[Fire TV Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] phresch:
This could benefit many who buy a new fireTV/stick and want to root it. It's a bit long but read on---

First, a little background; I bought my first fireTVstick a few months ago - 5.2.1.1 was on it before I even saw the home screen. I looked into rooting, but found that the hardware soldering method was the only way.

As you know, the fireTV asks for wifi password prior to initial setup & updates itself before you can intervene. But after initial setup, Amazon home can launch without a wifi connection..like on someone else's network..

A friend gave me a stick that hadn't been used since mid2016.. I plugged it in at my house, and before connecting to my network, discovered it was running 5.1.5.0 - so immediately i hid updates and then tried to root with kingo, unsuccessfully. I tried and tried to think of a way to go up one version, to 5.2.1.0, without going all the way to 5.2.1.1--nothing..

Until I stumbled onto a post by sconnyuk about his discovery: by plugging into a laptop USB port for power and performing a factory reset.. the device reboots with low power "complaints" and allows you in without updating - Then, when you go to manually update - POOF: 5.2.1.0 is what you get, and you can root and downgrade etc. Brilliant.

From then until a week and a half ago, I assumed a device with old software was very hard to come by. The only way you would have a chance to root is IF a stick was purchased pre 5.2.1.1, IF it was then setup pre-5.2.1.1, and IF it had not been connected since 5.2.1.1 was pushed out to devices. That's a lot of IF's.

And naturally you would assume that new device = new software....If 5.2.1.1 has been out for months, all new devices should ship with that version by now...right?

But the devices all auto-update prior to initial setup, as soon as they are connected....so who knows what version was there, on the device, in the box, sitting on the store shelf?

The day the voice remote fire TV stick 2 shipped in the US (oct 21) I purchased a standard fire tv stick from a major US electronics store.

Out of pure curiosity, I plugged it into my laptop's USB port, just to see what would be there if the stick was unable to update.

5.0.5.1....from a firetvstick1 purchased NEW at the END of OCTOBER 2016.

I figured it was a fluke- checked someone else's, purchased in a different city, days later.

Also 5.0.5.1.

So I updated to 5.2.1.0, rooted, blocked updates, downgraded etc and have two brand new sticks running 5.0.5 with FireStarter instead of Amazon home.

My question is, has anybody else looked into this?

Is this a coincidence..is it something localized to my area? or is Amazon relying solely on auto updates and leaving old software on ALL fireTVsticks?

One step further -

- Can this same process be done on the fireTV?

-- If so, what version comes loaded on new fireTVs at this point in time?

---Can new ones potentially be rooted/downgraded as was done with these sticks?

And for that matter..

-What about the fireTVstick 2?

--New updates were pushed the day of release...but what version is on the device when it comes out of the box?

To anybody who buys a new stick/tv/stick2:

plug it in to laptop power and go check the version, pre-update. Then post your findings.

I am very curious how common/widespread of an occurrence this is, what versions are being found and when/where, and whether it also includes other fireTV models.