yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
From scanning the forum, it appears that deleting the cache partition will delete the update. It's safe to try and will just take a little time on next boot to rebuild.

Power down your tablet and wait several seconds.

Hold down the left volume button.

Edit: Use right (up) button for HD 10, left (down) for HD 8)

Without releasing it, press the power button until it starts booting.

Release just the power button and it should go to the recovery screen.

(You can now release the volume button.)

Select "wipe cache partition" using the volume up/down buttons.

Press power briefly to apply.

Select "yes" using the volume up/down buttons.

Press power briefly to apply.

After a few seconds, select "reboot system now" and press power again briefly.

Make sure you've disabled OTA Updates and Automatic Updates with Toolbox.

Edit: Sorry if you didn't need all the details. I didn't know if you were familliar with the procedure.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
That's interesting. FireOS on Android 11. I'm sure that will bring about new problems to work out for @Datastream33.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] woppers:
Thank you so much 🙏 and I really appreciate that detailed information because I didn't know what to search for on the forum to find the info I needed. I'll try that soon and report back. I'd love to avoid 7.3.2.2 just to make life easier.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
I just tested this on my HD10 (2019). It's the volume up button (the right one) that you need to press and hold while powering on to get to recovery mode. Sorry for the error. It's the down button on my HD8.

Edit: You can also get to recovery with Toolbox. Use Power Options on page 2.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] woppers:
I actually got 2 tablets for the kids. One of them updated to 7.3.2.3 overnight 😢 and I tried these steps on the other one and when it booted back up, the 7.3.2.2 update is still sitting there waiting to be installed.

When I tried to install Google Play on it, it errored out 😕
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] woppers:
I'll have another shot at it later and report back 👌
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
Use the Toolbox option on page 2 > Power Settings > Recovery mode. Then just select "wipe cache partition".
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] woppers:
The 2 devices ended up updating to 7.3.2.3 😑 absolute bummer considering I had the good OS version and blew it 😢
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] woppers:
I'm half considering sending them back and re ordering 2 new ones and praying for 7.3.2.1 again and not blowing it next time
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
You could.....
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] woppers:
Do you think it's worth that hassle?

I'm trying to log a childs google account into the Fire now and because I supervise it with Family Link it gives me an error when I sign in with my Parent account
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
It's up to you if it's worth the bother of getting a replacement and thinking up good excuses for needing new ones.

As far as child accounts and Google, it wont work. The tablets aren't certified by Google and are missing certain components of Android. Most of Google works with them, but not child accounts. I have no experience with child accounts on Google or Amazon so I'm just reporting what I've seen here. From what I can tell, you're pretty much stuck with letting Amazon manage a child account.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] manyxda:
I hear your pain because I've had the exact same thing happen to me: get a good 7.3.2.1 and let it upgrade by mistake. For a couple of weeks, I couldn't even bear to look at the thing, it triggered such self-reproaches.

Since then I came to live with it, both as a technical and psychological matter.

On the technical side, Blaacksheep has an excellent tutorial (see his signature line).

I believe however the matter may be mostly psychological. Here I would recommend just returning the things IF you are the kind of person that will always regret the mistake and IF it were guaranteed that your new orders would come with 7.3.2.1 or below. You'd know about the first IF, but the second cannot be had. How much worse it would be for you if you went through the trouble of a return and reorder and ended up at the same place.

I will add that following Blaacksheeps tutorial was quite satisfying in its own way. Looking at my device gives me pleasure again, a sense of having dealt with a situation. (DNS66 is not just a countermeasure to 7.3.2.2. It's an ad-blocker and may cut down on ads you get from e.g. Youtube.)
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] woppers:
Thanks a million for your help. I appreciate you taking the time to reply because you've saved me hours of Googling around trying to find answers 🙏 I'm thinking I'll just have to live with 7.3.2.3 and hope that it doesn't cause problems in the future.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] woppers:
😂 Thanks for your message 😂 you described it perfectly. I'm the kind of person who wants the best possible experience without any chance of future updates killing the opportunity to use Android on the Fire. I'm kicking myself for let2it update 🙈

I had a glance at the awesome tutorial that @blaacksheep put together. I didn't get a chance to try it last night but I think I'll keep it and see how things go.

