5 ms·

My Kindle had this "bug" where my side loaded books randomly disappear. As a workaround, I have to keep it in flight mode at all times. Not a big issue since th

by htamas 2y ago

My Kindle had this "bug" where my side loaded books randomly disappear. As a workaround, I have to keep it in flight mode at all times. Not a big issue since that’s what I would do anyway, but in case my Kindle would break, I wouldn’t think long to buy an alternative

andwaal 2y ago
This happend to my kindle to! After keeping in in flight mode for years I put it online again in order to buy a few new books from the kindle store, poof suddenly my entire library of side loaded books was gone, with progress and everything. I could see random metadata files related to the books on the drive, be books was gone. Super annoying as many of the books I didn't have locally anymore and to loose the "archivement" of finished books sucks big time. I can see this may be implemented by amazon to counter piracy, but alot of these books was perfectly legal. So the result of this is that I will never put my kindle online again and just stop buying from the Kindle store.
- heelix 2y ago
  Same, though I don't think it is going to help Amazon the way they hope it does. I moved books over to my kindle and had it nuke my humble bundle collections when I added a purchase from Amazon. I've not connect it again until I figure out how to backup and restore MY metadata.
  - mcmcmc 2y ago
    Won’t help with restoring metadata, but if you add books by using the “email to kindle” feature it will keep them in your library through syncs
- throwaway48476 2y ago
  I had an issue exactly like this with my iPad.
- gullevek 2y ago
  Keep mine in Aeroplane mode. Download books I buy on Amazon directly from amazon and drop them into calibre. Amazon doesn't get to touch my Kindle ever. Thinking hard if I ever want to get another Kindle when Amazon can just screw around with what I put on my Kindle ...
- bufferoverflow 2y ago
  I just email epubs (as .txt) to my kindle's email address and they show up on the device in a couple of minutes. Never had any books just vanish. I find it easier than converting to Kindle format and then copying over USB.
  - dmd 2y ago
    Why email epubs as txt? You can just email the epubs. I do it every day.
    - brunoqc 2y ago
      "You have a serious reading problem"
      - dmd 2y ago
        I do! https://3e.org/books/ https://3e.org/books/
        deadfast 2y ago
        Bookmarked Ty for recs
        beavis000 2y ago
        impressive list. i have a book rec for you not on your list: Battle Mage by Peter Flannery
thimabi 2y ago
You’re lucky. I’ve seen books disappear from my Kindle even in flight mode. I wonder what is behind such a persistent bug.
- freedomben 2y ago
  > I wonder what is behind such a persistent bug. At what point do we stop giving the benefit of the doubt that it's a "bug"?
  - thimabi 2y ago
    You make an interesting point. Maybe facilitating the usage of sideloaded books is not among Amazon’s priorities. Yet I don’t know how much of that comes from malice rather than simply negligence or lack of interest.
    - mcmcmc 2y ago
      It’s directly against their priority of influencing you to only purchase ebooks through their monopoly. Whether anti-competitive, anti-user practices are malicious or just a consequence of capitalism run wild, I don’t think there’s much of a difference
      - cowsandmilk 2y ago
        Most likely, it is something they don’t test because it isn’t officially supported.
        pbhjpbhj 2y ago
        It seems a stretch to imagine that the dev team don't sideload books themselves. Of course that wouldn't be official testing, ...
        mcmcmc 2y ago
        Right. And it’s not officially supported because they are incentivized not to support it.
AcerbicZero 2y ago
Out of all the devices where having a physical airplane mode switch would be nice, I'd put the kindle pretty high up. Kinda sucks having a battery that lasts ~45 days in airplane mode, and like a week and a half when I forget to turn it off.
- thimabi 2y ago
  Rather than a physical switch just for that, why not a few reminders in the UI if one keeps the airplane mode off for a certain amount of time?
  - tomrod 2y ago
    Physical switch is less prone to the whims of a capricious, resume-driven product owner who thinks their users may just want to get rid of airplane mode. Most are diving into firmware.
    - tomrod 2y ago
      Most are not* diving into firmware, rather.
- wkat4242 2y ago
  Since the kindles with 3G have disappeared, the need for airplane mode for actual airplane use is a lot less though. Where I am most airlines permit WiFi use and even offer it themselves in flight. Only mobile network connections still have to be switched off.
  - toyg 2y ago
    Airplane mode is mostly a power-saving feature, because WiFi drains the battery pretty hard. As others said, leaving wifi on will kill your kindle in a week or so, whereas it can go on for months without it.
    - wkat4242 2y ago
widowlark 2y ago
I basically always keep it offline, pushing updates via usb-c
lostinroutine 2y ago
This actually happened to me after connecting to wi-fi but there is a workaround that I found: Convert your book to .azw3 in Calibre Instead of sending it to the device in Calibre, locate the azw3 file (Right click -> Open book folder). Copy the file to your Kindle, but not to the "documents" folder (where Calibre usually puts it) but rather into Downloads->Items This folder is where books go when you buy them from Amazon or receive them after using the Send to Kindle feature. I have only tried this with azw3 so far but it might also work with .mobi format.

