Troubleshooting Kindle freezes when downloading multiple books

sparksdls · 10-11-2025, 02:14 PM

I got a new Paperwhite SE to go with my Scribe. I have about 1000 Kindle books that I wanted to load so I started downloading them by selecting to load all books in a single collection, of which I have a number. I did this over a gigabit network connection. I found that the Kindle would freeze after a couple of minutes. After a short while, an Application Error msg. would pop up and it would then go to a white screen. It would not come out of the freeze after waiting for several minutes so I forced a restart. After restart, it would again freeze after a few minutes. I did a full reset of the Kindle, a restart of my modem, and tried again – same results. I did a long debug with Amazon Support and after passing me along through multiple people, the last guy said to return the Kindle, it was defective. I continued my own testing and found that while the Kindle the frozen on the white screen, downloads were continuing. I also found that if I just downloaded four or five books at a time, I could do that for a while before another freeze occurred. I also found that downloaded multiple titles using the web interface also caused freezing. I went through this process for all of my collections until I had all downloaded and now it works fine. Amazon Support was a waste of time.

tomsem · 10-11-2025, 03:10 PM

Best to download smaller batches. As things download it starts indexing and that will degrade performance to point where things don't work. Maybe less than 100 at a time, then given it a rest so indexing finishes before the next batch.

You can check indexing status by searching for '.' and tap on Text in Books search result. If it is enabled, it's indexing and you can see how many items are left to index.

Keeping thousands of books on device is possible, but every update will trigger reindexing and make it unusable until it is done, it can take hours.

The storage is better used for audiobooks and maybe B&W manga/comics, and not to see how many books you can carry around (you can only read one at a time!). IMO of course.

sparksdls · 10-11-2025, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomsem

Best to download smaller batches. As things download it starts indexing and that will degrade performance to point where things don't work. Maybe less than 100 at a time, then given it a rest so indexing finishes before the next batch.

You can check indexing status by searching for '.' and tap on Text in Books search result. If it is enabled, it's indexing and you can see how many items are left to index.

Keeping thousands of books on device is possible, but every update will trigger reindexing and make it unusable until it is done, it can take hours.

The storage is better used for audiobooks and maybe B&W manga/comics, and not to see how many books you can carry around (you can only read one at a time!). IMO of course.

I wanted to load a lot of books because I travel a lot to places with poor or no Internet connectivity and read multiple books at a time and want to be able to have a broad selection available.

Amazon Support was not helpful - I told them exactly what I was doing and after 90 minutes and being passed to five different support people, they said return it for a replacement.

tekkasit · 10-12-2025, 11:29 PM

Actually, Kindle devices have a built-in offline full-text search feature that allows you to find any word or phrase (including character names) that appears in all downloaded content on your device within seconds.

To enable this capability, the Kindle runs a background service that parses and indexes newly downloaded content. This process can consume a significant amount of resources (CPU, memory, and battery). The larger the content (e.g., lengthy books), the longer it takes to finish indexing. In extreme cases, your Kindle may even run out of battery before the process completes.

If you plan to take your entire library offline, it’s best to download your books in small batches. Indexing a single book can take a few minutes, while indexing 100 books could take 2–4 hours. Be sure to check your Kindle periodically to ensure the battery isn’t running low and the device hasn’t crashed.

sparksdls · 10-13-2025, 05:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tekkasit

Actually, Kindle devices have a built-in offline full-text search feature that allows you to find any word or phrase (including character names) that appears in all downloaded content on your device within seconds.

To enable this capability, the Kindle runs a background service that parses and indexes newly downloaded content. This process can consume a significant amount of resources (CPU, memory, and battery). The larger the content (e.g., lengthy books), the longer it takes to finish indexing. In extreme cases, your Kindle may even run out of battery before the process completes.

If you plan to take your entire library offline, it’s best to download your books in small batches. Indexing a single book can take a few minutes, while indexing 100 books could take 2–4 hours. Be sure to check your Kindle periodically to ensure the battery isn’t running low and the device hasn’t crashed.

Which is what I ended up doing but I found that even as few as a dozen downloads at a time led to a freeze - and sometimes Application Error - which was recoverable only with a forced restart. I did get the library fully loaded and it's running fine now but it took several laborious days with many dozens of restarts. I've owned many Kindle devices since the original - I still have four, with three other devices running the app - and have not run into this previously.

Josieb1 · 10-17-2025, 06:22 PM

It seems to be a problem with the latest Kindle software update. I have four kindles and have the same books downloaded to each device. I’m having problems downloading as little as four books. The Kindle’s freeze and sometimes when I turn them on, I get a white screen and I have to restart them. This only started with the last update.

sparksdls · 10-19-2025, 06:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Josieb1

It seems to be a problem with the latest Kindle software update. I have four kindles and have the same books downloaded to each device. I’m having problems downloading as little as four books. The Kindle’s freeze and sometimes when I turn them on, I get a white screen and I have to restart them. This only started with the last update.

Another person said the same in a different forum.

JSWolf · 10-19-2025, 03:47 PM

Try downloading three ebooks at a time. Also keep the Kindle plugged in so it won't run out of power.

sparksdls · 10-20-2025, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Try downloading three ebooks at a time. Also keep the Kindle plugged in so it won't run out of power.

