Kindle 3 search function and "Collection" troubleshooting

ElMiko · 06-27-2011, 12:19 PM

A few questions...

Whenever I do a search within "my items" on my Kindle, it takes forever. It appears that this is because my searches are not only trying to match my query to Title or Author fields, but are also searching within the main body text of every single book in my library. I called customer support and they said that it was because I had files that were not purchased from Amazon; for Amazon-purchased books, the search function from the main page is limited to titles and authors. This sounds like B.S., but maybe I'm wrong here. Can anyone confirm Amazon's position here? Or does the search function indeed operate as I have described, regardless of where you got the books?

If it is the latter, is there any way to do Title/Author-limited searches on your Kindle?

If not, I'm wondering if using the "Collections" sorting feature might at least make navigating my library less painful. But, in order for that to work, I'd really need to be able to add books to collections in bulk. Is there any way to do this?

Btw, I've been using Calibre for managing my library and transferring files to the Kindle...

RainingLemur · 06-27-2011, 03:04 PM

You may try this plug-in for Calibre for collections...

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=118635

tomsem · 06-27-2011, 07:22 PM

It sounds like you got some bad information. Search My Items includes author/title metatdata as well as Amazon and non-Amazon content (exclusive of PDF content). Provided the content indexes are complete, it is usually pretty reasonably fast, but it probably depends on how much content you have on your Kindle. If your kindle is still indexing content, however, it will be much slower.

Another way to do Title search is to set your view option to 'Title' (which shows all of your items sorted by Title, ignoring articles like 'a' and 'the'), then type the first letter of the title and then the enter or Select key. It will jump to the first item matching that letter, and then you can page forward until you find the item you are looking for. It's very quick, note you might have to press Home to get to the first page of items, otherwise the search will not be restricted to Title. You can also do the same with Author view, but author metadata tends not to be entered correctly, and may have Last and First names reversed.

ElMiko · 06-27-2011, 08:19 PM

@tomsem - Thanks. I thought what the Customer Service rep was saying sounded hinky. Obviously, the only thing left to do is write a letter to my congressman for receiving shoddy customer support. It's amazing to me that Kindle would have such a rudimentary search function. But what can you do? Except write more letters to your congressman, that is.

@Lemur - thanks for the link. I'll be sure to take a look at that carefully.

@Phillip - Thanks for the welcome! It pained me to start right in on complaints and concerns, but you know what they say about squeaky wheels...

djchapple · 08-07-2011, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ElMiko

@tomsem - Thanks. I thought what the Customer Service rep was saying sounded hinky. Obviously, the only thing left to do is write a letter to my congressman for receiving shoddy customer support. It's amazing to me that Kindle would have such a rudimentary search function. But what can you do? Except write more letters to your congressman, that is.

I cannot imagine why you should bother a senior politician about the way in which the Kindle works.

Surely he must have much better things to do than waste his time on such a trivial problem.

Why not do the obvious and tackle Amazon?

chas0039 · 08-07-2011, 04:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ElMiko

@tomsem - ...Kindle would have such a rudimentary search function...

I have this same problem myself as I have over 1800 titles. Actually, this is not a rudimentary search; it is rather thorough and exhaustive.

The nook had a basic search function and will bring up titles and authors very quickly because that is all it looks at. It also will index in seconds rather than days. I have made more than a few suggestions to Amazon's second tier support that they might want to offer a limited search for those who don't really need to find every instance of a word, although it is interesting to see what shows up that was unexpected.

Afterthought: Of course, if you are using the secondary definition of "rudimentary" meaning "undeveloped", then my apologies.

HarryT · 08-08-2011, 05:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ElMiko

@tomsem - Thanks. I thought what the Customer Service rep was saying sounded hinky. Obviously, the only thing left to do is write a letter to my congressman for receiving shoddy customer support.

You are joking, I hope? If you have an issue with Amazon CS, talk to them about it. Amazon have outstandingly good CS - if there's a problem, they'll do their utmost to sort it out for you. What on Earth do you expect your Congressman to be able to do about the fact that your Kindle is taking a long time to do searches?

How many books do you have on your Kindle? I have slightly over 500, and searches take only a few seconds for me.

ElMiko · 08-13-2011, 04:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

You are joking, I hope? If you have an issue with Amazon CS, talk to them about it. Amazon have outstandingly good CS - if there's a problem, they'll do their utmost to sort it out for you. What on Earth do you expect your Congressman to be able to do about the fact that your Kindle is taking a long time to do searches?

How many books do you have on your Kindle? I have slightly over 500, and searches take only a few seconds for me.

Yes, I did/do not intend to contact my congressman for Kindle troubleshooting. Note-to-self: wryness translates poorly on forums.

To be fair though, this thread wouldn't have been necessary if Amazon had had outstandingly good CS. And it further seems that I'm not the only person in this wide, wide world of sports that has a bone to pick with the over-aggressive search function.

