By following this guide, you will learn how to format USB storage to FAT32. You’ll need to manually format your USB storage drive if adding additional storage to a Firestick. These steps can also be carried out if your adding storage to other Fire TV devices such as a Fire Cube and Fire TVs.
The Amazon Firestick, a top contender in the streaming device market, is particularly popular for its affordability and the ease with which it can be jailbroken. With just a few straightforward adjustments, you can unlock its full potential, making it an attractive option for those looking to break free from traditional cable TV.
Table of Contents
What Type of USB Storage to Use
The type of storage you use is down to you, but there are few things you need to consider when choosing your USB storage.
Storage Size
As Fire TV devices are formatted to FAT32, the maximum size of USB storage that you can use is 2TB. However, Amazon officially recommends using USB drives that are 128GB or smaller.
Amazon also recommends that high speed USB 3.0 drives are used, even though Fire TV Devices have a 2.0 USB port. This is because USB 3.0 drives tend to have faster read/write speeds and will perform better, even when connected to USB 2.0 ports.
I always prefer to use a SanDisk or Toshiba branded storage drive as I’ve yet to experience any issues using these brands with any of my Firesticks.
Formatting
Whatever storage you’re using, it should be formatted to FAT32. If you have a brand-new storage drive that is up to 32GB in size, it should already be formatted to FAT32. If your storage drive is larger than 32GB it’s likely it will be formatted to exFAT.
Depending on which Fire OS version you have will determine if you need to format the storage to FAT32 yourself before you can use it with your Firestick.
Fire OS 5 and 6 – Manual formatting of storage required
Fire OS 7 – Supports automatic formatting of storage (that are not NTFS)
| Default format for memory cards and flash drives |
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How to Manually Format Storage to FAT32
You’ll need a PC or laptop in order to format your USB storage drive. Storage drives that are 32GB or smaller are easy to format with Windows disk management. However, Windows disk management will not allow you to format anything above 32GB into FAT32. In this case you will need to install a free piece of software to do this for you.
Format USB storage to FAT32 (up to 32GB)
- Insert your USB drive into a USB port on your PC or laptop
- Open File Explorer
- On the left-hand side select This PC
- On the right-hand side, right-click on your USB Drive
- Select Format
- Ensure the File system shows as FAT32 and if you want to name your storage for easier identification, enter a name in the Volume label box. Ensure the Quick Format box is checked then select Start
- Select OK
- Your USB storage is now formatted to FAT32
Format USB storage to FAT32 (Over 32GB)
- Open a Web browser on your PC or laptop
- Go to firetvsticks.com then select Downloads from the menu
- Scroll down to the Tools section
- Find then select AOMEI Partition Assistant
- Move down the page then select the Download button
- Open the file and follow the instructions to install AOMEI Partition Assistant
- Select Skip if you see this screen about upgrading
- With AOMEI Partition Assistant open, insert your USB drive into a USB port in your PC or laptop
- Select Yes then your storage will show up in the partition assistant
- Right-click on your USB storage drive then select Format Partition
- Enter a name for your storage in the Partition Label
- Select FAT32 from the File System box then select OK
- Select Apply from the toolbar (top left-hand corner)
- Select Proceed then Yes to continue
- Your USB storage is now formatted to FAT32
Wrapping Up
By following this step-by-step guide you’ll have learnt how to format your USB storage to FAT32. The formatted storage can be used with your Firestick to add extra space, share files and install more apps. Select from one of the following buttons below for more.
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