What I ended up doing but a royal pain when trying to load a large number.

tomsem · 10-21-2025, 11:53 AM

You can use the Manage Digital Content page to send books, if that makes it easier. You can select a Collection and send 25 of them at a time, go to the next page etc.

sparksdls · 10-23-2025, 10:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomsem

You can use the Manage Digital Content page to send books, if that makes it easier. You can select a Collection and send 25 of them at a time, go to the next page etc.

I tried that - same effect as the Kindle froze, requiring forced restart.

JSWolf · Yesterday, 05:37 AM

When Amazon announced that Download & Transfer via USB was going away, I downloaded all of my eBooks to my Kindle Touch. I did so in batches of 25 eBooks at a time. It worked quite well.

JSWolf · Yesterday, 05:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sparksdls

I tried that - same effect as the Kindle froze, requiring forced restart.

One thing to try is to see if you can manually reinstall the firmware.

dublincheri · Yesterday, 07:24 AM

Put one of my Kindles online to download a series and got stuck with the unwanted new update so I decided to just add everything to it. Even selecting one book at a time I had to restart over and over as I kept getting the Application Error at least once an hour. On the plus side I discovered books I had forgotten I bought so it wasn’t a wasted day though it was frustrating.

10-11-2025, 02:14 PM	#1
sparksdls Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2020 Device: Oasis	Kindle freezes when downloading multiple books I got a new Paperwhite SE to go with my Scribe. I have about 1000 Kindle books that I wanted to load so I started downloading them by selecting to load all books in a single collection, of which I have a number. I did this over a gigabit network connection. I found that the Kindle would freeze after a couple of minutes. After a short while, an Application Error msg. would pop up and it would then go to a white screen. It would not come out of the freeze after waiting for several minutes so I forced a restart. After restart, it would again freeze after a few minutes. I did a full reset of the Kindle, a restart of my modem, and tried again – same results. I did a long debug with Amazon Support and after passing me along through multiple people, the last guy said to return the Kindle, it was defective. I continued my own testing and found that while the Kindle the frozen on the white screen, downloads were continuing. I also found that if I just downloaded four or five books at a time, I could do that for a while before another freeze occurred. I also found that downloaded multiple titles using the web interface also caused freezing. I went through this process for all of my collections until I had all downloaded and now it works fine. Amazon Support was a waste of time.

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10-11-2025, 03:10 PM	#2
tomsem Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,004 Karma: 27060353 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: USA Device: iPhone 15PM, Kindle Scribe, iPad mini 6, PocketBook InkPad Color 3	Best to download smaller batches. As things download it starts indexing and that will degrade performance to point where things don't work. Maybe less than 100 at a time, then given it a rest so indexing finishes before the next batch. You can check indexing status by searching for '.' and tap on Text in Books search result. If it is enabled, it's indexing and you can see how many items are left to index. Keeping thousands of books on device is possible, but every update will trigger reindexing and make it unusable until it is done, it can take hours. The storage is better used for audiobooks and maybe B&W manga/comics, and not to see how many books you can carry around (you can only read one at a time!). IMO of course.

10-12-2025, 11:29 PM	#4
tekkasit Groupie Posts: 177 Karma: 200056 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Bangkok, Thailand Device: Kindle Scribe, K3, Voyage, Oasis 3	Actually, Kindle devices have a built-in offline full-text search feature that allows you to find any word or phrase (including character names) that appears in all downloaded content on your device within seconds. To enable this capability, the Kindle runs a background service that parses and indexes newly downloaded content. This process can consume a significant amount of resources (CPU, memory, and battery). The larger the content (e.g., lengthy books), the longer it takes to finish indexing. In extreme cases, your Kindle may even run out of battery before the process completes. If you plan to take your entire library offline, it’s best to download your books in small batches. Indexing a single book can take a few minutes, while indexing 100 books could take 2–4 hours. Be sure to check your Kindle periodically to ensure the battery isn’t running low and the device hasn’t crashed.

10-17-2025, 06:22 PM	#6
Josieb1 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,100 Karma: 18051062 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: UK Device: Kindle Scribe, Coloursoft, PW SE, Kindle 6, Kobo Libra 2, Clara BW	It seems to be a problem with the latest Kindle software update. I have four kindles and have the same books downloaded to each device. I’m having problems downloading as little as four books. The Kindle’s freeze and sometimes when I turn them on, I get a white screen and I have to restart them. This only started with the last update.

10-19-2025, 03:47 PM	#8
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 80,675 Karma: 150249619 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Try downloading three ebooks at a time. Also keep the Kindle plugged in so it won't run out of power.

10-21-2025, 11:53 AM	#10
tomsem Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,004 Karma: 27060353 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: USA Device: iPhone 15PM, Kindle Scribe, iPad mini 6, PocketBook InkPad Color 3	You can use the Manage Digital Content page to send books, if that makes it easier. You can select a Collection and send 25 of them at a time, go to the next page etc.

Yesterday, 05:37 AM	#12
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 80,675 Karma: 150249619 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	When Amazon announced that Download & Transfer via USB was going away, I downloaded all of my eBooks to my Kindle Touch. I did so in batches of 25 eBooks at a time. It worked quite well.

Yesterday, 07:24 AM	#14
dublincheri Zealot Posts: 128 Karma: 3000000 Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: New England (for now) Device: Kindle Touch, Paperwhite 12, Basic 2024, Colorsoft	Put one of my Kindles online to download a series and got stuck with the unwanted new update so I decided to just add everything to it. Even selecting one book at a time I had to restart over and over as I kept getting the Application Error at least once an hour. On the plus side I discovered books I had forgotten I bought so it wasn’t a wasted day though it was frustrating.