Preparing your tv takes a long time

Can I get an answer from Channels staff?

I'm not sure what kind of answer you're looking for.

Android 5.1 was released in 2014. It's missing a lot of stuff.

We are aware of the slow preparing issue and will be working on it this year, but there's only so much we can do in software to compensate for slow hardware.

@tmm1 Apologies if I wasn't clear in what I was trying to get an answer for. I do understand you spend a lot of time supporting in the forums and it is appreciated. Further up the thread you gave me a method for installing the beta by sideloading. That worked fine at the time of the post. I tried to do another update and I got the behavior described above. You then asked me what fireos and I answered. I am asking if the betas are no longer being built that allow for installing on FireOS 5.2.8.4 or if that is an unrelated problem.

In regards to the comment about slow hardware, I do not find the hardware to be that slow. Yes, it is not as fast as my 4k sticks but it does perform well when playing back the content I have. In short, I am not looking to replace this device. I know there's a big push for environmental consciousness and surprisingly I'm on that side in regards to ditching functional hardware. I guess I'll wait on the official release if the beta is no longer an option. That's the only question I am trying to get an answer for.

FireOS 5 doesn't allow installing betas. Amazon broke it at some point, and its not possible for us to fix it.

You can use adb to install from a computer, but you have to enable developer mode and do a bunch of stuff first.

You could also try Downloader app by AFTVNews to see if that is able to install the apk using the URL. Let us know.

APK installs fine. It crashes to home screen on launch. I'm sideloading

Please capture and email the adb logs to support

Please try this beta:

@tmm1 This did not fix my problem with the beta. In fact, I am now not able to open the official app from the app store. It, too, crashes to desktop. Please revert these changes. I do not seem to be able to install the nonbeta version of the server to try and fix this.

So you sideloaded that new apk and it still crashes? Are you able to capture the logs?

@tmm1 I did. It crashes to the home screen so I cannot capture the logs so behavior is the same as before.

The big problem is that the version from the app store that I use daily is now crashing to home screen when opened. I cannot capture logs on this one either. I am not able to use Channels on this tv any longer since upgrading the server. Can you revert ASAP?

Amazon does not give us an option to revert. We need to fix the issue and upload a new apk to them and then wait for them to review it.

How are you installing the new apk? Using adb presumably? Or adbLink? Or Downloader app?

I mean can you revert the server changes that appear to have broken the app store version I am using.

To be clear, I've been using the app store version of Channels and everything was working fine. I update Channels server to latest beta in hopes that sideloaded beta would work but it did not. The app store version that has been working for the past year is not working at all now. I am not experiencing any other problems with other apps so I do not believe it is a faulty device.

I am guessing that something in the server beta has broken the app store version as that is the only thing to change. I tried to check this by downgrading the server to stable release but I could not get that to happen in the webui. Told me I was already up to date when checking for stable release.

I'd very much like to get this fixed as we do use that TV daily.

I am sideloading by downloading the apk and installing on the firetv stick as I have done in the past. At this point I don't care about the beta apk so much as I do getting Channels running again with the stable app from the app store.

This is not related to server changes. We uploaded v4.1.1 to Amazon and they released it to your device. It has a bug that we're trying to track down.

It would be helpful if you can elaborate on how you're installing the beta apk, so I can give you instructions on how to capture the logs which will help me fix the apk and upload a new version to Amazon.

@tmm1
Okay. I did not realize that the app store version had updated itself.

In regards to installing the beta, I downloaded the apk using the method you outlined above. I saved that to a network drive and then used a file explorer on the fire stick to browse to that location and install the apk. I have done this without problem with many sideloaded applications including previous versions of Channels beta with great success short of the latest beta.

Can you provide a download link to the previous app store APK that I can sideload to get the tv working again?

Could you try the new beta, I think it has a fix.

@tmm1 Happy to report that channels-dvr-301192217.apk did install and open as expected. It is functioning fine and I am able to watch tv again. Let me know if you need me to do further testing. Thanks for your quick service on the fix.

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Please try the latest beta to make sure that one also works. You can update using Settings > Support > Install Beta

Maybe I'm not understanding but I have no luck trying to install beta from within the app. I'll try sideloading a new beta soon.