How to Install Jelly Bean 4.1.1 on the Amazon Kindle Fire
After ICS, the next logical step-up for the affordable and amazing Kindle Fire is obvious – Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. This post will show you how to get this on this tablet without a big hassle in a few easy steps. Read on to know how.
I. Before You Begin
1. Make sure that you are rooted and have ClockworkMod/TWRP Recovery installed on your Kindle Fire; if you haven’t done this already, look to our post to guide you.
2. Back up your data and if you plan on going back to your previous ROM, make sure to do a nandroid backup!
3. The only known issue at the time of writing this guide is the power icon not showing the charging status when the device is being charged. If you are not okay with this, wait for a future release that will have fixed this problem.
II. Necessary Downloads
1.  jb-kfire-hashcode-07-13.zipÂ
2.  gapps-jb-20120711.zip
[Links available on the first post of the XDA thread]
III. Installing Jelly Bean OS
1. Connect your device and copy the jb-kfire-hashcode-07-13.zip file you downloaded above to your SD card.
2. Disconnect your device and reboot into ClockworkMod/TWRP Recovery; to do this, power down your device and press the power button again to boot it up. As soon as you see the boot logo, press and hold the power button until it boots straight into Recovery.
3. If you are on TWRP Recovery, use the touchscreen to select Install and then select the jb-kfire-hashcode-07-13.zip you copied above to your SD card.
4. Press add more zips in the Install screen and now select gapps-jb-20120711.zip so this can be flashed immediately after the ROM is done.
4. Swipe the lower part of the screen where it says, ‘Swipe to Confirm Flash.’
5. Select Reboot System after the procedure is complete.
You should now be holding a Kindle Fire running the latest OS version Google has to offer!
All credit goes to Hashcode on XDA for porting Jelly Bean over to the Amazon Kindle Fire!! If you like his work, drop a thank you or a few bucks as donation for his hard work!!
This is part of our Android How To’s. We have how to’s on rooting, loading ROMs, and tons of other tips and tricks for your specific device or for Android devices in general! For all of our Android How To’s, head here.
This was a great tutorial and everything went smoothly for me until the very end. After successfully flashing the device I rebooted the kindle fire, but it gets caught in a boot loop. I’ve read that this is a possible issue when flashing ROMs to the Fire, but it seems like it could be caused by any number of issues. Any advice on what to check first? Many Thanks!
Fixed It! In TWRP I did Wipe->Factory Reset. Then I re-flashed the ROM…and success! Note that it takes a terrifyingly long time (at least for a first time ROM flasher) to see any action after the boot screen. Thanks again for the tutorial!
Glad we could help! 🙂
Usually, while installing new ROMs, you should always factory reset your device. As it deletes the files left by your previous ROM and provides a fresh place for the new ROM.
In step one you should have said to copy over both
jb-kfire-hashcode-07-13.zip AND
gapps-jb-20120711.zip. Since you say to do both at the same time later…
Yea, only installing
jb-kfire-hashcode-07-13.zip put me into a bootloop, so I’ll have to start over. This is why we read over all of the instructions I guess.
Hello All,
I have a newbie question.
In the tutorial above, you make reference to the SD card for the Kindle Fire but I was under the impression that the Fire does not use SD cards.
Please clarify.
Thank you,
it means the internal storage!
My Kindle Fire is rooted and using EyeCandy. What I would like to do is to have it appear as a Google Galaxy Nexus as opposed to an Amazon Galaxy Nexus. I have downloaded the zip file to allow this switch but do not know how to get it to work on my newly rooted Fire.
Any and all suggestions welcomed.
XDA Forum might be useful to you, you should have a look there – http://forum.xda-developers.com
How do you copy the jb-kfire-hashcode file onto the sd card
HELP IM STUCK!!!
Worked 100% first time. Sooooo easy! Thank you. JB is a million times better than the stock Amazon rubbish!
That’s great!
Yeah, Jelly Bean’s got great features compared to other versions of Android.
Thanks!