from the source, which is the TV channel before it can be displayed to you on your screen in real-time.
If the internet speed is slow, the stream will get stuck or freeze until Fire Stick is able to download sufficient content for you. This is what causes the buffering which interrupts the flow of the stream.
Normally, any internet speed above 5Mbps should work fine with standard streaming but if you want to stream 4K videos, then your internet speed should be higher than 25 Mbps.
Poor Internet Connection
If your Fire Stick continues to freeze despite having a good internet speed, the. you should consider how you are connected to the internet.
It could be that your router actually is the problem. The internet connection may be unstable.
First of all, if the router is quite old, it wouldn’t be able to keep up with the internet speed of the system. This will cause your streams to buffer a lot of times since the router will be delivering content to the Fire Stick at a very slow rate.
Next is to consider if there are any interferences with your connections. If the router is far away from your Fire Stick, the strength of the internet signal obviously is going to decrease.
If there are objects in-between the router and the Fire Stick, those objects may be impeding the internet sign
Also, resulting in weak signals.
Low Storage on Fire Stick
To facilitate user experience, Fire Stick regularly keeps caches and cookies so that the next time you open your Fire Stick to stream, certain information can be downloaded for you quickly.
The problem is that the storage capacity on Fire Stick is that huge, so if the caches and cookies are left on your device for some time, they fill up almost the entire space on the Fire Stick.
This slows down the speed of your Fire Stick and results in your streams freezing up at critical moments.
Overheating
The Fire Stick, like most electronic gadgets, generate heat when they are being used.
The heat is normally contained in the internal parts of the device, so the manufacturers, by design, also manufacture fans to help cool down the device when heat is generated in it.
However, if you use the Fire Stick constantly without giving it a break, the fans will have a hard time cooling off the device and the heat will slow down the performance of the Fire Stick.
Also, hot surroundings contribute to the heat in the Fire Stick. If you place the Fire Stick in a hot environment or directly under the sun for a long, heat will build up in it in no time, thus affecting the performance and causing your streams to freeze out.
Malware Installation
Usually, apps from the Amazon App Store are safe to use on your Fire Stick. However, apps outside the store can be quite tricky since Amazon can not guarantee their safety.
It is possible that apps that you download outside the App Store are rigged with codes that can harm your system. These are malicious apps that slow down your system and or basically does anything that hackers want them to do.
So, if you experience freezing on your Fire Stick immediately after you install any third-party app, you may want to probe that app.
It is possible that that app is eating so much of your RAM, which is causing the Fire Stick to freeze.
How to Fix a Fire Stick that Keeps Freezing
Now that you know some possible causes of the frequent freezing on your Fire Stick, now will be a good time to know how to fix them.
Some of the fixes that you can apply to your freezing Fire Stick include:
- Restarting the Fire Stick
- Updating the Fire Stick
- Clearing caches and cookies
- Using the Fire Stick in a cool environment
- Deleting third-party apps
- Maintaining a strong internet connection
- Factory resetting the Fire Stick
Restart the Fire Stick
When your Fire Stick freezes up, restarting it should be the first thought that should come to mind.
It could be that some apps are running in the background and have crashed or a minor software glitch has occurred on your Fire Stick.
In either case, restarting should be able to fix all these problems.
Rebooting or restarting the device will also restore the Fire Stick to its normal state of the freezing was caused by internal heat in the system.
Maintain a Strong Internet Connection
A strong and stable internet connection is key to successful streaming with Amazon Fire Stick.
If your router is old and therefore can not deliver high-speed signals to your Fire Stick, you should consider getting a new one.
Also consult with your Internet Service Providers for their internet packages, so that you can upgrade your plan if you have one.
Remember that the higher the internet speed, the better the streaming content that you’ll receive on your TV.
Clear Caches and Cookies
If you notice that the freezing of your Fire Stick has to do with low storage, you should clear your cache and cookies.
In order to clear the cache, you can follow the steps below:
- Go to Settings on your device
- Navigate to Applications and go to Manage Installed Applications.
- Hit the Delete caches and cookies.
After deleting the caches and cookies, you should restart your Fire Stick and everything should be restored to normalcy.
Another trick is to close apps once you finish using them. This prevents them from running in the background and taking up unnecessary space and memory.
Delete Third-Party Apps
Third-party apps can be malicious so you need to delete them as soon as possible when you realize that your Fire Stick is freezing up.
If you do not trust the source of the app, do not download it.
However, if you download it, you can always install it by going to settings and uninstalling that particular app from there.
Update Apps
App updates come with the latest fixes to deal with bugs and glitches that slow down your system.
Therefore, it is important that you update the apps on your Fire Stick frequently so that your system runs at its optimal level.
Use the Device In a Cool Environment
Since heat builds up in the Fire Stick while being used, a better way of dealing with the heat is to use the device in a cool well-ventilated room.
Always try to keep the device away from the sunlight and avoid putting it directly on other electronic gadgets.
Factory Reset Fire Stick
Resetting the Fire Stick to its factory settings in this sense means making it appear as if you just bought it anew.
When you factory reset the device, you’ll be deleting all your download data, apps and so forth permanently.
Although certain apps will be lost in the process, don’t worry since this is actually the best way to get rid of the numerous glitches and crashed apps forever.
You should use this as your last resort.
Final Thoughts
Fire Stick, no matter how good it might be, is not immune to glitches. It is possible for it to freeze up on you.
However, knowing what caused it problem can actually help you fix the situation in no time.
In this article, I have discussed some of the reasons why your Fire Stick keeps freezing and have also suggested ways to fix the problem.
Usually, the cause of the problem will be internet related – whether the connection is poor or speed is slow or router signals are being interrupted.
So, make sure your internet is really stable and faster and the Fire Stick freezing up on you will be a thing of the past.
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