Bug report: Fire TV turns itself on – home-screen recommendation errors crash system_server
About this report: I used Claude Code, Anthropic’s AI coding assistant, to help with this investigation. It wrote the scripts that read the TV’s logs and the watcher that monitored the TV, and it drafted this report. I’m saying so up front because AI-written text is often dismissed as unreliable. Everything here comes from real logs taken from my own TV over about a week, using read-only commands. The log extracts are quoted exactly, the times and counts were checked against the captured data, and we’ve seen the TV turn itself on at home. I’m happy to share the full logs.
Summary
A Toshiba Fire TV sometimes turns itself on from standby. The cause is a crash in Fire OS:
- While the TV is in standby it wakes in the background (screen off) to refresh home-screen recommendations.
- Many BBC iPlayer recommendations (60 of 70 when checked) had no cached image. Amazon’s
RecommendationConsumerServicereported each one as a “WTF” error, again and again – from about 450 a minute up to about 1,800 in a few seconds. - For each report, Amazon’s crash reporter inside
system_serverstarts a new thread. It runs out of threads and system_server crashes (OutOfMemoryError: pthread_create failed). - Android restarts itself (a soft reboot – the kernel keeps running) and comes back with the screen on, even though the TV was in standby.
The same crash happened six times between 20 and 27 October 2026; four of those were caught turning the screen on with no remote press.
Workarounds: clearing BBC iPlayer’s data (steps below) stops the errors straight away, but only for about a day. Uninstalling BBC iPlayer from the TV should stop it until Amazon fixes the underlying fault.
Device
| TV | Toshiba 65QF5D53DB (Fire TV Edition) |
| Amazon model / codename | AFTBOXE1 / juliana |
| Software | Fire OS 7.7.1.4 (PS7714/5507), Android 9, security patch 1 December 2025 |
| Chip | MediaTek MT7632 |
| BBC iPlayer | uk.co.bbc.iplayer version 2.1.262001105 (last updated 15 April 2026) |
| Connected | Panasonic SC-HTB100 soundbar on HDMI 2 (ARC, HDMI-CEC) |
Wake-related settings were already off: “Turn on with LAN and Wi-Fi”, HDMI-CEC auto wake-up, wake on network.
What the user sees
The TV switches on by itself at random, including late at night when nobody is using it. There is no remote press, voice command or casting. It happens every day or two: the same crash happened six times between 20 and 27 October 2026, and four of those were caught turning the screen on (the two earliest were only found later in the crash log).
Evidence
Collected read-only over ADB, with a watcher polling the TV every 10 seconds and saving logs whenever it woke. Times are UK time (BST).
Timeline
| Date and time (2026) | Event |
|---|---|
| 20 Oct, 23:34 | system_server crash (OutOfMemoryError in addErrorToDropBox), found later in the crash log. Late at night – nobody using the TV. |
| 21 Oct, 18:44 | Same system_server crash, found later in the crash log. |
| 21 Oct, evening | Watcher started. |
| 22 Oct, 13:21 | Background wake: bbc-home error flood (289 lines), no crash. |
| 22 Oct, 19:16 | Background wake: bbc-home error flood (437 lines), no crash. |
| 22 Oct, 19:44 | Rogue power-on, seen by a household member. Error flood, system_server crash at 19:44:11, Android back with the screen on at 19:44:26. No power key press. |
| 23 Oct, 02:15 | Background wake: bbc-home error flood (48 lines), no crash. |
| 23 Oct, 17:18 | Checked with the TV on: 60 of iPlayer’s 70 recommendations point to missing images. |
| 23 Oct, 17:20 | Workaround 1: Clear cache for BBC iPlayer. No change. |
| 23 Oct, 17:26 | Workaround 2: Force stop → Clear cache → Clear data for BBC iPlayer. Errors stop. |
| 23 Oct, 17:26 – 24 Oct, 17:42 | No error floods or crashes in any background wake. |
| 24 Oct, 18:20 | Rogue power-on. Background wake at 18:19:31, 889 error lines from 18:19:44, system_server crash at 18:19:54, Android back with the screen on at 18:20:15. No power key press. |
