HelpDesk
sign in

Fire TV Stick

Creation date: 08/11/2026 16:06    Updated: 08/11/2026 16:27
Print...

Set up Panelicious on an Amazon Fire TV stick

This guide shows you how to install the Panelicious app on a Fire TV stick, pair it with your account, and make sure it starts again by itself after a power cut. You need your Fire TV remote and a computer on the same Wi-Fi network. Allow about 20 minutes.

Why Fire TV needs extra steps

The low cost of Fire TV sticks makes them look perfect for digital signage on a budget. However, Fire TV sticks are built for watching TV at home. They are designed around, and subsidised by, Amazon's own apps, content and Appstore, not for running a screen on their own all day. Amazon go out of their way to make it harder to perform any task that doesn't involve a subscription to their streaming services. Out of the box, a Fire TV stick:

  • only installs apps from the Amazon Appstore,
  • returns to the Amazon home screen after a power cut, instead of the app you were using,
  • gives you no setting to let an app start by itself,
  • installs Amazon's software updates during the day on its own schedule, without warning and without taking your use into account.

That is why this guide has more steps than other devices, and why you install the app from a computer. Once it is set up, Panelicious runs on a Fire TV stick like on any other display.

Amazon controls the software on Fire TV sticks and can change it at any time, through the automatic updates above. An update could change how the stick behaves, or stop a step in this guide from working, without notice. We test Panelicious on Fire TV, but we cannot promise that a future Amazon update will not affect it. If your screen depends on running all day, every day, choose an Android or Google TV device instead.

If you are buying a device for a new screen, an Android or Google TV device is quicker to set up. You can install Panelicious from Google Play, and on most of these devices you can turn on automatic restart with the remote.

1. Check your stick can run Panelicious

Panelicious runs on Fire TV sticks that use Fire OS. It does not run on sticks that use Amazon's newer Vega OS. Vega OS cannot install apps from outside the Amazon Appstore, so there is no way to put Panelicious on it. If you have one, use another device instead: an Android or Google TV device, a Raspberry Pi, or the web display.

To check your stick:

  1. Press the Home button on the remote.
  2. Go to Settings, then My Fire TV, then About.
  3. Look at the operating system shown on the screen.
  • Fire OS means you are fine. Carry on.
  • Vega OS means Panelicious is not supported on this stick.

Buying a stick? If Amazon's product page says the stick does not allow side-loading, it uses Vega OS. Choose a different one.

2. Turn on Developer Options

Fire TV hides these settings until you ask for them.

  1. Go to Settings, then My Fire TV, then About.
  2. Select the name of your stick on the first line seven times, quickly. A message tells you that you are now a developer.
  3. Press Back. Developer Options now appears under My Fire TV.
  4. Open Developer Options and turn ADB Debugging on. This lets your computer install the app. Leave the other settings as they are.
  5. Go back to About, then Network, and write down the IP address, for example 192.168.1.50.

3. Get ready on your computer

  1. Install Google's free SDK Platform-Tools from https://developer.android.com/tools/releases/platform-tools. On a Mac with Homebrew, you can run brew install android-platform-tools instead.
  2. Download the Panelicious app by opening https://pan.lc/a in your web browser. You get a file called something like panelicious-display-production-android-v1.2.0.apk.
  3. Open a terminal (Mac or Linux) or command prompt (Windows) in the Platform-Tools folder. In Windows PowerShell, type .\adb wherever this guide says adb.

4. Install Panelicious from your computer

Your computer and the stick must be on the same Wi-Fi network.

  1. Connect to your stick. Use your own IP address:

    adb connect 192.168.1.50:5555

  2. Your TV asks Allow USB debugging? Tick Always allow from this computer, then select OK. If the computer says "failed to authenticate", run the command again after you accept.

  3. Install the app. Type adb install (with a space at the end), drag the downloaded file onto the terminal window, and press Enter:

    adb install panelicious-display-production-android-v1.2.0.apk

    Wait for Success.

  4. Let the app restart itself after a power cut. Without this, after a power cut the screen stays on the Fire TV home screen until someone opens Panelicious. Fire TV has no setting for this on the TV, so you set it from the computer, once:

    adb shell appops set com.panelicious.display SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW allow

    No message means it worked.

  5. Check it:

    adb shell appops get com.panelicious.display SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW

    It should print a line that starts with SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW: allow. Extra text after it, such as rejectTime=…, is normal.

5. Open the app and pair it

  1. On the TV, go to your apps and open Panelicious. Do not skip this: Fire TV only lets an app start by itself after it has been opened once.
  2. If you see a One-time setup screen, select Continue without it. You already set this permission in step 4.
  3. The app shows a 6-digit code.
  4. On your computer, open the Panelicious dashboard and go to Displays, then Pair a Display.
  5. Enter the code.
  6. In the dashboard, open the display and check that Start automatically after reboot is on. It is on by default.

Your stick is now paired and will show your content.

Optional: on the stick, turn ADB Debugging off again. The permission stays. You will need it on again to update the app from your computer.

6. Test it

  1. Unplug the stick's power for 10 seconds.
  2. Plug it back in. Do not touch the remote.

Panelicious should open on its own and start playing again within a minute or two.

Keeping the app up to date

An app installed this way does not update itself through the Appstore. Updating keeps your pairing and the restart permission.

From your computer

  1. Download the latest app from https://pan.lc/a.

  2. Check ADB Debugging is on, then connect as in step 4.

  3. Install over the top. Note the -r:

    adb install -r panelicious-display-production-android-v1.2.0.apk

From the TV, without a computer

You can side-load the Panelicious app without a computer, however you still need to use the ADB commands from a computer to grant the permissions for the Panelicious app to start automatically at boot, otherwise someone will have to manually start the Panelicious app every time the Fire TV Stick restarts.

  1. Install the free Downloader app (by AFTVnews) from the Amazon Appstore.
  2. Go to Settings, then My Fire TV, then Developer Options, then Install unknown apps, and turn Downloader on.
  3. Open Downloader, type pan.lc/a in the address box and select Go.
  4. Select Install. When it finishes, select Open, and delete the downloaded file when Downloader offers.

If something goes wrong

  • adb connect times out. Check that the stick and the computer are on the same Wi-Fi network, that ADB Debugging is on, and that you typed the right IP address.
  • The TV did not show "Allow USB debugging?". Run adb disconnect, run the connect command again, and watch the TV screen.
  • adb install says the file was not found. Drag the downloaded file onto the terminal window instead of typing its name.
  • The app did not come back after the power test. Make sure you opened the app once (step 5), run the check in step 4 again, and make sure Start automatically after reboot is on in the dashboard.
  • The app takes a long time to come back afer a restart. FireOS can take up to 60 seconds before launching the Panelicious app on boot, this is sadly yet another limitation of FireOS.
Get help for this page Powered by Jitbit HelpDesk