Troubleshooting Kindle Paperwhite search doesn't find anything

[PeterBr]

Hi…

Tried to resolve this myself, but I don't seem to find the proper search times.

Amazon pushed firmware 5.3.5 on my device, breaking screensavers and perhaps search. I fixed the screensaver by un-installing and re-installung, but search doesn't work for me. At least not like it used to.

For many books, the search feature is simply disabled. (When I touch the cover a couple of seconds, the menu appears, but the entry is greyed out.)

Global search finds some titles, though not nearly enough. Very often there are two sets of results, on atop of each other:

Apparently a list of titles, where the title matches the search term. I've got got a lot of Rhodan pulps on the paperhwite, so search for Rhodan was one of my test. Titles with (number) in front of them seem to have been indexed. When I tap titles w/out (number), I get „pending“ (backtranslated from my native German „ausstehend") and WLAN seach pops up. (As I'm not near one of my Wifis).

I did delete the content of /system/Search Indexes two days ago, following a tip from the net.

The Kindle contains 666 (coincidence) files ending in .mobi , and 714 directories ending in .sdr . A curosory check tells me that those are leftovers from books I had on the device but deleted them later.

I usually sideload unencryped mobis with calibre.

At this time, I've got 57 entries in Search Index. They seem to come in bursts, at about one file per minute, in three large blocks.



Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity iused ifree %iused Mounted on
/dev/disk2s1 1.5G 1000 460M 69% 0 0 100% /Volumes/Kindle

[Fluribus]

I recently got the new firmware pushed also. I also added a new book to the PW. If I held on the new book, search was disabled. If I held on an older book, search was available. I then searched for a word in the title of the new book. It was the first entry that showed up, but had no number in front of it.

All of this leads me to suspect that your books have not been indexed.

[PeterBr]

Originally Posted by Fluribus

All of this leads me to suspect that your books have not been indexed.

Well, yes. Apparently. Or rather: Only some of the books have been indexed.

But how do I get the index running again?

Right now, I've got 55 files in Search Indexes, even though I deleted neither a book nor one of the files.

[Fluribus]

It might be that PW has gotten stuck on one of the books. You might try removing the books that are stuck. Then add a couple back and see if they start indexing.

If that didn't work, I'd try a simple reset. Then I'd try to do a reset to the factory settings.

[loudab]

Originally Posted by Fluribus

It might be that PW has gotten stuck on one of the books. You might try removing the books that are stuck. Then add a couple back and see if they start indexing.

If that didn't work, I'd try a simple reset. Then I'd try to do a reset to the factory settings.

I see that one book is indexing but I can't see the title. It doesn't show up when I click on it on the PW. How do I find out what title is indexing?

Thanks.

[PeterBr]

Originally Posted by Fluribus

It might be that PW has gotten stuck on one of the books. You might try removing the books that are stuck. Then add a couple back and see if they start indexing.

If that didn't work, I'd try a simple reset. Then I'd try to do a reset to the factory settings.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find out which books are the culprit. And since the whole index was jinxed, I gave up. Removed all the books and started adding them with 10 books at the time or so.

Still not bak to my original content, but at least the search works. For now.