When you go to turn off your TV, you can unknowingly be doing so right in the middle of a Fire TV Stick software update. You might think you’re careful and would never turn your TV off while your Fire TV is installing an update, but what about when you’re using your TV on a different input? Your Fire TV Stick might, unbeknownst to you, be installing an update while sitting idle. Worse yet, most TV USB ports lose power completely when the TV is turned off. That’s the worst time for it to unexpectedly restart due to insufficient power because restarting during the wrong time during a software update can easily brick your device. The Fire TV Stick’s power usage tends to peak during software updates, due to all the data being unpacked, read, and written.

The most critical time for a Fire TV Stick to be receiving sufficient power happens to be one of the times that it actually consumes the most power, which is during a system software update. Most of the time, the Fire TV Stick uses less than 0.5 amps to run, which is why so many people have no issues powering off of their TV’s USB port, but the Fire TV Sticks power use fluctuates and can exceed 0.5 amps. Most USB ports on TVs can only provide up to 0.5 amps of power because that’s what the official USB standard dictates for a high-power device. That doesn’t mean that a Fire TV Stick needs that much power to run, but it can technically pull up to that much power from the included power adapter. That’s fine and I believe them because I’m not saying doing so will absolutely damage the Fire TV Stick, but it does make it much more likely for something to go wrong.Īll Fire TV Sticks come with a power adapter capable of outputting 1 amp of power. I know there are going to be thousands, if not millions, of people who will be quick to mention that they have been powering a Fire TV Stick with their TV’s USB port for years without any issues. The main reason not to use the USB port on a TV to power a Fire TV Stick is that it greatly increases the risk of damaging or “bricking” your streaming device. If you’re currently powering a Firestick off of your TV or are thinking about doing it, here’s why you should reconsider using the stock power brick that comes with the device. Many people miss the warning or ignore it for the convenience of having one less power adapter to deal with. On the plastic wrapper of every Amazon Fire TV Stick is a message telling you to “use the included power adapter and USB cable” to discourage you from using the USB port on your TV to power the device.

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