How to Stop Amazon Firestick Buffering Problems in 2024

At a Glance

Do you find that your Amazon Fire TV Stick frequently interrupts your video streaming binges with the need to buffer the stream before resuming video playback? You might especially see extended buffering when viewing 4K content, as it requires more bandwidth.

What Is Buffering?

Buffering pre-loads the stream data, storing it in the Firestick’s memory, meaning it is ready to view when the time comes. If everything is performing as it should, you’ll never notice the buffering, as it happens in the background, while you’re viewing the video.

However, if the Firestick can’t buffer enough video ahead of time, you may be forced to wait while it “catches up” and downloads enough streaming data to continue playback. This can be frustrating, especially when it happens at a dramatic (or funny) part of your favorite movie or TV show, or even worse when you’re singing along with the show’s theme song.

Any of a number of things could be causing your Firestick to not stream properly. These can include your internet connection, the streaming service, or even the Firestick itself.

In this article, I’ll tell you about the various things you can do to remedy any buffering problems you may experience while streaming video on your Amazon Firestick.

I’ll cover multiple solutions in this piece. Your remedy may end up being a single issue or it could be a combination of issues.

Why Is My Firestick Continually Buffering?

A slow internet connection is arguably the top reason for your Firestick’s buffering issues.

Most Internet Service Providers (ISP) deliver more than enough bandwidth for buffer-free streaming. Netflix requires a connection speed of 3 Mbps or faster for HD (720p), 1080p video requires 5 Mbps, while 4K video needs at least 15 Mbps. Of course, the faster your connection, the better.

You can easily test the speed of your internet connection by using your computer or mobile device to visit Fast.com (which Netflix operates) or Speedtest.net.

There are also multiple speed test apps available for your Firestick. The Speedtest by Ookla app is my favorite of the available lot.

These tests will tell you whether or not your connection speeds are up to snuff. If your measured speeds are way below the speeds that your ISP claims, something may be wrong with your connection.

I’d advise restarting your modem and your router, then repeating the tests. If your download speeds continue to be less than exciting, contact your ISP’s customer support folks to get help troubleshooting the issue.

If your internet download speeds appear to be providing more than enough bandwidth for streaming, something else might be affecting your viewing pleasure. So, it’s time to start troubleshooting. Pay attention – we might both learn something.

Here are some possible issues that could affect your Firestick’s buffering abilities:

• Other devices on your home network may be putting a big strain on available bandwidth. Your internet bandwidth is shared among all of the users connected to your home network. If you have multiple other users connected and they’re all streaming video at once, things can slow down considerably. If one of your computers or a game console is downloading a huge system update, that can also eat up the available bandwidth. You’ll find that this often happens to users on “budget” internet service plans, which usually have much slower top-end connection speeds.
• Your WiFi router may be too far from your Firestick. How far away is the Firestick from the router? If your router is on one end of your home and your Firestick is on the other end, you could be getting interference thanks to thick walls, the way your home is built, nearby wireless networks, and other factors that could interfere with your WiFi signal.
• Your ISP may be throttling your bandwidth. Some internet providers will throttle their users’ connections if they’re streaming from “unapproved” sources. Also, quite a few ISPs will throttle your connection speeds if you use more than a certain amount of data in a single month.
• Your Firestick may not be running the latest available version of its operating system (OS). An outdated OS could cause issues with playback.
• Your streaming apps may need updating, too. Older versions of apps don’t include the latest features and could be missing optimizations and bug fixes that were introduced in later versions.
• Your Firestick may be running low on available RAM. If there are other apps running in the background, you could be running low on memory, and the background apps could be using processor cycles.
• Your Firestick may be the victim of a malware infestation. Malware can eat up memory and bandwidth, slowing things down all around.
• Your Firestick may be running hot. Overheating is not good for any electronic device.
• There might be an issue on the streaming provider’s end of things. The streaming service could be experiencing server or connection outages. Or, if everyone is trying to watch the four-hour version of the Justice League movie at the same time, HBO Max might have trouble keeping up.
• Unauthorized users may have access to your WiFi network. The world is full of people who want something for nothing. This includes internet access. Make sure your WiFi hotspot is password protected with a unique and secure password.

How to Remedy Buffering Issues on Your Amazon Firestick

1. Reboot Your Firestick

While “Have you turned it off and turned it back on again?” has become a standard joke in the IT industry, restarting your Firestick can solve a multitude of issues. Restarting your Firestick shuts down any apps or services that are currently running, giving you a fresh start.

