I was going to upgrade to Gen 2 but sadly, not now.

Sorry for the rant but I have been down this road before, way back in the early days of Roku when they decided what was best, updating software and crippling apps which in the end made their system a miserable experience, which is why a got rid of my Roku’s and switched to FTV’s.

Which we should be able to do, we own them, we do not rent them from Amazon and should have the right to do as we please. Yes I do think the end is coming soon, for those of us who like to customize our FTV’s. Yes I am a conspiracy theory type of guy, first Amazon adds banner commercials to their home screen then almost immediately they come with a completely unnecessary update that “oh by the way” also forces you onto their home screen. I have blocked updates via ADB on my 2 Gen 1’s for now (fingers crossed) When I click on “check for updates” the wheels spin and I get an error message saying “sorry we are unable to update your system at this time” so far so good BUT I smell a rat.

For the time being, if you are a fan of FireStarter, and don’t want to lose its functionality, you may want to block software updates until more is learned. Once more people, including myself, receive the new software update and get a chance to diagnose why FireStarter is being disabled, we should know more. One theory is that it is being disabled and quarantined due to its unconventional practice of establishing an internal ADB connection, which is one of the ways it detects home button presses. It’s unclear at this point why FireStarter is being disabled by the Fire TV. However, once you reboot the device, the app will once again be inaccessible. If you uninstall FireStarter using the ADB command adb uninstall de.belu.firestarter and then reinstall it, you will be able to launch the app. The app is also removed from the “Manage Applications” section of the Settings menu.

The app remains on the Fire TV, but is removed from the “Apps” section and cannot be launched. It appears that the new 5.0.5.1 Fire TV and Fire TV Stick software update is disabling FireStarter.

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