How to Restart a Firestick (and Fix One That Keeps Restarting)
The quickest way to restart a Firestick is with the remote: hold Select (the button in the middle of the ring) and Play/Pause together for about five seconds. The screen goes dark and the stick boots back up on its own. If the remote is working and you can reach the menus, go to Settings, then My Fire TV, then Restart. If nothing responds at all, pull the power cable out, wait, and plug it back in.
A restart deletes nothing. Your apps, sign-ins and IPTV player settings are all still there when it comes back. If your stick restarts by itself, over and over, that is a different problem with a different fix, and it has its own section further down.
Three ways to restart a Fire TV Stick
1. From the Settings menu
Use this when the stick is slow or an app is acting up but the menus still work.
- Press Home and open Settings.
- Select My Fire TV. On some newer models and software versions this is called Device & Software.
- Select Restart, then confirm.
The stick shuts down, shows the Fire TV logo and returns to the Home screen. Give it a minute or so.
2. With a button shortcut on the remote
Hold Select and Play/Pause at the same time for about five seconds, until the screen goes blank. Let go and wait for the logo. This is the one to use when the picture is frozen inside an app and the menus will not open, because the shortcut often still gets through when normal button presses do nothing.
If nothing happens, try holding a little longer. If still nothing, the remote may have lost its connection to the stick, and our guide to resetting a Firestick remote covers that.
3. By unplugging it
Pull the power cable out of the stick or the adapter out of the wall, wait, then plug it back in. Amazon's restart page says a few seconds is enough. For a device that has stopped responding, Amazon's troubleshooting advice for its Fire TV smart TVs is to leave it unplugged for at least 30 seconds, and waiting the extra time on a stick costs you nothing.
Unplug the power, not the HDMI connection. Taking the stick out of the TV's HDMI port while it still has power does not restart it.
Which method to use
| What is happening | Best way to restart |
|---|---|
| Everything works, but it feels sluggish | Settings, then My Fire TV, then Restart |
| The picture is frozen inside an app | Hold Select and Play/Pause for about 5 seconds |
| The remote does nothing at all | Unplug the power for 30 seconds |
| You lost the remote | Unplug the power, or use the Fire TV phone app |
| One app keeps crashing after a restart | Clear that app's cache instead |
For the last row, a restart is not the right tool. Our guide on clearing cache and data on a Firestick walks through it, including when clearing data is safe and when it will sign you out.
How to restart a Firestick without the remote
Unplugging it always works. The stick does not have a power button, so cutting the power is the hardware equivalent of a restart.
If you want to use the Settings route, the free Fire TV app for iPhone and Android works as a remote when your phone and the stick are on the same Wi-Fi network. Open it, go to Settings, My Fire TV, Restart, exactly as you would with the real remote. The app cannot find a stick that is not connected to your network, so it is no help for a Firestick that has dropped off Wi-Fi.
Restart, factory reset and clearing cache are different things
These three get mixed up a lot, and mixing them up can cost you an evening of setting things up again.
| Action | What it does | What you lose |
|---|---|---|
| Restart | Turns the stick off and on again | Nothing |
| Clear an app's cache | Deletes that app's temporary files | Nothing important, logins stay |
| Clear an app's data | Resets that one app to new | That app's login and settings |
| Factory reset | Returns the whole stick to how it left the factory | Every app, every login, your account |
Amazon is clear that a factory reset removes your account information and all downloaded content, including in-app purchases. For anyone watching live TV through a player app on the stick, that means installing the player again and typing the account details back in. Our guide to installing IPTV on a Firestick covers that if you get there, but a restart should always come first.
Why does my Firestick keep restarting?
A stick that reboots on its own, sometimes in a loop where it never reaches the Home screen, is almost always a power problem. Amazon's own help page for this lists power first, and its advice comes down to these steps, in this order:
- Use the cable and adapter that came with the stick. Amazon notes this specifically. A common setup is the stick powered from a USB port on the back of the TV, because it saves a wall socket. If your stick is plugged in that way and keeps rebooting, move it to the original wall adapter before you try anything else.
- Unplug it for several seconds and plug it back in. A clean power cycle sometimes clears whatever caused the loop.
- Try a different wall outlet. A loose socket or a tired power strip can drop power for a split second, which is all it takes.
- Update the software if you can get into the menus: Settings, My Fire TV (or Device & Software), About, Check for System Update.
- Check the TV end. Amazon says to confirm that your TV is HDCP compliant (the TV's manual will say, in the section about video cables) and to try a different HDMI port.
- Factory reset, as the last resort, once everything above has failed.
Two habits help as well. Give the stick some air, since a stick jammed against the back of a TV in a closed cabinet runs warm. And if the restarts only happen while one particular app is open, the app is more likely the cause than the stick, so clear its cache or reinstall it before resetting the whole device.
Amazon's full list is on its Fire TV Keeps Restarting help page.
When a restart fixes streaming problems, and when it does not
A restart clears the stick's memory and closes everything running in the background. That is often enough to fix a laggy menu or an app that freezes or will not open.
It does not fix a slow or unstable internet connection. If live channels still pause to load after a fresh restart, the bottleneck is usually the network: Wi-Fi signal where the stick sits, other devices using the connection, or the router itself. Restarting the router as well as the stick is worth a try, and our guide to streaming IPTV without buffering goes through the rest. The Fire TV tutorial covers the player setup if you need to check it.
Frequently asked questions
Does restarting a Firestick delete anything?
No. A restart keeps every app, login, playlist and setting. Only a factory reset, or clearing an individual app's data, removes them.
How long do you hold the buttons to restart a Firestick?
Hold Select and Play/Pause together for about five seconds, until the screen goes blank. Then let go and the stick restarts on its own.
How do I restart my Firestick when it is frozen?
Use the remote shortcut first: Select and Play/Pause for about five seconds. If the stick ignores the remote, unplug its power cable, wait 30 seconds and plug it back in.
How do I turn off a Firestick?
There is no off switch. A Firestick goes to sleep when you leave it alone, and many models have a Sleep option in the menu that appears when you hold the Home button. The only way to cut power completely is to unplug it.
Why does my Firestick keep restarting by itself?
Usually power. Make sure it is running from the cable and wall adapter it came with rather than a TV's USB port, then try another outlet. If that does not stop it, update the software, try another HDMI port, and factory reset only as a last step.
Is it OK to restart a Firestick often?
Yes. A restart is harmless, and there is no need to wait for a problem before doing one. If you find yourself restarting every day to keep it usable, though, look at storage, app caches and power instead.
If you are a HoxyTV customer and the player still misbehaves after a restart, our support page is the next stop.
