iPad/Kindle: why my books not the same?

[terrypin]

On my iPad over the months I bought a few Kindle books and downloaded a few samples. Recently I bought a Kindle and bought more books and downloaded more samples. I also read and archived some.

Why doesn't the iPad app and the Kindle show identical content please, at least on purchased items? There are some common titles, but nothing like full agreement.

As an associated question, could someone spell out exactly what Sync does please?

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[HarryT]

If you load the same book onto the iPad Kindle App and onto a real Kindle the displayed content should certainly be the same. The layout may look different, due to the very much larger screen of the iPad, but the actual "words" should certainly be the same.

"Syncing" refers to the Kindle's ability to maintain consistent information between different reading devices. If you read a book on your iPad, then open the same book on the Kindle, it will automatically take you to the same point in the book that you were last at on the iPad. If you make any notes or highlight any text on one device, these too will be transferred to the other device.

Hope that helps.

[murraypaul]

I think that samples to not automatically load to all devices, and do not get sent to the archived collection when you delete them. This might explain the differences you are seeing.

[HarryT]

Ah, it hadn't occurred to me that the OP was referring to the LIST of content, rather than the content of a specific book .

Yes, Murray is right. When you download a sample, that just goes to the device that you request it on. The "archive" is a list of all the content you've bought from Amazon which is NOT currently loaded onto the current reading device. When you download the book, it will disappear from the archive; if you delete it, it will reappear in the archive.

[terrypin]

Thanks both, much appreciate the fast replies. I've now methodically compared the titles displayed by my respective devices again, ignoring samples this time. I'm closer to reconciling them but some puzzles remain.

1. Am I right that I can't expect the home v archived splits to match? Does the term mean something like 'Archived on this device'?

2. On the iPad there are 2 titles that don't appear on the Kindle at all (one on the Home sceen, the other in the archive).

3. On the Kindle I have one title (a bought book, now in archives) that has no match on the iPad.

4. On the Kindle I have 'Mobipocket Guide', with no match on the iPad, presumably because I got from MobileReead?

5. I assume 'My Clippings' has no match on the iPad?

6. On the Kindle I have the same title, 'The New Oxford American Dictionary', in both Home and Archived!

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[pidgeon92]

1. Home and archived are specific to each device. (Personally, I don't want the 300+ books I have on my Kindle to all be on my iPhone.)

2. Perhaps you haven't synced your Kindle since you (I assume) purchased these two titles? Try syncing again, there is no reason that they should not appear in the archive (if they haven't been downloaded to the Kindle).

4. Content from elsewhere will not be saved on Amazon's servers, and will not sync to your other devices. There are third-party workarounds.

[terrypin]

Thanks pidgeon92. I expect I'm making heavy weather of this, but I'm still not quite clear. Are you saying that the titles appearing are totally independent? IOW that there's no syncing between them? Which would contradict what I'm seeing here.

Or are you confirming that the splits (between Home and Archived) are independent but the total should be the same, within the restrictions already noted ?

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[HarryT]

Library + Archive should be the same, but only insofar as content bought from Amazon goes. Any books you've loaded yourself will be specific to the device you've loaded them onto.

[terrypin]

Thanks Harry, understood.

Hmm, that leaves the few puzzles I described in my post #5.

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[HarryT]

Have you let both devices connect to the internet? Things will (obviously) only match up after they've both talked to Amazon's servers.

[terrypin]

Yes!

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[DiapDealer]

Is that a "Yes!" to Harry's question, or a "Yes!" everything is working as it should, now?

[terrypin]

Reckon I have it 99% clear now thanks. Based on the help here and elsewhere plus some further methodical study, here's my attempt at a summary:

With the exception of Samples, My Clippings, and some other specialised
content (including Subscriptions, but there may be others, such as Blogs?
Newspapers?), all titles will appear in total on both devices after using Sync. But the split between Home Screen and Archived will not necessarily be the same.

In particular, a book 'purchased' on either the PC, iPad or Kindle, will
appear automagically on both devices. (Including free books.)

I'm now just one item away from reconciling my comparison, but hope to sort that soon!

                 NO. of TITLES
SOURCE         Total  Home Archived 
Manage (on PC)  21 
iPad            21      9     12 (But yet to check they are SAME 21.)
Kindle          27     11     16

After excluding 2 Samples, My Clippings and 2 from non-Amazon sources
('MobileRead' and 'MobileReference') that becomes

Kindle          22      6     16

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[HarryT]

As stated before, the "Archive" is simply a lost of those items you've bought which are NOT currently loaded on that particular device, so yes, it will be different for each device unless you have exactly the same books loaded on each one.

Subscriptions are specific to an individual device and are not shared between devices.

[terrypin]

Erm, I know that! Did you read my post properly?

"But the split between Home Screen and Archived will not necessarily be the same."

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK