Content How does Automatic Book Update work?

[Robmonster]

I have this feature turned on in my Amazon account.

Today I reported a formatting problem with a book over the live chat feature. I was told that there was a newer version of the book available that fixed the problem.

I would have expected this to have been updated automatically, as per the setting!

Does anyone know how this is supposed to work?

Is there any way of finding out if a book has a newer version available? I asked the Live Chat operative and they reeled off about ten books that had an update ready. there must be a way for me to see this myself.

[Helgetus]

I can not answer your question. I was wondering how you can identify books that are available for an update, without consulting the help desk.

Are we forced to read an updated book again?

[Robmonster]

Yes, thats what I'd like to know also.

The Amazon rep has escalated the issue of why these books have not automatically updated for me.

[DuckieTigger]

The Amazon rep should have told you that automatic book updates is an opt in feature. From your manage content/devices there is in setting a tab for it. But the warning:

Opt in for automatic book updates to receive new versions of your books when we have confirmed that improvements were made. In order to retain your notes, highlights, bookmarks and furthest reading locations, ensure that all your Kindle devices and reading apps have the "Annotation Back Up" setting turned on.

Is enough for me to not bother to turn it on. I do not use annotation backup or whispersync enabled, because I do not want my wife's annotations or bookmarks when reading same book. Technically a book update is a different book for the Kindle, old gets deleted, new gets downloaded. If the bookmarks and notes changed (different locations) Amazon will translate them, but can only do so on the server stored version. That will also get pushed back to the Kindle.

Maybe having it turned on is not enough unless you initiate a sync by hand?

[eschwartz]

They should be silently updated without any notification to you.

Unless you stick with the default opt-out, in which case you will need to go to http://amzn.com/manageyourkindle and look for books that say "There is an updated version of this book" (or something like that), and offer an option to update your Kindle Cloud copy. Presumably then your get updated too.

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by Robmonster

Yes, thats what I'd like to know also.

The Amazon rep has escalated the issue of why these books have not automatically updated for me.

With automatic book updates ON I have a dozen and more 'Update Available'
books.

Have Amazon yet explained what's going on?

[dublincheri]

Was cleaning up my library yesterday and noticed the same thing - updates turned on yet quite a number of books had updates available. I will be interested to see what they say.

[Robmonster]

I don't think I ever heard back on the issue.

[HarryT]

There seem to be two types of updates: minor updates, which get sent automatically to the same device they were originally sent to, and major updates, which wipe out notes, etc, that you have to agree to by replying to an email.

If the device you originally sent a book to is no longer active, updates don't get sent anywhere: you need to look through the "My Kindle Content" page on Amazon, find those books that say "Update Available", and manually send them to your device.

This, at least, has been the way it's worked for me.

[Robmonster]

Originally Posted by HarryT

If the device you originally sent a book to is no longer active, updates don't get sent anywhere: you need to look through the "My Kindle Content" page on Amazon, find those books that say "Update Available", and manually send them to your device.

If that's true then that's most likely the reason why. I would have changed Kindles in the intervening time.

[latepaul]

Thanks to this thread just checked my Kindle Content and found 17 books with updates.

Now wondering about updating the versions I have in Calibre. I would have downloaded the originals, deDRM'd them and converted to epub. Do others do this? If so do you have any tips for making keeping everything up to date easier?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by latepaul

Now wondering about updating the versions I have in Calibre. I would have downloaded the originals, deDRM'd them and converted to epub. Do others do this? If so do you have any tips for making keeping everything up to date easier?

The procedure you follow will depend on what you did originally. Generally you will need to repeat the steps you did before.

For books purchased from Amazon I treat my Amazon account as the primary copy and use calibre as a backup. I do not do any conversion of those books since I read on Kindle devices and apps. I also do not bother to tweak books. I have found them to be readable as published, so far.

I intentionally have automatic updates disabled so that I will know which books have changed. Every month or so I accept the pending book updates and then re-transfer those books to calibre to keep the backup in sync.


Added: Amazon's book update system is more complex than you might expect at first. Most minor changes are not pushed to previous purchasers of the book because it would be more disruptive to change the content of a book being read than to live with a few typos. Only significant changes cause notification/update.

[latepaul]

Is there a separate opt-in/opt-out for update notifications? I swear I've never had an email for these updates.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by latepaul

Is there a separate opt-in/opt-out for update notifications? I swear I've never had an email for these updates.

I don't think so. Notifications are only sent for the most serious/disruptive updates. They are rare.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I don't think so. Notifications are only sent for the most serious/disruptive updates. They are rare.

Yes, very rare. I have several thousand books in my Amazon library and get perhaps one such update a year, if that.