They're for the kids and I know they won't mind what the tablets are like. I won't get a chance to try until next week.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] mspa:
Hi all, got a Fire HD 8 for the kids. It came with 7.3.2.1 but has already downloaded 7.3.2.2 which will be updated when there is low activity or the tablet is restarted, according to the message on screen.

I've disabled updates using Toobox now, but given the update was already downloaded, will this stop the update at this stage? or is there anything I can do to delete it before it installs?
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
Yeah, if it's not too late and it hasn't rebooted already. Reconnect it to Toolbox. On page 2, use Power Options. Choose Recovery mode. It will reboot your tablet into recovery mode. Use the Volume Up/Down buttons to select "wipe cache partition". press power briefly to confirm. Again, use the Up/Down buttons to select "yes". Again, press power to confirm. Your tablet will reboot and take a little longer than usual. It will rebuild the cache partition (which used to contain the downloaded update file). As long as you've disabled OTA Updates, you should be fine.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] mspa:
Thanks for your detailed reply, I wiped the cache (twice), unfortunately the update is still showing as ready to install. I've restarted the tablet, through the Recovery menu, and it hasn't installed (yet), so there's hope at least...
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
Ask @Datastream33 where the update is hidden. He might still be around. He might know.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] mspa:
I wonder would doing a factory reset get rid of it?
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] Datastream33:
Hmm, the ota file could be in numerous places. However, they usually put the update on the root of the internal storage, but hide it from view. Try executing an ADB Shell from the Toolbox's main menu and let us know the output of the following command:

ls -a
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] Datastream33:
So, I did some research, and it looks like the updates are stored in: /data/ota-package/. Might not be able to delete the update due to not having the proper permissions. Perhaps, a factory reset is the best way to go in this situation... :(

EDIT: Hmm, maybe we don't want to factory reset either... if the update hasn't installed already, it's waiting for the user to manually start the update due to automatic updates being disabled. A factory reset may enable automatic updates and starting installing the update... hmmm...

Maybe try clearing the Storage for System Updates (both entries in Settings), DeviceSoftwareOTA, and also for Download Manager.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
I don't think a factory reset does an update first, but he could do it from recovery to be sure. ??
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] Datastream33:
My bad, what I'm saying is... if the device is factory resetted, but the update file isn't removed in the reset process it could start auto installing the OTA. I believe the update isn't auto installing right now is because Automatic Updates has been disabled. So by resetting it, it would return that flag to default and could auto-install the OTA before Automatic Updates can be toggled off again.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
Just a thought. I hadn't considered the mechanism of the update process. You're probably right.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] manyxda:
I am sorry to be quoting my own earlier comment, but I am supplementing it with a picture. In it you will see that my new HD 8's screen is positively gray next to the blackness of my HD 10. The eBay vendor claims that this grayness is normal to HD 8. What is the truth? If anybody has both HD 8 and HD 10, please tell me whether they show the kind of difference as shown in the picture. If you have an HD 8, does it show such a strong contrast between (gray) actual display vs. (black) border?

ADDED LATER:

I did some looking and was able to confirm that the grayness is normal to (or at least prevalent in) HD 8. See the video clips below. My HD 8 behaves much as do those in the clips.

Note: when the screen is gray it will give to all colors a faded look unless you are using the device in darkness.

Therefore if you care about accuracy of color reproduction in all lighting conditions, here seems to be a reason you should choose an HD 10 over HD 8.

I am sorry the links blew up into what you see and take up much room.

