How To Install Kodi On Amazon Fire Tv Box 2016

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Kodi (formerly known as XBMC) is an open up source media hub that aims to make it like shooting fish in a barrel to admission all of your digital media, from music to movies and fifty-fifty alive TV, all in one place. It'south available on a lot of platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Raspberry Pi, and even the Xbox One, but one identify you won't find it natively is the Amazon Fire Television.

That doesn't mean Burn TV users are out of luck, but installing Kodi on the Fire TV isn't as like shooting fish in a barrel as most apps — you tin can't just download information technology from the store. That said, it's a simpler process than you might await. Installing Kodi only takes a few minutes, and nosotros'll bear witness y'all how.

Earlier yous start

If you're looking to install Kodi on your Fire Boob tube, you're probably already familiar with the software, but if you're just getting started, you might desire to check out the company's website to exist certain y'all're fully enlightened of its capabilities. There are alternatives similar Plex that are somewhat easier to setup and maintain, Kodi is completely gratis and also highly customizable.

You lot'll as well want to make certain you've got everything y'all need earlier you get started.

What yous'll need

First things get-go, y'all'll need a compatible Burn TV device. Fortunately, all Fire TV streaming boxes and Fire TV Sticks are uniform. Equally for software, Kodi works on both Burn down OS vi, which runs on all recent models, as well every bit Fire OS 5 for older models. This guide is aimed at Fire Os six, so some instructions may differ slightly if you're using older hardware — mainly, the Device menu under Settings is called System on older versions of Fire OS.

Kodi doesn't come with the ability to really play anything on your Fire Television receiver out of the box. You lot'll either demand to be running Kodi on another device in your house that acts as a media server, or you'll need a USB hard bulldoze, thumbdrive, or MicroSD menu with video files you want to scout on the Fire Tv set. It'due south besides worth noting that the Fire TV simply supports FAT32-formatted drives. About thumb drives and MicroSD cards equally well as some external difficult drives come formatted this manner past default, but if your drive doesn't work with the Fire Television, this could be why. The Burn down TV's USB port isn't able to provide ability to full-sized USB drives either, and then if y'all plan on using a bigger drive, you'll need one with its own power supply.

A note on security

During the first pace of the install process, your Fire Tv will warn you that enabling unsupported apps (Kodi is ane such app) could potentially pose a security take a chance. This isn't a bogus warning either. Reports have been popping upwards since June 2022 that some users who enabled options required for installing Kodi have been seeing malware targeting their Fire TV devices. In August, Amazon updated older Fire Television receiver models to give the warning (previously, this warning only occurred on newer devices running FireOS 6), but you'll have to ignore this warning in order to install Kodi.

If you lot closely follow the instructions in this guide, you shouldn't have much to worry about, but if this gives you lot interruption you might want to await into a solution that is really available in the Amazon App Store.

You have been warned.

Installing Kodi

Stride 1: Head to device settings —Open Settings, then navigate to the Device section (System on older models). From hither, select the Developer card (Developer Settings on older models).

Step 2: Installing apps from unknown sources — Once yous've located the Developer settings, select Apps from Unknown Sources and brand certain this is set to On. This is where you'll see the alarm nearly device security we mentioned to a higher place.

Pace 3: Install the Downloader app for Burn down Television — At that place are a few unlike apps y'all tin can utilize to download Kodi from its website, merely neither Amazon'due south Silk browser nor Firefox volition get it washed. The Downloader app by AFTVNews.com, found on the Amazon App Store, is the simplest option nosotros've institute. Yous can either search in the Apps section of your Fire Television or visit the app's shop page and install from there.

Stride 4: Download Kodi —Once the Downloader app is installed, open the app and y'all should find yourself in the Browser section. Select the address bar and enter the following URL: kodi.television set/download. In one case the page loads, scroll downwards until you come across the Android app and click on it. Here you'll see a link to the Google Play Shop, as well as direct downloads for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the app. Click on the 32-bit version, and it should begin downloading.

Stride 5: Install Kodi — Once the app has finished downloading, it should automatically open up the installer. You'll come across a list of the permissions the app needs, as well as options to cancel or install. Select Install and let the process run its form. Once this is finished, you'll exist presented with the choice to open the app. A shortcut to open Kodi volition at present also exist on your Burn Television receiver's domicile screen.

What to do next

Now that Kodi is installed, y'all have two options for playback: You tin can point it at files on an external drive or MicroSD card plugged into the Fire Television set, or you can connect to a UPnP server sharing media files. This is beyond the scope of this article but installing Kodi on a PC on your network tin can help streamline the process.

Keeping Kodi up to engagement

Ane of the drawbacks of Kodi's absenteeism in the Amazon App Shop is that it won't stay up to date the way other apps on your Fire TV do. When yous desire to update the app, you'll demand to repeat steps 4 and v, and you'll take the latest version of the app installed. This isn't convenient, of grade, but unless an official version of Kodi comes to the Amazon App Store (which doesn't seem likely anytime soon), it's your best selection.

There is a whole lot you tin practise with Kodi, and information technology would be impractical to explain it all here. Fortunately, the official Kodi Wiki, maintained by members of the Kodi squad and the community around information technology, is packed with information that should help yous make the virtually of your newly Kodi-enabled Burn down Boob tube.