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Installing apps on a TV, sending files and casting, and fixing what goes wrong. Type to filter.

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Install apps on TV

Sideload APK, XAPK and split APK files on Android TV, Google TV and Fire TV from your phone, USB or ADB, and which TVs cannot.

Four ways to sideload: from your phone (no USB, no PC), USB stick, Downloader or ADB.

USB stick + file manager, step by step, and when sending from your phone is easier.

Chromecast with Google TV, TCL and Sony: where Unknown sources lives.

Tested on a Mi TV with Android TV 14, including the storage fix.

Which TCL systems can sideload, and which (Roku) cannot.

Why APKs can't install on Tizen, webOS, Roku or VIDAA, and what works instead.

Phone, Downloader or ADB, and which new Fire TV Sticks (Vega OS) can't sideload at all.

XAPK, APKS and APKM bundles: why they fail with "app not installed", and how to install them on a TV.

Legal picks worth having on a TV: VLC, Kodi, Jellyfin, Moonlight and more.

Send photos, video and files to a TV, and cast by brand.

Photos, videos, PDFs and APKs from phone to TV over Wi-Fi. Files stay on the TV.

VIDAA models have no Google Cast at all. Here is what does work.

Roku, Google TV, Android TV and Fire TV — four systems, four methods.

It moved rather than vanished — and the desktop version really is gone.

"App not installed", "problem parsing the package", missing apps, and casting that will not connect.

Storage, signatures, CPU type, Android version: every cause and its fix.

Incomplete downloads, split APKs, Android version, CPU type: find your cause.

Phone apps hide from the TV home screen. How to open and pin them.

Nine times in ten it is Wi-Fi bands, router isolation, or a feature your TV does not have.