The link below is of HD 8 9th gen (2019) or earlier and so is not directly on point, but shows the grayness best.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] mspa:
I've cleared the storage as instructed, and can happily report the update is gone :D

Thanks again for your help!
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] zerokimura:
I f*cked up my old fire 8 so had to buy a new one. Was busy doing it all by hand.

I must say: who...you are a hero. Man, if I wasnt already married, i would ask you...:)
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] Datastream33:
That's awesome! So glad to hear! :D

Nicely done!
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] Datastream33:
Not sure if you're talking to me or not but if so glad to see the Toolbox has helped you my friend!

Have a good one my friend! :D
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] adlauritzen:
I'm getting an error message when I try to download the Google Services saying the APK is corrupted and failed to download properly.

Help.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
Hi. and welcome to XDA!

That could happen if the Toolbox downloaded a corrupted file. (Go figure!) The easiest way to fix it is to right-click on your Toolbox desktop icon and select Open File Location. (The wording might be slightly different in Windows 10/11.) In that folder, double-click the "bin" folder. Now double-click the "Google Services" folder. Delete everything in there. Toolbox will download it again on the next try. Close your file browser and try installing Google Services again. Hopefully it will work this time. :)
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] manyxda:
What is the effect of manually turning off DNS66 if it is set to "Always on VPN" in Activity Launcher?

Will Activity Laucher go, "Some fool turned that off. I'll turn it back on," do it?

I ask the question because I have the same Amazon servers blacklisted in my router. While at home, therefore, I may not want a double blocking by DNS66, which may be a hit on battery or speed.

If Activity Launcher will countermand a manual action (as above), then on coming home I am looking at two things to turn off: DNS66 and Activity Launcher. Of course this would mean turning two things on when going out.

In the unlikely event that Activity Launcher can distinguish DNS66 (somehow) quitting on its own vs. a person turning it off, then Activity Launcher can stay on all the time and I get to turn only one thing on and off (DNS66).

Or maybe the hit on battery and speed is negligible in your experience? In this case, I may just keep DNS66 all the time. (This "on and off" thing may just be the way to get my tablet to update again because one day I may forget.)
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
Activity Launcher is just a means of calling already installed activities or apps. It's used because there is no provided means of accessing those activities without ADB or another program.

I hadn't actually checked what would happen if you turn off DNS66 when it was set as Always On VPN until I read your post. :unsure: It turns out that if you do turn off DNS66 with that setting on, it just gives you a notification on the Notification Bar. 🤨 It doesn't actually stop any traffic from going through. Only the other switch below Always On VPN does that, but that doesn't play well with Amazon or DNS66 and stops all traffic. ☹️ I guess you can leave Always On VPN turned off.

DNS66 is a low resource program and probably saves more battery than it uses by blocking extra traffic and stopping the rendering of ads. All it does is intercepts any DNS lookups and if they are on it's lists it returns 127.0.0.1 (localhost) as the numeric address for the DNS lookup where they go unanswered. The app or browser gets no response from that address so it cant connect with the intended ad server or update server. The process fails. Having an extra block on your router or a PiHole won't matter because they'll never get the request as it's been locally redirected to a dead end.

I don't recommend turning off DNS66. It might be your only defense against further updates if you are on someone else's WiFi. It most certainly isn't a bottleneck as far as speed goes. It runs on all my android devices except my phone while I'm using a real VPN. As a matter of fact, it's one of the first apps I install on any device I use just for the ad blocking. :)

