Kindle firmware update 5.14.2

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Freedomland

It screws up collections for books from amazon!. Can only get a sort of List view on Collections by sacrificing books that aren't in collections. If you go to Collections as a sort.. you get only a Grid/Icon view.. no list view! and all the books/docs not in collections, shows up in a collections titled.. Noncollection or Uncollections. Now if THAT collection was available in the List view option.. it would be solved

Collections view should offer both Grid and List mode. (The Kindle app for Android/Fire does this.) It’s the closest equivalent to Collection ‘sort’, which went away with this update, and if it could be in list mode, I would use it most of the time.

As it is, the workaround is to allow Collections to co-mingle with items on List or Grid view, which I have found a little unnatural because unlike Series groups, they are not ‘greedy’: you see the collected item both outside the collection and inside it, so it just makes the list longer and more cluttered. This way of doing things only applies to Kindle devices, and I could do without it if Collections view could be in list mode.

[Paperbackstash]

Mine finally updated last night. I don't have all the bubbles on the home page I noticed on others home page, which is a relief. Perhaps the pictures were showing something else. The home page changes aren't bugging me due to this, but I do miss the old library. This one seems more work to quickly filter, is slower moving, and I miss the page numbers and how easy it was to navigate before. Will get used to it, but not sure why on the change. Hopefully the speed returns.

By bubbles/buttons, referencing what is shown from other posters and ck2875 on the first page of this thread:
https://usercontent.mobileread.org/p...om/yHSL0Gz.png

[Gandulf]

Is it worth updating from 5.13.3 ?
I haven't been been following all the updates since as it seemed to me they where more focused on books downloaded direct from amazon.

I use meta plugboard to group series and don't want to loose that, not sure if the new icon display will change it. Current home page shows the last 3 books used or added and i also don't want to loose that as makes it easy to jump between books.

My PW is not JB so can't roll back the FW,

Advice would be grateful. Thx.

P.S. I only side load books and never use WiFi.

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by Gandulf

Is it worth updating from 5.13.3 ?
I haven't been been following all the updates since as it seemed to me they where more focused on books downloaded direct from amazon.

I use meta plugboard to group series and don't want to loose that, not sure if the new icon display will change it. Current home page shows the last 3 books used or added and i also don't want to loose that as makes it easy to jump between books.

My PW is not JB so can't roll back the FW,

Advice would be grateful. Thx.

P.S. I only side load books and never use WiFi.

Do you use collections?

If you only use plugboards to group your series in an alphabetical list view, you'll only lose one line of book per page, but you'll gain cover thumbnails.

The 3 recent books on your homescreen was updated to scrollable. So it lists more than 3 now.

Before you decide, take a look at the posts and screenshots here.

[Gandulf]

Originally Posted by hleo12

Do you use collections?

If you only use plugboards to group your series in an alphabetical list view, you'll only lose one line of book per page, but you'll gain cover thumbnails.

The 3 recent books on your homescreen was updated to scrollable. So it lists more than 3 now.

Before you decide, take a look at the posts and screenshots here.

No I don't use collections.

My concern is Amazon is forcing people to connect to Wifi and looking at the post it seems one must use it to get the new UI.

I have to share my phones data connection to get my PW4 connected so just don't do it. Have always manually downloaded kindle updates and use Calibre to manage books.

All the screenshot are of kindles that i presume stay connected.

So i take it i won't have any changes so unsure if it is worth updating my PW.

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by Gandulf

No I don't use collections.

My concern is Amazon is forcing people to connect to Wifi and looking at the post it seems one must use it to get the new UI.

I have to share my phones data connection to get my PW4 connected so just don't do it. Have always manually downloaded kindle updates and use Calibre to manage books.

All the screenshot are of kindles that i presume stay connected.

So i take it i won't have any changes so unsure if it is worth updating my PW.

It seems the updated UI requires connecting to wifi. At least that's how it first behaved.

A lot of us installed the new firmware by downloading it from Amazon's website, but we didn't get the new UI. It took my Kindle a month to finally get the new UI after sideloading the update.

Based on how you use your Kindle, the only thing will change is you'll be getting extra recent books on your homepage. You have to decide if that's worth connecting to wifi to. But if it ain't broke don't fix it, right?

[tomsem]

The new UI appeared pretty much right away on both Kindles I had. But I was probably among the earliest to apply the update, and it seems they limit the rollout of these sort of UI changes.

I would think that if you applied the update now, it would show up pretty much right away, when you connect to Amazon. It doesn’t have to remain connected for hours and days, it just needs to sync I think, and flip the switch.

[Joykins]

This new UI has kind of screwed up my normal reading workflow, and I'm not sure how to fix it; it seems unkind to Amazon to change my normal reading workflow TWICE this year.

Previously I had everything in list view, and sorted by Collections. New books came in uncollected. Once I read a book, I assigned it to a genre-based Collection, and it disappeared from the general list. Once I decided I probably wouldn't read a book anytime soon if at all, or DNF'd it, I also assigned it to a Collection so it disappeared from the general TBR list.

The last update made it difficult to jump to the top of the list but I figured out 3 workarounds.

