Have some friends visiting from Canada, here until mid-December, they brought their Fire TV stick to watch program from home, namely hockey, but were geolocated by Amazon as being 'not in Canada" on Monday, even though their home address and Amazon Prime account is in Canada (the hockey game they wanted to see was viewable on Prime Video for Canadian viewers). In effort to work around the geoblock, my son brought over his VPN router (reflashed and set up to run Mullvad), connected the stick to it (wifi), and was able to set them set up “in Toronto”, but then Amazon presented them with the “unable to view this content through VPN, please turn off your VPN and try again” screen.
My question to this sub’s community. Before we go further, I thought it a good idea to ask if anyone on this sub has recently been successful viewing Canadian Fire TV / Prime Video using Mullvad, or are my friends out of luck (and stuck with US-approved viewing choices) during their visit?
Using a VPN can make Amazon’s geoblocking more difficult. Amazon appears to be able to spot VPN use from anywhere. Although trying different Mullvad server sites or protocols might work as a workaround, streaming services are sometimes too good at stopping VPNs. Use your best judgment to get that hockey game!
Mullvad is not available on the Amazon App Store so they’d need to sideload the Mullvad APK after downloading the Downloader app onto the Firestick, turning on the option to install unknown apps, loading Downloader, and downloading the APK directly from Mullvad’s website, then configuring it with Mullvad login details.
Thank you. I’ve read it is the proverbial whack-a-mole or cat and mouse using VPN with IPTV services. We’ll give it a go “moving” their location to different access points in Canada and see what we can come up with. I’ve also read some VPN services work better than others for this, but Mullvad is what we had as an immediate (active) option, so the obvious starting point. Figured it was worth asking if others have had success before working through the locations list…didn’t want to give our friends false hope if everyone was reporting no luck.
This geofencing problem is only temporary. My son is already configuring a private VPN box for them to plug in before traveling, so their stick can connect to it and appear “at home” next time they come to visit.
Appreciate the suggestion, I’ll get a Mullvad access code from by son, and give that a try. Have you had success porting to Canada, re: Prime Video, or will they still be VPNblocked by Amazon?
Browser is not our issue, it is using VPN on/for a Fire TV stick. And that’s only a temporary situation, for maybe half a dozen games. They go back to Canada in December.
My son is already putting together a box for them to plug in at home, so the stick can connect “locally” remotely, keeping their IP in Toronto for watching hockey without Amazon’s geofencing getting in the way. None of this was an issue until NHL started airing games on Prime Video this season. Didn’t need a VPN to watch in years past, but new problems beget new solutions.