I have substantially more than 500 books on the Kindle, and 1 out of 3 times I do a search it causes a crash. I have resigned myself to either not carrying my library on my Kindle (although, what's the point of have an advertised 3,500 book capacity if you can't use it) or basically doing all my searching through a combination of First-Letter & Page-Flipping (as per the advice of an earlier poster).

Oh, well. I'm still reading more happily than I have in 5 years. Any complaints I have I'll just put on my T.S. slip and send 'em to my chaplain.

HarryT · 08-13-2011, 04:37 AM

How much free space do you have? Amazon recommend not letting it fall below 500MB to allow space for indexing.

ElMiko · 08-13-2011, 12:55 PM

I have better than a gig and a half of free space.

As I said, I think this is a problem I'll have to learn how to live with. Hopefully, in a couple generations, Amazon will have put a few more horsepower under the hood and improved library management (which, I really must say, is abysmal right now). And if they don't (they seem to have a Steve-Jobsian approach to customer feedback: "Our product is the greatest, and any problems you have with it merely reflect how unworthy you are of it), maybe some one else will.

And, as I say, it isn't going to keep me from evangelizing for ebook readers (any ebook reader); an uncooperative ebook reader is still infinitely better than no ebook reader at all. Reading ebooks off a computer screen or a tablet is for the birds.

06-27-2011, 12:19 PM	#1
ElMiko Addict Posts: 320 Karma: 56788 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Kindle	Kindle 3 search function and "Collection" troubleshooting A few questions... Whenever I do a search within "my items" on my Kindle, it takes forever. It appears that this is because my searches are not only trying to match my query to Title or Author fields, but are also searching within the main body text of every single book in my library. I called customer support and they said that it was because I had files that were not purchased from Amazon; for Amazon-purchased books, the search function from the main page is limited to titles and authors. This sounds like B.S., but maybe I'm wrong here. Can anyone confirm Amazon's position here? Or does the search function indeed operate as I have described, regardless of where you got the books? If it is the latter, is there any way to do Title/Author-limited searches on your Kindle? If not, I'm wondering if using the "Collections" sorting feature might at least make navigating my library less painful. But, in order for that to work, I'd really need to be able to add books to collections in bulk. Is there any way to do this? Btw, I've been using Calibre for managing my library and transferring files to the Kindle...

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06-27-2011, 03:04 PM	#2
RainingLemur Spork Connoisseur Posts: 2,355 Karma: 16780603 Join Date: Mar 2011 Device: Nook Color	You may try this plug-in for Calibre for collections... https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=118635

06-27-2011, 07:22 PM	#3
tomsem Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,477 Karma: 26425959 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: USA Device: iPhone 15PM, Kindle Scribe, iPad mini 6, PocketBook InkPad Color 3	It sounds like you got some bad information. Search My Items includes author/title metatdata as well as Amazon and non-Amazon content (exclusive of PDF content). Provided the content indexes are complete, it is usually pretty reasonably fast, but it probably depends on how much content you have on your Kindle. If your kindle is still indexing content, however, it will be much slower. Another way to do Title search is to set your view option to 'Title' (which shows all of your items sorted by Title, ignoring articles like 'a' and 'the'), then type the first letter of the title and then the enter or Select key. It will jump to the first item matching that letter, and then you can page forward until you find the item you are looking for. It's very quick, note you might have to press Home to get to the first page of items, otherwise the search will not be restricted to Title. You can also do the same with Author view, but author metadata tends not to be entered correctly, and may have Last and First names reversed.

06-27-2011, 08:19 PM	#4
ElMiko Addict Posts: 320 Karma: 56788 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Kindle	@tomsem - Thanks. I thought what the Customer Service rep was saying sounded hinky. Obviously, the only thing left to do is write a letter to my congressman for receiving shoddy customer support. It's amazing to me that Kindle would have such a rudimentary search function. But what can you do? Except write more letters to your congressman, that is. @Lemur - thanks for the link. I'll be sure to take a look at that carefully. @Phillip - Thanks for the welcome! It pained me to start right in on complaints and concerns, but you know what they say about squeaky wheels...

08-13-2011, 04:37 AM	#9
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	How much free space do you have? Amazon recommend not letting it fall below 500MB to allow space for indexing.

08-13-2011, 12:55 PM	#10
ElMiko Addict Posts: 320 Karma: 56788 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Kindle	I have better than a gig and a half of free space. As I said, I think this is a problem I'll have to learn how to live with. Hopefully, in a couple generations, Amazon will have put a few more horsepower under the hood and improved library management (which, I really must say, is abysmal right now). And if they don't (they seem to have a Steve-Jobsian approach to customer feedback: "Our product is the greatest, and any problems you have with it merely reflect how unworthy you are of it), maybe some one else will. And, as I say, it isn't going to keep me from evangelizing for ebook readers (any ebook reader); an uncooperative ebook reader is still infinitely better than no ebook reader at all. Reading ebooks off a computer screen or a tablet is for the birds.

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