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Amazon Prime issues on Android TV

Hello!

I am currently experiencing an issue on a Xiaomi Mi Box S and Amazon Prime. Everything works except Prime and I have been searching to see what is being blocked that makes it not work. When the app starts it just says I'm not connected but if I leave it on a little bit it connects, but I can not start to stream anything it just says an error occured.

My setup is an OpenWRT that runs NextDNS DoH and DNS hijacks every device on the network. I have slowly been removing filtering until today when nothing, either privacy nor security is enabled on NextDNS and still I have the issue. If I disable DoH and NextDNS then Prime works with no issue. Today I decided to see what happens if instead of disabling DoH I just changed the DNS server from NextDNS DoH to Cloudflare DoH and when I did Prime worked again. So it seems to be something with NextDNS and Prime, even without any filtering or any other options enabled, just the service itself stops Prime from working. Prime works great on the phone and with casting, just not on the Android TV app.

I don't know what else I can try to debug this issue, any advice?

10 replies

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    • Hey
    • 3 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I would say you should still check the logs and see if anything gets blocked, it might be blocked by something else other than the main filters. Rebooting the device or router could also help if nothing is blocked to make it a fresh start if neither works clearing the app data of Prime on Android TV would be my last bet after that its too technical for me so gotta see what NextDNS people say. 

    • root
    • 3 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Thank you for your reply, I have been on this for a couple of weeks now and have really disabled everything I found at this point, I keep looking at the logs, but nothing is blocked at all. I have also rebooted several times and reset the device several times with no change.

      • Hey
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Alex I sometimes see them asking for a trace I don't know if they will ask about it but why not I'll say it now just in case its useful later. Enter everything as mentioned below but enter the website/domain that you aren't able to access. Also for Mac and others here is the website I found it from. If that doesn't work use traceroute instead of tracert. Tbh I'm just hoping that shows soemthing useful at this point you can also wait for their response and see what they ask. Just thought maybe they will ask for this so having it ready might minimize the time to fix it.

      http://lexisnexis.custhelp.com/app/answers/answer_view/a_id/1088078/~/running-a-traceroute

      1. Press Windows key + R to open the Run window.
      2. Enter cmd and press Enter to open a Command Prompt.
      3. Enter tracert, a space, then the IP address or web address for the destination site (for example: tracert www.lexis.com).
      4. Press Enter.
    • NextDNs
    • 3 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Do you have the blockpage feature activated? If yes, please try to disable it.

    • root
    • 3 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    It has always been disabled except for a short time where I was trying with it on in case it made a difference which it didn't, the issue persisted. Though after continuing to play around with different option, I suspect I might have found the culprit, or there's quite the coincidence that it started working after doing this.

    What I did was I disabled CNAME flattening, and with that I still have the initial message that I am not connected to the internet for the first 5-10 seconds before the app actually starts, but after that I can at least start streaming things, and for now I can wait for the 5-10 seconds because it's only after a restart that I need to deal with it. I can't exactly explain why but it seems the streaming part got fixed once the CNAME flattening was turned off.

      • Hey
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Alex I had this weird though, it might be the fact where it waits for the ads to connect then starts it. Had a similar thing with SBS AU the player would wait like 5-10 seconds for an ad to load and finally starts playing the video. If they are using the same type of player could be that. For example even Twitch Adblockers that were extensions had similar issues where it would make you wait until the ad time was done and that's also an Amazon service. If that is the case the best bet would be to modify the app to try to stop that part but even then its an iffy process where there is no 100℅ guarantee. 

      • root
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Hey What you are saying makes sense, but when not using the NextDNS servers what happens is that I see the Amazon Prime splash screen, then it goes to the user selection screen, and then main screen, with NextDNS I see the Amazon Prime splash screen, then a message about no internet connection for 5-10 seconds, then it goes to the user selection screen, and then the main screen of Prime so there is no ad in between or maybe not for my region, I don't know. I can try to play around with settings to find the issue, but since it only happens at startup of the app it really isn't a big deal. Once I am in the user selection screen everything seems to work as normal.

      The big issue was streaming, where also the ads usually are, they play ads before a show or movie starts, but in this case nothing ever started, only got the "An error occurred" after loading for 10-20 seconds and this was a bigger issue, but seems to have been resolved by disabling the CNAME flattening. Adding it here just in case someone in the future experiences this issue too. FYI this problem existed only on Android TV and Amazon Prime, on an Android phone and Chromecast Amazon Prime seemed to work just fine so what's different on Android TV I don't know.

    • Donald24
    • 1 yr ago
    • Reported - view

    Can copy that, Apple TV also not working with Prime Video and "CNAME flattening".

    • Donald24
    • 1 yr ago
    • Reported - view

    I spoke too soon, reason was something different:
    DNS resolution in the Prime-app is confused with a "domain-search"-option, that were set through DHCP.
    Maybe also on Android, I cannot check that.

    • Rikkert
    • 1 yr ago
    • Reported - view

    Adding

    unagi-na.amazon.com

    and

    unagi-eu.amazon.com

    to the Allowlist made the Prime streams via Chromecast starting very quickly again 

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