Amazon Fire Stick makes for a great streaming device that gives you access to your favorite movies, and subscription services such as music and movies. Unfortunately, it can have performance issues like fire stick sound cutting out and stuttering. In this article, we explain how to fix the issue of your fire stick cutting out.
Your fire stick often cuts out and stutters for various reasons including a slow and unstable internet connection, an inadequate power supply, software bugs, loose cables, and caching issues. To resolve the problem quickly, try restarting, resetting, or reseating your Fire Stick.
Let’s look at these fixes in detail.
By the way, if your Fire Stick has no sound at all, then you need a different guide. Check out our guide on how to fix the Fire Stick no sound issue.
Why Does My Fire Stick Keep Losing Sound?
If your fire stick sound keeps cutting, you should troubleshoot the issue and fix it. Here are the possible causes, including brief hints on how to sort out the problem with ease.
This can also happen when your Fire Stick to your soundbar or even connecting your Fire TV to your soundbar.
If you have connected your Fire Stick to your home theater and it’s cutting out, then check out our article on how to connect your Fire Stick to your home theater.
Inadequate Power Supply
If you’ve plugged your fire stick’s power cord into your TV, the television might not output adequate power through the USB port to power your fire stick. If this happens, you might experience this and other performance issues.
Bottom line is that there isn’t enough power going to your Fire Stick. When your Fire Stick is experiencing low power issues, it will certainly be slower than normal and will likely stutter. It will also try to reboot itself to solve the problem while undergoing extensive processing.
The only way to fix the sound problem is to plug the fire stick power supply directly into your electrical outlet.
Software Bugs
Sometimes, the sound issue can be just a fluke. This often happens when system errors hinder a fire stick from working as required.
You can fix software bugs by restarting the streaming device.
HDMI Cable is Poorly Connected
If your HDMI cable is partially connected, your fire stick sound can keep disconnecting from time to time.
In this case, the perfect remedy is to ensure your fire stick is powered on and then reconnect the HDMI connector.
All you need to do is to reseat the Fire Stick in its HDMI port and that will typically fix the sound stutter. If it doesn’t work the first time, try it a few times or try a different port on your TV.
Input Problems
It could be that your HDIM port has malfunctioned.
You should switch your TV to a different input and see whether that resolves the issue.
Outdated Apps
The app you are using should be up-to-date. If it isn’t, you might need to uninstall and reinstall it.
TV Resolution Hogging Processing Power
The higher the resolution of your TV, the more processing power it will require. This will increase the demand for the Fire Stick to deliver higher-resolution content faster. This requires a lot of processing. If the Fire Stick is unable to keep up, it will stutter as it struggles.
To fix this problem, try the following:
- Turn off Dolby if it’s enabled
- Lower the resolution of the TV. For example, if the resolution is set to 1080p, try to change it to 720p. This normally doesn’t make a big difference for TVs smaller than 42 inches.
Other Devices Connected
In some cases, another device may be connected to your Fire Stick and you are unaware. This can hog the Fire Stick’s processing power and cause it to stick and stutter. If you have other Amazon devices like the Echo Dot, Echo Plus or Fire Tablet, check if any of these devices have connected to the Fire Stick and disconnect them.
If it’s an Echo dot, for example, all you need to do is say “Alexa disconnect from FireTv”.
Filled Cache
Your Fire Stick’s cache is a file or set of files that temporarily hold content that you watch regularly. This allows the Fire Stick to get frequently requested content quickly. However, sometimes this cache can fill up.
If this happens, the Fire Stick won’t be able to buffer and may experience stuttering.
To fix the problem, clear the Fire Stick cache. To do this for Amazon Music, for example, go to Home/settings/apps/amazon music Force Stop, clear cache
To do this for Netflix for example, go to Home/settings/apps/Netflix Force Stop, clear cache
How Do I Reboot My Amazon Fire Stick?
Since software bugs are the most common cause of fire stick sound cutting out, you should learn to reboot your fire stick quickly to avoid unnecessary problems. Here are the three options that you have:
Method 1: Unplug your Fire Stick
You can do the following and fix the sound issue in minutes without any trouble:
- Locate where the streaming device is connected to your TV
- Unplug it from the wall outlet or the TV
- Wait for a few seconds and re-plug in the fire stick
Method 2: Go to Settings
To use settings, you should follow these steps:
- Scroll up on the device’s home screen on your TV
- Highlight the “Home” tab
- Scroll to the right
- Click on “Settings”
- Scroll to the right again
- Click on “Restart”
That’s all. Wait for your fire stick to reboot.
Method 3: Use Your Remote
If you prefer this option for any reason, you should do this:
- Turn on your television
- Wait until your TV screen displays your Firestick home screen
- Long press the “Home” button on your remote
- Use your remote to click on “Settings” and then scroll down
- Click on “ Restart”
Your device will shut down and restart immediately.
What To Do If Your Firestick Keeps Cutting Off?
Here is how to fix the fire stick turning itself off, though succinctly
- First and foremost, restart your Fire Stick
- Secondly, try using your Fire Stick on another TV to see if it can work
- Make sure the TV your Fire Stick is connected to is compatible with HDCP
- Next, try swapping the ports. I mean, use your Fire Stick with another HDMI port on your TV.
- You also try to connect Fire Stick to your TV directly.
- After all the above trials, reset your Fire Stick.
- Unfortunately, if all the above steps fail to yield substantively, the last option is to contact Amazon support.
How Do I Fix The Sound On My Fire Stick?
The steps below are a brief guide to resolving the sound challenges on your Fire Stick
- The first thing is to see to it that the Audio on your TV is not muted.
- Secondly, if your Fire TV device is connected to an A/V receiver, make sure the receiver is on as well.
- Tap on the “Settings” and go to “Display & Sounds.”
- Select Audio from the Fire TV menu.
- Lastly, be sure that the Dolby Digital Plus is set to OFF.
Why Is My Firestick Speeding Up?
More often than not, the first component to get affected by overheating is the Wi-Fi part. That is what causes the loss in connectivity and slow loading speeds. Even for those who’re able to maintain a Wi-Fi connection through overheating, the problem might cause your device to restart instinctively.
Why is My Fire Stick Skipping?
The most frequent cause of Firestick buffering is a slow connection.
They may be downloading files, streaming videos, or getting system updates if they’re stealing bandwidth.
Do Fire Sticks Wear Out?
They do wear out, but not as quickly as the big-name brands. Simply hold down the Back button and Right button on your Fire TV remote for 10 seconds until the reset screen appears to reset it.
Does Jailbroken Fire Stick Really Work?
Absolutely! Jailbroken Firestick works because it allows you to download any kind of third-party streaming service on the device.
How Do You Fix a Flickering Firestick?
If your Fire TV is flickering, restart it. Hold down the ‘Play/Pause’ button for five seconds or unplug the Fire TV for three seconds and then plug it back in.
To reset the Fire TV, you need to hold down the ‘Back’ and ‘Right’ buttons for 10 seconds. Then you will get a prompt that says “Reset”.
Summing Up
Since Fire Sticks can suffer from sound cutting-out issues, you should find out what can cause yours to suffer from the same. You can find these tips in this article and rely on them for the right hints on fixing your fire stick sound cutting out. Remember that you can fix most of these sound issues by restarting your fire stick following the tips we’ve shared with you here