Households and Family Library

rcentros · 01-13-2015, 04:07 AM

Not sure when this happened -- I haven't changed my Kindle Account Settings for a while and just went there to turn off Automatic Book Update -- but now I see that I can set up a Households and Family Library. It wasn't there the last time I checked, so I assumed it would only be available for those buying the newer Kindles.

This was the most exciting feature (in my opinion) when the Voyage and new Kindle Basic were announced. Happy to see that it is available for everyone now. I'll definitely be setting up a couple Child accounts. I'll probably also invite my wife to join -- though most of her books are technical, relating to her work and my library may not be that attractive to her either.

EDIT: Turned out that, though my wife and I could combine accounts -- which really doesn't mean much to us since our reading rarely overlaps -- the child accounts only work on the newer Kindles and Fires. I thought the kids could use their own devices, but this is for sharing time on our own devices (provided they were new enough to have the feature). So, not much use to us, after all.

jbcohen · 01-16-2015, 10:38 AM

What you are missing is a little part of computer technology called Push Updates and its turned on by default. What push updates does is it allows amazon to install things on your kindle with out you having to do anything and is typically used by amazon for two things: book and firmware updates. What has happened is amazon pushed an upgrade to your kindle without you having to do anything, when you first setup your kindle on their web site they take notice of the version of the firmware (the software that runs the kindle) that you have and if they ever come up with an upgrade for your model of kindle they do what is called a wake on LAN, turns the kindle on via remote, and they push the upgrade to you then do a sleep on LAN, turns the kindle off. Or if you are currently doing something on your kindle they can notice that and wait until your kindle is idle then do the upgrade.

Many other companies do push upgrades: Sun Java, Microsoft and Adobe to name a few. I am not sure if you can turn this off on a kindle but in the case of Microsoft Windows you can do that if you so desire, however this means that you need to get the updates manually.

tomsem · 01-16-2015, 11:48 AM

Family library did not require any device updates (apart from Fire which lets more than one person logon to the same device). You simply enable the device (or app) in Manage Your Content and Devices to participate in it.

So for example, after registering a Kindle Keyboard to my wife (our accounts are linked for FL), we could go to MYCD for her account and flip the switch that lets it see items for my account (in this case, books and audiobooks). That device didn't receive and update (for that: I understand there was a recent update to fix the Experimental Browser so you could login to Facebook and Twitter again). Likewise the Kindle app on her iPad can see my library. It's all set up on the server side.

I wish Music were included for FL (including Prime Music, as our accounts were linked for free Prime shipping). Apple's Family Sharing includes this.

ametzler · 01-19-2015, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbcohen

What you are missing is a little part of computer technology called Push Updates and its turned on by default. What push updates does is it allows amazon to install things on your kindle with out you having to do anything and is typically used by amazon for two things: book and firmware updates. What has happened is amazon pushed an upgrade to your kindle without you having to do anything, when you first setup your kindle on their web site they take notice of the version of the firmware (the software that runs the kindle) that you have and if they ever come up with an upgrade for your model of kindle they do what is called a wake on LAN, turns the kindle on via remote, and they push the upgrade to you then do a sleep on LAN, turns the kindle off.[...]

I would be quite surprised if it actually worked exactly this way. A working Wake on WLAN would require the kindle to keep WLAN powered all the time in standby. Also a kindle's internet connection usually is behind some firewall which would block Amazon's messages. What probably happens instead is that the kindle regularily (timer-based) initiates a connection to Amazon and checks for updates (and newly bought books).

cu Andreas

ametzler · 01-19-2015, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomsem

Family library did not require any device updates (apart from Fire which lets more than one person logon to the same device). You simply enable the device (or app) in Manage Your Content and Devices to participate in it.[...]

As far as I know family library requires (and is part of) pw2 firmware 5.6.1.

See https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=251008

rcentros · 01-19-2015, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ametzler

As far as I know family library requires (and is part of) pw2 firmware 5.6.1.

See https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=251008

Family library allows you to link your accounts (on any Kindle device). For Child accounts, however, you need one of the newer devices.

eschwartz · 01-24-2015, 11:02 PM

This is awesome news, that Amazon finally allowed Family Library to be added through http://amzn.com/myk on older devices without firmware updates -- thanks for discovering this!

tomsem · 01-25-2015, 11:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ametzler

As far as I know family library requires (and is part of) pw2 firmware 5.6.1.

See https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=251008

If you are talking about setting up child accounts on a Kindle (has to be a 2014 Kindle or PW2), yes. But if you are talking about sharing libraries between the two linked Amazon accounts, no. That's just a server thing.

eschwartz · 01-25-2015, 11:47 PM

I tried this, and books show up as Shared with me in MYK, but not in my Cloud tab on my Kindle. I can, however, Deliver (from MYK) to my Kindle Touch. It then appears on my Kindle, but claims I don't have it in the cloud.

I wonder if they would show up if I logged out and in again? Thing is, I have to rebuild my collections...

tomsem · 01-27-2015, 01:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I tried this, and books show up as Shared with me in MYK, but not in my Cloud tab on my Kindle. I can, however, Deliver (from MYK) to my Kindle Touch. It then appears on my Kindle, but claims I don't have it in the cloud.

