Fire TV smart TV and streaming media player customers will have the option to enable a new storage-optimizing feature called Auto Offload. This feature automatically identifies and manages infrequently used apps that are consuming storage on your Fire TV device, and works to free up space to make your device run faster, ensuring a smooth streaming experience.
Here’s a bit more about how it works and how you can enable it on your Fire TV device:
If an app is not used for more than 30 days, Auto Offload will automatically clear the app cache, and if your device runs low on storage (meaning there is less than 800MB of usable storage remaining), it will offload the apps that are not used for more than 60 days. Though some experience-critical apps, and those with active subscriptions will be exempt from this feature, you can choose to manually offload eligible apps by navigating to Settings > Manage Installed Applications through the options menu when selecting an app in launcher.
If you choose to reuse an offloaded app at a later date, the reinstallation process will be seamless. Upon opening the app, you will be automatically signed in using the account that was last used on that app. If the credentials have been changed, or for some reason you’re unable to log into the app successfully, you will be prompted to re-enter the credentials.
While this setting will be auto-enabled for all customers, you will be able to opt-out of this setting by navigating to Settings > My Fire TV > About > Storage > Auto Offload > On/Off.
The introduction of Auto Offload is just one of recent changes that Fire TV has made to help customers have a more seamless, enjoyable, and worry-free streaming experience. Other recent updates include implementing uninstall suggestions for lesser-used apps and the Low Storage dialog — a pop up that alerts customers that they are low on storage, and suggests apps for them to uninstall with one click based on recency of use and size.
The Auto Offload feature began rolling out to Fire TV smart TVs and streaming media players globally earlier this month, and will be available on all eligible devices by early November.
