Can You Jailbreak a Fire TV or Fire TV Stick?

No, you can't Jailbreak a Fire TV. Although you can easily sideload apps like Kodi on it instead

You can't really "Jailbreak" a Fire TV or Fire TV Stick. This is a left over term that is often used for something that was commonly done early on with an Apple TV and iPhones. Jailbreaking would exploit a vulnerability left open by accident in the code.

Mostly, jailbreaking was used to install 3rd party apps like Kodi and let you do stuff with your Apple TV that Apple did not want their customers to use their devices for. It would void your warranty and some users even accidentally bricked their devices.

Fortunately, since the Fire TV and Fire TV Stick both use a customized version of the Android OS, there is really no reason to jailbreak it. Even though Amazon would rather you only use their devices to watch content from Prime Video, for now, Fire TVs and Sticks can easily have any other apps including Kodi "sideloaded" on them and they work perfectly fine with 3rd party apps.

A Fire TV and Fire TV Stick would not be our first choice to use with Kodi or any other Android Apps. Not because they are not capable, it's because there is a far better media streamer out there that pretty much makes any other Android box pale in comparison.

The Nvidia SHIELD TV is one of the best Android TV boxes we have ever used. Performance is off the charts because when Nvidia designed the SHIELD TV, they over engineered it at the time. This was a couple years ago and to this day no other Android box can yet touch it.

Another reason you may want to avoid buying a Fire TV is recently Google removed the YouTube App leaving Fire TV and Stick owners with a clunky web browser version. Google just messed with this as well. If you have a Fire TV or Stick, a work around may be to install the Kodi YouTube add-on. Instructions are here.

For other popular Android TV Boxes for Kodi - Click Here

Should You Buy A Fully Loaded Kodi Box?

No, don't fall for the scam artist's pitch that wants to sell you a fully loaded Fire TV box or Stick. Often they are priced many times over the cost of a normal Fire TV Box or Fire TV 4K Stick MAX. There are a few reasonable sellers that provide good after market support and other benefits, but they are not easy to find.

Also, if you want to still buy a Fire TV, the previous a 3rd generation version Fire TV is much better than the newer dongle looking model Amazon recently released.

Installing Kodi on a Fire TV or Fire TV Stick or any Android devices is super easy. It only takes a few minutes to add the app and configure it with all the latest and best add ons for watching TV.

Kodi is great for what it does, but it is complicated software and it uses a lot of resources. If your only intention is to use Kodi for watching TV, then you may find Android apps are much easier to use and they can save you a lot of needless fiddling.

How To Install Kodi On Your Fire TV / Fire TV Stick

1. Go to the Fire TV Home screen and choose Settings.

2. Select and turn on both ADB Debugging and the Apps from Unknown Sources. The new Fire Stick interface is slightly different, these settings can be found in Settings > Device > Developer Options. With older Fire TV Sticks, you need to go to Settings > System > Developer options to turn on these settings.

TIP - You can also go to Device -> About -> Network, to find your Fire TV’s IP address

3. Find ES Explorer on the Amazon App Store, and install it on your Fire TV. You can also get it here.

4. Launch ES Explorer and click on the “Tools” menu which can be found in the left column. From beneath “Tools,” choose “Download Manager”

5. Click the “Right Button” on your remote control, then choose, highlight and click “New” at the bottom of the screen.

6. Type the following download link for the Kodi file for Android in the Download box then then Click “Download Now”

http://mirrors.kodi.tv/releases/android/arm/kodi-17.6-Krypton-armeabi-v7a.apk

This is the latest version of Kodi is 'Krypton 17.6' at this time. You can also check to make sure there isn't a newer version of KODI that may have been released at: http://kodi.tv/download

Click Android You will be asked to choose between 32-bit or 64-bit. Fire TV only supports 32-bit so thats the version of Kodi for Android OS you need.

7. When Kodi has downloaded. Use ES File Explorer and Select “Open File” then in the next box select “Install”

8. The Kodi installation screen start and open. In this window, Click “Install” once again. Once the app has installed, click “Open.” Congratulations, Kodi is now installed and will star running on your Fire TV.

9. Kodi by itself will not play any files, this requires that you need to first install add-ons. Find the add-on you want then go to YouTube and enter the name and you will find a ton of great videos that will walk you through the step-by-step installation.

To add the best Kodi Add-Ons Click here

Is Sideloading a Fire TV Legal?

Yes, adding apps to your Fire TV or any device is legal. Sometimes the content these apps carry may not be. Streaming is generally safe, downloading from torrent sites can quickly land you in hot water for file sharing because these will upload to others at the same time.

Sometimes Apps or Kodi some add-ons use torrents to stream content. This can record your IP address, if your IP is caught sharing copyright content from torrents, your ISP may send you a threatening letter.

Many Kodi users subscribe to a VPN to hide their IP address from their Internet provider. If this is something you want to do you need to be careful and choose a reliable and fast VPN number one. A slow or Free VPN will cause buffering and can slow down your Internet connection.

More importantly, you will want a VPN that does not keep logs. Even though most VPNs won't fully protect you if you want to commit illegal online activities. For the most part it will work fine especially if you choose one in a country that does not automatically hand over information on their customers like Express VPN.

A VPN will also protect you if you like to use public WiFi on your phone or tablet like in Airports or Coffee shops.

One of the fastest and best is EXPRESS VPN. We have an article written on how a VPN works with Kodi which you can read here. Express VPN may cost a little more, but they are one of the few VPN's that will let you watch Netflix in countries other than your own.

This lets you stream a lot more content than you would normally receive and helps you get around blocked and blacked out sports content.

Install Apps from Your Android Phone

An even easier way to sideload apps onto your Fire TV devices is to download the FREE Apps2Fire App from the PlayStore to your phone or tablet. This app will then let you transfer your downloaded apps to your Fire TV without needing to type in long URLs with your remote.

Another good app is FireDL from Aidymatic which lets you add apps by code numbers right to your Fire TV.

TIP: When downloading apps from sources other than the Google App Store, sometimes they may contain more than you bargained for. If you search and join a group on Facebook they will almost always have a download link or FireDL codes for the app and these are almost always safe to use.

It's also a good idea to scan any apps you download before first installing them to protect yourself from viruses, ransomware and other malware.

We wanted to show you the manual way to install apps first as apps can go down and not work. The first way will always work. If you use either of these two apps, you will still need to perform steps 1 and 2 in our instructions or Kodi and other apps downloaded from sources other than Google Play will not install.

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