Edit: Thanks, @manyxda for bringing this up and making me revisit the usefulness of Activity Launcher in this case. It turns out not to be needed and I've edited my tutorial post to reflect that.☺️
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] mdb301:
Does anyone know when fire is 8 will come out and if there will be any big features? I was just curious.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] Datastream33:
Looks like it's available for purchase on June 29. The best thing about the new tablet in my opinion is it's the first Amazon tablet with Android 11 (we'll have to see how locked down they are on release). So, that's pretty cool. Although, comparing it the Fire HD 8 (2020) I believe the new tablet is weaker.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] mdb301:
I’m sorry my autocorrect made it say “is” instead of os. I meant the operating system update.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] mdb301:
Sorry, I read your post wrong I thought you meant the tablets like the fire hd 8.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
Amazon has been releasing new versions of their tablets every 2-3 years. The Latest HD8 that is out is 2020. The latest HD10 is 2021. They're releasing a new HD8 this summer (2022). None of the previous releases have been upgraded to newer versions of FireOS to my knowledge. They have only been updated to include new "features" and (hopefully) security updates. The new HD8 out this summer will be the only one so far with FireOS 8 (Android 11). I doubt they will update any current Fire tablets to the new FireOS 8. I could be wrong, but based on what they've done so far I think that's correct.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] manyxda:
Hi there, I notice that you struck out some key passages of your tutorial relating to Activity Launcher. What does it mean? Does it mean that Activity Launcher cannot be relied on to keep DNS66 "always running" in a Fire HD device?

In particular, may I understand:

"It turns out that changing this hidden setting does nothing more than give you an extra notification that your VPN is off."

> When DNS66 is off, Activity Launcher will not turn it back on but will tell you that it is off?

"It doesn't stop traffic, so it's useless." >

> "It" here means "if DNS66 has somehow been turned off and Activity Launcher does not turn it back on"?

"Besides, my tablet has taken to switching it off every time I boot."

> "It" here is DNS66?

"The app is still useful for finding settings that Amazon doesn't see fit to include."

> "The app" here is Activity Launcher?

> The usefulness is a reference to Activity Launcher's telling you when DNS66 is off?

"It also makes desktop shortcuts to those settings if you wish."

> Does this mean that Activity Launcher can make a desktop shortcut to DNS66?

Sorry, you don't have to answer each of these pesky exegetical questions. Just trying to understand. If in the end I have to remember to turn on DNS66 each time I reboot Fire, I would be happy enough. Activity Launcher's reminding me to do so would indeed be quite useful.

Unrelated question

I notice that your blacklist file has Linux line end. Does DNS66 work if line end is Apple or Windows? (This is for when I may edit the file in the tablet, and the editor changes the line end format.) Thanks.

ADDED LATER:

Experiments seem to show the following:

- If you edit the blacklist after adding it to DNS66's HOSTS tab, the changes you make are not effective until you have stopped and restarted DNS66 (with the STOP/START button in the app's START tab).

- A blacklist in a Windows line end format works fine. (If you are wondering why does that matter, my text editor in Fire is set to save in that format.)

- A domain entered into a blacklist does not capture its subdomains. I.e., if the URL to be banned is sub.domain.com, then `127.0.0.1 domain.com` in the blacklist does not block it. (This appears to be the general behavior of a hostfile. See e.g. this page.)
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] Erenkasymaliev:
Hi @blaacksheep

Thnx for such detailed post abt firmware 7.3.2.2

As I realize, it took much time and efforts to find some workarounds, so really appreciate it

Still keeping vpn app running permanently and working with one button is lil bit inconvenient. Hope u guys can find more solutions🙏
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
@manyxda

I'll try to answer your questions.

Not exactly. Activity Launcher is not a service that runs in the background to do things for you, Activity Launcher is merely a means of getting to settings that Amazon has not provided you access to. Think of it as a list of hidden settings. The hidden setting called "Always On VPN" is what will give you the notification that your VPN is turned off. That setting makes no attempt to block communications. It only warns you when the expected VPN is not active.

What I meant was that if you had turned off DNS66, or the device didn't start DNS66, or somehow DNS66 could not start as it (DNS66) was supposed to, the setting of "Always On VPN" would not prohibit communications with the Amazon servers that we are trying to block. "Always On VPN" would only give you a notification that your VPN was not connected. Meanwhile, Amazon could be downloading the newest firmware to your tablet and waiting for a reboot to install it (the latest firmware). Therefore, the "Always On VPN" setting is useless as it (Always On VPN) can't prevent the tablet from receiving updates.

