I have a first-generation Amazon Fire TV Stick in a spare bedroom, and it has gotten so slow. And no wonder — it’s a first-gen product that is now 12 years old, despite still being able to run most modern streaming apps.
After spending about five minutes tweaking settings, I was able to dramatically speed up my old Fire TV Stick, and now I’m reconsidering an upgrade.
Don’t use the TV’s USB power
Plug into the wall instead for maximum power
The first thing is not a setting to change, but it’s an easy tweak, and it’ll have an immediate impact on performance.
While technically you can plug any streaming stick into one of the USB ports of your TV, it’s not ideal. Your TV typically only provides 0.5A/2.5W of power through those USB ports. Your streaming stick wants 1A/5W for maximum performance, and that can only be supplied if you plug your streaming stick into a wall plug.
You’ll notice the improvement in performance the most during demanding tasks like updating firmware, installing new apps, or rearranging the home screen. Plugging the Fire TV Stick into a proper power source will ensure these tasks happen at peak performance.
This next tweak will make navigating the content grid faster.
Turn off autoplay
You don’t need home screen previews
The Fire OS that runs the Fire TV Stick tries to be visually appealing. One of the ways it does this is by autoplaying videos when browsing featured content on the home screen, versus just showing static images (which load much faster). We can change a setting to prevent Fire OS from autoplaying these preview videos. Not only that, but there’s a second option that you should disable to allow audio to autoplay, which will play the sound along with the video previews when browsing.
This means your Fire TV Stick has to work harder every time you browse.
To turn off these settings, go to Settings > Preferences > Featured Content > Turn off Allow Video Autoplay and Allow Audio Autoplay.
Just a note in case you’re looking for it: the Settings menu can be found along the right side of the screen next to your profile image, where you see a gear icon.
Clear out the cache
Get rid of the junk for a quick speed boost
My Fire TV Stick had hundreds of megabytes in app cache, and it’s easy to clear out these temporary files (that rebuild anyway when you launch apps later). Making this one change gave my Fire TV Stick an instant speed boost.
To clear the application cache, go to Settings > Applications > Clear all Application Caches.
Next, we’ll do some housekeeping by removing apps you don’t use or forgot about.
Uninstall apps you don’t use
Get rid of anything you don’t use regularly
If you have an older Fire TV Stick like me, you probably have apps you installed (often just for fun) many years ago that you never use. These apps use up the already-limited storage space on the Fire TV Stick (my model has only 8GB of built-in storage, with around 5GB available), and you don’t need them if you don’t use them. By uninstalling a handful of apps, I freed up over 600MB of space in just a few minutes.
To uninstall unused apps on the Fire TV Stick, go to Settings > Applications > Manage Installed Applications > Select app > Uninstall.
Reboot weekly
Refresh caches and give it a fresh start
This one might seem obvious, but it genuinely helps to refresh vital system components, flush temporary caches, stop background tasks, and overall give it a fresh start. This is especially helpful given that my first-gen Fire TV Stick has only 1GB of RAM, which can get filled quickly after a modest browsing session on Fire OS.
I suggest you reboot your Fire TV Stick once per week to maximize performance. To do that, go to Settings > My Fire TV > Restart.
Update your firmware
Keeping Fire OS updated is one of the easiest ways to keep your streaming device running as smoothly as possible, and usually updates happen automatically, but you should check anyway in case your device has been unused for a while.
To check for updates, go to Settings > My Fire TV > About > Check for updates. My particular Fire TV Stick has reached end of life so there technically will be no future updates, but there was an older update waiting for me when I was doing research for this article.
These changes made my Fire TV Stick dramatically faster
And it only took a few minutes
I have to be honest — I figured my Fire TV Stick was too old to be a good-enough streaming device. I was ready to buy a new one (the new 4K Fire TV Stick is less than $22 — and the fastest streaming device costs hundreds and is not necessary for most).
But after making these changes, my Fire TV Stick now feels almost as fast as a new 2026 Roku stick I bought for another bedroom (though my Roku TV is even faster).
- Brand
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Amazon
- Operating System
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Fire OS
The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K transforms your television into a premium streaming hub. It delivers sharp 4K Ultra HD picture quality with vibrant Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support. Featuring rapid Wi-Fi 6 connectivity and an Alexa Voice Remote, it provides smooth, voice-controlled access to thousands of apps and channels.