Books are in documents but not on my Kindle screen

[crescere]

I have been a happy user of my Kindle Touch for several months. I had set up about 12 different classifications of books, eg. History, Finance, Science, Fiction. When I got a new book I downloaded it to my computer and moved it to the documents folder in Kindle. Then in my Kindle the new books would appear directly under my classification labels, and I would move these books to the appropriate class. This worked since I got my new Kindle and I enjoyed it.

Then a couple days ago my Kindle froze so I rebooted it. When it came back on I discovered that the six or seven books I still had unclassified were gone. I hooked the Kindle to the USB port and I could see the missing books in the documents folder. I could not make these books appear in the Kindle. I called tech support and she had me resort by title and do several other things. This just made things worse as I lost classifications and things started to be erased. Fortunately Amazon agreed to send me a new Kindle.

I had kept a backup of all my Amazon Kindle books, PDFs etc. in a file on my computer for just such an emergency. I began the arduous process of recreating my classifications and I transferred the saved books and documents to the Kindle documents folder in the NEW Kindle. About half way through this task I noticed that when I copied a book to a classification the book did not remove itself from the unclassified area. Next the screen locked up and it went online without my permission. An advertisement for toys showed up and I had to press the horizontal bars several times to escape from this, but the screen stayed white. I did a hard reboot and when I came back to my NEW Kindle I found that ALL my 200 unclassified books had AGAIN disappeared. They were in my Kindle documents folder, but not on the Kindle screen. This made it impossible to manipulate or classify them.

I called tech support again and someone with an Indian accent assured me that all I needed to do was upgrade the Kindle software and all would be well. I did as he instructed, and the software did upgrade. When I opened the screen NOTHING had changed. I added a new book to documents, but it never appeared in the unclassified area even though it was in the Kindle documents folder. I called tech support again and a young lady had me try to send new books via e-mail. The first book was sent to Kindle, but it did not appear on the screen. I tried it again and then magically all my unclassified books along with the two new ones appeared. I started to classify them again but I noticed that even though the books were going to the classified area, they were not disappearing from the unclassified area. Again, the Kindle went online without my permission and displayed a toy advertisement again. When I rebooted YET AGAIN I returned to find ALL my unclassified books gone again.

Is this happening to anyone else?

[pidgeon92]

I think you mean collections, not classifications?

I haven't experienced what you have, but a couple of things:

If you sync the Kindle to your Amazon.com account, your collections are backed up. You should never have to recreate your collections. Just resync the device, and they should reappear. If they don't, de-registering and re-registering the Kindle will do it.

You Kindle is not "going online without your permission." The Kindle downloads the ads, and then uses them as the screen saver. This will happen after ten minutes of inactivity. You then need to use the switch on the bottom of the Kindle (not the Home button, which you are referring to as the horizonal lines) to wake the Kindle.

[crescere]

Yes I do mean collections.

The Kindle will start out not online, where the Menu will say "turn on wireless" and as I try to place books in various collections the ad appears, and the menu will say "turn off wireless." I will also be able to visit the Amazon store. So, yes Kindle is going online without my permission.

Do your unclassified books all appear below the collections? Mine always did till now.

[Shopaholic]

I think you're pressing the wrong buttons & sound very unfamiliar with how to operate your device. You need to take the time to read the user manual that was included on the device itself. It will give you the much needed insight on what button does what & how to do various things like make collections & access the wifi & so forth. Knowing how to access it means you'll also know how not to since you'll know the only ways to do so.

When you have the ad supported unit it will download the new ads whether you connect to wifi or not. You will get the new ads. This shouldn't be a surprise to you.

Please take the time to read the user manual.

[crescere]

Kindle tech support has admitted this has happened to others. How can you possibly explain that books that have not been put into collections are no longer under the collections group names? They are in the Kindle documents file, but they are NOT on the Kindle screen itself. They used to be, but they are not any longer. I could tell that something was going wrong because when they were under the collection names and I pressed on them to “add to collections” the books did not disappear as they usually did either. In the past when they are put into a collection they would not remain under the collection names.

As for going online without my consent how can you possibly explain the menu message switching from “turn on wireless” to “turn off wireless” when I hit menu? Obviously something had to turn on the wireless without me deliberately doing it.

[HarryT]

crescere,

We, on this board, have an awful lot of experience of using Kindles, and nobody, to my knowledge, has previously reported the issues that you're having. I'm afraid I have to say that it seems very, very likely to be "user error".

Forgive me if you already know this, but it's important to understand that collections are not folders; they are "tags" which are applied to files. Putting a book "in" a collection will not take it "out" of anything else. You will see your books both in the collection (or collections - the same book can be in multiple collections) that it's in, AND in the listing of books on the Home screen.

I would echo the suggestion of the previous poster that you take the time to read the User Guide. I honestly don't think there's anything wrong with either your current or your previous Kindle.

It is a little bit of a learning experience, learning how to use the Kindle correctly, but we're all here to help.

[crescere]

I have been using the Kindle Touch for several months. If you don’t believe me go to your own when you download books. The new book appears on your home screen BELOW your collections right? When you press on the book title and the menu comes up with “add to collections” you then place it into the collection topic area of your choice by checking appropriate boxes. Right? The book then disappears from the home screen area below the collections and appears only under the one or two collection topics you have chosen. Right? Otherwise what would be the use in having “collections?” Eventually you would lose track of which books you have put into collections and which you have not. Right? Are you saying that your new books do NOT appear under collections and when you send them to a collection they remain on the main home page? Really?

