Delete all Books on Paperwhite 2

[Agama]

I've tried searching this forum but can't find out how to do this. I can delete books one by one from my Kindle but I want to delete all books, bookmarks, notes, etc. and start again from scratch. I don't want to delete my books from the Amazon cloud, just on my device. I also want to make sure it stays on the current firmware and doesn't resort to the version present when purchased.

Is there a procedure for this?

[eschwartz]

Menu ==> Settings ==> Menu (again) ==> Reset Device

Resets the device to factory defaults, wiping the userstore (Kindle Drive) and device registration.

There is no way to downgrade the firmware even if you want to. (Amazon finally decided to block downgrading. Well, there is a hack to do it anyway...)

[Agama]

Thanks, that sounds easy enough. I hadn't spotted that hidden menu. Presumably I then simply re-register and start again.

[eschwartz]

correct.

[susan_cassidy]

Unless it says reset to factory or factory defaults, it is the wrong menu item. There is just a plain reset in the menu, too.

[Agama]

Thanks for the warning. No sign of any factory reset option but found the device reset option as detailed by eschwartz. Now it's time to start again and also find a way to manage my ePubs on Kindle since my Sony reader has died, (works perfectly except that the battery doesn't hold charge!). Perhaps I should bring both collections together in calibre and manage my Kindle from there.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

Unless it says reset to factory or factory defaults, it is the wrong menu item. There is just a plain reset in the menu, too.

The simple "reset" is the factory reset. It should be more hidden and more obviously marked as potentially dangerous. At least a warning pops up. The reset feature you are looking for is called restart.

[Agama]

Well I did the device reset and it seemed to do what I wanted. My Kindle was wiped and it behaved as if new out of the box: choose language, setup wifi, select account etc. but it's not quite an empty library as my collections all show up, (as well as a dictionary, a user guide and Kindle FreeTime). When I go to delete one of these I get a reminder that it will affect all sync'd devices which will be bad news for another family member who uses these collections, so can I remove them from my Kindle only? I've tried connecting the Kindle to my PC in the hope of seeing these collections but there's no obvious sign of them.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Agama

Well I did the device reset and it seemed to do what I wanted. My Kindle was wiped and it behaved as if new out of the box: choose language, setup wifi, select account etc. but it's not quite an empty library as my collections all show up, (as well as a dictionary, a user guide and Kindle FreeTime). When I go to delete one of these I get a reminder that it will affect all sync'd devices which will be bad news for another family member who uses these collections, so can I remove them from my Kindle only? I've tried connecting the Kindle to my PC in the hope of seeing these collections but there's no obvious sign of them.

Those are the new cloud collections. Deleting them will indeed get rid of them for other users and or devices connected the account. It won't delete the books in them if you delete them. There is a way to not show them on a device. On a Paperwhite you can long click on a collection and select "show only in collections view" - then you won't see them in my items (all items) for example, even in cloud. You will still see them then you add a book to collections - this way you can organize a collection on a different device.

[Agama]

I guess that's the downside to sharing an account.

Collections is my main view so it's the one that I'd want to hide them from. Presumably, if I manage my library using calibre then I can switch off wireless and delete the collections, since the cloud collections will never know.

[Agama]

Well that seems to work. I have switched off wifi and deleted all collections one by one. It nagged me each time that I was offline but still let me delete them. Then I created my new collections, (with more nagging), and finally I selected "Show only in collections view". I've put some books on via calibre and this works well, apart from not adding them to the collections but this is easy enough manually. One oddity that I've noticed is that the Kindle User Guide, which I've put in the Reference collection, has an asterisk next to it.

So thanks for the helps, my Kindle is now tidy and free from cloud collections.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

The reset feature you are looking for is called restart.

The word "reset" does not have connotations of "reboot"/"restart" -- I really don't get why people always make that ridiculous mistake.

<rant>

C'mon, peoples. Basic vocabulary, dammit!
(Not you, DuckieTigger. )

</rant>

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

The word "reset" does not have connotations of "reboot"/"restart" -- I really don't get why people always make that ridiculous mistake.

<rant>

C'mon, peoples. Basic vocabulary, dammit!
(Not you, DuckieTigger. )

</rant>

Not too long ago computers always had a button called "reset", which would kill the power to the motherboard and then initiate a power up sequence. Nowadays many computers require you to turn the power supply off and back on incase a soft reboot fails. More and more gadgets don't have physical reset buttons any more. To make matters worse terminologically sometimes you will see restore factory defaults or recovery.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Not too long ago computers always had a button called "reset", which would kill the power to the motherboard and then initiate a power up sequence.

I am appalled at the illogic.