whose bright idea was it?

[Braid]

Originally Posted by marvin_2

Kindle libraries can get large over the years.

It would be nice if Amazon found a way to help organising them (on their website), rather than provide deleting books as the only way to simplify the view.

Maybe folders. Maybe smart folders (auto-sort by genre? or read/unread). And maybe an archive to hide away books not needed for a while. And a recycle bin to restore (accidentally) deleted books.

I agree with you. This is one of the major weaknesses of Kindle when compared with Kobo. Managing large libraries is a nightmare. Unlike with Kobo devices, you can't sort them on your computer. Furthermore, sorting books into categories is very poor compared with Kobo. Once a collection passes ~150 titles, adding or removing items from that collection incurs a long delay, sometimes upwards of 20 seconds. And the 'manage collections' view is also limited in terms of its functionality. On Kobo devices, you can perform searches from within the 'manage collection' view and add/remove titles to the collection. On Kindle, you have to perform searches and then add/remove titles from a collection for each title via its context menu.

[Atunah]

I can manage all my collections in my account on amazon. Its been a feature for some time. At least in the US. I don't know about other countries. I have like 45 collections with many books in some of them. I am talking 200-600 books or so. Doesn't take more than a second for me to add or remove. Maybe 2 seconds on the largest collections.

I been buying kindle books since 2008 so I have a few now.

[Braid]

Originally Posted by Atunah

I can manage all my collections in my account on amazon. Its been a feature for some time.

Ah, my mistake, I forgot to add that I sideload all my books via Calibre to remove the DRM. This means I never have to worry about accidentally un-purchasing anything, but comes at the cost of convenient library management.

[tomsem]

You can organize things into collections on Manage Your Content & Devices page (amazon.com/myk).

The Filters that have been added are more useful than Collections for me. But I wish there were option to group by author or series (automatically).

[haertig]

What would be a reason for Amazon to provide functionality to permanently delete a book? I can't think of any reason this would be needed, other than Amazon hoping that someone might do this, then regret it, then pay Amazon a second time for their previous purchase.

It seems to me like "delete permanently" is a solution in search of a problem. Sure, it would be difficult to do it accidentally, and you are warned if you attempt it, but why is the option even present in the first place? It would have been easier and cheaper for Amazon to not create the option at all, than to have to code popup warnings and "are your sure?" messages in their software.

If customers asked for this option, it's probably because they were unsophisticated in software mechanisms. What they might have wanted to ask for is "give me a way to clean up my view of existing purchases". But since they didn't know how to express that desire, they ignorantly said "give me a way to delete things permanently". When I was writing software, I almost never gave the customer what they asked for. I always probed to find out what they really wanted/needed, and then negotiated with them on the best way to provide it. Usually they asked for what they asked for because they didn't know any better. Once you dig down and find out the reason they are asking, and address that, they go away MUCH happier than if you just did exactly as they asked without any questioning/analysis.

[John Hopper]

Originally Posted by haertig

What would be a reason for Amazon to provide functionality to permanently delete a book? I can't think of any reason this would be needed, other than Amazon hoping that someone might do this, then regret it, then pay Amazon a second time for their previous purchase.



It seems to me like "delete permanently" is a solution in search of a problem. Sure, it would be difficult to do it accidentally, and you are warned if you attempt it, but why is the option even present in the first place? It would have been easier and cheaper for Amazon to not create the option at all, than to have to code popup warnings and "are your sure?" messages in their software.



If customers asked for this option, it's probably because they were unsophisticated in software mechanisms. What they might have wanted to ask for is "give me a way to clean up my view of existing purchases". But since they didn't know how to express that desire, they ignorantly said "give me a way to delete things permanently". When I was writing software, I almost never gave the customer what they asked for. I always probed to find out what they really wanted/needed, and then negotiated with them on the best way to provide it. Usually they asked for what they asked for because they didn't know any better. Once you dig down and find out the reason they are asking, and address that, they go away MUCH happier than if you just did exactly as they asked without any questioning/analysis.

This was a feature that was quite widely requested on various forums in the past. I find it useful as I often send articles to read on my Kindle which I usually don't want to keep after reading, so it's handy to be able to delete them directly rather than having to go into MYCD to do so.

Sent from my SM-N976B using Tapatalk

[Braid]

Originally Posted by tomsem

You can organize things into collections on Manage Your Content & Devices page (amazon.com/myk).

See my post above, where I specified that I sideload all of my ebooks. For managing collections of sideloaded titles, Kobos offer superior functionality.

Originally Posted by haertig

What would be a reason for Amazon to provide functionality to permanently delete a book? I can't think of any reason this would be needed, other than Amazon hoping that someone might do this, then regret it, then pay Amazon a second time for their previous purchase.

[...]

If customers asked for this option, it's probably because they were unsophisticated in software mechanisms. What they might have wanted to ask for is "give me a way to clean up my view of existing purchases".

