Silver linings

[telophase]

My Kindle has had a couple of problems for a very long time: the indexing is slow, and it doesn't actually download anything automatically anymore. Once I connect to wifi, to prod the download into happening I have to do a search for the title, wait for the results to show, then tap on it. Sometimes a couple of times. Then it finally downloads (and hopefully I've tapped on the actual book and not the sample, because a number of samples aren't properly labeled).

This is highly annoying, as you may surmise, and I've had a go-round with Amazon tech support over it* and so far the only thing I haven't tried is to completely wipe the Kindle and start over. Which I am not inclined to do because there are many non-Kindle documents on there, and lots of samples on there, that would be seriously tedious to replace. I know, because when I buy a new Kindle I have to do it, and given that this one is coming to the end of its lifespan and I'll be buying a new one** I am just going to hold off on that until the new one.

However it's recently developed a new symptom, which is quite interesting. Not only does it not automatically download new items, but it fails to recognize and delete expired items. I am currently holding 16 Kindle Unlimited books of which the KU program believes I have returned 6, as well as 7 library books that were due--and automatically returned--over a month ago.

I consider this a decent tradeoff for my hassle, and now have no plans to attempt to fix it until it finally dies and I replace it.


*Worse than useless. They could only repeat "It's been delivered to your Kindle." "But it's not ON my Kindle." "It's been delivered to your Kindle."

**Yes, yes, stuck in Amazon ecosystem, not owning books, etc. I don't want to hear about it. We're actively buying from places that are not Amazon for physical items; I'm not going to throw digital items into the pot as well at this time.

Comments

[sartorias]

Have you tried putting the Kindle app on another device, such as a tablet, and then getting your library to download? It might bypass the issue until you get the new Kindle.

[telophase]

Oh yes--I've got myrialux's old iPad, and I've used the computer app and the in-browser app at times. The thing is, the Kindle is (a) smaller and lighter, thus easier to hold, carry, and pack and (b) uses e-ink so the screen is reflective rather than projective, which means I can still read ebooks when I've got headaches, as regular screens make headaches worse.

[sartorias]

Totally understand that. I was thinking of a workaround for the download glitch until you can get the new Kindle

[telophase]

* Yes, I have considered that the Kindle Unlimited snafu means some authors might not get credited for page reads on books I've returned that haven't left my Kindle. I'm pondering how best to address that. The entire reason I didn't notice that this was happening until I'd already returned 6 books via the website was that I hadn't actually read those books. So at least for the moment, I haven't screwed any author out of pagereads. Worse comes to worst, I may just check any I read out again and slowly flip pages to simulate reading while I watch videos.