Amazon Fire OS Tablet Setup Guide
This guide covers device setup after you have installed and configured the Meeting Room 365 app. If you have not yet gotten to this step, check out our Getting Started Guides.
I want to start off by saying this guide was relatively simple and effortless when it was written, targeting Fire OS 4. Recent updates from Amazon have made this process a lot more complicated, as they have fiddled with or disabled seemingly every feature you would need to easily turn this tablet into a kiosk. It’s still doable, but pay attention to the Fire OS 5+ specific sections of this guide.
Note: There is now an issue impacting Fire OS 4. Please use Fire OS 5+.
You’ll definitely want to configure the display on your Fire tablets to “never sleep”. Otherwise, they’ll shut off after a couple minutes. You can do this by selecting “Display & Sounds” from the Settings menu.
You can turn off display sleep from the Display & Sounds panel of the settings menu.
Once you complete this step, the device should never power down or go to standby.
Unfortunately, in the latest version of Fire OS, Amazon has inexplicably removed the ability to set your device to “Never sleep”. Thankfully, you can download a simple, free app to solve the problem for you. Just browse to the Amazon app store and download “Keep Screen on Free”
You’ll want to disable notifications on your new tablet by enabling “quiet time”. Just open the settings menu and navigate to “Notifications & Quiet Time”. Then, select “Quiet Time”, and turn Quiet Time to On. Depending on other software installed on your device, you may need to be more aggressive in disabling notifications.
By default your device will idle & disconnect from Wifi. You don’t want this (your rooms may not update when you go offline). To get around this, disable power saving for Wifi. Just navigate to “Power Management” and disable “Smart Suspend”.
Setting up parental controls can help you disable unwanted behavior (and reduce support calls when things go wrong). You can do this by selecting “Parental Controls” from the settings menu.
Parental controls are available from the Settings menu
Basically, disable everything except the Web Browser and Wifi.
Swipe down from the top of the screen to show Quick Settings, and then tap More.
Tap Parental Controls and then tap On.
Enter a password, confirm your password, and then tap Finish. Once you’ve set a password, you can restrict one or more of the following:
Web browsing
The Email, Contacts, and Calendars apps
The ability to purchase from the content stores on your device (for example, the Amazon Appstore)
The ability to play Amazon Video and Prime Video
Specific content types (for example, Books or Apps)
Wireless connectivity
Location-based Services
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201729930
That's it! Your display is now provisioned.
Update: Fire OS 5+
I want to start off by saying this guide was relatively simple and effortless when it was written, targeting Fire OS 4. Recent updates from Amazon have made this process a lot more complicated, as they have fiddled with or disabled seemingly every feature you would need to easily turn this tablet into a kiosk. It’s still doable, but pay attention to the Fire OS 5+ specific sections of this guide.
Note: There is now an issue impacting Fire OS 4. Please use Fire OS 5+.
Configure the display to never sleep
You’ll definitely want to configure the display on your Fire tablets to “never sleep”. Otherwise, they’ll shut off after a couple minutes. You can do this by selecting “Display & Sounds” from the Settings menu.
You can turn off display sleep from the Display & Sounds panel of the settings menu.
Once you complete this step, the device should never power down or go to standby.
Update: Install “Keep Screen on Free” (Fire OS 5+)
Unfortunately, in the latest version of Fire OS, Amazon has inexplicably removed the ability to set your device to “Never sleep”. Thankfully, you can download a simple, free app to solve the problem for you. Just browse to the Amazon app store and download “Keep Screen on Free”
Disable Notifications
You’ll want to disable notifications on your new tablet by enabling “quiet time”. Just open the settings menu and navigate to “Notifications & Quiet Time”. Then, select “Quiet Time”, and turn Quiet Time to On. Depending on other software installed on your device, you may need to be more aggressive in disabling notifications.
Disable Wifi Power saving
By default your device will idle & disconnect from Wifi. You don’t want this (your rooms may not update when you go offline). To get around this, disable power saving for Wifi. Just navigate to “Power Management” and disable “Smart Suspend”.
Set up Parental Controls (Optional)
Setting up parental controls can help you disable unwanted behavior (and reduce support calls when things go wrong). You can do this by selecting “Parental Controls” from the settings menu.
Parental controls are available from the Settings menu
Basically, disable everything except the Web Browser and Wifi.
Swipe down from the top of the screen to show Quick Settings, and then tap More.
Tap Parental Controls and then tap On.
Enter a password, confirm your password, and then tap Finish. Once you’ve set a password, you can restrict one or more of the following:
Web browsing
The Email, Contacts, and Calendars apps
The ability to purchase from the content stores on your device (for example, the Amazon Appstore)
The ability to play Amazon Video and Prime Video
Specific content types (for example, Books or Apps)
Wireless connectivity
Location-based Services
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201729930
That's it! Your display is now provisioned.
Updated on: 26/07/2019
Thank you!