How to Sideload Apps to Your Amazon Fire TV and Amazon Fire TV Stick Using Mac OSX
Sideloading allows you to install apps to your Fire TV that are not available in the Amazon Appstore. There are numerous apps in the Google Play store that may work on the Fire TV that have not been officially ported over. You can download these apps using online APK downloaders. There are also apps like XBMC, which we will be using in this guide, which are not available on any appstore and can only be installed by sideloading.
Step 1 – Enable ADB Debugging
In order for the Fire TV to accept sideloaded apps, you must enable ADB Debugging. You may turn it back off once you’re done sideloading apps.
From the home screen, scroll down to “Settings”
Scroll right to “SYSTEM”
Scroll down to “Developer Options”
Change “ADB debugging” to “ON”
Step 2 – Obtain your Fire TV’s IP Address
You will need your Fire TV’s IP address for step 4. Here is how to find it.
From the home screen, scroll down to “Settings”
Scroll right to “SYSTEM”
Select “About”
Scroll down to “Network”
Write down the numbers next to “IP Address”
Step 3 – Setup ADB
ADB is a tool used to communicate with your Fire TV from you Mac. You will only have to set it up once.
Download the Android zip file from here: adb-fastboot-install
Unzip the file you downloaded by double clicking it.
Open the unzipped folder.
Open Terminal (Search for it from Spotlight with ⌘-Space if you don’t know where it is)
Drag the “ADB-Install-Mac.sh” file from the unzipped folder into the Terminal window. Then press enter in the Terminal window.
Once the installation completes, quit Terminal.
Step 4 – Sideload an APK file
Now that everything is setup, you can sideload an app.
Open Terminal (Search for it from Spotlight with ⌘-Space if you don’t know where it is)
Type: adb connect 192.168.1.131 and press enter.(*be sure to replace 192.168.1.131 with your Fire TV’s IP address that you wrote down from step 2.)
Type adb install /Users/USERNAME/Downloads/xbmc-13.0-armeabi-v7a.apk and press enter.(*be sure to replace /Users/USERNAME/Downloads/xbmc-13.0-armeabi-v7a.apk with the path to your app file.)
Your app is now installed on your Fire TV. To launch it, go to “Settings” > “SYSTEM” > “APPLICATIONS”, select the app, and select “Launch application”.