The one Fire TV setting you need to change right now to instantly boost performance

My Fire Stick had become painfully slow. Every time I opened it, scrolling felt sluggish and content took forever to load. I assumed the device was aging poorly or needed replacement.Before investing in a new one, I decided to dig into the settings. What I discovered was surprising: a single feature was consuming bandwidth in the background and dragging everything down. To my surprise, disabling it immediately improved performance.If your Fire Stick feels sluggish, this is likely your problem too.Fire Stick's home screen plays preview clips automatically as you browse. These videos begin loading before you press play, which sounds harmless but creates problems.This resource competition can make the entire interface feel slow and unresponsive.Autoplay forces your device to constantly process heavy video data right up until the moment you select a movie, monopolizing your system's limited memory and processing power.This resource competition can make the entire interface feel slow and unresponsive. The previews also consume internet data even when you're not actively watching them, adding unnecessary usage to your connection.Disabling this feature frees up system resources immediately, allowing your device to focus entirely on the content you actually want to view. The impact on speed is noticeable from the get-go.Sign up to the weekly Tom's Streaming Guide to stay in the loop with the latest releases and top recommendations across your favorite streaming services. We’ve got you covered with a complete guide on what’s worth watching.Disable autoplay in three easy steps (Image credit: Thomas Trutschel / Getty Images)Press Home on your Fire Stick remote to reach the main screen. Navigate to Settings and select Preferences, then find Featured Content in the menu.Toggle off both "Allow Video Autoplay" and "Allow Audio Autoplay."Once you return to your home screen and scroll through, you'll immediately notice the difference. Navigation feels faster and content loads more quickly. The responsiveness improves because your device stops juggling multiple streams in the background.This single setting change often resolves the sluggishness that makes people think their Fire Stick is dying. It's one of the most common causes of performance issues, regardless of model.Additional speed improvements (if needed)If disabling autoplay doesn't fully resolve the slowness, try a soft reboot. Press Select and Play/Pause simultaneously on your remote. This restarts the device without losing your settings or account information.If that doesn't help, disconnect your Fire Stick from power for 10 seconds, then plug it back in. The brief power cycle can clear temporary glitches.Also, check for software updates by going to Settings and looking for available updates. Outdated firmware can cause performance issues that updates address.These additional steps rarely become necessary after disabling autoplay, but they're worth trying if your device remains sluggish. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!More from Tom's Guide I discovered this Fire TV stick feature by accident — and it's a game-changerYour Fire TV Stick has an expiration date — here's when support endsIs your Fire TV acting up? Here's exactly how I fixed mine in under a minute