Remove ads from JP Kindle?

[qkidbs]

I just received my JP kindle PaperWhite 3 that I bought on Cyber Monday and love it. However, upon setting up I noticed that there is no option to remove ads. Strange.

I contacted JP support and they told me removing ads is not possible and that I have to send it back and buy a new one. So I unlinked my JP account, linked it to a US account and tried again. Sure enough, the button to remove ads was there. Just clicking it always results in an error message.

I contacted US support and asked for help. They said removing ads is absolutely no problem but they can't access my device because I bought it in Japan. They also advised me to contact JP support and directly ask for ad removal.

I went back to the JP support and talked to them again, mentioning everything from "I'm not fluent in Japanese, that's why I use my US account" to "my previous kindles didn't have a problem with removing ads". No good. The end solution is that they refund me my kindle, I have to send it back, wait for the confirmation, then buy a new one without ads.

This seems very very weird. I know that with the click of a button my ads could get turned off. But instead of doing that they are going to:

- Ship my kindle back to the center
- Refund the shipping costs + kindle price
- Re-add amazon points to my account that I used on the kindle
- Re-generate a new coupon with the same worth as what I saved on the Cyber Monday deal

Now I usually don't mind the ads but having the ads literally until I buy a new kindle with no option of ever turning them off is a different story. I bought this device with the expectation that I can turn them off later if I want to.

Anyone here with a different experience? I really don't want to send it back if I have a choice.

[mathil]

I had your exact same problem - bought a PW3 with ads in Japan to use with my Japanese account, couldn't remove the ads. In my case though, connecting it to my other account (Amazon.it) and doing it from there worked with no errors. Did you buy the manga model? That's a Japan-only release, that might be why.

[qkidbs]

Originally Posted by mathil

I had your exact same problem - bought a PW3 with ads in Japan to use with my Japanese account, couldn't remove the ads. In my case though, connecting it to my other account (Amazon.it) and doing it from there worked with no errors. Did you buy the manga model? That's a Japan-only release, that might be why.

When did you buy yours? I bought the PaperWhite model with 3g and not the Manga one.

I tried transferring my account to Germany, US and (based on your feedback) without success. Germany didn't give me the option to remove ads but US and IT did. Both resulted in the same error message though.

If someone has an idea what I could try, please let me know! Otherwise I'll send it back later the day

[mathil]

I bought mine last May, I believe, or around that period -- I took advantage of the sales for Mother's Day But I got a Wi-Fi model.

Are you still in Japan and if you're not, does the 3G work? I've done a quick search and it seems that with Japanese Kindles, the 3G connection only works in Japan, as opposed to the European and North American ones. I would guess that the 3G model is specific to Japan then, probably built to work with their own network frequencies -- which means that you cannot trick amazon.de/it/com into thinking you actually bought it from them.

As to why Amazon.co.jp doesn't allow you to remove the ads, I'm afraid there's no reason -- you just can't. It says so here at the bottom of the page, but it doesn't get translated to English when you change the website's language, so if you don't understand Japanese you have no way of knowing beforehand.

I think at this point it might be best to send it back.

[qkidbs]

Originally Posted by mathil

I bought mine last May, I believe, or around that period -- I took advantage of the sales for Mother's Day But I got a Wi-Fi model.

Are you still in Japan and if you're not, does the 3G work? I've done a quick search and it seems that with Japanese Kindles, the 3G connection only works in Japan, as opposed to the European and North American ones. I would guess that the 3G model is specific to Japan then, probably built to work with their own network frequencies -- which means that you cannot trick amazon.de/it/com into thinking you actually bought it from them.

As to why Amazon.co.jp doesn't allow you to remove the ads, I'm afraid there's no reason -- you just can't. It says so here at the bottom of the page, but it doesn't get translated to English when you change the website's language, so if you don't understand Japanese you have no way of knowing beforehand.

I think at this point it might be best to send it back.

This is very very helpful!
I live in Japan but yes, the only reason why I got the 3G kindle was since I am traveling a lot. If the 3G does indeed not work, I have even less reason to keep it. A short google gave this Quora answer and yup, you seem to be right - https://www.quora.com/Can-Kindle-pap...ies-like-China

Mine goes back to amazon now and I'll grab a 3G the next time I'm in the US.

[qkidbs]

Okay, get this. I just started resetting the Kindle to send it back to amazon and for some weird reason the advertisements disappeared. I tried restarting the device, switching accounts from JP to US and vice versa, opening the amazon store, browsing a few books but no matter what I try, the advertisements won't come back.

Anyone know why that's happening? I am not complaining and will still send it back because of the 3G thing but still, how are they gone now?

I resetted the device a couple times yesterday to figure out how the advertisement account linking is working but they were back in an instant.

[Barty]

Originally Posted by qkidbs

Okay, get this. I just started resetting the Kindle to send it back to amazon and for some weird reason the advertisements disappeared. I tried restarting the device, switching accounts from JP to US and vice versa, opening the amazon store, browsing a few books but no matter what I try, the advertisements won't come back.

Anyone know why that's happening? I am not complaining and will still send it back because of the 3G thing but still, how are they gone now?

I resetted the device a couple times yesterday to figure out how the advertisement account linking is working but they were back in an instant.

I think all kindles are the same from factory. It's only a flag in your account's data that determines whether a kindle is ad supported. So when you register your kindle, Amazon's server determines whether it has ads or not. When you pay to remove ads, they change the flag and next time you sync, your kindle becomes ad free. When you reset your kindle, it is unregistered and whether or not it has ads is indeterminate. It's Schrodinger's kindle