Increase Your System Storage to 256GB On The FireStick 4K – Fire OS 6

Have you ever wondered how much actual internal storage is on the Amazon Fire TV Stick? Another question is can you expand this built is system storage, the answer is yes. In this article I will explain in detail how you can expand your system storage on the Firestick and why someone would want to do so to begin with. Before I go further, I need to mention that there are two things involved here when it comes to this device involving the storage issues. First the Amazon Fire Stick only has 8GB of internal storage, and by the time Amazon adds their preloaded stock apps and updates, you are left with about 2.5GB worth of free space and after installing some popular apps to watch some content weather these apps are free or not, you notice that the Fire Stick starts to run low on storage and it actually notifies you sometimes daily which can be very annoying and can also make your device to run sluggish and also cause it to buffer as well. So how do you solve this issue? Well I have the perfect answer for you guys! There are 2 things to mention in advance, system storage and external storage. Let’s dive into each to see the pros and cons. PLEASE NOTE: If you plan to increase your system storage on the Amazon Firestick only, then this article only applies to Fire OS 6, as the process is a bit different for Fire OS 7!

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What version is my fire stick or fire device?

Follow this simple tutorial to see what version of Fire OS you have installed before reading the rest of this article! From the main menu, head over to the settings tab and go down to My Fire TV on the bottom left. In the About section you will see your Software Version of Fire OS on the right hand side as seen in the picture below. Mine shows Fire OS 6.2.8.7

firestick main screen
my fire tv tab

External Storage

  • Why would I need to add external storage to my FireStick?
  • How can external storage be expanded?
  • What is the cost of adding external storage?
  • Do I need to format it before using my external storage?
  • What software do I need to format my new storage device?
  • Does the hardware connect similarly weather I expand external storage or system storage?

Why would I need to add external storage for my Firestick?

Well if you happen to be an individual with lots of pictures, videos, and games, I mean thousands of them and would like to see them on the big screen such as your tv then adding external storage to your Amazon Firestick would be great.

How can external storage be expanded?

You can achieve this by simply purchasing hardware like a USB flash drive or an external hard drive weather it’s an HDD drive or an SSD drive which has much faster data transfer but does cost a bit more. USB 3.0 devices are recommended for faster data transfers between the Firestick and the storage unit. I would recommend a good quality brand name weather its a USB flash drive or an HDD. You can use any size of storage as long as it’s less than 2 Terabytes! You will also need an OTG adapter to be able to plug in this extra accessory since the Amazon Firestick doesn’t have any extra ports built in except the micro USB port for the power supply!

What is the cost of adding external storage?

Flash drives can vary in prices depending on brand, speed, and size. They can range from $8 all the way to around $35.

Hard drives are a bit more expensive because they do tend to be more reliable, so they again depending on the brand, speed and capacity you might be looking to spend between $40 to $60 give or take

Do I need to format it before using my external storage?

The answer is yes. Weather you purchase a USB flash drive or an external portable drive, they both need to be formatted to the FAT32 file system, if you don’t do this they will not be recognized when plugged into your Amazon Firestick.

What software do I need to format my new storage device?

This is an excellent question! So the good news here is that I have an awesome free program that I use to format your new device for the FAT32 file system in order for the Fire device to recognize it when plugged in. This free program runs on the Windows platform and in just a few minutes your new storage device will be ready to be plugged into your Firestick and Walla! This free program is called AOMEI partition assistant free edition. Click on the direct URL download link on your PC to install it and partition your new storage device.

Does the hardware connect similarly weather I expand external storage or system storage?

The answer to that question is yes. Weather you choose to expand your external storage or system storage, you still need an OTG adapter to be able to plug in the extra accessory! Now let’s move on to what is system storage…

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So what is your fire os version?

Now you know how to easily find out what Software version you have. Keep in mind that if your device has software version Fire OS 6.x.x.x, then you can continue by reading the rest of this page to be able to expand your system storage to be able to install many more different apps and games! The process to do this for Fire OS 7 is a bit different which will be discussed in a different post.

system storage

So system storage on the Amazon Firestick is different than external storage. How you ask! Well if you expand your system storage then you will simply be able to install hundreds more of apps and games onto your Amazon Firestick without affecting the internal storage of your Firestick. For example I expanded my system storage for my Amazon Firestick 4k from 8GB to a whopping 256GB using a USB flash drive. If you would like to learn how to do this then keep on reading as this is easier than you actually start the process.

