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Automatic book downloads not working? (Paperwhite 4)

9K views 54 replies 15 participants last post by  CS 
#1 ·
Still having this issue after doing a complete system reset on the PW4 (meaning: rebooting it back to factory settings, re-entering wi-fi and account details, etc.).

Is anyone else experiencing this on an e-ink Kindle?

My Kindle phone app has no such issues - it automatically downloads the free samples I've sent to it for testing purposes.

 
#2 ·
I've not had any problems with currently-in-use Paperwhite 2, Voyage, or Oasis 2, either ordering directly from the device itself or choosing which device through the drop-down menu from the book page on a laptop.

Is it only samples you have a problem downloading, or book purchases as well?  I confess, I haven't sent samples to any device for a LONG time.
 
#3 ·
crebel said:
Is it only samples you have a problem downloading, or book purchases as well? I confess, I haven't sent samples to any device for a LONG time.
Book purchases, unfortunately. That's what started all of this. I am disheartened that a full factory reset didn't solve it.

This is my second PW4 (my first one froze in less than six months and had to be replaced), so I'm super frustrated.

Manually going to the cloud and initiating a download still works, at least. But automatic downloads are one of the best features, so losing it is a bitter pill to swallow. Really hope this is a temporary issue.

Of all the times for this to happen...
 
#4 ·
That would be frustrating. Are they at least showing up on your P4 under the "All" filter? That would at least be a slightly easier way to pull to the device itself than going back online to Device and Contents. 

I'm sorry I don't have a better suggestion for you, hopefully someone else will. :(
 
#5 ·
CS said:
Book purchases, unfortunately. That's what started all of this. I am disheartened that a full factory reset didn't solve it.

This is my second PW4 (my first one froze in less than six months and had to be replaced), so I'm super frustrated.

Manually going to the cloud and initiating a download still works, at least. But automatic downloads are one of the best features, so losing it is a bitter pill to swallow. Really hope this is a temporary issue.

Of all the times for this to happen...
I have been having this problem on and off (mostly on, though) for the last two and a half years. I have tried to sort it out with customer services, but with no success. It's frustrating, but I've stopped worrying about it. It happens on all e-ink kindles I've had during that time, Oasis 2 and 3, PW4 and Voyage, but not with the Android Kindle app.

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#6 ·
Update:

Good news!!! Automatic downloads magically started working again. I probably could have been more patient and not reset the device to factory settings, because that made no difference (at least for the first several hours).

Thankfully, doing a device reset on a Kindle isn't a big deal like doing it on a PC would be - all of my previous downloads are no longer on the Kindle itself, but I have everything already sorted into collections, so it's easy enough to recover what I need to. (I'll probably just stick with a clean slate.)

I have no idea if there was some kind of server or cloud issue, but I'm glad it sorted itself out finally.

crebel said:
That would be frustrating. Are they at least showing up on your P4 under the "All" filter? That would at least be a slightly easier way to pull to the device itself than going back online to Device and Contents.

I'm sorry I don't have a better suggestion for you, hopefully someone else will. :(
I had it set to "all" and books were still showing up in the cloud, so I could have retrieved them that way. Still, I was concerned that automatic downloading was somehow "broken."

Truthfully, if there was a way to officially shut off automatic downloading, I would probably use it as an actual "feature."

But since there isn't a way to do that, I would prefer for it to work. :p

John Hopper said:
I have been having this problem on and off (mostly on, though) for the last two and a half years. I have tried to sort it out with customer services, but with no success. It's frustrating, but I've stopped worrying about it. It happens on all e-ink kindles I've had during that time, Oasis 2 and 3, PW4 and Voyage, but not with the Android Kindle app.
Can you elaborate? When the problem is "on" for you, how long does it take for books to automatically download? 30 minutes? Several hours? Several days?

When my PW4 is working as it should, books start queuing up almost instantly - but there are definitely still times it takes 30 minutes to an hour for new books to push through.

On my previous PW2, it would occasionally take several hours - I always assumed those instances were related to PW2 running low on space (not an issue with the 8GB PW4).

One theory I always had: Kindle book downloads somehow seem slower between midnight - 3 a.m. (EST). I wonder if Amazon is doing something behind-the-scenes with its Kindle servers during that time? I could just be seeing something that isn't there though, or maybe only noticing it during those hours because I tend to read books before bed.
 
