Make the HOME button yours

Three causes, none of them PLUI. On Android TV 14 the system switches off every accessibility service by itself — a platform bug that hits every app using one. On Android 13 and newer a sideloaded app also needs Apps › [app] › ⋮ › Allow restricted settings before the switch will stay on. And any force-stop, including swiping the app out of Recents, drops the grant. If it keeps happening, stop fighting it: TV Launcher Manager sets Android’s own Home app, which is the one thing a reboot, an update and Android TV 14 leave alone. Experts can do the same by hand over ADB.

On Android TV 8 and older you sometimes could: press HOME, pick the launcher, choose Always. On almost every TV sold since, the manufacturer locks HOME to its own launcher and no picker ever appears — Nvidia Shield, Sony, Xiaomi, Chromecast included. The Play build still asks for the launcher role the official way, so if your TV does offer the picker, it works. It just rarely does — which is why this guide exists.

Store policy: apps distributed through Google Play may not override system buttons. The Play build asks for the launcher role the official way and stops there. The sideload build is free of that rule — which is the only difference between them.

DRM apps insist on a "trusted" home. Three checks: make PLUI the real Home app (TV Launcher Manager does exactly that; on the sideload build, the Accessibility switch is what grants that trusted status); set the TV's date and time to Automatic — protected apps refuse to start when the clock is off; and update the launcher. Black screen after all three? Write to info@smartago.net — some devices need a specific test build.

Yes. Every start checks for a new version and tells you at once; nothing installs without your OK on screen. The wizard's first switch is exactly this permission — and it cannot install anything else.

Two of the three routes need no store. The full build: open our own Downloader TV and enter code 0245 — it downloads and installs. Alternatives: the direct APK with any downloader app, or Send to TV Quick (smartago.net/stv.apk) with code SC:PLUI from your phone. And TV Launcher Manager runs from a computer or a phone, or on the TV itself with Downloader TV code 2123033.

There is no setting for it on most TVs, so you pick one of three routes. Button Mapper TV maps the HOME button to PLUI in two minutes and keeps the Play build. TV Launcher Manager sets Android’s own Home app from a computer, a phone or the TV itself — the one that holds through reboots, updates and Android TV 14. The full sideload build does it with its own accessibility service. Experts can type the two commands themselves on the ADB page.

Yes. The Shield locks HOME to Android TV Home (com.google.android.tvlauncher) and offers no picker — exactly the case this guide is for. Button Mapper TV, TV Launcher Manager and the full build all work on it. The Shield-specific steps, with its own Developer options menu, are at tvboxtools.com/box/shield.

Yes. Google TV devices run a different stock launcher (com.google.android.apps.tv.launcherx), locked to HOME the same way. Routes A and B work unchanged, and so does the full build. Device steps: Chromecast with Google TV, TCL Google TV, onn 4K, Xiaomi Mi Box.

No. Amazon does not let a third-party app hold the HOME button on Fire TV. On the older Android-based sticks PLUI installs and runs as an app you open yourself; the sticks from the Fire TV Stick 4K Select (October 2025) run Vega OS and cannot install Android apps at all. The honest write-up: tvboxtools.com/fire-tv.

Route B: no. The Home app is a setting written once and verified, not a service — it survives reboots, system updates and Android TV 14. Only a factory reset starts over. Routes A and C depend on an accessibility service, and a reboot can switch that service off (Android TV 14 does it on purpose): turn it on again, or move to Route B.

That flicker is the accessibility route racing the system: HOME opens the stock launcher first and the service replaces it. With the Home app set directly — Route B, or the ADB command — there is nothing to race: HOME opens PLUI itself, with no flash.

No root, ever. A computer is optional: TV Launcher Manager runs on an Android phone on the same Wi-Fi, in Chrome with a USB cable, or on the TV itself (Downloader TV code 2123033). You type nothing — the tool shows every command before it runs it. If you prefer typing, the ADB page has the two commands.

It records the current home screen before changing anything, and Restore puts it back with one tap; the stock launcher is never uninstalled. It needs no account, sends no data and shows no ads, and it is open source (Apache-2.0, github.com/smartago/tvboxtools) — the command gate and the step list are the whole of what it can do to a box. Switch debugging off again from the TV’s own settings when you are done.

Any app that can be a home screen: Premium TV Launcher, Projectivy, AT4K, Monet, Arc, ATV Launcher, or your own pick from the list it reads off the box. It installs no launcher for you — PLUI comes from Google Play or the direct APK — and it never pushes another developer’s app.

Route A: open Button Mapper TV and delete the HOME mapping, or uninstall it. Route B: open TV Launcher Manager and press Restore. Route C: Settings › Accessibility › switch Premium TV Launcher.UI off, then press HOME. ADB: pm enable with the stock package — the ADB page has both names. Nothing on this page uninstalls the stock launcher, so there is never anything to reinstall.

No. Button Mapper TV is free, TV Launcher Manager is free and open source, and Premium TV Launcher is free — the Elite edition is $0 forever, no catch. There is no account to create and nothing to subscribe to.

That is a different product, built for exactly that: Hotel TV, set up by the same tool as the box’s Device Owner, so HOME stays pinned across reboots and the settings sit behind the property’s PIN. The routes on this page are for a TV you own at home; for guests, start at tvboxtools.com/hotels.

No. Launcher Manager is sweenwolf’s app that runs on the TV and needs a permission grant there. TV Launcher Manager is ours, from Smartago: it runs on a computer, a phone or in Chrome and writes the Home setting from outside. The names are alike because both describe the job.

Button Mapper TV: any Android TV with Google Play. TV Launcher Manager: Android 7 and newer (the set-home-activity command appeared there); from Android 11 the box also offers Wireless debugging. The full sideload build installs on Android 6 and newer. Android TV 14 is the version where only Route B holds.

Because the mechanism it would have to use is fragile. A launcher that catches HOME does it with an accessibility service, and the system switches those off: Android TV 14 does it by itself, Android 13 and newer block a sideloaded app’s switch until you allow restricted settings, and any force-stop drops the grant. A launcher is also the app the system stops and restarts all day, and Play’s rules forbid a Play-build launcher from catching system buttons at all. So the mapping lives in a separate single-purpose app, Button Mapper TV — and the permanent fix, TV Launcher Manager, sets Android’s own Home app from outside the TV and needs no service at all.