Last updated: March 9, 2026
You press play on a Prime Video show and within 30 seconds you're staring at the spinning circle. The picture drops to pixelated SD quality mid-episode, or you get an error code like 7031 or 7135 with no useful explanation. Maybe it's your Fire Stick, your Smart TV's built-in Prime app, or the mobile app — and each of these devices has different failure points that cause buffering for different reasons.
Prime Video buffering is almost never caused by a single thing. It's usually the intersection of your connection speed, Wi-Fi signal quality, device performance, and app state. The key is identifying which of these is the bottleneck for your specific setup. This guide gives you eight targeted fixes and explains exactly what's causing the buffering in each scenario.
Spinning wheel frequently during playback → Insufficient bandwidth. Check speed and lower video quality first (Fix 1).
Starts in HD, drops to pixelated quality mid-show → Connection speed fluctuating. See Fix 2 (check speed) and Fix 5 (restart router).
Error code 7031 → Network connectivity failure to Amazon's servers. See Fix 5 and Fix 7.
Error code 7135 → DRM license failure. See the error codes section below.
Error code 7017 → Network timeout. Restart device and router.
Buffers on Smart TV / Fire Stick but not phone → Weak Wi-Fi signal to TV. Use Ethernet cable or move router. See Fix 5.
"Video Unavailable" message → Content licensing issue or server problem. Check server status (Fix 6).
Prime Video uses error codes to indicate specific failure types. Knowing what your code means saves significant troubleshooting time:
Why this works: Prime Video uses adaptive bitrate streaming — it automatically adjusts video quality based on your available bandwidth. However, there's a lag in this adjustment. If your connection dips briefly, Prime Video will buffer rather than instantly downgrade quality. Manually setting a lower quality ceiling removes the need for that adjustment and eliminates most buffering on borderline connections.
Watching at 720p instead of 4K uses roughly one-fifth the bandwidth and eliminates buffering on most connections without a noticeable quality difference on screens under 55 inches.
Why this works: Amazon has minimum speed requirements for each quality tier: 1 Mbps for SD, 5 Mbps for HD (1080p), and 25 Mbps for 4K Ultra HD. But these are minimums, not comfortable thresholds. In practice, consistent 4K streaming requires 15-25 Mbps of stable, sustained bandwidth — not just a peak reading. A speed test showing 50 Mbps on paper may still buffer if your actual sustained throughput drops to 8 Mbps during peak hours.
Why this works: The Prime Video app stores cached content metadata, thumbnails, and temporary playback data. A corrupted or oversized cache can cause the app to freeze, buffer unexpectedly, or fail to load new content correctly. This is especially common on Fire Stick devices with limited storage, where the cache can consume a significant portion of available memory.
On Android / Fire Stick:
On Smart TV: Find the Apps or Application Manager section in your TV's settings. The exact path varies by manufacturer — look for "Clear Cache" under Prime Video's app info.
On iPhone: Offload the Prime Video app via Settings → General → iPhone Storage → Prime Video → Offload App, then reinstall it.
Why this works: Amazon releases Prime Video app updates that improve streaming efficiency, fix buffering bugs, and update DRM licensing components. On Fire Sticks and Smart TVs, the app may auto-update infrequently, leaving you running an older version that's less efficient at streaming. Firmware updates for the device itself also improve network performance and memory management.
Fire Stick: Go to Settings → My Fire TV → About → Check for Updates. Also update the Prime Video app via Settings → Applications → Appstore → enable "Automatic Updates."
Smart TV: Check your TV's Settings → Support → Software Update (Samsung) or equivalent. Also open the Prime Video app on the TV and look for an update prompt.
Mobile: Update via the App Store or Google Play Store as usual.
Why this works: Routers accumulate connection table entries and memory usage over days of continuous operation. A slow or buffering Prime Video experience is frequently caused by a tired router, not a slow internet connection. Restarting the router flushes its memory, refreshes DHCP leases, and re-establishes clean connections to your ISP. Wi-Fi also degrades over distance and through walls — an Ethernet connection eliminates this variable entirely.
If you have a Smart TV, Fire Stick 4K, or streaming box near your router, connecting it via Ethernet cable will essentially eliminate buffering caused by Wi-Fi signal issues. Most modern Smart TVs have an Ethernet port on the back.
