A request to Fix a problem Amazon isn't fixing

[Gazerwolf]

I don't have the chops to make a hack to fix this...wish I did.

This thread on Amazon's forums describes this growing problem.
Large Archive Problem

Now some of the newer models have a workaround but It doesn't look like they are going to fix it for any older models, the DX and K2 are the ones I personally want fixed before I hit that unknown archive size.

What I THINK will fix at least the device end of it is if someone can make a hack that shuts off the Archive checks from the device. The Manage Your Kindle problems are apparently being worked on by Amazon.

Is there anyone here willing to figure out a fix?

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Gazerwolf

I don't have the chops to make a hack to fix this...wish I did.

This thread on Amazon's forums describes this growing problem.
Large Archive Problem

Now some of the newer models have a workaround but It doesn't look like they are going to fix it for any older models, the DX and K2 are the ones I personally want fixed before I hit that unknown archive size.

What I THINK will fix at least the device end of it is if someone can make a hack that shuts off the Archive checks from the device. The Manage Your Kindle problems are apparently being worked on by Amazon.

Is there anyone here willing to figure out a fix?

Have you tried disabling the indexer ?
With what result?

[Gazerwolf]

I don't have the problem yet, (I'm still less than the problem size on my archive.) so I don't know if disabling indexing will fix it. I don't think the DX can disable indexing.

The Indexer isn't the problem I think...it appears that whenever wireless is on it is programmed to check the contents of your Kindle against the list of your books on Amazon's servers...when that list gets huge...(3000 plus for most people who have the problem) the Kindle gets in a reset loop...apparently because it runs out of memory.

People who have the Parental control ability on their devices have found that turning of the access to archives worked...but the older devices don't have that ability.

[twobob]

hmm..

That is all nerfable. without question.

either via network restriction or on-device service/thread control.

Whether you would still get a big hit syncing when you DO go online. I'm speculative about that, it's my understanding that the art and index is pulled down to the device on a "ten ahead of the page you are on" manner.

This can be seen by going to your archive and then fast forwarding lots of pages, you can observe the updates to the artwork being pulled down.

Even an index of 3000 books correctly compressed (It's just text) should be minute.
regardless of the slowly processor

So, can it be improved? absolutely? is there one button for that right now? sadly no.

Combination of other ones and a bit of research.

There was a recent thread about the INDEXING_THREAD on here.

Unsure about the DX's will have to dig one out, but yeah, you can take some measures to long-live your device.

As to actually fixing how the indexing in handled should you choose to indulge in it. There, you are on your own.

[watchMaker]

That was a long read. Those Amazon comments seam to be mostly people
getting the run around. But here is one of a few who were able to get a
somewhat direct response:

"Hello Ann,

I'm Brandon Broughton of Amazon.com's Executive Customer Relations team. Jeff Bezos received your email and asked me to respond on his behalf.

I can certainly appreciate the level of frustration you've experienced with our Kindle apps and Manage Your Kindle page. The only current suggestion I would have, which has likely already been suggested in our forums, is to create a new Amazon account and add your free books to that account until you reach 3500 books or so. After that, you'd need to continue creating new accounts and store less Kindle content to avoid the type of issue you're experiencing.

We want our Kindle customers with large libraries to have the same experience as customers who don't, but we unfortunately don't have a solution in place at this time. While I know this is disappointing to you, rest assured I've passed your feedback to our Kindle team for their review. We also can't provide you with any of the compromises you list in your message; we won't be able to refund any purchased content beyond the standard refund policy. In addition, we don't have the ability to convert our Kindle books to ePub format and don't expect we'll make any such tool available in the near future.

Ann, I do understand why you're so passionate about this and I've made sure your voice has been heard. Customers such as yourself are what allows Amazon to constantly improve the services we offer, both in your direct feedback and healthy discussions within our Customer Forums.

Thanks for taking the time to write us and for your continued support of Kindle.

Regards,

Brandon Broughton
Executive Customer Relations
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com
======================"

While I am happy to get a response, I can't say that I am happy with the content. The issue of the large archives was addressed, albeit with a response I dislike, but I don't feel that the issue of MYK was addressed at all. So, that seems to be it. I think this response was a polite way of telling me to go forth and procreate with myself.

I can open new accounts, now that I know for sure that it is the only solution Amazon offers. I can even try to have different accounts for different genres, although that will be extremely inconvenient to have to coordinate. That doesn't help with organising and accessing my current material. I definitely noticed that I was offered no way to rearrange my existing books into any new accounts that I open, so I would not be able to keep all of an author's books under one account.

All in all, this email did nothing to raise my hopes, expectations, or spirits; unless you count the expectation of having nothing done to help, which is what I now expect for a certainty, whereas before I did have some sliver of hope for solutions. I think we have a clearer, definitive answer on where we stand now, and what we can expect from Amazon. We don't have to keep wondering what to do or what to expect.

[knc1]

Duh,
Well at least they admit that it is broke at their end.

Sounds like you need to switch to another on-line archive service.
Either one of the free 'Cloud' services or even one of the free 'Repository' services.

Hmm..
BitBucket uses: Cloudfront for its storage, also known as: Amazon
Double Duh . . . .

I just spent the past couple of weeks pushing 8Gbytes of materials to our BB repos - haven't filled them up yet.

[twobob]

and THAT is why they reduced the storage. Thanks moaners. :P

[knc1]

Originally Posted by twobob

and THAT is why they reduced the storage. Thanks moaners. :P

I did notice that their storage limit is greater than the number of books they advertise a Kindle can hold -

Probably so they don't get any 'take backs' from not meeting that advertised limit.

Solution: If you want to have the Library of Congress accessible on your Kindle - use a different storage service than the one included with your Kindle account.
http://archive.org/details/library_of_congress

[twobob]

TBH, there are well over a thousand indies / books / novellas / anthologies on my account.

And I can confirm that one person can EASILY read that much and indeed it is very simple to accrue that much content at no cost in these heady days of digital giveaways.

So I can sympathise with the problem, The DX does indeed get stupidly slow.
Certainly for searching - as the search pulls up all results - rather than searching by title etc. That is a different problem but based around the same core issue : Large data needs a decent engine to parse it and the horsepower to get it done before anyone notices...

Does that sound like a DX to you?
Me neither.

Keep it real. Open an alternate account for your swaithe of freebies. Have a "best" account.

minimise back-end data.

disable the indexing thread,

Lock down your connections back to amazon: to stop syncing, notes, social networking, updates, indexing and log noise down to a minimum,

disable the creation on-board logging in relevant sections.

disable services that reference said data and attempts postbacks on it.

That is a list - in inverse square order of effort to likely improvement.

I would probably go as far as "Lock down your connections".