Okay, check this out. Every Fire TV stick has two options. The first option is - if I navigate to Settings and then to My Account, select your Amazon account and there I see a ‘Deregister’ button.

And the second option is if I go back to settings, my Fire TV, and there you have another option to reset your Fire TV stick.

What’s the difference between resetting and registering your Fire TV stick? If I deregister my Firestick, will I lose my apps? And most importantly, if I’m sharing my Fire TV stick with friends, should I deregister it or reset to factory settings?

Well, that’s what we’re here for with Smart DNS Proxy, and we’ll answer all these questions in this video.

Okay, to find out what happens if you deregister my Fire TV stick, we’re going to take two similar Fire TV sticks, one we’ll factory reset and the other we’ll deregister to give you ultimate clarity.

So, as you can see, in the first Fire TV stick, I can log into Netflix and Prime Video, I have few third-party apps installed, and also have some personal settings like remapping my Fire TV button on remote as well added 1 TB external hard drive to my Fire TV sticks.

Now, let’s de-register it, and you will see a warning saying your Fire TV sticks will be deregistered from your Amazon account, this will remove your content and a lot of features won’t work, however, it also says, your personal data won’t be removed. 

So, I want to know, what personal data will be not removed and what content will be deleted.

Let’s de-register it.

Now, as you can see, it brings us to this Amazon login screen. You don't have to be an Amazon Prime customer to use the Amazon Fire TV Stick but you do have to have a regular Amazon account to use Fire TV stick. So, let’s sign in to a different one, that I’d used before.

And once I login, let’s see.

I can login to Netflix, with the same ID, but the Prime Video is different.

I can log into YouTube and all my search history is there.

It also automatically remembers my Wi-Fi.

I can see my sideloaded apps as well custom settings like 1 TB hard drive is working.

So, basically, personal data includes - sideloaded apps, YouTube history and preference and Netflix logins and Wi-Fi details, etc.

However, all my Amazon apps are gone, that were installed from the previous Amazon account, similarly, all my credit card details linked to that Amazon account is also gone.

Now, let’s try factory reset to a different Fire TV stick

So, here’ my Fire TV stick, let’s factory reset it, it says, it’ll delete everything including personal data.

Let’s try that. And as you can see, it took around 5-10 minutes and it gave me fresh new Fire TV stick where I even have to connect my remote and set it up with Wi-Fi and all that.

Now, the next question comes, when to factory reset and when to deregister?

If you have a Firestick, it doesn’t just contain your Netflix and Prime videos but also contains everything that is attached to your Amazon account, including payment information.

So, if you are going on vacation and will have a house sitter staying overnight that has permission to use your TV, make sure you log out. Or if you are lending your Fire TV stick to your friends or family, make sure you de-register your device.

This way, they can still enjoy your Netflix, Prime videos and other side loaded apps, without having to log in separately.

However, if you are selling your Fire TV sticks for ever, or if your Fire TV has some software issue, then it makes sense to reset it to factory settings. That way, your Fire TV stick is as good as new.

Some of you may wonder what if I left for vacation and then realized that you forgot to log out of your Firestick, can I do so remotely?

Well, yes you can.

Log onto your Amazon account on the official Amazon website and go to the Manage Content and Devices section. Select your device, and then deregister it. This action will remove your information from the device and if anyone tries to use your Firestick, they will have to log in with their own Amazon ID.

Hope this helps, and again, as always, thanks for reading and watching, and subscribe to our YouTube channel to get notified about new videos.

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See you in the next one!