Question about memory

GA Russell · 10-30-2015, 08:29 PM

Two years ago I bought the most inexpensive Kindle available, which at that time we here called the "Kindle 4." It has the page buttons on the side and the four-way button below the screen.

I have most of my Kindle books on Amazon's cloud, but plenty on the Kindle as well.

I believe that the unit is changing pages much more slowly than it did when it was new. Could it be that this is caused by my having too many books on the unit, and not enough remaining memory?

Currently it has 258 MB free. Any recommendations regarding the best amount of free memory to have?

Thanks!

Cinisajoy · 10-30-2015, 08:38 PM

No clue on the memory but when is the last time you rebooted?

cybmole · 10-31-2015, 02:49 AM

a possible test is to also delete all but one book, check page turning speed, then restore the other books from cloud.

the only hassle with that is the lack of a bulk delete/ restore, so it will be time comsuming if you have lots of books on there.

could be that careful timing + removing only some books will demonstrate whether number of books/amount of memory affects speed.

HarryT · 10-31-2015, 05:05 AM

Have you checked to make sure that nothing has got stuck indexing? That can slow things down.

susan_cassidy · 10-31-2015, 01:37 PM

You can sort of bulk restore. From the Manage Your Content and Devices, you can add up to 10 books at a time to your Kindle. I would advise letting them all index before adding more, though.

eschwartz · 10-31-2015, 10:44 PM

The easiest way to bulk delete/restore is with your USB cable and a PC.

...

If I was seeing a Kindle slow down, the first thing I'd think is "maybe something got stuck indexing".
The indexer needs to work hard.

I have also (recently) heard mention that older devices (K4NT and earlier?) were less efficient at dealing with very large numbers of books, but all I can say is that I certainly haven't had to deal with that.

cybmole · 11-01-2015, 01:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eschwartz

The easiest way to bulk delete/restore is with your USB cable and a PC.

...

If I was seeing a Kindle slow down, the first thing I'd think is "maybe something got stuck indexing".
The indexer needs to work hard.

I have also (recently) heard mention that older devices (K4NT and earlier?) were less efficient at dealing with very large numbers of books, but all I can say is that I certainly haven't had to deal with that.

duh ! you are right. I'm so used to cloud solutions I forgot about that.

I also have read the less efficient with lost of books claim- it it only loads one page at a time into ram & has to search a fragmented storage area for each next page then maybe...

eschwartz · 11-01-2015, 02:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cybmole

duh ! you are right. I'm so used to cloud solutions I forgot about that.

I also have read the less efficient with lost of books claim- it it only loads one page at a time into ram & has to search a fragmented storage area for each next page then maybe...

Nah, pretty sure RAM has absolutely positively nothing to do with it.

HarryT · 11-01-2015, 04:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I have also (recently) heard mention that older devices (K4NT and earlier?) were less efficient at dealing with very large numbers of books, but all I can say is that I certainly haven't had to deal with that.

I've had Kindles since the days of the K3 and have filled every one of them full to the brim

. I've certainly never encountered a slowdown with a large number of books.

eschwartz · 11-01-2015, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

I've had Kindles since the days of the K3 and have filled every one of them full to the brim

. I've certainly never encountered a slowdown with a large number of books.

Well, I never had those old devices, so I wouldn't know.
As I said, I certainly never had that issue>

HarryT · 11-01-2015, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Well, I never had those old devices, so I wouldn't know.
As I said, I certainly never had that issue>

As both you and I have advised the OP, indexing is by far the most likely reason for a slowdown.

GA Russell · 11-01-2015, 11:59 AM

Thanks guys!

I don't know what you are talking about regarding "indexing." What should I do; or in the alternative, what should I ask the Amazon help desk?

HarryT · 11-01-2015, 12:14 PM

Go to the home page, tap the "Search" button, and enter a string of random characters as a search string. On the results page, if you see a string saying "XX items not yet indexed", select it and it will show you which books haven't been indexed.

GA Russell · 11-01-2015, 01:58 PM

Thanks Harry!

NullNix · 11-02-2015, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cybmole

duh ! you are right. I'm so used to cloud solutions I forgot about that.