#7 ·
I started having this problem on my oasis 2 a few days ago. Not so much with new purchases but with old favorites I've decided to reread during the quarantine. No matter how many times I go to 'manage your content' on my computer, select a book from my library and click to download it to my oasis, it doesn't download. I even left my oasis connected overnight (which I do not usually do) in case something was just causing a delay. But in the morning--still nothing. I had to search my library directly from the oasis and download the book that way. Thank god that at least worked. My thought was the same one you had....this would be an awful time for my kindle to start developing glitches.
 
#8 ·
Can you elaborate? When the problem is "on" for you, how long does it take for books to automatically download? 30 minutes? Several hours? Several days?

When my PW4 is working as it should, books start queuing up almost instantly - but there are definitely still times it takes 30 minutes to an hour for new books to push through.


I usually lose patience after a while and download them manually from the All tab. Occasionally I leave it overnight but they still don't download automatically. So as far as I am concerned, when I have this problem (probably 90% of the last two and half years), they never download automatically.


Sent from my SM-N976B using Tapatalk

 
#9 ·
John Hopper said:
I usually lose patience after a while and download them manually from the All tab. Occasionally I leave it overnight but they still don't download automatically. So as far as I am concerned, when I have this problem (probably 90% of the last two and half years), they never download automatically.

Sent from my SM-N976B using Tapatalk
Mine may have started working again. I used Push to Kindle this morning to send an article to my Oasis and it downloaded automatically. I'll try it later with an Amazon book.

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#10 ·
John Hopper said:
Mine may have started working again. I used Push to Kindle this morning to send an article to my Oasis and it downloaded automatically. I'll try it later with an Amazon book.

Sent from my SM-N976B using Tapatalk
Yes, Amazon books now downloading automatically. I hope this lasts longer this time.[emoji3]

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#11 ·
I'm glad to hear it, John. I really hope the extended "downtime" I experienced the other day was purposeful because Amazon decided to finally tighten up the download servers/process/whatever for e-ink Kindles. Wish I hadn't factory reset my Kindle as a troubleshooting step (which didn't help), but with all of my major books sorted into collections, that's not the calamity it would've been on any other device.
 
#12 ·
John Hopper said:
Yes, Amazon books now downloading automatically. I hope this lasts longer this time.[emoji3]

Sent from my SM-N976B using Tapatalk
Well, it lasted 11 days, the problem is back again. Just sent a sample and I had to go into the All tab to select and download it manually. This may be connected to the 5.12.5 firmware update I downloaded earlier.

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#13 ·
My Kindle is back to having this annoying issue. It probably doesn't help that I have 20+ free books waiting to download though. (Charging it for several hours with wi-fi on did not help.)

I refuse to reset my device to factory settings again, because that didn't immediately fix the problem last time. It just started working again several hours after the device reset, which likely means it had nothing to do with the reset itself. Also, I shouldn't have to keep resetting the device anyway.

I wish Amazon would fix this on e-ink devices. Never an issue on phones/tablets with beefed up processors.

I would gladly pay more for an e-ink Kindle that has the processing power of a phone or tablet so that everything is lightning fast instead of sluggish at times.

I'm still not on 5.12.5 either. Instead of having updates sent out in waves (which I have never understood), I wish e-ink devices would allow you to check for an update and get it if one is there - like every other device ever. I know I can update manually by downloading a file from the website, but that's too much hassle for me.
 
#14 ·
My old DX is a little difficult in downloading.  If I order 3 books, one will come right on, it takes several tries ( on/off, re syncing, sleep/awake) before I get all 3 books.  Also I have 34 pages of books, often the book I just finish reading goes back to the first book on page one.  Its feeling its age, as am I.
 
#15 ·
I've never had books download automatically to my Kindle.  I think now they're set to download to Kindle for PC on my old laptop, which I don't use much.  I never changed it to my new laptop because they're so easy to download manually.  I download them and make personal backup copies, just in case.

On my Kindles I don't want books to automatically download.  I have several Kindles and I like controlling which books are on which device.  Now that I'm reading mostly on my phone that matters less than it used to, though.

