Streaming stick behind the TV: fixing its weak Wi-Fi

It's the smallest radio in the house, and you plugged it in behind a sheet of metal facing the wall.

Published · 2 min read

In this guide
  1. How to recognise it
  2. Six fixes, smallest first
  3. The stick isn't the only thing back there
  4. Compare in front of the TV and behind it

A streaming stick is a clever idea with one built-in flaw. It plugs straight into an HDMI port on the back of the TV, which puts its tiny antenna a few millimetres from a large panel of metal and electronics, facing the wall. Everything else in the room gets good Wi-Fi. The stick buffers.

How to recognise it

  • Buffering or blurry picture on the stick while phones in the same room are fine.
  • A "weak connection" warning in the stick's own network settings. Most sticks have a status page that rates the signal: look there first.
  • It gets worse when the TV is against an outside wall or inside a wall unit.

Six fixes, smallest first

  1. Use the short HDMI extender. Many sticks come with a small flexible adapter in the box, and it's there for exactly this reason. It moves the stick a few centimetres off the panel so it can hang down or to the side. This alone often fixes it.
  2. Try a side port. If your TV has HDMI ports on the edge, the stick is far less shadowed there than in the middle of the back.
  3. Power it from the wall. Use the supplied power adapter rather than a USB port on the TV. A stick that's short of power behaves erratically in ways that look like a network problem.
  4. Choose the band. If the router is in the room, connect to 5 GHz. Through walls, 2.4 GHz may hold better: see 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz by room.
  5. Add a network cable. Many sticks accept an inexpensive Ethernet adapter. If there's a cable or a mesh node near the TV, this removes Wi-Fi from the picture.
  6. Bring the Wi-Fi closer. A mesh node near the TV helps everything in that corner: see where to put a mesh node.

The stick isn't the only thing back there

The TV corner tends to collect radios: the TV itself, a console, a soundbar, a set-top box. They all sit low and behind the screen. See smart TV buffering on Wi-Fi and PS5 or Xbox in the TV cabinet for the same problem in bigger boxes. How much speed you really need is in internet speed for 4K streaming.

Compare in front of the TV and behind it

Measure with WiFi Heatmap at the sofa, then with the phone held behind the TV where the stick lives. A clear difference between the two tells you the room is fine and the stick's position isn't, which means the fix costs nothing.