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Fire TV Small Screen (Causes and How to Fix)

I’m the owner of a Fire TV, and I recently noticed that my screen was displaying a smaller image than usual. I was really frustrated at first, but I decided to do some research to see if I could fix the issue myself. After some digging, I found some tips and tricks to get my Fire TV back up and running with a full-screen display. In this blog post, I’ll be sharing the solutions I discovered, and how I eventually managed to fix the issue.

Tips for Fixing Small Screen Issue on Fire TV
Restart your Fire TV using the settings menu or remote shortcut.
Check display settings and reset screen calibration if necessary.
Use the remote shortcut to zoom back in if someone has zoomed out the screen.
Restarting the TV is the best temporary fix, as Amazon has yet to provide a permanent solution.

Why Is My Fire TV Screen Small?

There are three possible reasons for that to happen:

  • A Software Bug
  • Faulty Screen Calibration
  • Zoomed Out Screen

Software Bug

There’s a common software bug with Fire TVs that messes up the display of your screen. The first intuition we have to fix such a problem is by restarting the TV.

Manually restarting your Fire TV may fix the small screen problem but the chances of that happening aren’t good. The reason is that manually shutting it down and turning it on again doesn’t actually restart the system. Instead, you should try the soft restart option.

The soft restart differs from manually shutting down and turning on your Fire TV again. You have two methods to soft restart your Fire TV without touching the power button.

Keep in mind that If the small screen problem appeared on its own without you or someone else changing any of the settings, the soft restart will mostly fix the problem.

Restarting Through the Settings

Use your remote to go to the settings of your Fire TV. Then click on “Device & Software” then click “Restart.” The TV would then ask you to confirm that you want to restart. Click on that too and it will restart.

Keep in mind that if you’re using a Fire Smart TV, you’ll need to access the settings using the gear icon in the main navigation menu.

If you try to access the settings from the button on your remote, it will take you to a different form of settings. There’s no option to restart your Fire TV from there. 

Restarting Through the Remote Shortcut

Pick up your Fire TV remote and press and hold the “Play” and the “select” buttons together for 5–10 seconds. This should restart your TV as well.

Faulty Screen Calibration

Many family members often use the Fire TV. One of them may have accidentally changed the display calibration of your screen. You’ll have to undo that. Follow these steps to do so:

  1. Go to the settings on your Fire TV home screen then select “Display & Sound.”
  2. It will open some new options for you. Click on “Display.”
  3. Scroll down the newly opened list until you find “Calibrate Display”
  4. The Fire TV will give you the option to manually calibrate the display to fit what you need. Click on “Reset” and the TV will adjust the display to fit your screen.

Screen Is Too Zoomed Out

Some people may not be aware that zooming in and out of your screen has a quick shortcut in the remote.

Someone may have accidentally zoomed out the screen but couldn’t zoom it back in. Here’s how to Zoom in and out of your Fire TV screen.

Zooming In

To zoom in on your Fire TV, press and hold the “options” button and then click on the “fast forward” button. 

The zoom-in won’t work if you click them both at the same time. You have to be holding the “options” button.

Zooming Out

Zooming out uses the same idea as zooming in. Instead of pressing “fast forward”, though, you’ll press “rewind.”

So, all you have to do is to press and hold “options” then click “rewind.”

FAQs

Why did I get a small screen on my Fire TV?

Getting a small screen is a common bug that can occur on any model of Fire TV. There’s no obvious cause for it but restarting the TV seems to fix it for most people.

Why does the Fire TV small screen come back again after fixing?

The same bug that caused the small screen the first time can make it happen again. It’s a repetitive bug that happens even if nobody changes the settings of the TV.

Is there a permanent fix for the Fire TV small screen?

Amazon is yet to provide a permanent solution for the small screen. The best temporary solution right now is restarting the TV from the settings.

Final Words

So, if you want to fix the Fire TV small screen, you should start by restarting your TV correctly. Most people reported that this method solved the problem instantly.

If it didn’t work for you, you may try to recalibrate the screen or zoom in and see if it fixes the problem. 

Read more: How to cast Oculus Quest to Firestick