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Tiangong Robotics Raises Several Hundred Million Yuan A Round to Scale Sorting Robots, Develop Humanoid SortingStudy estimates pre-colonial Indigenous Australian population at 2.2 millionTechRadar Analysis Questions Whether FCA Is Underestimating AI Fraud ThreatAmazon Says Fire TV Sideloading Removal Is a Bug, Not a Policy ChangeUK Minister Says Government Must Heed AI Warnings as Cyber Leaders Stress Human ReadinessQbitAI Pages Show 'Hacked by CoupDeGrace' in Two Sept. 15 Posts
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Amazon Says Fire TV Sideloading Removal Is a Bug, Not a Policy Change

Amazon says a Fire TV Settings update bug, not a new sideloading restriction, made Downloader and similar apps vanish from the “Install unknown apps” list. A fix is coming to restore the permission controls.

AI News Feed · 2026-09-15 18:55

The problem affected some Fire TV owners. Users found that Downloader and similar apps had disappeared from the “Install unknown apps” list in Fire TV settings, AFTVnews reported last month. That list is where a user gives an app permission to install downloaded APKs. Without Downloader on the list, users could not grant it the permission needed to install an app.

The timing fed suspicions that Amazon was tightening sideloading rules. Google’s new sideloading process had already stirred frustration among Android users. Amazon added to the unease when its Vega OS-powered Fire TV Stick HD warned buyers that they could not install apps from unknown sources. When Downloader suddenly stopped working for some Fire TV owners, another sideloading crackdown was an easy conclusion.

Amazon said that was not the case. The company said the issue was caused by a recent Fire TV Settings update and was not a new sideloading restriction. It said a fix is coming and should restore the missing permission controls.

For affected users, the practical effect was a blocked installation path. Downloader is commonly used to install APK files on Fire TV devices, and its absence from the permission list prevented users from completing that process. Once the fix arrives, Amazon expects the missing controls to return, allowing users to grant the permission again.