Your Fire Stick might not support this popular streaming app anymore ‣ Diverse Daily

One of the best parts of owning a Fire TV Stick is how long it can last. You can sometimes get five or even 10 years of use from it. But after a while, the problem often becomes software support rather than the hardware itself.

While Amazon updates its Fire TV Sticks with new features and bug fixes, it never actually updates them to newer versions of Fire OS, so whatever version your Fire TV runs is the version it stays on for its entire lifespan. This can be problematic when an app drops support for a specific version of Fire OS, and that’s exactly what’s happened with HBO Max.

HBO Max has rolled out an update to its Fire TV app, and as part of the change, it’s quietly dropped support for devices running Fire OS 5 (via AFTV News). According to its support page, the app now requires at least Fire OS 6 to run on Fire TV devices.

This means that if you have a Fire TV Stick or a Fire TV running Fire OS 5, unfortunately, you’ll no longer be able to use the app unless you upgrade to a newer Fire TV Stick or Fire TV (now called Ember TVs), or switch to a different streaming device altogether.

Fire OS 5 debuted in 2014 and is based on Android 5.1. One of the most popular Fire TV Sticks, which runs Fire OS 5 and is still widely used today, is the Fire TV Stick (2nd Gen), which Amazon sold from 2016 to 2019.

How to check which version of Fire OS your device has

Newer Fire TV Sticks run Fire OS 8 or Vega OS

If you’re curious which version of Fire OS your Fire TV Stick or Fire TV is running, there is an easy way to check on your device. Here’s how:

1. Open the Settings menu on your Fire TV.

2. Go to My Fire TV > About.

3. Select Fire TV. On the right side of your screen, you’ll see all the information about your Fire TV.

4. You can see which version of Fire OS your device is running under Software Version (as shown in the image above).

For reference, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd Gen) and Fire TV Stick 4K Plus that Amazon currently sells run Fire OS 8, while the Fire TV Stick 4K Select and the new Fire TV Stick HD don’t even run Fire OS at all, and instead run Vega OS, Amazon’s new Linux-based operating system.

While Amazon doesn’t break down how many of each Fire TV device are still in use, the company has said it’s sold over 300 million Fire TV devices, so there’s a good chance there are a lot of people who still have a Fire TV Stick or Fire TV that runs Fire OS 5.

…if you have a Fire TV Stick currently running Fire OS 5, it’s unfortunately impossible to update it to Fire OS 6 or 8.

As I mentioned earlier, one frustrating thing about how Amazon delivers software updates is that it never actually changes the version of Fire OS your device is running. So while your Fire TV Stick or Fire TV may continue to receive software updates to add new features or fix issues (like the latest Fire TV redesign), the core version of Fire OS always stays the same. So if you have a Fire TV Stick currently running Fire OS 5, it’s unfortunately impossible to update it to Fire OS 6 or 8.

HBO Max isn’t the first streaming service to drop support for Fire OS 5, as Disney+ has already done so and now requires Fire OS 6 or higher. Netflix still says its app is available in the Amazon Appstore for Fire OS 5 or higher, and Prime Video still works with Fire OS 5 as well.