Barry
 
#16 ·
I got fed-up of waiting and just manually downloaded the 20+ freebies. I got a warning indicating that I should connect the Kindle to power because mass-downloading a lot of files would deplete the battery. Since I was on 90% at that point, I ignored it. I will leave the Kindle alone for a day or two and let it completely index everything.

I hope it was just the mass quantity of freebies I "bought" creating a bottleneck, and automatic downloading will resume properly after this. We'll see...

I really like barryem's idea of downloading everything to a device that isn't my primary one. I suppose I could use my phone for that (I actually use it to create and sort collections - the Kindle phone app is much better for that than the Paperwhite or even the Amazon site's "Manage Your Kindle" page).

My only concern is, I know Kindle books are limited to 5-6 devices (or whatever it is). When I get a PC again, it might be a good idea for me to backup everything to Calibre (but that's a lot of work). Until then though, how can I ensure that I am not using up one of the 5-6 slots? Does erasing a book from the device automatically free up a slot now? I know it was much more complicated in the old days, where you'd have to call Amazon to clear up slots and it would take 2-3 days.
 
#17 ·
When I was doing most of my reading on my Paperwhite I'd download my books to my Kindle for PC, make a mobi backup (and and epub backup just in case) and send a copy of the mobi file to my library as a doc file.  Then I could download that to as many Kindles as I wanted to without worrying about limits.  It still synched them just fine and it all worked out well.

I began doing that a few years ago and I was concerned about how Amazon felt about that so I called Kindle support and asked them and I was assured they had no problem with it.  Then, a couple of years later when I started reading about people losing access to their accounts because they were supposedly cheating in some way I called Kindle support again and they not only told me it was okay to do that, they said a lot of the support people also do it.

I always back up all the books I buy from Amazon.  They're my main source of books so that takes some doing but Calibre and Apprentice Alf make it easy.  Years ago before there were ereaders Barnes and Noble and Microsoft and a few others started selling ebooks that would work in PC programs they provided.  I bought a few of those books from B&N and then after a couple of years they said they were getting out of that business.  I had 30 days to download all my books, which I did.  A couple of months later I got a new PC and their program was no longer available so my books were gone.  I didn't lose much.  Maybe a dozen or two books that I'd already read, so it wasn't a big deal.  A lot of people in various forums I was in lost a lot more books.  I learned a lesson.

When I buy a book their TOS says I'm just buying a license to read it.  Nope!  I'm buying the book. I'll be pretty fair with them and not share the book publicly but it's my book and their TOS just doesn't fit my feelings on the situation.  They got my money.  I got their book.  All's well.

Barry
 
#18 ·
CS said:
I got fed-up of waiting and just manually downloaded the 20+ freebies. I got a warning indicating that I should connect the Kindle to power because mass-downloading a lot of files would deplete the battery. Since I was on 90% at that point, I ignored it. I will leave the Kindle alone for a day or two and let it completely index everything.
All that indexing is also going to use a bunch of battery power.
If you're going to ignore it for a day or two, why not just plug it in so it'll be topped up when you do want to get back to using it?
 
#19 ·
When I checked my Kindle after your post, Fogeydc, indexing all those books shockingly only took 2%. The battery has depleted a bit more since then, but I have to say this Paperwhite seems to be doing much better in that dept. than the last one I had (same model) that froze up within six months.

Just an update: I bought the two Time and Again books by Jack Finney last night and they downloaded automatically within five minutes (probably less, but I stepped away for a few minutes). I'm glad I got them, because the second one has already jumped back up in price!

So, it was probably the 20+ freebies causing some weird bottleneck after all (I got fed-up and manually downloaded them all after a couple of days).

In the future, if I ever go crazy and "buy" a ton of freebies, I'll send them to my phone instead since that has more horsepower than a traditional e-ink Kindle. I wish there was an option to buy and not send to any device, but I assume that would only confuse most people.
 
#20 ·
CS said:
I wish there was an option to buy and not send to any device, but I assume that would only confuse most people.
Hopefully someone with more knowledge than I will weigh in, but I thought that's more or less what choosing the "Kindle Cloud Reader" option does? I have never used the Cloud Reader, did not register it to my account, it just became one of the download options a few years ago.

Wouldn't downloading with that option automatically put it in Manage Your Content and Devices to then you can send it to whatever specific device you want at some future time? In effect, downloading it to your Amazon account/Cloud but not to any device.
 