To restart your Amazon Fire TV Stick, do the following:

1. Go to “Settings.”
2. Scroll right and select “My Fire TV.”
3. Choose “Restart.”

If this doesn’t solve your buffering issue, proceed to the next step.

2. Check the Strength of Your WiFi Signal

Extended buffering could be an indication that you’re using a weak WiFi signal. It’s easy to check the strength of your WiFi signal in the Amazon Fire TV Stick settings:

1. Go to “Settings.”
2. Select “Network.”
3. Use the Firestick remote to highlight the WiFi network your Firestick is currently using.
4. Press the Play/Pause button on your remote to view your Amazon Fire TV’s Signal Strength. For optimal streaming, the signal strength should be “Very Good.”

If the connection isn’t “Very Good,” try moving your WiFi router to a closer location, or move the Fire TV to a location closer to the router.

You may also want to investigate a “Mesh” WiFi router setup. A mesh system does not rely on a single WiFi router to cover your home with a WiFi signal. Instead, it uses a main router with one or more mesh “nodes,” which are placed around your home. Your devices will see the mesh nodes as a single large WiFi network, connecting automatically to the nearest node for the fastest connection speeds.

If that isn’t feasible, check for other connected devices that use the same WiFi network, as they may be interfering. Try temporarily shutting down those devices and see if things improve.

Other WiFi networks operating on the same channel can also cause interference. Try logging into your wireless network administration page and changing the channel that your WiFi network uses.

Check to see if you’re using your WiFi router’s 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz frequency. While 5 GHz will provide a faster connection, it also has a shorter operational range than that offered by 2.4 GHz. If your device is on the other side of the house from your router, you may want to change it to 2.4 GHz.

3. Use an Ethernet Cable Whenever Possible

If you can’t get a good WiFi signal, try using an Ethernet cable running directly from your router to your Firestick. (There are a number of Ethernet adapters available that are compatible with the Firestick.)

4. Use a VPN

At first blush, using a VPN to improve your streaming experience might seem counterintuitive. Usually, a VPN slows down your connection speeds, as a VPN reroutes and encrypts an internet connection, adding to the connection overhead.

However, if your ISP is throttling your internet connection while you’re streaming video, a VPN can hide your online activities from the ISP, meaning they won’t be able to discriminate against your streaming ways.

NordVPN is my #1 recommended VPN for Amazon Fire TV Stick.

NordVPN makes an Amazon Fire TV app available in Amazon’s Appstore, making it easy to install the app. NordVPN not only provides fast connections, it also does a top-notch job of accessing geo-blocked content from Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime Video, and many other streaming sites while you’re traveling abroad.

Here’s how to install NordVPN on the Amazon Firestick. Also, check out my full review of NordVPN.

5. Turn Off Background Processes and Apps

There may be apps running in the background on your Fire TV device. These could be putting a hit on your connection bandwidth, as well as your Fire TV system resources, even though you’re not actively using the apps.

To view apps that are running on your Fire TV, do the following:

1. Go to “Settings” -> “Applications.”
2. Click “Manage installed applications.”
3. Select the app that you want to stop running.
4. Select either “Force stop” or “Uninstall.”

6. Clear the Firestick’s App Cache and Data

The Amazon Fire TV Stick offers 8 GB of storage. While once upon a time, 8 GB was an impressive amount of storage, today’s apps require larger amounts of storage for the app and its data.

An app’s data and its caching can take up quite a bit of storage space. Just like a computer or mobile device, if your Fire TV Stick’s storage starts getting full, things can slow down.

To clear stored data and temporary data caches, do the following:

1. Go to “Settings” -> “Applications.”
2. Click “Manage installed applications.”
3. You’ll then see information on the right-hand side of the screen, showing how much space the app is using, how much data the app stores, and the current size of its cache.
4. Select the app(s) taking up loads of memory, then click the “Clear data” and “Clear cache” options.

While you likely won’t have to re-enter your login credentials, there is a slight chance some of the apps may require you to log in again.

7. Keep Your Fire TV’s Operating System and Apps Updated

Your Amazon Fire TV Stick should automatically update both its own operating system and any apps you may have installed on the device. However, from time to time, you may want to manually update your Firestick.

