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FireTV

FireTV

Fire TV Cheat Sheet

Installing ADB on Windows

To sideload apps from your computer, you first need to install the Android Debug Bridge (ADB).

  1. Download SDK Platform-Tools:

  2. Unzip the File:

    • Extract the contents of the downloaded .zip file to a permanent folder on your computer (e.g., C:\platform-tools).

  3. Add ADB to Windows PATH:

    • Search for “Environment Variables” in the Windows Start Menu and select “Edit the system environment variables”.
    • In the “System Properties” window, click the “Environment Variables…” button.
    • Under the “System variables” section, find and select the “Path” variable, then click “Edit…”.
    • Click “New” and paste the full path to your platform-tools folder (e.g., C:\platform-tools).
    • Click OK on all windows to save the changes.

  4. Verify Installation:

    • Open a new Command Prompt or PowerShell window.
    • Type adb version and press Enter. If it returns the version number, ADB is installed correctly.

Sideloading Apps using ADB

For more complex installations, like .xapk files, you can use the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) from your computer.

1. Initial Setup

  • Enable ADB on Fire TV: Go to Settings > My Fire TV > About and click on your Fire TV’s name about 7 times to enable Developer Options. Go back one menu, enter Developer Options, and turn on ADB debugging.
  • Find IP Address: In the same menu, go to Settings > My Fire TV > About > Network to find your Fire TV’s IP Address.

2. Connect to Your Fire TV

  • Open a terminal or command prompt on your computer.
  • Run the connect command, replacing <ipaddress> with your Fire TV’s IP.
    adb connect <ipaddress>:5555
  • A prompt will appear on your TV screen. Check Always allow from this computer and select OK.

3. Install an XAPK File

An .xapk file is a package containing multiple .apk files. You must install them all at once.

  1. Prepare the File:

    • Download the .xapk file (e.g., from a source like APKMirror).
    • Rename the file extension from .xapk to .zip.
    • Unzip the file into a new folder. You will see multiple .apk files inside.

  2. Install the APKs:

    • In your computer’s terminal, navigate to the folder where you extracted the files.
    • Use the adb install-multiple command followed by the names of all the .apk files.

    Example for installing the Teleboy app:

    adb install-multiple ch.teleboy.androidtv.apk config.ar.apk config.armeabi_v7a.apk config.de.apk config.en.apk config.es.apk config.fr.apk config.hi.apk config.in.apk config.it.apk config.ja.apk config.ko.apk config.my.apk config.pt.apk config.ru.apk config.th.apk config.tr.apk config.vi.apk config.xhdpi.apk config.zh.apk

Tip for Windows users: To quickly list all the .apk filenames in the folder, you can use either Command Prompt or PowerShell. Copy the resulting list to help build your adb install-multiple command.

  • In Command Prompt (cmd.exe):
    dir /b /a-d *.apk
  • In PowerShell:
    Get-ChildItem -File -Name *.apk
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