I agree. This seems to be what John Hopper wants - to get unwanted titles off of the device. There is nothing in his post that indicates a pressing need to unpurchase items (i.e. to relinquish the right to download another copy in the future). Unpurchasing seems a rather strange thing to opt for, when it costs you nothing extra to continue to enjoy the right to download another copy. Thus, it belongs on the 'Manage your content and devices' page, alongside the option to return for refund.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by John Hopper

This was a feature that was quite widely requested on various forums in the past. I find it useful as I often send articles to read on my Kindle which I usually don't want to keep after reading, so it's handy to be able to delete them directly rather than having to go into MYCD to do so.

Originally Posted by Braid

I agree. This seems to be what John Hopper wants - to get unwanted titles off of the device. There is nothing in his post that indicates a pressing need to unpurchase items (i.e. to relinquish the right to download another copy in the future). Unpurchasing seems a rather strange thing to opt for, when it costs you nothing extra to continue to enjoy the right to download another copy. Thus, it belongs on the 'Manage your content and devices' page, alongside the option to return for refund.

Actually, if you read John Hopper's post, he specifically says that he doesn't want to have to go into "MYCD" (Manage Your Content and Devices) to have to delete the articles that he has sent to his Kindle. He wants to read them, and then delete them. Permanently.

Shari

[Braid]

Originally Posted by shalym

He wants to read them, and then delete them. Permanently.

Gotcha. A conventional 'delete' function would do that job - the file would be erased (permanently) from the device. No need for un-purchasing.

[tomsem]

There are people who cannot resist getting free books (of which there are thousands). This will make it easier to dump them when they turn out to be unreadable.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Braid

Gotcha. A conventional 'delete' function would do that job - the file would be erased (permanently) from the device. No need for un-purchasing.

That would only work if he sideloaded them using USB, not if he emailed them. (although there is an option to not store emailed documents in the cloud, if you send both articles(read once) and books(keep forever), it would be a pain to change every time you send something)

I think that there are quite a few people that fetch and send articles to their kindles using Calibre, and I would bet that a lot of them send them through email, rather then over USB.

Shari

[John Hopper]

Originally Posted by shalym

Actually, if you read John Hopper's post, he specifically says that he doesn't want to have to go into "MYCD" (Manage Your Content and Devices) to have to delete the articles that he has sent to his Kindle. He wants to read them, and then delete them. Permanently.



Shari

Yes, I email the articles to my Kindle, so they are in the Amazon cloud if I do want to keep them; but in most cases I don't, and therefore permanently deleting them from the Kindle is a neat solution. Before this option was available, I would go into MYCD and delete them, which obviously takes a little more time.

Sent from my SM-N976B using Tapatalk

[Vmurph]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Also DO NOT RELY ON THE so called CLOUD.

THIS. ^ has been my mantra for over 20 years. The Cloud is exactly what it sounds like...vapor.

Originally Posted by Quoth

Use Download to PC and back up everything. Then it doesn't matter if you "Delete".

Exactly!

Originally Posted by patrickt

Okay, I'll confess, it was me. I made the suggestion to Jeff one day over coffee. I still think the suggestion was fine but the implementation was off. The two commands should be one after the other. The new, permanently delete, should be the last item on the menu.

Haha! Am I the only one who got a kick out of this reply?

[Vmurph]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Also DO NOT RELY ON THE so called CLOUD.

This is my mantra not just with ebooks, but also games, music, mobile apps...you name it. Digital content should never be trusted to always stay in the cloud, even if you don’t delete it yourself.

I can’t tell you how many expensive ($25) apps I’ve lost because the developer decided to stop supporting it in favor of a new app, so Apple pulled it from their App Store, and it couldn’t transfer over to my next phone. And it’s not just unknown fly-by-night developers either. Adobe Photoshop did this a few years back and I never forgave them.

Nintendo has also pulled games from their eShop. And they’re notorious for discontinuing support for older systems (AND the server!) a couple of years after a newer system is released.

[Pjama]

Why is it now so (ridiculously) easy to permanently delete books, but still totally impossible to delete or even remove old newspaper subscriptions?

I just cancelled my resubscription to the Washington Post because the old issues kept overwriting the new issues! They recently updated their app to include access to the website - great, I thought, it actually works. I got into the website, but the only way I could manage to eventually get the new editions onto my kindle was by attaching it to my computer and manually deleting the old issues.

Fine, I thought, that's ok, at least I can now access the new issues (note that they seem to be a slightly different format, even though they use the same app [I know it's not really an app on the e-reader, more like a container, but I'm calling it that for simplicity's sake]).

But then, today, arrgggh, all the old issues I had from April came back. When I download the new issue, it immediately disappeared. Now, thanks to what I did last week (amazon CS could not help - I'm not surprised as it is a v complex and confusing issue), I know that I could solve this temporarily by plugging my kindle in and manually deleting the issues from April. But I'm not prepared to live with this fudging of what should be a very straightforward process.

Anyway, if you have EVER subscribed to the Washington Post before, be aware that this will happen to you, and you will not receive your new issues unless you delete the old issues while your kindle is plugged into your computer. And be aware too that this work around will not stick. BAH.

Probably a good thing in some ways, as there's only so much politics one can take.