To force an update, do the following:

1. Go to “Settings” -> “My Fire TV.”
2. Click “About.”
3. Scroll down the screen a bit and then click “Install update.”
4. Your Firestick will likely require a reboot.

8. Keep Your Firestick as Cool as Possible

Heat is the enemy of any electronic device, and your Android Fire TV device is no exception. If you have numerous apps or services running on your Firestick, the device’s performance can take a big hit.

Depending on which HDMI port you have your Firestick plugged into, it can take a lot of heat from your television. Consider using a different HDMI port or perhaps an HDMI extender. Use a fan in extreme cases.

9. View Lower-Quality Video

While 1080p and 4K video are certainly more enjoyable to view, they can use considerably more bandwidth and processor power to smoothly stream.

While many video streaming apps will automatically adjust video quality according to your connection speed, they may also offer the ability to manually adjust video resolution. 480p and 720p video streams use considerably less bandwidth than 1080p and 4K streams.

10. Look for Other Devices That Are Hogging Your Network Bandwidth

Any device you connect to your home network uses bandwidth. This reduces the available bandwidth for other devices to use. If your Firestick has to share your network’s available bandwidth, streaming performance can suffer.

If you have other devices, like computers or other devices downloading large files, stop these bandwidth-heavy downloads to free up bandwidth for your Fire TV to use.

11. Prevent Unauthorized Users on Your WiFi Network

As I mentioned before, it is possible that you may have a freeloading neighbor connecting to your WiFi network. Make sure your WiFi network is protected by a secure and unique password. This not only prevents your neighbors from mooching your bandwidth, it also prevents nosy bad guys from connecting to your network and monitoring your online activities, installing malware on your device, and other nefarious actions.

12. Reset your Fire TV Stick to Factory Settings

When all else fails, reset your Amazon Fire TV Stick to its original factory settings. This will wipe the slate clean, getting rid of any problems (including malware) that could be causing the buffering issues.

Keep in mind that this is definitely the last thing you should try, as it will revert your Firestick to the way it was when it first came out of the box. All of your apps, files, and settings will be erased, requiring you to start over fresh.

So, be sure to back up whatever you can and maybe make a list of the apps you have installed.

To reset your Firestick to factory settings, do the following:

1. Go to “Settings” -> “My Fire TV.”
2. Scroll down and select “Reset to Factory Defaults.”
3. Select “Reset.”

How to Uninstall Unnecessary Apps

If you have installed a large number of apps on your Firestick you may see the device’s performance suffering. This is because having a large number of apps installed puts a heavy demand on the device’s resources, slowing its overall performance.

If you have a large number of apps installed on your Firestick, it’s likely that you’re not really using all of them. If you find yourself in this situation, you can quickly delete these unused apps by following these steps:

1. Using your Firestick remote, navigate to and click on “Settings” on the home menu.
2. Click on “Applications.”
3. Click on “Manage Installed Applications”. Here, you’ll see how much internal storage remains on the device.
4. Select an app by clicking on it. Here, you will be able to view details about the app, including the app size and cache data information.
5. Click on “Uninstall.”
6. Click on “Uninstall” again to confirm.

This process can be repeated to uninstall any additional apps.

How to Turn Off Collect App Usage

The Amazon Firestick conducts housekeeping in the background, while also collecting data from the installed apps on the device. Plus, some applications will run in the background, possibly using the device’s internet connection while you’re actively streaming in the foreground. Try turning off these features if you’re having buffering issues.

1. Using your Firestick remote, navigate to and click on “Settings” on the home menu.
2. Click on “Preferences.”
3. Click on “Privacy Settings.”
4. On the next screen, click on “Collect App Usage Data” to turn it off.

How to Turn Off Data Monitoring

Any background process can slow your foreground tasks. While you may want to keep your Amazon Firestick’s data monitoring enabled if you’re on a metered data plan, it can slow down your foreground buffering, even if it is slightly.

Here’s how to turn off data monitoring.

1. Using your Firestick remote, navigate to and click on “Settings” on the home menu.
2. Click on “Preferences.”
3. Click on “Data Monitoring.”
4. On the next screen, click on “Data Monitoring” to turn it off.

How to Stop Buffering on Firestick FAQs

In Closing

As you can see, there are a number of factors that can cause video buffering issues on your Amazon Fire TV Stick. By doing a little troubleshooting, as well as following the steps I’ve outlined above, you can likely resolve any buffering issues your Firestick is suffering from.