| 24 Oct, 18:21–18:22 | After the restart, the image cache is rebuilt from scratch: 65 folders, all created in these two minutes; iPlayer has 7 recommendations posted. |
| 24 Oct, 18:28 | Watcher now also records the image cache folder count and iPlayer’s recommendation count on every wake, to show when the images disappear. |
| 25 Oct, 21:21 | iPlayer’s recommendations jump from 7 to 70 (image cache about 94 folders). Clocks go back to GMT this day; times from here on are GMT. |
| 26 Oct, 03:19 and 08:38 | Background wakes: bbc-home error floods (710 and 881 lines), no crash. |
| 26 Oct, 15:15 | Rogue power-on. Background wake at 15:14:40 with 1771 error lines, system_server crash at 15:15:05, Android back with the screen on at 15:15:19. No power key press. |
| 26 Oct, after the restart | iPlayer back to 8 recommendations. |
| 26 Oct, 22:20 | iPlayer back up to 70 recommendations (about 97 folders). |
| 27 Oct, 21:23 | Rogue power-on. Background wake at 21:22:58, 856 error lines from 21:22:51, system_server crash at 21:23:01, Android back with the screen on at 21:23:28. No power key press. Image cache 95 folders just before. |
| 27 Oct, after the restart | iPlayer back to 8 recommendations. |
| 28 Oct, 04:25 | iPlayer back up to 70 recommendations (94 folders). |
Confirmed rogue power-on: 22 October 2026, 19:44
A household member saw the TV turn on by itself. The logs show no power key press before the screen came on.
1. The error flood (com.amazon.device.services, pid 17953), hundreds of lines like this:
I am_wtf : [0,17953,com.amazon.device.services,818429453,RecommendationConsumerService,Dropping recommendation ID 1017 from rowId bbc-home - image file missing: /storage/emulated/0/Pictures/SaleImageCache/<id>/largeIcon]
906 of these in the capture; about 457 in the minute 19:44 and 449 in the minute 19:16.
2. system_server crashes (19:44:11):
E AndroidRuntime: *** FATAL EXCEPTION IN SYSTEM PROCESS: Binder:17421_14
E AndroidRuntime: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: pthread_create (1040KB stack) failed: Try again
E AndroidRuntime: at java.lang.Thread.nativeCreate(Native Method)
E AndroidRuntime: at java.lang.Thread.start(Thread.java:733)
E AndroidRuntime: at com.android.server.am.CrashReporterActivityManagerCallback.addErrorToDropBox(CrashReporterActivityManagerCallback.java:711)
E AndroidRuntime: at com.android.server.am.VendorActivityManagerServiceCallback.callAddErrorToDropBox(VendorActivityManagerServiceCallback.java:392)
E AndroidRuntime: at com.android.server.am.ActivityManagerService.addErrorToDropBox(ActivityManagerService.java:16131)
E AndroidRuntime: at com.android.server.am.ActivityManagerService.handleApplicationWtfInner(ActivityManagerService.java:16018)
E AndroidRuntime: at com.android.server.am.ActivityManagerService.handleApplicationWtf(ActivityManagerService.java:15991)
I am_crash: [17953,0,system_server,-1,java.lang.OutOfMemoryError,pthread_create (1040KB stack) failed: Try again,Thread.java,-2]
Followed by ServiceManager: service '...' died for all system services and DeadSystemException: The system died. Load average at the time was about 77.
3. Android restarts with the screen on. By 19:44:17 a new system_server (pid 32025) was running. Kernel uptime was unchanged at over 3 days, so this was a soft reboot, not a full restart. At 19:44:26 the TV was mWakefulness=Awake with mLastWakeTime=0, showing the home screen. No power key press or HDMI-CEC wake message was logged before it.
The same crash on other days
The identical OutOfMemoryError in CrashReporterActivityManagerCallback.addErrorToDropBox appears in the TV’s crash log at:
- 20 October 2026, 23:34 (late at night – nobody using the TV)
- 21 October 2026, 18:44
- 22 October 2026, 19:44 (the confirmed one above)
The same error flood, without a crash, appeared in background wakes at 13:21 (289 lines) and 19:16 (437 lines) on 22 October, and at 02:15 on 23 October (48 lines). It only crashes when the flood is big enough, which is why the power-ons are occasional.