#21 ·
crebel said:
Hopefully someone with more knowledge than I will weigh in, but I thought that's more or less what choosing the "Kindle Cloud Reader" option does? I have never used the Cloud Reader, did not register it to my account, it just became one of the download options a few years ago.

Wouldn't downloading with that option automatically put it in Manage Your Content and Devices to then you can send it to whatever specific device you want at some future time? In effect, downloading it to your Amazon account/Cloud but not to any device.
That's how I understand it, though, like you, I don't really use it. I just send it to my default kindle. Haven't had any problems. I'm generally on my home wifi. I wonder if it makes a difference if you're on a public/unprotected wifi network or trying to download via the cell network.
 
#22 ·
crebel said:
Hopefully someone with more knowledge than I will weigh in, but I thought that's more or less what choosing the "Kindle Cloud Reader" option does? I have never used the Cloud Reader, did not register it to my account, it just became one of the download options a few years ago.

Wouldn't downloading with that option automatically put it in Manage Your Content and Devices to then you can send it to whatever specific device you want at some future time? In effect, downloading it to your Amazon account/Cloud but not to any device.
You're right about that, crebel but I've always wondered if Cloud Reader counts as one of the 5-6 device limit slots. Does anybody know?

Ann in Arlington said:
That's how I understand it, though, like you, I don't really use it. I just send it to my default kindle. Haven't had any problems. I'm generally on my home wifi. I wonder if it makes a difference if you're on a public/unprotected wifi network or trying to download via the cell network.
I use home wi-fi so that definitely isn't the issue for me.

One thing I've noticed though is that the wi-fi on my Kindle will sort of shut off if it goes into sleep mode, only to start back up again once I wake it up. Is this a drawback of the newer deeper sleep function Kindles have now? Wondering if I should disable that.
 
#23 ·
CS said:
One thing I've noticed though is that the wi-fi on my Kindle will sort of shut off if it goes into sleep mode, only to start back up again once I wake it up. Is this a drawback of the newer deeper sleep function Kindles have now? Wondering if I should disable that.
I've seen similar behavior. I wouldn't have described it as wifi shutting off, exactly, but I do notice -- mostly with my Oasis which I generally only use for an hour or so before bed at night -- that when I wake it up, it will take a few seconds to D/L anything new from the day. It's actually my 'default' device (mostly because it's first alphabetically and I can't make anything else stick ::) ) so if I buy or borrow something during the day, it DEFINITELY gets sent there. When I turn it on, the first thing that happens is new material shows up. So, I guess it could be that wifi is OFF all day, so when turned on, the first thing it does is turn wifi ON and call for any changes/new content and take care of that straight away.

I don't notice it as much with the PW, probably because it rarely goes so deeply asleep during the day. But I've noticed similar behavior if, say, a pre-order arrives overnight. It's not precisely THERE on wake up, but shows up immediately after.
 
#24 ·
Ann in Arlington said:
I've seen similar behavior. I wouldn't have described it as wifi shutting off, exactly.......
Updates download and install overnight sometimes, so the wi-fi can't be completely disabled when the device is in sleep mode.

But it's true that books sent to the device don't seem to download right away unless you wake it up - so clearly the function is limited in sleep mode.

Maybe it just doesn't 'phone home' as often in sleep mode as it does while it's awake?
 
#25 ·
I've had this problem for over a year with my PW4. I first made a thread about it on another forum in February 2019. Others chimed in that some shared the issue. It randomly starts working again, but then does not hold. It's frustrating for sure, but from what I've seen others go through to try to fix, and my lack of luck myself, there's not much that can be done for this bug. It seems to strike randomly to different people for no reason.
 
#26 ·
Paperbackstash said:
I've had this problem for over a year with my PW4. I first made a thread about it on another forum in February 2019. Others chimed in that some shared the issue. It randomly starts working again, but then does not hold. It's frustrating for sure, but from what I've seen others go through to try to fix, and my lack of luck myself, there's not much that can be done for this bug. It seems to strike randomly to different people for no reason.
This is my situation also. I have had this problem intermittently since autumn 2017, more often not working than working. I've had a few different kindles in that time and on each of them, it initially works for a time, then stops working most of the time, with occasional periods of working as it should. I've stopped caring too much about it.

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