This is a step-by-step tutorial on how to free up space in your Amazon FireStick, Fire TV, Fire TV Cube, and other Amazon devices.
Having a limited space on your FireStick device can slow down your streaming, cause trouble while browsing, and frequently crashing of the apps.
Deleting files is just one way to clean up your FireStick disk, but there are other ways like clearing up cache and others that I am going to discuss.
Often when you install an app through an APK, you forget to delete these APKs and they tend to pile up and eat your space.
Also, your FireStick has about 8 GB of internal storage among which only 5-6 GB of storage is available for app installation. So that counts for freeing up some storage!
3 Best Ways to Free Up Space on FireStick
There could be many ways to free up FireStick space and these are listed below:
- Free Up Space by Uninstall/Delete apps on FireStick
- Free Up Space by Clearing the cache on FireStick
- Free Up Space Using ES File Explorer
I have already written a separate blog on the first two ways, which is why I will be discussing the third way to free up space on FireStick.
Let’s begin with the process…
Uninstall/Delete Apps to Free Up Space on Firestick
If your device is overloaded and lagging during streaming it means there are so many apps installed and you need to free up space and Uninstall/Delete apps on FireStick
It is simple to delete apps from FireStick and Fire TV, and it is a great way to free up space on your device.
Follow the steps below:
Step 1: On the FireStick home screen, hover over the settings and select Applications
Step 2: Select Manage Installed Applications
Step 3: Select whichever app you want to remove and uninstall. (I am removing One Player as an example in the screenshot). Click on the app.
Step 4: Select Uninstall
Step 5: Select Uninstall one more time
This is it! You have successfully uninstalled unwanted apps by repeating the method for each app on your Fire TV device.
Clear the Cache to Free Up Space on Firestick
This is another method by which you can free up space on Firestick. You don’t have to delete or uninstall the app. To Clear the cache on FireStick, follow these instructions:
Step 1: Open Firestick Home
Step 2: Click on the Settings icon
Step 3: Click on Applications
Step 4: Select Manage Installed Applications
Step 5: Select any App like Netflix from the list
Step 6: Click on Clear Cache
Free Up Space on Amazon FireStick using ES File Explorer
This app now charges a ridiculous price of $9.99/mo which I think is a lot. If you can afford it, you can continue with this method or you can try using the above two methods.
Step 1:Open Firestick Home
Step 2: Click on the Find tab and then Click on Search Icon
Step 3: Type ES File Explorer
Step 4: Select the ES File Explorer app from the list
Step 5: Click on Get or Download
Step 6: Click Open once the download ends
Step 7: Click on the Internal Storage
Step 8: Choose any folder. I chose Downloader because I download many APKs through the Downloader app
Step 9: Here are the APKs that you can delete
Step 10: Long-press the ‘Select’ button on the FireStick remote to choose the APK that you wish to delete
This is how you can free up space on your FireStick. You can repeat the method for every folder you see on ES File Explorer. You can also reset FireStick to default factory settings as well but it will clear all your data.
How to Check Internal Storage on FireStick
To check internal storage on your Amazon FireStick, just follow these steps:
Step 1: Open Firestick Home
Step 2: Click on the Settings icon
Step 3: Click on My Fire TV
Step 3: Select About
Step 4: Now hover the remote on Storage
FAQs – Free Up Space
Why does my firestick keep saying low storage?
It is probably due to the excess of the installed apps on your Firestick, and the cache stores in the background of the app that slowly covers your device storage.
How do I get rid of Low Storage Problem?
The solutions to this problem are already discussed in the article above. The other last method will be resetting your Firestick device which will delete everything and make it as if you bought it New.
What you can do to prevent Low Storage?
There is nothing specific that can hold it by causing Low storage because Firestick does not offer a good storage capacity. However, the simplest thing you can do is to delete third-party apk files after the app is installed.
Conclusion
Now you can use your FireStick device without worrying it would eat your internal storage.
Freeing up space on FireStick can be done by various methods including deleting some apps or clearing up the cache. This guide will tell you all about it.
Long press doesn’t work, nothing happens when I long press
Long-press it for about 5 seconds to the Select button and it will work.
You fail to mention it has a heft month cost for the software.
Thank you for the information. We have mentioned it now.
works just fine without the getting the premium version. Basic is free.
Wrapped up a couple days of interesting new experiences getting my formerly unruly firestick to behave
ES file exp worked fine thining out the flotsam/jetsam-ware thanks to your “driving lesson”
Maybe our friends at amz will include several simple yet imparative upgrades in the next iteration
Many thanks
You’re welcome!
Hi
I have a firestick 2nd gen (not 4k)
About 1 month ago I did a factory reset as it had run out of space. I only reloaded Tivimate, my VPN (PIA), BBC iplayer and the downloader. Nothing else. I then had more than 4Gb of free space.
Since then, I swear, I have downloaded nothing and installed nothing. Just watched live TV on the tivimate and bbc iplayer apps.
As of yesterday my free spacei s down to 1.74GB
I have lost more than 2Gb of free space in 1 month!!!! Where? How?
I clear caches regularly, I have no files that I can delete and no apps that I can delete and I fear that at this rate I will have to do another factory rest in a few weeks!
Help!!!
Hello Dany! It is quite common that apps like BBC iPlayer and PIA VPN collects your data about your preference so they may be able to give you better UI experience the next time you visit. However, the amount of data consumed that you’re saying is about 2GB which is alarming. The first thing that you should do is Go to Apps section and clear cache for all the apps i.e. the ones that are official that are built-in and the ones that are installed by you (TiviMate, PIA, BBC iPlayer, Downloader. Clear cache and let us know if this solution works.
After resenting firestick max to factory How do you reload your account?
Go to settings > my account > then login to amazon account
Thank you for the reply.
As of today (3 June) free space is down to 1.04GB so I’ve lost another 700Mb in 10 days without installing or downloading anything. No photos, no music, nothing.
I regularly clear cache on the few apps I use. I have done so also for all the other apps but most were only 12Kb.
When I list apps in size order rather than alphabetically, I cannot see anything abnormal.
It turns out that tivimate is the culprit.
I have uninstalled and reinstalled all my apps (I only have 4, LOL!!!) one at a time. Nothing significant happened when I uninstalled the other 3 but when it came to tivimate, it freed tons of memory. I have now reinstalled tivimate and free memory is up to 3.98 Gb.
I only watch live tv on tivimate (I mean I never download anything or watch catch up) and I have had a look in settings to see if there is something that collects data that needs to be unticked but I can’t see anything.
If I have to uninstall and reinstall tivimate every 2 months or so, I can happily live with that (I have kept the apk so it can be done in minutes).
Thanks again for your help.
That’s great to hear that we could be of any help 🙂
Hey Dany, if you keep having unavoidable low storage problems, you may want to consider adding some extra storage to your firestick. That would really help with your issue.