To make the most out of your Firestick streaming experience, you have to address the issue of buffering or even take action to know how to stop buffering on firestick entirely.
The Firesticks errors are temporary, and you can easily correct it, but from time to time, they can be a real hassle. Below we outline what ways to find out the causes of the Firestick buffering error and possible solutions to them.
The only downside to using a firestick device is that it occasionally suffers from buffering problems. Although this issue lasts only a few seconds or minutes at most, waiting for your show to start or continue can be quite annoying.
The good news is that buffering on firesticks can be fixed. In this article, you can use different techniques to identify and fix the problems of slow streaming.
Causes of Buffering on firestick
A significant problem in which people face this problem is a slow internet connection. With slow Internet, you can only watch low-quality movies like 480p or 720p. To watch 1080p movies, it is recommended to keep it around 20Mbps.
ISP Throttling can also be the issue. This means that your ISP (Internet Service Provider) has reduced the Internet. This problem occurs when the provider notices that you are using too much Internet and then slows down the connection.
The modem can also be a major cause of firestick buffering because if your modem is too far away, the signal strength will be low, and thus, you will face this problem.
Firesticks come with two different options to power up, one using a TV port and the other using an adapter. If you are using a TV port, you will definitely face this problem as it does not provide enough power to the stick.
Background Application is another big factor that creates buffering issues as these devices only come with 1GB of RAM. So, if you have a lot of apps running in your background, you have a 100% chance of experiencing this problem. Another common reason that people don’t know is that low storage is when you install too many applications on this device will definitely give you a buffering problem.
Unwanted application data and cache: When you install the application, you will see that it is very light in size, but after a long time of use, you have noticed an increase in size. Because of this application stores too much data on the device which slows it down, and we face this problem. Unwanted features are another big problem because if the device enables features like autoplay, chances are you will see this problem.
Having an older device means you are not getting any updates and still have the same OS when purchased. This is also the cause of this problem because when the device is outdated, the device will lack the new features and the bug fix in the new updates.
How to Stop Buffering on Firestick
There are various approaches available to stop buffering on Firestick. However, you are to test all the approaches until you see the one that works for your device.
1. Restart your Firestick
Whenever your Firestick starts buffering the first home remedy you need to carry out is to restart the device.
- Switch on your Firestick or if the Firestick is still on the error page continue from the next step.
- Click on “Settings” on the taskbar.
- Under “Settings” select “My Fire TV” from the list of options available.
- You will see; Sleep, Restart, and reset to factory defaults. Select “Restart” in the middle.
- The “Restart” confirmation notification will appear, click on the “Confirm” button to restart the device.
- Done
It might take a few minutes to complete the restart push. But, once the restart is complete, navigate to the movie you are streaming to see if restarting the device fixes the buffering error.
2. Uninstall Apps that you are not using
When you have too many apps that are dormant on your Firestick you can start experiencing a buffering error on your device. Therefore, it’s important to remove or uninstall apps on your Firestick if the buffering error keeps coming.
- Switch on your “Firestick” and click on the “Settings” tab.
- Scroll the screen and select “Applications” to display all the apps you have installed on your “Firestick”.
- You will see “GameCircle” and “Manage Installed Applications”. Then, go for “Manage Installed Application”.
- Select the app you are not using. You will see the app information such as app size, caches, etc,.
- Under “Force Stop” select the “Uninstall” option.
- The “Uninstall” notification will appear. Click on the “Uninstall” button under “Are you Sure”.
- This approach should free up some space on your Firestick and help to stop the buffering on your Firestick.
3. Clear Firestick Caches
This is yet another approach to fix “Unfortunately, the app has stopped working on phones. The same approach can also be of help when you want to stop buffering on Firestick.
- Go back to your Firestick home screen.
- Select “Menu >> Applications”.
- Select “Manage installed applications” to access all apps installed on your Firestick.
- Select one of the apps.
- Hover to “Clear Caches” and select it.
- Done
Repeat the same process for all apps on your Firestick. However, to take the clearing caches on Firestick more serious, click on “Clear data” to remove all personal settings from the app including your password and username and re-login again.
This approach should not be undermined if none of the above approaches works to stop buffering on Firestick.
Disable Collect App Usage
For every app, you install and open on Firestick, the device store caches from it. So, the more time you spent streaming the more the data usage the device will collect. However, disabling this feature on your Firestick will help to fix error buffering while streaming on Firestick.
- Go to your Firestick settings.
- Select “Preferences”.
- Select “Privacy Settings” under “Parental Control”.
- Select “Collect App Usage Data”.
- Turn it off.
That is it. When you are done disabling your Firestick “Collect app usage data”, proceed to use your Firestick to stream movies to see if the buffering error will not stop.