I didn’t notice that I had forgotten this crucial step until after I clicked to install CWM version 6.0.5.1.4a. Then things went horribly wrong because since I was distracted, I forgot to install the new bootloader. I then rebooted the device and did the partial bootloader unlock in the Amazon FireTV Utility App. What happened is I was updating a customer’s rooted AFTV from “51.1.3.0” to the most recent rooted custom ROM. I’ve learned so much from reading all the help you wonderful folks have so painstakingly shared, I couldn’t go to sleep tonight without taking the time to hopefully give something back. I screwed up so badly that I had to share my experience on how I recovered. Once you see the menu, use the arrow keys on the keyboard to highlight the factory reset option and hit enter. Pressing the Home key should now definitely bring up the menu.

The screen will go black and then return to the “System Update was not successful” screen. If a menu doesn’t appear, press Alt + Print Screen + i one more time. This should bring up a menu in the upper left corner. Once on the “Update was not successful” screen, press the Home key on your keyboard. Note that depending on your TV, the colorful Fire TV logo may appear off screen, so you’ll need to guess when it appears. Repeat this process several times, pressing Alt + Print Screen + i during boot, until the Fire TV displays the message “The System Update was not successful.” When you see this message, you are now in Recovery Mode. A good time to press it is as soon as you see the colorful Fire TV logo. While it’s trying to boot up the second time, press Alt + Print Screen + i again. So after pressing Alt + Print Screen + i, the Fire TV will flicker and restart the boot up process. If you kill all tasks during boot up enough times, the Fire TV will enter Androids default Recovery Mode. Pressing those 3 keys sends a “kill all tasks” command to the Fire TV. Now plug the power in and while the Fire TV is booting, you need to press the following 3 keys simultaneously: Alt + Print Screen + i Before you get started, plug the USB keyboard into the Fire TV and unplug the Fire TV’s power. Mac keyboards generally do not have this key so will not work.

To do this you will need a USB keyboard with a “Print Screen” or “SysRq” key. If you’ve managed to brick your Fire TV or for whatever reason are unable to get to the settings menu to perform a factory reset, here is how to enter recovery mode without fully booting into the Fire TV’s operating system.

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