I wonder if they would show up if I logged out and in again? Thing is, I have to rebuild my collections...

The account holder has to authorize each of their registered devices or apps in Manage My Content and Devices (or rather, those which they want to see the additional items in). Then it should show the combined library in Cloud/Archived items. It does not work for K2 or before, probably not DX (but I don't have one to try it), and maybe not things like Kindle for Blackberry or WebOS. But other than that it should. For example, my wife's Kindle Keyboard shows my library in its entirety (including audiobooks), and it is registered to her account.

And of course you can disable sharing on an individual book basis.

eschwartz · 01-27-2015, 10:59 AM

Thanks -- I'll have to explore the settings more thoroughly I guess.

01-13-2015, 04:07 AM	#1
rcentros eReader Wrangler Posts: 7,888 Karma: 52039845 Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Boise, ID Device: PB HD3, GL3, Tolino Vision 4, Voyage, Clara HD	Households and Family Library Not sure when this happened -- I haven't changed my Kindle Account Settings for a while and just went there to turn off Automatic Book Update -- but now I see that I can set up a Households and Family Library. It wasn't there the last time I checked, so I assumed it would only be available for those buying the newer Kindles. This was the most exciting feature (in my opinion) when the Voyage and new Kindle Basic were announced. Happy to see that it is available for everyone now. I'll definitely be setting up a couple Child accounts. I'll probably also invite my wife to join -- though most of her books are technical, relating to her work and my library may not be that attractive to her either. EDIT: Turned out that, though my wife and I could combine accounts -- which really doesn't mean much to us since our reading rarely overlaps -- the child accounts only work on the newer Kindles and Fires. I thought the kids could use their own devices, but this is for sharing time on our own devices (provided they were new enough to have the feature). So, not much use to us, after all. Last edited by rcentros; 01-19-2015 at 04:35 PM.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Does the "Family Library" feature permit access to Kindle Unlimited?	SteveK	Amazon Kindle	2	12-26-2014 04:53 PM
Family Library now available for Kindle eReaders	tubemonkey	News	16	11-21-2014 11:16 AM
Amazon's new Family Library feature lets you share purchases as a household	AnemicOak	News	29	09-28-2014 02:54 PM
Family Guy	daffy4u	Lounge	4	11-10-2009 10:36 PM

01-16-2015, 10:38 AM	#2
jbcohen Wizard Posts: 3,032 Karma: 11196738 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Where am I? Device: Kindle Paperwhite Signature edition and a Samsung S24 Ultra	What you are missing is a little part of computer technology called Push Updates and its turned on by default. What push updates does is it allows amazon to install things on your kindle with out you having to do anything and is typically used by amazon for two things: book and firmware updates. What has happened is amazon pushed an upgrade to your kindle without you having to do anything, when you first setup your kindle on their web site they take notice of the version of the firmware (the software that runs the kindle) that you have and if they ever come up with an upgrade for your model of kindle they do what is called a wake on LAN, turns the kindle on via remote, and they push the upgrade to you then do a sleep on LAN, turns the kindle off. Or if you are currently doing something on your kindle they can notice that and wait until your kindle is idle then do the upgrade. Many other companies do push upgrades: Sun Java, Microsoft and Adobe to name a few. I am not sure if you can turn this off on a kindle but in the case of Microsoft Windows you can do that if you so desire, however this means that you need to get the updates manually.

01-16-2015, 11:48 AM	#3
tomsem Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,939 Karma: 27060151 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: USA Device: iPhone 15PM, Kindle Scribe, iPad mini 6, PocketBook InkPad Color 3	Family library did not require any device updates (apart from Fire which lets more than one person logon to the same device). You simply enable the device (or app) in Manage Your Content and Devices to participate in it. So for example, after registering a Kindle Keyboard to my wife (our accounts are linked for FL), we could go to MYCD for her account and flip the switch that lets it see items for my account (in this case, books and audiobooks). That device didn't receive and update (for that: I understand there was a recent update to fix the Experimental Browser so you could login to Facebook and Twitter again). Likewise the Kindle app on her iPad can see my library. It's all set up on the server side. I wish Music were included for FL (including Prime Music, as our accounts were linked for free Prime shipping). Apple's Family Sharing includes this.

01-24-2015, 11:02 PM	#7
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,421 Karma: 85400180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	This is awesome news, that Amazon finally allowed Family Library to be added through http://amzn.com/myk on older devices without firmware updates -- thanks for discovering this!

01-25-2015, 11:47 PM	#9
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,421 Karma: 85400180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	I tried this, and books show up as Shared with me in MYK, but not in my Cloud tab on my Kindle. I can, however, Deliver (from MYK) to my Kindle Touch. It then appears on my Kindle, but claims I don't have it in the cloud. I wonder if they would show up if I logged out and in again? Thing is, I have to rebuild my collections...

01-27-2015, 10:59 AM	#11
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,421 Karma: 85400180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	Thanks -- I'll have to explore the settings more thoroughly I guess.

Advert

Advert