I also have read the less efficient with lost of books claim- it it only loads one page at a time into ram & has to search a fragmented storage area for each next page then maybe...

I doubt that -- indexing is largely dominated by the CPU overhead of decompressing ebook pages and the power overhead of writing the resulting indexes (writing is much more power-expensive than reading).

The principal cause of a slowdown with a large number of books is that whenever you turn the Kindle on after plugging it into USB, well, the indexes are on the USB-accessible portion of the filesystem, so on first powerup after unplug it has to assume they're potentially corrupted and revalidate them, which involves reading most pages of the indexes, though not the ebooks themselves. If, like me, you have 150 megabytes of indexes, this can take half an hour or more of 100% CPU usage, and drain a significant fraction of the battery.

(I also can't help but wonder if my PW1 is failing to remove some indexes when books are removed. 150MiB of indexes for 600MiB of books seems like an awful lot! Maybe I should vape the oldest and let it recompute any that seem necessary, but I'm not sure if the Kindle will realize it has to reindex if I do that, and unlike the original poster I use those indexes quite heavily.)

10-30-2015, 08:29 PM	#1
GA Russell Stampeders are hot! Posts: 7,692 Karma: 31487351 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Raleigh, NC Device: Paperwhite, Kindles 10 & 4 and jetBook Lite	Question about memory Two years ago I bought the most inexpensive Kindle available, which at that time we here called the "Kindle 4." It has the page buttons on the side and the four-way button below the screen. I have most of my Kindle books on Amazon's cloud, but plenty on the Kindle as well. I believe that the unit is changing pages much more slowly than it did when it was new. Could it be that this is caused by my having too many books on the unit, and not enough remaining memory? Currently it has 258 MB free. Any recommendations regarding the best amount of free memory to have? Thanks!

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10-30-2015, 08:38 PM	#2
Cinisajoy Just a Yellow Smiley. Posts: 19,161 Karma: 83862859 Join Date: Jul 2015 Location: Texas Device: K4, K5, fire, kobo, galaxy	No clue on the memory but when is the last time you rebooted?

10-31-2015, 02:49 AM	#3
cybmole Wizard Posts: 3,720 Karma: 1759970 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: none	a possible test is to also delete all but one book, check page turning speed, then restore the other books from cloud. the only hassle with that is the lack of a bulk delete/ restore, so it will be time comsuming if you have lots of books on there. could be that careful timing + removing only some books will demonstrate whether number of books/amount of memory affects speed.

10-31-2015, 05:05 AM	#4
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383099 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Have you checked to make sure that nothing has got stuck indexing? That can slow things down.

10-31-2015, 01:37 PM	#5
susan_cassidy Wizard Posts: 2,251 Karma: 3720310 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: USA Device: Kindle, iPad (not used much for reading)	You can sort of bulk restore. From the Manage Your Content and Devices, you can add up to 10 books at a time to your Kindle. I would advise letting them all index before adding more, though.

10-31-2015, 10:44 PM	#6
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)	The easiest way to bulk delete/restore is with your USB cable and a PC. ... If I was seeing a Kindle slow down, the first thing I'd think is "maybe something got stuck indexing". The indexer needs to work hard. I have also (recently) heard mention that older devices (K4NT and earlier?) were less efficient at dealing with very large numbers of books, but all I can say is that I certainly haven't had to deal with that.

11-01-2015, 11:59 AM	#12
GA Russell Stampeders are hot! Posts: 7,692 Karma: 31487351 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Raleigh, NC Device: Paperwhite, Kindles 10 & 4 and jetBook Lite	Thanks guys! I don't know what you are talking about regarding "indexing." What should I do; or in the alternative, what should I ask the Amazon help desk?

11-01-2015, 12:14 PM	#13
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383099 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Go to the home page, tap the "Search" button, and enter a string of random characters as a search string. On the results page, if you see a string saying "XX items not yet indexed", select it and it will show you which books haven't been indexed.

11-01-2015, 01:58 PM	#14
GA Russell Stampeders are hot! Posts: 7,692 Karma: 31487351 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Raleigh, NC Device: Paperwhite, Kindles 10 & 4 and jetBook Lite	Thanks Harry!

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