TV and Music App Vexations
December 27, 2024 5:26 AM Subscribe
I have two minor but annoying issues with my current Smart TV. I have been generally coping with them, but I'm curious if anyone has any advice for an easy fix I hadn't considered.
So: I have an Amazon Fire Smart TV, and predominantly use it for a few apps - Youtube, Spotify, Netflix, and IHeartRadio get the most use. Note that I do NOT have an Amazon Firestick, it's a TV that ITSELF is an Amazon Fire TV. The TV itself, and the Spotify App, are giving me the issues.
1. Every so often - about once every ten days - the TV itself will freeze up in the middle of something, and then go black, with the Fire TV logo in white on the screen, with three dots cycling underneath that like it's crashed and is rebooting. After about ten seconds, it will start up again at the main home screen. I've tried staying on top of this by clearing out the cache for the apps I've used most often, but that still seems like it shouldn't be happening THAT much, right? Is there anything else I can do or any other setting I can check to maybe stop that from happening?
2. In the Spotify app: I have the free version of Spotify, so I have ads. I predominantly listen to playlists, and the ads come after every four or five songs or so. Usually the music starts back up again after the ads. But once in a while, the app will run through its series of ads, but then it will not advance to the next song. I cannot manually force it to skip ahead to the next song; it keeps saying it's still playing the ad, even though a given ad has gotten to the end of its run time. I can't switch to a different playlist, it still says it has to finish playing a given ad first - even though it's already finished said ad. I have to close the app altogether and then turn it back on again to get it to register that "Oh yeah, that ad for Bombas Socks is finished" and start playing another song. Is there something about the app that 's just borked?
These are low-key and minor annoyances so far, so I'm more curious if I'm the only one with this problem. Please note: I am on a severe budget right now, so I am NOT interested in the premium version of Spotify, nor am I interested in changing my TV; I'm more hoping for something like "oh yeah, there's this patch I found that fixed it" or "yeah, I had that problem too but deleting and re-adding the Spotify app took care of it" or "Oh, check THIS setting on your Fire TV and if it's on [blank] then change it to [blank] or what have you.
So: I have an Amazon Fire Smart TV, and predominantly use it for a few apps - Youtube, Spotify, Netflix, and IHeartRadio get the most use. Note that I do NOT have an Amazon Firestick, it's a TV that ITSELF is an Amazon Fire TV. The TV itself, and the Spotify App, are giving me the issues.
1. Every so often - about once every ten days - the TV itself will freeze up in the middle of something, and then go black, with the Fire TV logo in white on the screen, with three dots cycling underneath that like it's crashed and is rebooting. After about ten seconds, it will start up again at the main home screen. I've tried staying on top of this by clearing out the cache for the apps I've used most often, but that still seems like it shouldn't be happening THAT much, right? Is there anything else I can do or any other setting I can check to maybe stop that from happening?
2. In the Spotify app: I have the free version of Spotify, so I have ads. I predominantly listen to playlists, and the ads come after every four or five songs or so. Usually the music starts back up again after the ads. But once in a while, the app will run through its series of ads, but then it will not advance to the next song. I cannot manually force it to skip ahead to the next song; it keeps saying it's still playing the ad, even though a given ad has gotten to the end of its run time. I can't switch to a different playlist, it still says it has to finish playing a given ad first - even though it's already finished said ad. I have to close the app altogether and then turn it back on again to get it to register that "Oh yeah, that ad for Bombas Socks is finished" and start playing another song. Is there something about the app that 's just borked?
These are low-key and minor annoyances so far, so I'm more curious if I'm the only one with this problem. Please note: I am on a severe budget right now, so I am NOT interested in the premium version of Spotify, nor am I interested in changing my TV; I'm more hoping for something like "oh yeah, there's this patch I found that fixed it" or "yeah, I had that problem too but deleting and re-adding the Spotify app took care of it" or "Oh, check THIS setting on your Fire TV and if it's on [blank] then change it to [blank] or what have you.
To #1 - I also have a Fire TV Omni and mine does that too periodically . I will watch this thread for solutions, but just validating that I experience the same issue!
I don’t really have anything helpful to add other than I chalk it up to some processor component “overloading” - it seems like it happens only when it’s trying to switch between tasks (never in the middle of a broadcast). If I never get a satisfying alternate solution, I’ll chalk it up to poor parts selection on their part.
posted by seemoorglass at 6:44 AM on December 27, 2024
I don’t really have anything helpful to add other than I chalk it up to some processor component “overloading” - it seems like it happens only when it’s trying to switch between tasks (never in the middle of a broadcast). If I never get a satisfying alternate solution, I’ll chalk it up to poor parts selection on their part.
posted by seemoorglass at 6:44 AM on December 27, 2024
I also do not have a solution but have similar issues with mine. It also will not do display mirroring without a full factory reset every time I turn it on. I'm planning to return it and find a TV that works better.
posted by ananci at 6:59 AM on December 27, 2024
posted by ananci at 6:59 AM on December 27, 2024
I realize this is a pretty general solution, but have you gone through all the settings and "advanced settings" (which may be hidden somewhere) line by line? I often find random items like "run weekly update check regardless of what you're doing?" and "share viewing data with our partners?" type stuff tucked away here and there.
If there's a way to avoid scheduled updates and force update apps and the OS manually, I would switch to that. The Spotify app may just be borked, and it is Amazon after all so I'd check if there is another way to access free Spotify accounts, via some other official app like Amazon Music or whatever. That's probably more likely to be kept in working order.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 10:26 AM on December 27, 2024
If there's a way to avoid scheduled updates and force update apps and the OS manually, I would switch to that. The Spotify app may just be borked, and it is Amazon after all so I'd check if there is another way to access free Spotify accounts, via some other official app like Amazon Music or whatever. That's probably more likely to be kept in working order.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 10:26 AM on December 27, 2024
My Fire TV (external, but not a stick) had similar problems. Audio would stop working and I'd have to reboot it to get it working again. This was years ago. I just gave up on the whole Fire TV ecosystem.
posted by jeffamaphone at 10:56 AM on December 27, 2024
posted by jeffamaphone at 10:56 AM on December 27, 2024
Best answer: If it comes to having to replace the thing just because of the smart functions, you might find it more cost effective to treat it like a dumb TV and get a streaming stick that plugs into it, even if that is another Amazon fire product. We got two smart TVs about ten years ago and the apps slowly started acting weird or stopped working entirely. So, now one has a Chromecast attached to it and the other has a Roku. They work fine and cost less than a new tv.
posted by soelo at 1:31 PM on December 27, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by soelo at 1:31 PM on December 27, 2024 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: We got two smart TVs about ten years ago and the apps slowly started acting weird or stopped working entirely. So, now one has a Chromecast attached to it and the other has a Roku. They work fine and cost less than a new tv.
You know, I DO have a Roku stick that I was using before I got the Fire TV....
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:16 PM on December 27, 2024
You know, I DO have a Roku stick that I was using before I got the Fire TV....
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:16 PM on December 27, 2024
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Go to Settings on your Fire TV.
Select My Fire TV or Device & Software.
Select About.
Select Check for System Update.
posted by soelo at 6:08 AM on December 27, 2024 [1 favorite]