Are any of you saying your Kindles do not act like mine used to do? Well mine no longer lists the new books I put into the Kindle documents folder on the Kindle home screen. They are simply not visible. When they were I saw that they would not disappear after I placed them into a collection as they ued to do so I knew I had a problem. I think if you really read what I am saying you will come to realize that yes your Kindles DO work the way I describe, and if they stopped doing the things I listed above you would also think the Kindle is broken. I am AMAZED that I have to go to such lengths to show any of you this.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by crescere

I have been using the Kindle Touch for several months. If you don’t believe me go to your own when you download books. The new book appears on your home screen BELOW your collections right? When you press on the book title and the menu comes up with “add to collections” you then place it into the collection topic area of your choice by checking appropriate boxes. Right? The book then disappears from the home screen area below the collections and appears only under the one or two collection topics you have chosen. Right? Otherwise what would be the use in having “collections?” Eventually you would lose track of which books you have put into collections and which you have not. Right? Are you saying that your new books do NOT appear under collections and when you send them to a collection they remain on the main home page? Really?

The behaviour depends what sort option you have selected on your Home screen. Personally I sort mine by author in which, yes indeed, books do stay visible on the Home screen as well as being visible in collections.

[Shopaholic]

Please don't take offence to this but seeing as how you don't know what the various buttons are called, you haven't yet realized that pressing and holding the centre of the D-pad turns on wireless, nor that you can sort books on the home screen by collection, title, author etc....I really want the emphasize again that you NEED to read the user manual.

"I think if you really read what I am saying you will come to realize that yes your Kindles DO work the way I describe, and if they stopped doing the things I listed above you would also think the Kindle is broken."

No, I wouldn't think it was broken. I would think I did something to change what I was now seeing & either call customer support, research online for an answer, ask in the forums or read the user manual. Thinking the device was 'broken' would never enter into the equation. Most things like that are user error not device failure.

[dwig]

Originally Posted by crescere

...The book then disappears from the home screen area below the collections and appears only under the one or two collection topics you have chosen. Right? ...

Yes and No and Sometimes...

They disappear if, AND ONLY IF, the Home screen is set to sort by "Collections". If sorting is set to "Recent", "Author", or "Title" the books continue to display on the root Home screen in addition to displaying in their assigned Collection.

[ixtab]

You're all definitely right stating the OP should read the user manual.

Still, you should also try to read and understand his posts, even if they're somewhat cryptic. First, he's using a KINDLE TOUCH, which means no buttons (well, except the home button). Second, the problem he is having is that books do not show up at all even though they're physically present on the device.

I suggest to make a backup of the content (copy everything from the "Kindle USB drive" to the computer), then reset the device to factory defaults (Menu > Settings, Menu > Reset [or so, my KT speaks german right now]). Yes, your books and collections will be gone, but you can at least restore the books by copying back the data from the backup.

If you purchased everything through Amazon, it's much easier, because everything will be in the archived items.

[dwig]

Originally Posted by ixtab

...you can at least restore the books by copying back the data from the backup...

I would advise against this step if there is any other alternative. The files on the device, and hence the backup, may be corrupted. Backups made after a device has problems are dubious and should be used only as a last resort. If the reset is going to be a fix then there is some file corruption on the device. Copying the old files may restore the corrupted file(s) and thus restore the problem.

I would advise copying the original book files to the device after the reset provided they still exist on the OP's hard drive or can be re-acquired from their source. If the OP is forced to using files from the backup, I would advise copying only ebooks files and copying them one by one or in very small batches. I would advise against copying anything not in the \documents folder and against copying any of the sidecar files (anything in the \documents folder with extensions other than PRC, MOBI, AZW, AZW1, AZW4)

[HarryT]

I really don't think the device is having problems; it sounds like a case of user error to me (with absolutely no disrespect to the OP intended).

[crescere]

Thank you IXTAB. I was not aware I was being “cryptic.” However if the posters who keep insisting I read the manual would read my posts with more concentration they would not be so quick to call it user error. Yes, I have a Kindle touch, (AS I SAID PREVIOUSLY), and I am well aware of how the various sort commands work. I have about 250 books on the Kindle and they are divided up into about 12 collections, eg. Adventure, History, Science, Computers, Travel, etc. When I sort “By Collections” the books I add to the Kindle documents folder DO NOT APPEAR BELOW THE COLLECTIONS AS THEY ONCE DID. This problem started when the new books I added did not delete themselves once they were put into a collection AS THEY ONCE DID.

THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH MY KINDLE!!! I AM DOING THE SAME THINS I HAVE BEEN DOING FOR THE PAST SEVERAL MONTHS. I called tech support again and after taking me through various steps and asking me what the screen says at various points AMAZON TECH SUPORT AGREES WITH ME. They will be consulting with their programmers Monday.

Thank you to those who gave some suggestions. DWIG, would my virus program tell me if a file is corrupt? I think you may be on to something. Harry T, I remain amazed and confused by some people’s inclination to stay in denial when there is OVERWELMING evidence to the contrary. Please go back and READ NOT SKIM my posts and compare the performance of my broken Kindle to your working machine.

[ixtab]

IMO, there is not a high chance that your files on the USB drive are corrupt. Over in the developers' corner, we have loads of reports of KTs simply stopping to work, or acting in weird ways.

In many cases, it seems like the *internal* databases are to blame (these are different from the files you see on the USB drive). A factory reset clears out these as well.

I suggest you simply try the approach I mentioned (you can probably limit the backup to the documents folder, but I wouldn't discriminate between files any further). It doesn't look like you have a lot to lose anyway

Edit: no, your virus scanner won't tell you if a file is corrupt. A virus scanner has a completely different purpose... it will tell you if a file is compromised (in the sense of "dangerous"), but not if it simply contains "garbage".