'Enhanced' Page Flip on Fire HD6?

[tomsem]

My Fire HD6 (4th generation) has Fire OS 5.3.1, which seems to be the latest available. The release notes make no mention of Page Flip and indeed, the feature is not present.

Is this feature only to be had on 5th generation Fires?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by tomsem

My Fire HD6 (4th generation) has Fire OS 5.3.1, which seems to be the latest available. The release notes make no mention of Page Flip and indeed, the feature is not present.

Is this feature only to be had on 5th generation Fires?

I have a 5th generation tablet, but my experience may be relevant. The initial 5.3.1 release did not include support for page flip. It was added in one of the "component updates" subsequent to the OS release. (There have been about a dozen of these.)

You can check for these updates under Settings -> Device Options -> System Updates.

Also, that feature will only be present for books delivered to the Fire directly from Amazon (not side-loaded) and not all books support it. If you have had books on the tablet for a long time you may need to delete and re-download them to get the enhanced versions in KFX format.

[Alohamora]

My HD6 does have page flip. Oddly, my newer Fire 7 does not.

Edit: I lied. The 7 inch now has page flip. It updated to 5.3.1.0 about 2 weeks ago. Page flip wasn't active right after the update, but is now.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Alohamora

My HD6 does have page flip. Oddly, my newer Fire 7 does not.

Edit: I lied. The 7 inch now has page flip. It updated to 5.3.1.0 about 2 weeks ago. Page flip wasn't active right after the update, but is now.

Thank you, I guess I should expect it to appear on my HD6 in 'due time'.

[tomsem]

Still no page flip on my HD6...

Originally Posted by tomsem

Still no page flip on my HD6...

Have you gone into System Updates and pressed the Check Now button? My HD6 often doesn't even know component updates are available unless I manually check for them. I'm pretty sure the page flip feature was a component update. At any rate, Ive had page flip since mid-July when I updated to the latest Fire OS, so it is definitely available, though as I said updates apparently are not done automagically with the Fire. Nor does it seem to check for them unless I tell it too. So if you are waiting for the HD6 to magically update and give you page flip, you will probably be waiting until hell freezes over.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Still no page flip on my HD6...

That is very odd. You should certainly have it by now.

Page Flip was contained in a component update issued subsequent to the 5.3.1.0 firmware. I don't know of any way to verify that you are up-to-date with component updates.

If you have not done so lately, I suggest powering the device completely off and rebooting it just in case something has gone wonky.

Do you see any component updates when going to: Settings -> Device Options -> System Updates -> Check Now?
(Verify that the "Last checked on..." message shows the current date and time. It sometimes takes a minute or more after initiating a check for updates to appear, especially if your Wi-Fi is slow.)

In order to use Page Flip a book must be in KFX format. I suggest purchasing a free book that supports the feature, such as this edition of Frankenstein. You will need to have it sent to your device directly from Amazon, no USB sideloading. Purchasing and loading a new book will assure that you don't have an old non-KFX version present on your tablet.

Open the book on your tablet. Tap the middle of the screen and look for the Page Flip icon (a grid of boxes) near the lower left corner.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Still no page flip on my HD6...

Some ebooks have it, some don't.

I would check more ebooks before giving up.

[tomsem]

Most, if not all, of the books on my HD6 have 'enhanced typography' and should support Page Flip (and do on my Paperwhite, iPad). I have manually checked updates every few days and there is no change. I power it down fairly often before putting it in my carry bag so battery does not drain when cover slides around and wakes it up (or at least that is my theory about what is happening). But it is on a lot of the time, overnight etc. should Amazon want to push updates to it. I never turn off WiFi.

I had a horrible interaction with customer support a few weeks ago in Chat mode asking about this (but before 5.3.1.0 showed up for download), and another issue ('where is FireFly'? - a feature which has somehow disappeared from it). They were completely clueless, and kept bouncing me back and forth between device and AppStore support. I will never use Chat support again (that did not even generate the usual 'did we solve your problem' follow up email). Think I'll try the Call Me Now button on the device instead, apparently they'll get logs, which might be helpful in diagnosing, though my expectations are low.

Originally Posted by tomsem

Most, if not all, of the books on my HD6 have 'enhanced typography' and should support Page Flip (and do on my Paperwhite, iPad). I have manually checked updates every few days and there is no change. I power it down fairly often before putting it in my carry bag so battery does not drain when cover slides around and wakes it up (or at least that is my theory about what is happening). But it is on a lot of the time, overnight etc. should Amazon want to push updates to it. I never turn off WiFi.

I had a horrible interaction with customer support a few weeks ago in Chat mode asking about this (but before 5.3.1.0 showed up for download), and another issue ('where is FireFly'? - a feature which has somehow disappeared from it). They were completely clueless, and kept bouncing me back and forth between device and AppStore support. I will never use Chat support again (that did not even generate the usual 'did we solve your problem' follow up email). Think I'll try the Call Me Now button on the device instead, apparently they'll get logs, which might be helpful in diagnosing, though my expectations are low.

I used the phone support a month or so ago and that too was horrible. I got a woman in India and neither of us could understand the other, and she refused to transfer me to another support person. Plus she was totally clueless on the issue I was having. Very frustrating! If you get the right person on the phone then support works well, but usually I get some clueless bozo with loads of attitude and/or lack of English language skills. For some reason I tend to get really good support when calling the division of Amazon that deals with purchases and orders, but most of the Kindle and Fire support I've gotten has sucked.

[booklover6]

My HD6 doesn't have it, either. I check for updates all the time.

Maybe you guys need to sacrifice a Kobo and a Nook to the Amazon god. Any active volcanoes nearby?

Amazon has a strange way of updating the HD6 IMO. When I bought mine used through them in July, it came with an OS version that was several updates behind the latest release. Rather than let me update once and be up to date, I had to install every frigging update from the past year or so. It took forever. Even Microsoft isn't that sucky on updates! And during one of the updates it got stuck on a screen which resulted in my very horrible CS phone call.

[booklover6]

My HD6 hasn't updated since March. I even tried side loading a newer update. Nothing updated. I should see what my girls' devices are running.

ETA yes my girls' devices both updated to the latest firmware in July. Maybe mine won't update because I had developer's preview on it. Who knows. I am not going to reset just to get an update.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by booklover6

My HD6 hasn't updated since March. I even tried side loading a newer update. Nothing updated. I should see what my girls' devices are running.

ETA yes my girls' devices both updated to the latest firmware in July. Maybe mine won't update because I had developer's preview on it. Who knows. I am not going to reset just to get an update.

I had developer preview, restored 4.x, and then upgraded to production 5.x. Since then I even tried factory restore, but still no luck. It's as if it is cursed or something.

[tomsem]

It is probably a long shot, but it occurred to me that I had Developer Options enabled (there is an option to keep the screen from locking when device has USB power, and I like to amuse myself sometimes by setting display to greyscale mode), and that maybe that was preventing this sort of update from getting applied. Nothing has changed yet, but it seemed worth trying for a few days.