Amazon’s tablets have found a sweet spot in the budget range, following in the footsteps of the Nexus 7. With prices ranging from just $50 to $150 for various models and screen sizes, Fire tablets are basically the cheapest way to go. to get a perfect device. for browsing the web, watching Netflix or Amazon Prime exclusives, and playing some light games on the go. They’re not amazing tablets by any means, but for under $200, they’re great devices for consuming content.
Unfortunately, the devices are not perfect and users have problems all the time. From a lack of Google-compatible apps to device charging issues, things can get a little complicated when you use your tablet every day.
One of the worst things that can happen to your device is getting stuck in Fastboot mode, a separate boot version of Android on your device that allows you to bypass your device’s usual boot sequence to change basic Android settings. Most Fire Tablet users won’t need Fastboot, which makes getting stuck in the mode even more problematic. Let’s explore how to get a device stuck in Fastboot back to its normal home screen.
Amazon Fire tablet stuck in Fastboot mode
There are two main reasons why an Amazon Fire tablet gets stuck in Fastboot mode; Either there is a software problem on a basic device or there is a failed root. Rooting is where you load a third-party operating system onto a device instead of using the default one.
Typically, you must invoke Fastboot mode by connecting the device to a computer and using the Android SDK to interrupt the normal boot sequence. Sometimes a software glitch or crash causes the device to boot into Fastboot mode on its own. It is the latter case that I will cover here.
Before you do anything, I suggest you let Amazon handle it if your Fire tablet is still under warranty. While nothing more than the final fix will void your warranty, you can also take advantage of the warranty while you have it and let the professionals deal with the problem if that option is still on the table.
Restart Fire Tablet to Exit Fastboot Mode
Chances are you’ve tried power cycling your Fire tablet multiple times to try to escape this boot loop, but let us try again, just to make sure you’re doing everything right. Follow these steps exactly to ensure you do it as effectively as possible.
- Press and hold the power button on your Fire tablet for 20 seconds until the screen turns black.
- Wait a couple of seconds.
- Turn the Fire back on with the power button.
If you’re lucky, Fire OS will load normally. This is the first troubleshooting process recommended by Amazon and it works in many cases, so hopefully it will work for you too. Many users on Amazon forums say this method worked for them when their Fire tablet wouldn’t boot, so it’s worth a try.
Force a system update to escape Fastboot mode
Another thing that can help your Fire tablet escape Fastboot mode is to force an OS update. You can do this from outside the operating system, so it can potentially help in this situation. The following steps put the Fire tablet into a different mode where it will download updates from Amazon, install them, and then boot up.
- Press and hold the volume up button and the power button on the Fire tablet for 40 seconds.
- Continue holding the volume up button and release the power button until you see the message on the screen that says “Installing the latest software.”
- Allow the update to download and install and your Fire tablet will reboot.
Since the update is invoked via a button sequence, it starts before Fastboot has a chance to do so. With any luck, it will load a new version of the code around the errors causing the Fastboot loop and allow you to boot your Fire tablet normally.
Optional: Factory reset your Fire tablet
Most cases where the Amazon Fire tablet got stuck in Fastboot mode did not simply go back to normal, but I have seen mentions of a couple of users who only had intermittent problems. Sometimes the Fire would boot normally and other times it would get stuck in Fastboot mode, instead of constantly getting stuck in Fastboot mode.
If you are one of these lucky few, try a factory reset when your Fire tablet is kind enough to boot normally. If all goes well, this should overwrite the part of the operating system that is not working properly. However, you will lose all your data, so make sure you have a backup of everything important before you try it.
So:
- Swipe down from the Fire home screen to access the menu.
- Select Settings and Device Options.
- Select Reset to Factory Defaults.
- Select Reset to confirm your decision.
This will completely erase your Fire tablet and return it to its original state. If the Fastboot issue was due to a bad configuration, a bad app, or a game overwriting something it shouldn’t, this could work to fix the problem.
Use Android SDK to Escape Fastboot Mode
Typically, now would be a good time to suggest a factory reset of your Fire tablet. However, we can only do this from Fire OS, so we can only do this if your tablet actually charges intermittently. We can reset and refresh the Fire with button sequences, but we can’t activate a factory reset by doing the same. So our last option is to use the Android SDK to get our Fire tablet to communicate with our computer. This only works on Windows computers, as far as I know, and involves loading some drivers from Android Studio, connecting your Fire tablet to your computer via USB, and using the command line to get your Fire tablet back online.
The Android studio can be found here. Download and install Android Studio and then follow the instructions in these two blog posts on the XDA Developers forum. Setting up Windows drivers here. Managing Fastboot mode here. As you can see from the pages above, there’s a lot to do to load Android Studio and get it working on a Windows computer, but it seems to be the only way to escape Fastboot mode without risking further damage or returning the Fire tablet. to Amazon. I suggest you read both pages carefully first and only continue if you are sure of what you are doing and confident in your success.
These are some of the things you can do if your Amazon Fire tablet is stuck in Fastboot mode. The first two seem to have fixed the problem for many users, but not all. Since I’ve never done the final solution, I can’t say if it definitely works or not, but the comments on the posts seem to indicate that it does.
If you try the Android Studio solution, let us know how it goes. I would be very interested in knowing the results. In fact, if you try any of these methods and fix your Fire, please let us know, as other users would really benefit from your experience!
