Unable to Find Network on Amazon Fire TV – What to Do

The Fire TV Stick is a standalone media player, which means it connects to the internet via an integrated Wi-Fi adapter. It doesn’t use your TV’s Wi-Fi adapter (if it’s present). There are, however, some issues which can prevent the Fire TV Stick from establishing a proper connection.

It’s not something that is reported frequently but it can definitely happen. Unfortunately, it always seems to happen at the worst time. As irritating as they can be, these issues are usually easy to resolve.

Anything from the wrong wires to a cluttered space could be causing your problem. In this article, we’ll go over some common causes of network problems and show you how to fix them.

Restart Your Fire TV Stick

The first sentence on the first page of the big book of electronics reads as follows: if a device doesn’t work, restart it.

Restarting can fix a host of issues. Your Fire TV Stick is a complex piece of electronics and it’s impossible to predict all the things that can go wrong. It may be as simple as a coding error that, when encountered, prevents the device from operating correctly.

If the Fire Stick is unresponsive, all you have to do is unplug its power cord. Leave it unplugged for about 20 seconds and then plug the power cord back in and let it run through the startup process.

If it works fine and responds to commands, you don’t have to do this. Instead, you can hold down the “Play/Pause” button on your remote and the “Select” button simultaneously. Your device should restart within a few seconds.

Finally, you can navigate to the “Settings” then select “Device” and “Restart.”

Network Issues

If restarting doesn’t do the trick, you may have some broader issues with your network. For starters, you can use Fire Stick’s networking tool to try and detect any problems.

In the settings, scroll right until you find “Network”, select it from the menu and press the Play/pause button on your remote. You can also try to scroll through the Network menu to make sure that the correct network is selected.

If that doesn’t solve the problem, there’s a chance that the Fire Stick is not receiving a strong enough signal. If it’s connected to a rear-facing HDMI port, and especially if your TV is far removed from the router, that might be limiting your connectivity

Should this fail, the next thing to try is to restart your router and modem.

Router and Modem Restart

Before you do so, it’s worth noting that if you’re connected to the network right now, and used it to find this article, the router and modem are probably working fine. Still, it can’t hurt to try.

If you have a router/modem device, this is a very simple procedure. Unplug the power cord and wait around 30 seconds, then plug it back in. It will take a few minutes for the device to run through the boot process and establish a connection.

If your modem and router are two separate devices, then it’s slightly more complicated. Unplug both devices and wait for 30 seconds. Then plug only the modem back in, wait a few seconds and plug the router back in. Again, it will take a few minutes for the connection to be reestablished.

Erase the Network from the Device

Sometimes, the network credentials can get mixed up or a wrong address on either the receiving or transmitting end can cause problems. If this is the case, the solution is to “forget the network” on your Fire Stick and then enter the credentials again.

In the Settings, navigate to the Network options. Find the network that you’re connected to. If you’re not connected to any network, find your local Wi-Fi network, select it and select “Forget Network.”

Go back to the Home screen and navigate back to the Network options. Find your network and re-enter your credentials. If this was the problem, the Fire Stick should have a connection.

Checklist

If you’ve gone through all of the solutions above and still haven’t fixed it, here’s a checklist of minor issues that can cause problems.

1. Make sure you’re using only the original cables that came with the Fire TV Stick. Third-party hardware of any kind can cause conflicts.
2. Check the capacity of your router to reach the Fire Stick. Try putting another device with Wi-Fi capability (such as a mobile phone) near the Stick and see if its signal gets weaker. The Fire Stick adapter isn’t very strong.
3. You may have a compatibility issue. Without getting into the details, the Fire Stick doesn’t work on all networks. It’s a long shot but this may be an issue if you have a router that’s more than 10 years old.
4. It could be a factory defect. The odds are astronomically low, but it’s not impossible that your Fire Stick is defective. If it’s a new unit, contact Amazon Support.

Network Woes Begone

Even this is not a comprehensive list of all the things that could be causing your problem. Your ultimate arbiter will be customer support. Hopefully, it won’t come to that, though, and you can get back to watching your shows in no time.

Restart the device is the basic fix. If that doesn’t work, restart your modem and router. From there, it could be a number of minor problems, either individually or compounding. Make sure you go through the list thoroughly before you commit to calling support. Good luck and happy watching!