  • Why would someone want to expand their system storage?
  • What are the pros of expanding system storage?
  • Is expanding system storage legal?
  • What hardware do I need to purchase?
  • Do I need to format the new storage device?
  • What APK or App do I need to use to set this up?
  • Once this storage device is prepared, can I use it on another Firestick?
  • Will all of my newly installed apps be saved onto the new storage device?
  • Do you have a video to watch what is exactly involved from start to finish?

Why would someone want to expand their system storage?

While there are many reasons why people want to expand their system storage on the Amazon Firestick, here are the reasons why I did it and so can you….

  • I like to install a large amount of apps to testing purposes
  • I wanted to be able to install large apps like Kodi and the like without using my internal storage
  • I wanted to be able to install a game emulator and install a large amount of games onto my extra system storage and not have it affect my internal storage, we are talking games as big as 1 Gigabyte each!!
  • I am sick and tired of how many times I seen my Firestick show me a message on my screen stating “low on storage”
  • I am now able to download and play the hundreds of games from…Sega, DreamCast, Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Mega Drive, Atari, PSP, PlayStation 1, Nintendo 64 and more without the need to search online for any roms!!
  • If you have other reasons that I don’t know about, then please share them with me by leaving a comment on the video below

What are the pros of expanding system storage?

Well to be honest there are more pros than cons to this question. If you don’t want to worry about how many apps you can download and add to your Amazon Fire tv stick, then simply add more to your system storage. A second reason why is that if you device is already letting you that it’s running on low storage and you have tried cleaning it up by uninstalling some of yours apps, then here is your answer!

Is expanding system storage legal?

The answer to that is yes. If you wonder how, first it’s because Android OS is based on the Linux operating system, and since Linux is an open source project, which means you are not doing anything wrong by modifying your own device that you personally purchased. So there is no worries here!

What hardware do I need to purchase?

Ok so here is the needy greedy or how ever that’s said, lol. For this project you will need a new or a storage device that you have laying around as this can be a hard drive or a USB flash drive. The speed recommended is a USB 3.0 device for faster data transfers. If you plan to purchase a hard drive, I wouldn’t go bigger than a 2 Terabyte device and would go with a portable hard drive rather than a desktop version. I also recommend to go with a popular brand name so you don’t have any issues down the road, it’s up to you though!

Do I need to format the new storage device?

The answer to that question is yes, you have to. So before you plug in your new storage device, you first must format it to the proper file system which is a FAT32 system, that way when plugged in your Amazon Fire device can recognize! You can use any computer software to format it to FAT32 or you can use the free one I suggest here in the article which is easy to use by the way. This free program works on Windows 7, 8 and 10. Here is the download link for you to save you sometime. By the way, with AOMEI partition assistant you can clone, format, delete or create any partition pretty much on any drive, so how awesome is that!

What APK or App do I need to use to set this up?

Ok for you folks that are new to this, Apps and Apks are the same thing, so no worries guys I got you! So now down to business! On the Windows side you will need the AOMEI program I just mentioned. On the Firestick side you will need a free app called Remote ADB Shell to run a few simple commands, just three of them so no biggy don’t sweat it you can do this. Download this apk on your Firestick once you have formatted your new storage device and plugged it into your tv. You will also need a file manager, so I will list both apps below. You can use any file manager of your choice, but here is what I used for my tutorial. Help yourself right below.

Once this storage device is prepared, can I use it on another Firestick?

I am sure many people are going to ask this after they read my post, so the answer is NO. Why you ask? That’s because once the storage is programmed for the specific Amazon device, I like to say its locked to it, so you can’t use it on another device! Sorry guys.

Will all of my newly installed apps be saved onto the new storage device?

Now you are talking! This is an excellent question. That depends on which app you are trying to install and it depends on how the developer of the app has written his code according to my knowledge, for god’s sake I am not an engineer, lol. But most apps will be on the expanded system storage as I will show you guys in my video below.

Do you have a video to watch what is exactly involved from start to finish?

Alright I knew you guys would ask! The good news is yes as I will try to show you pretty much all of the steps and hopefully you won’t fall asleep on me while watching it. Gotha ya! So here are all of the apps that you will need to do this successfully, and if you have any questions or such to please drop me a line on my video and I will do my best to try to help you out. Let’s go….

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