"It" refers to "Always On VPN". Since the last time I reset my tablet, The setting "Always On VPN" has reverted to it's initial "off" state upon every reboot. Having discovered the useslessness of the setting, I have just left it ("Always On VPN") turned off.

Yes

No. The usefulness of Activity Launcher is that it (Activity Launcher) can give you access to many hidden settings and create shortcuts to them (the shortcuts) as icons on your homescreen.

It (Activity Launcher) probably can, but why would you create a shortcut that already exists as soon as you install DNS66? The shortcut is placed in your app drawer and most likely on your homescreen depending on the launcher you choose and your preferences.

DNS66 when set to the state in my instructions, will always return to the state it was in (on/off) upon reboot. If you just set it (DNS66) and forget it, it will always be running and update it's adblocking server lists daily. The static Amazon Blocklist that I included for import into DNS66 does not update. Any changes to that list will need to be made manually and will be updated on the original post and a note will be included on my signature that it (the Amazon Blocklist) needs to be updated.

I actually have no idea. I was running Linux when I created that list, but I assume It will work for a Window's Notepad created text file or an Android created text file also.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] manyxda:
Thanks very much for your detailed answers.

In that case, if after a reboot DNS66 somehow fails to start then there would be nothing to raise a hue and cry. You'd be quite right to leave "Always on VPN" off. In fact, there would be no reason to bother with Activities Launcher for this project. Is that right?
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] manyxda:
I tried to verify DNS66's general efficacy by the following steps and don't seem to be succeeding.

Steps:

- Add these entries to the end of the blacklst:

<QUOTE>

127.0.0.1 fastmail.com

127.0.0.1 daum.net

127.0.0.1 dwds.de

127.0.0.1 www.fastmail.com

127.0.0.1 www.daum.net

127.0.0.1 www.dwds.de

<UNQUOTE>

- Save the blacklist in "LF (for Linux/Android)" format.

- Re-attach the blacklist to DNS66's HOSTS tab.

- Turn DNS66 off and back on in its START tab.

- In Fire HD 10's Settings, go to Apps, chose Brave (browser), go to Storage, and do CLEAR STORAGE and CLEAR CACHE.

- In Brave, go to ipecho.net and confirm that my IP address is the one given to me by my ISP (not some proxy server's IP that some browsers, such as Opera, seem to use without telling me).

- Point Brave to fastmail.com, daum.net, dwds.de

- Expected result: Those sites should fail to load.

- Actual result: They load just fine.

When pointed to the three sites, Brave seemed to struggle a bit (giving the impression that banning has succeeded) but after about ten seconds found its way to the contents.

When you substitute Amazon's Silk browser for Brave, the result is the same. (I have never used Silk before. So I know it's not showing me some cached contents.)

Maybe this DNS over HTTPS has something to do with the problem though I cannot find a setting for it in Android Brave (unless Secure DNS is it, which I have not enabled).

When I enter the three sites (six entries) to my router's hostfile-equivalent and point my Linux Brave to them, the result is mixed: fastmail.com and dwds.de load, and daum.net does not.

ADDED LATER:

It seems the problem was in Brave. I tested Blokada alongside DNS66 and Firefox alongside Brave.

The result was:

- Firefox cannot load a URL if it is listed in either DNS66 or Blokada.

- Brave can load it in either case.
[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 Android Development] blaacksheep:
yes

That's why I suggest the best practice of turning off WiFi before powering down/rebooting. Then you can check the status bar for DNS66. If it (DNS66) is running, it will have a shield symbol in your status bar. Then it's safe to turn WiFi on. In most circumstanses, it doesn't matter, but I've had a couple of minor updates slip through that weren't permanent when I didn't observe best practices.