[tomsem]

The Basic Kindle also comes as a Kindle Kids Edition. I don’t see it listed on the Software Update pages now, but in the past a note there would say there that you could not update it manually and that it updates only over WiFi.

I wonder if Amazon replaced your original Kindle with a KKE by mistake. That might explain why it doesn’t update manually.

I don’t know how you would know whether it was a KKE (presumably serial number could do that), or if there is in fact no restriction on manual update for KKE now due to some change they’ve made.

And it would not surprise me if the average Customer Support person was unaware of the distinction (if there still is one).