Why this works: Amazon Prime Video's streaming infrastructure, while highly reliable, occasionally has CDN (content delivery network) issues that cause widespread buffering or content unavailability. These are distinct from full Amazon outages — Prime Video can buffer for many users while the Amazon website and app work fine, because streaming uses different server infrastructure than shopping.
If it's a confirmed outage, no local fix will help. Amazon's streaming outages typically resolve within one to three hours.
Why this works: VPNs route your traffic through intermediate servers, which adds latency and reduces effective bandwidth — both of which cause buffering. More specifically, Amazon's CDN (CloudFront) detects VPN IP ranges and may throttle or block streaming traffic from them, since Prime Video's content licensing is region-locked and VPNs can be used to bypass geographic restrictions. This results in severe buffering or "Video Unavailable" errors that disappear the moment you disable the VPN.
Why this works: When app-level fixes (clearing cache, updating) don't resolve buffering, the next step is a full reinstall to replace potentially corrupted app files. Testing on a different device also isolates whether the problem is device-specific — if Prime Video streams perfectly on your phone but buffers on your Fire Stick, the issue is the Fire Stick or its network connection, not your internet service.
Fire Stick: Go to Settings → Applications → Manage Installed Applications → Prime Video → Uninstall. Then reinstall from the Fire TV app store.
Smart TV: Find Prime Video in the TV's app manager and uninstall it, then reinstall from the TV's app marketplace.
Mobile: Delete the app and reinstall from the App Store or Google Play. Your account, watchlist, and downloads stored on-device will need to be re-downloaded, but all account data remains intact.
Q: What internet speed do I need for Prime Video to stop buffering?
A: Amazon's minimum requirements are 1 Mbps for SD, 5 Mbps for HD (1080p), and 25 Mbps for 4K UHD. In practice, consistent 4K streaming needs 15-25 Mbps of sustained bandwidth. Run a speed test on the actual device that's buffering during the time you normally watch — evening speeds are often significantly lower than daytime speeds due to network congestion. If your speed is borderline, lower the quality setting or connect via Ethernet.
Q: What does Prime Video error code 7031 mean?
A: Error 7031 is a network connectivity failure — Prime Video cannot reach Amazon's streaming servers. This is most commonly caused by Wi-Fi dropping out, a VPN blocking Amazon's CDN, or a DNS resolution failure. Fix in this order: restart your router, disable any VPN, then try loading primevideo.com in a browser to confirm your internet connection is working. If the browser works but the app doesn't, clear the app cache and update it.
Q: What does Prime Video error code 7135 mean?
A: Error 7135 is a DRM (Digital Rights Management) licensing error — your device failed to get a valid license to play the content. Causes include incorrect device date/time (DRM licenses are time-stamped), an outdated app version, or a device that needs to be re-registered. Fix: enable automatic date/time on your device, update the Prime Video app, and if using a Fire Stick, go to Settings → My Account → Deregister, then register it again.
Q: Why does Prime Video buffer on my Smart TV but not on my phone?
A: Smart TVs connect to Wi-Fi at a fixed location and can't be moved closer to the router, so they often have weaker signal strength. Smart TV Wi-Fi chips are also lower-quality than those in phones. The Prime Video app on Smart TVs is also updated less frequently, making it less efficient. The best solutions are: connect the TV via Ethernet cable (most TVs have a port), or plug in a Fire Stick 4K instead of using the built-in TV app — Fire Sticks receive more frequent updates.
Q: Why does HD Prime Video buffer but SD plays fine?
A: If SD works but HD buffers, your connection can handle low-bitrate video but not high-bitrate streams. HD uses roughly 5-8 Mbps while SD uses 1-2 Mbps — this gap is most apparent during peak evening hours when your ISP's network is congested. Run a speed test during buffering; if you're getting below 8 Mbps, lower the video quality setting. If your speed looks fine but HD still buffers, the problem is congestion between your router and the streaming device — use Ethernet to fix it definitively.
If buffering continues after all eight fixes, there may be a persistent issue with your account or your ISP's routing to Amazon's servers. Contact Amazon Prime Video support at amazon.com/help and mention the specific error code if you have one. You can also contact your ISP to ask about any traffic shaping or throttling policies that might affect streaming services.