Now, I don't mind the thumbnails too much, I have a lot of docs and things without good covers, and a fair, I mean excessive, number of romances, so they either look stupid or I don't really want anyone oogling over my shoulder about them, but whatever. But I *do* mind grid view and if I do a Collections view (where my unread books pop up in Uncollected) I have NO ABILITY to get a list view and honestly there are only so many large pics of male abs and "DOC" I can take while trying to find a new book to read at 8 am please can someone help me?

And yes: I tried list view and filtering out READ books and even went through all ~1.5K books last night to mark the read ones that Amazon's algorithm missed but that made all the "please remove from my screen" collection books show up and...it turns out there's a lot of them. Yes, I could delete them from my kindle but since I do a mix of sideloading and downloading I'm afraid of losing them because I might come back to some of them one day.

If there are no better options I guess I just have to do a lot MORE when looking for a specific book, which is annoying but it's still better than not having a lot of books to read.

Edited to add: just found that I can sort by collections and use it to browse collections in list mode, which is interesting, and helpful.

[kyrilson]

Originally Posted by Joykins

Edited to add: just found that I can sort by collections and use it to browse collections in list mode, which is interesting, and helpful.

How do you do this? I can't seem to figure this out. When I go to the Sort By and tap on the Collections bubble in View Options, that gives me the collections. But then I don't see a list option. The list option is in the View options but if I tap on that, it goes back to listing everything, not just Collections.

[kyrilson]

Originally Posted by Freedomland

It screws up collections for books from amazon!. Can only get a sort of List view on Collections by sacrificing books that aren't in collections. If you go to Collections as a sort.. you get only a Grid/Icon view.. no list view! and all the books/docs not in collections, shows up in a collections titled.. Noncollection or Uncollections. Now if THAT collection was available in the List view option.. it would be solved

I finally get the frustration with Collections with this new UI, I've never really dabbled with Collections before and decided to try to see what the fuss was all about, so I created a few and started playing around with it. And yeah, wow, the new UI is terrible for Collections. I totally get it now. On the bright side, I might start doing Collections if they get it sorted out. I'm seeing the benefit of it, as I created a few logical ones, like Biographies, Anthologies, etc. that have mine nicely bucketed into groups now.

[Joykins]

Originally Posted by kyrilson

How do you do this? I can't seem to figure this out. When I go to the Sort By and tap on the Collections bubble in View Options, that gives me the collections. But then I don't see a list option. The list option is in the View options but if I tap on that, it goes back to listing everything, not just Collections.

Set view to List. Make sure the Settings -> Device Options -> Advanced Options -> Home & Library -> Collections is set to the 2nd or 3rd option ( Show Favorites in Library or Show All in Library).

Return to Library. In the upper left hand corner under the Search dialog box is 3 lines with little circles on them. This is the filtering menu. Select the 3 lines and then select the bubble that says "Collections" under Type. Then your Library will show your Collections and nothing else. Open up a Collection and the items within will show in List view.

[Paperbackstash]

Originally Posted by Gandulf

Is it worth updating from 5.13.3 ?
I haven't been been following all the updates since as it seemed to me they where more focused on books downloaded direct from amazon.

For me, no. I think it makes sorting a bit more complicated in library view, and I don't like the menu changes from former versions. I like the simplicity of the older firmware much more.

[Freedomland]

Originally Posted by kyrilson

I finally get the frustration with Collections with this new UI, I've never really dabbled with Collections before and decided to try to see what the fuss was all about, so I created a few and started playing around with it. And yeah, wow, the new UI is terrible for Collections. I totally get it now. On the bright side, I might start doing Collections if they get it sorted out. I'm seeing the benefit of it, as I created a few logical ones, like Biographies, Anthologies, etc. that have mine nicely bucketed into groups now.

unfortunately I have 268 Collections.. and this new method totally sucks!
If I do List view..I get Collections but lose my uncollected books.
If I do Collections view, I get everything... but inside the collections it's Grid view only.. with no title listing!! I really am pissed and I do not want to wait 5-7 months for a GD update patch. Just add LIST view INSIDE Collections and make it 5.14.2.1!!! otherwise..I've just paid a nice chunk of change to something unusable.

Anyone know how to MANUALLY Downgrade the firmware.. back to say 5.14.1.1 ?? I still have the .bin file when my Kindle PW came new.

[Freedomland]

Originally Posted by Joykins

Set view to List. Make sure the Settings -> Device Options -> Advanced Options -> Home & Library -> Collections is set to the 2nd or 3rd option ( Show Favorites in Library or Show All in Library).

Return to Library. In the upper left hand corner under the Search dialog box is 3 lines with little circles on them. This is the filtering menu. Select the 3 lines and then select the bubble that says "Collections" under Type. Then your Library will show your Collections and nothing else. Open up a Collection and the items within will show in List view.

Then my only other option is to take ALL my uncollected books & docs.. and put them into a collection called Uncollected????? oy vey The new interface does that normally..but only when the sort is set for Collections..and then in Grid view only. I don't need the friggin book cover icons.. it's a real waste on a b/w screen.

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by Freedomland

I don't need the friggin book cover icons.. it's a real waste on a b/w screen.

Now that you mention it, every other ereader brands out there is releasing their own colored e-ink models. Them copying the UI of the app to the Kindles might be in preparation for that.