The missing images
Checked with the TV on, 23 October 2026, 17:18:
- The
bbc-homehome-screen row belongs to BBC iPlayer. Its background jobuk.co.bbc.pmr.UpdateRecommendationsServicehad posted 70 recommendations. /storage/emulated/0/Pictures/SaleImageCache/held 96 image folders. 60 of the iPlayer recommendations pointed to folders that did not exist.- On each home-screen refresh:
E RecommendationConsumerService: Filtered out 60 recommendations with missing images for rowId: bbc-home. - The ITV (
itvhub-home) and Channel 4 (all4-home) rows had no missing images.
Workaround and result
| Time (23 Oct) | Action | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 17:20 | Clear cache for BBC iPlayer | No change – still “Filtered out 60” at 17:24 |
| 17:26 | Force stop → Clear cache → Clear data for BBC iPlayer, then open it | iPlayer posted a fresh 73 recommendations. No “Filtered out” message and 0 “Dropping recommendation” errors from then on. |
Follow-up: no error floods or crashes in 35 background wakes overnight 23–24 October, or in any background wake up to 17:42 on 24 October.
It came back: 24 October 2026, 18:20
About 25 hours after the workaround, the TV turned itself on again, with the identical chain:
- Background wake at 18:19:31. From 18:19:44, 889
Dropping recommendation … from rowId bbc-home - image file missingWTFs in about 10 seconds (30 distinct recommendation IDs, reported over and over). - 18:19:54:
FATAL EXCEPTION IN SYSTEM PROCESS–java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: pthread_create (1040KB stack) failedatCrashReporterActivityManagerCallback.addErrorToDropBox(CrashReporterActivityManagerCallback.java:711), thenSending signal. PID: 32025 SIG: 9. - New system_server (pid 20211). TV
Awakeat 18:20:15 withmLastWakeTime=0. No power key press logged. Kernel uptime 5 days (soft reboot). - Checked at 18:26:
/storage/emulated/0/Pictures/SaleImageCache/held 65 folders, all created at 18:21–18:22, so the cache was rebuilt after the restart. iPlayer had 7 recommendations posted.
So the missing images come back on their own.
Image cache tracking, 24–28 October
From 24 October 18:28 the image cache folder count and iPlayer’s recommendation count were recorded on every wake (about 155 background wakes):
- iPlayer switches between a small set of 7–8 recommendations (just after each system_server restart) and a large set of about 70 (it returned to 70 on 25 Oct 21:21, 26 Oct 22:20 and 28 Oct 04:25).
- All three crashes (24, 26 and 27 October) and every error flood happened while iPlayer had about 70 recommendations, with the image cache full (about 95 folders).
- The folder count did not fall before any crash. Its dips (42–55 folders) only happened while iPlayer had the small set, with no errors.
So the images are not being deleted by a clean-up job. More likely, some of iPlayer’s large set of recommendations point to images that were never downloaded into the cache in the first place.
Where the faults are
| Component | Owner | Problem |
|---|---|---|
CrashReporterActivityManagerCallback.addErrorToDropBox in system_server |
Amazon (Fire OS) | Main fault. Starts a new thread for every WTF report with no limit, so any app that produces a burst of WTF reports can crash the whole system. |
com.amazon.device.services / RecommendationConsumerService |
Amazon (Fire OS) | Reports a missing recommendation image – an ordinary condition – as a WTF, once per recommendation on every refresh. |
| Soft-reboot behaviour | Amazon / Toshiba | After system_server restarts while the TV is in standby, it comes back with the screen on instead of staying in standby. |
| BBC iPlayer recommendations | BBC | Likely contributor: when iPlayer posts its large set of about 70 recommendations, many of them end up with no cached image. Tracking shows the cache is not being cleaned out, so either iPlayer’s image links fail or Amazon never downloads them. |
Requests
- Amazon: rate-limit or queue WTF reports in the crash reporter; don’t report missing recommendation images as WTF; restore the previous power state (standby) after a system_server restart.
Steps to work around (for affected users)
- Settings → Applications → Manage Installed Applications → BBC iPlayer.
- Force stop, then Clear cache, then Clear data.
- Open BBC iPlayer once, let its home page load, then press Home.
In our case the BBC sign-in was kept. This is only temporary: for us the problem came back about 25 hours later.