Guide · Updated September 2026
My TV or box is locked — can I still change HOME?
Usually yes — “locked” almost always means one of four specific things, and three of them have a route. The home app is a system setting, and the debugging connection writes it no matter which launcher the vendor pinned on top. When a TV goes further and re-enables its stock launcher at every boot, there is a heavier route that still holds: a Device Owner app, which hides the stock launcher with system authority instead of fighting it. And in the cases where nothing honest works — Fire TV, a device that is not yours — this page says so instead of selling you a trick.
Case 1 · The stock launcher comes back at every boot
On some TVs, disabling the stock launcher does not stick: the firmware re-enables it when the TV restarts, and HOME is captured again. We have measured this ourselves on real sets. The route that survives is Device Owner: the box is handed to one app with system authority, which hides the stock launcher at every boot instead of disabling it once. That is exactly what the tool's Kiosk task sets up — it needs a box with no Google accounts signed in (the check step tells you), and it is the same mechanism our Hotel TV path uses on hundreds of property TVs.
Device Owner is a commitment: one app owns the box, and leaving it is a factory reset. For a living-room TV try the normal route first — most TVs never need this.
Case 2 · A cheap box with the vendor's launcher pinned
Generic boxes often ship with the seller's own launcher on HOME and no visible way to change it. Underneath, it is still Android: the home app is still a setting, and the debugging connection still writes it. Run the tool, see what the box reports, set your launcher. If the vendor firmware re-asserts its launcher at boot, you are in Case 1 — the Device Owner route.
Case 3 · A TV in hotel or shop mode
Hospitality and signage TVs are locked on purpose, usually with their own PIN-protected menus. If the TV is yours — bought second-hand from a hotel clearance, say — the clean route is the TV's own hotel-mode menu or a factory reset, then the normal setup. If the TV is not yours, stop: changing a device you do not own is not a configuration question.
Case 4 · Fire TV
Amazon closed the custom-launcher route in October 2025, and the newest sticks cannot sideload at all. No tool gets around that honestly — ours does not try. The full story, and what you can do instead, is on its own page.
Questions
Does any of this need root or unlocking the bootloader?
No. Every route here uses the box's own debugging connection and standard Android mechanisms — the home setting and, for the heavy case, Device Owner. We do not cover rooting, and nothing here voids the honest meaning of “your device, your settings”.
Is the Device Owner route reversible?
Yes, by factory reset — that is the honest price of system authority. The tool says so before it starts, and the check step refuses a box that is not suitable.
My box is “locked” to an IPTV app someone sold me.
If the box is yours, the routes above apply — it is ordinary Android underneath. We cannot help with the app itself or any subscription tied to it, and we install no content.
Start with the normal route — it is ten minutes
Free · Open source · The check step tells you what your box allows
Download TV Launcher Manageror on the TV, with the Downloader app — code2123033
