If you’ve ever considered buying a Fire TV streamer, now might be the best time. I’d still steer most people towards an Apple TV 4K if they can afford one, or maybe the Google TV Streamer, but Amazon is releasing a major overhaul of Fire OS to solve long-standing issues with the software. That includes speed, which should hopefully make Fire TV devices more competitive with their rivals.
One thing you may be considering before taking the plunge is whether it’s safe to leave a Fire TV add-on plugged in all the time. The short version is that it shouldn’t be a problem, although you’ll probably want to power it down periodically for a couple of reasons. In fact, most of the time, shutting it down entirely is going to be counterproductive.
What happens when you leave a Fire TV device plugged in
Mostly positives, a couple of negatives
Whether you’ve got a Stick, a Cube, or a full-fledged Fire TV, any Fire OS device will automatically switch into Low Power Mode after a set period of inactivity, or when you deliberately put it to sleep. You can press the Select button on the remote to wake your device back up. I should note here that if you’re powering a Stick via your TV’s USB port, it’s going to shut off whenever your TV does. That’s why it’s best to use a wall adapter, unless you don’t mind waiting for your streamer to cold-boot every time you want to watch something.
Exactly what happens in Low Power Mode is going to depend on the settings you have enabled. As a rule, though, your device should continue to be available for smart home control via Alexa or Alexa+. If you want to use voice commands on your remote, you’ll need to go to Settings -> Display & Sounds and enable Voice Commands When TV Screen is Off. Otherwise, voice will only work on a linked Alexa speaker.
Aside from automation, faster startup times, and voice control, another reason to leave your Fire TV device on 24/7 is updates.
Power consumption is largely a non-issue for Fire TV add-ons. Hard numbers are strangely difficult to come by, but even the Cube is estimated to consume no more than 5W when streaming, and as little as 1W when it’s asleep. Obviously, that will add up over time, but it’s guaranteed that your TV will consume more power in a few hours than your streamer will in a few weeks.
Aside from automation, faster startup times, and voice control, another reason to leave your Fire TV device on 24/7 is updates. It can continue to fetch updates even in Low Power Mode, which means that by the time you sit down to watch something again, it should be ready to go. Updating apps and Fire OS can take some time, and the last thing anyone wants is to make friends or family wait several minutes before they can watch a movie or the big game.
The negatives
There will be a marginal increase to your power bill, probably less than $5 annually. A more significant concern, then, is heat, at least with Fire TV Sticks. Whereas a Cube is normally sitting out in the open where it can get a lot of airflow, a Stick plugs directly into your TV’s HDMI port. It’s not only absorbing heat from your TV, but jammed into a cramped space full of dust. It should be okay, as long as you clear out that dust occasionally — yet without a chance to power down completely, it can’t cool down fully, so you may (on paper) be shortening your Stick’s lifespan slightly.
I wouldn’t worry too much about that, to be honest. Fire TV products can and do overheat sometimes, but they’re designed to shut down automatically in those instances, and you should be good to go again in 15 minutes or less. There are steps you can take to prevent overheating that I’ll cover in the next section.
Hypothetically, another problem you could run into in the long term is slowdowns. The pre-overhaul version of Fire TV is infamous for gradually bogging down, mainly because of accumulating cache and software sizes butting up against low internal storage, sometimes as little as 8GB. Also, cheaper Fire TV devices tend to have weak processors, meaning they can struggle to keep up with newer features. The Stick HD can’t handle 4K or Alexa+ today, much less features liable to arrive in the next three to five years.
As for the overhauled OS, it’s too early to say. It should be up to 20 to 30% faster on the same hardware, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to remain that fast in 2030, or even 2028. In any case, leaving a Fire TV plugged is going to keep its system cache intact, which could affect performance or (in extreme cases) lead to glitches or a crash, owing to corrupt or outdated cache files.
What can you do to keep a Fire TV device running smoothly?
Some simple practices
You should occasionally power down a Fire TV device completely instead of putting it to sleep. This accomplishes two things — the first is giving it a break, which reduces the heat strain on its components, even if just for a few hours. The second is clearing out its system cache and RAM, which may prevent bugs and restore some of its performance.
There’s no definite schedule to follow here. For convenience’s sake, I’d shut down no more than once per week. Once per month should be fine, and just a few times per year may be enough to keep things chugging along. Remember that with add-on streamers, the only way to fully power down is to pull the plug. Wait at least 30 seconds before you reconnect.
For convenience’s sake, I’d shut down no more than once per week. Once per month should be fine, and just a few times per year may be enough.
There is more you should do. If heat is a legitimate concern, dust the area around your device once a month or so, preferably using a microfiber cloth or a compressed air can. Avoid tilting a can too far up or down, since it might spray liquid. You should additionally make sure your room doesn’t go far above standard room temperature (72F or 22C), and keep your TV out of prolonged sunlight.
There are two other maintenance tasks, the most critical being clearing out app caches. While rebooting a device scrubs its system cache, app caches need to be cleared manually by navigating to Settings -> Applications -> Manage Installed Applications, then clicking on Clear all Application Caches.
Less important, typically, is staying on top of software updates, as your device should update automatically by default. You may be able to get updates faster by selecting Settings -> My Fire TV/Device & Software -> About -> Check for System Update. It’s worth checking every week if you’ve disabled automatic downloads, although I’d hold off if you’re worried about new features slowing you down. In that scenario, you’ll want to search for release notes first.