by htamas 2y ago

andwaal 2y ago

This happend to my kindle to! After keeping in in flight mode for years I put it online again in order to buy a few new books from the kindle store, poof suddenly my entire library of side loaded books was gone, with progress and everything. I could see random metadata files related to the books on the drive, be books was gone. Super annoying as many of the books I didn't have locally anymore and to loose the "archivement" of finished books sucks big time. I can see this may be implemented by amazon to counter piracy, but alot of these books was perfectly legal. So the result of this is that I will never put my kindle online again and just stop buying from the Kindle store.

heelix 2y ago
Same, though I don't think it is going to help Amazon the way they hope it does. I moved books over to my kindle and had it nuke my humble bundle collections when I added a purchase from Amazon. I've not connect it again until I figure out how to backup and restore MY metadata.
- mcmcmc 2y ago
  Won’t help with restoring metadata, but if you add books by using the “email to kindle” feature it will keep them in your library through syncs
throwaway48476 2y ago
I had an issue exactly like this with my iPad.
gullevek 2y ago
Keep mine in Aeroplane mode. Download books I buy on Amazon directly from amazon and drop them into calibre. Amazon doesn't get to touch my Kindle ever. Thinking hard if I ever want to get another Kindle when Amazon can just screw around with what I put on my Kindle ...
bufferoverflow 2y ago
I just email epubs (as .txt) to my kindle's email address and they show up on the device in a couple of minutes. Never had any books just vanish. I find it easier than converting to Kindle format and then copying over USB.
- dmd 2y ago
  Why email epubs as txt? You can just email the epubs. I do it every day.
  - brunoqc 2y ago
    "You have a serious reading problem"
    - dmd 2y ago
      I do! https://3e.org/books/ https://3e.org/books/
      - deadfast 2y ago
        Bookmarked Ty for recs
      - beavis000 2y ago
        impressive list. i have a book rec for you not on your list: Battle Mage by Peter Flannery

thimabi 2y ago

You’re lucky. I’ve seen books disappear from my Kindle even in flight mode. I wonder what is behind such a persistent bug.

freedomben 2y ago
> I wonder what is behind such a persistent bug. At what point do we stop giving the benefit of the doubt that it's a "bug"?
- thimabi 2y ago
  You make an interesting point. Maybe facilitating the usage of sideloaded books is not among Amazon’s priorities. Yet I don’t know how much of that comes from malice rather than simply negligence or lack of interest.
  - mcmcmc 2y ago
    It’s directly against their priority of influencing you to only purchase ebooks through their monopoly. Whether anti-competitive, anti-user practices are malicious or just a consequence of capitalism run wild, I don’t think there’s much of a difference
    - cowsandmilk 2y ago
      Most likely, it is something they don’t test because it isn’t officially supported.
      - pbhjpbhj 2y ago
        It seems a stretch to imagine that the dev team don't sideload books themselves. Of course that wouldn't be official testing, ...
      - mcmcmc 2y ago
        Right. And it’s not officially supported because they are incentivized not to support it.

AcerbicZero 2y ago

Out of all the devices where having a physical airplane mode switch would be nice, I'd put the kindle pretty high up. Kinda sucks having a battery that lasts ~45 days in airplane mode, and like a week and a half when I forget to turn it off.

thimabi 2y ago
Rather than a physical switch just for that, why not a few reminders in the UI if one keeps the airplane mode off for a certain amount of time?
- tomrod 2y ago
  Physical switch is less prone to the whims of a capricious, resume-driven product owner who thinks their users may just want to get rid of airplane mode. Most are diving into firmware.
  - tomrod 2y ago
    Most are not* diving into firmware, rather.
wkat4242 2y ago
Since the kindles with 3G have disappeared, the need for airplane mode for actual airplane use is a lot less though. Where I am most airlines permit WiFi use and even offer it themselves in flight. Only mobile network connections still have to be switched off.
- toyg 2y ago
  Airplane mode is mostly a power-saving feature, because WiFi drains the battery pretty hard. As others said, leaving wifi on will kill your kindle in a week or so, whereas it can go on for months without it.
  - wkat4242 2y ago

widowlark 2y ago

I basically always keep it offline, pushing updates via usb-c

lostinroutine 2y ago

This actually happened to me after connecting to wi-fi but there is a workaround that I found: Convert your book to .azw3 in Calibre Instead of sending it to the device in Calibre, locate the azw3 file (Right click -> Open book folder). Copy the file to your Kindle, but not to the "documents" folder (where Calibre usually puts it) but rather into Downloads->Items This folder is where books go when you buy them from Amazon or receive them after using the Send to Kindle feature. I have only tried this with azw3 so far but it might also work with .mobi format.