Firmware 5.18.6 for 11th gen and newer Kindles

[Byrdie]

Unfortunately nothing in that thread seems relevant to my situation. That person could at least get some of their books to open depending on which format they were in but none of mine will work no matter what I do. Just restarted my Kindle for the 5th time since this happened and for a second I had hopes when I saw the brief flash of my covers attempting to load. Then whatever the problem is kicked in and nope, still the same. Don't suppose there's any way to go back to the firmware this update replaced?

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Byrdie

Don't suppose there's any way to go back to the firmware this update replaced?

Only if the kindle has already been jailbroken.

[jhowell]

I took a look at 5.18.6. Here are some highlights.

There are a lot of updated software libraries. This might impact user added software on jailbroken Kindles.

There is mention of a KU rebrand launch. "kindle+" appears to be the upcoming new name for Kindle Unlimited. Some examples:
"Welcome to Kindle with Kindle+"
"Kindle+ Membership"
"Thanks for being a Kindle+ member"
"View and manage your Kindle+ Memberships"
"You have no Kindle+ titles. Tap on any book with a Kindle+ badge to start reading."
"Tap this icon to access your Reading Lists, Kindle+ under you account in Settings, the web browser, and more."

Basic shapes, apparently for drawing, including: arrow, elipse, pentagon, rectangle, star, triangle, dashed line, dotted line, double line.

References to "Ask Notebooks" which is apparently AI loaded with your notebook content. Some examples:
"Tap Ask Notebooks to get information or answers from your notebooks"
"Get answers from your notebooks"

References to "Workspace":
"Choose where in your Workspace you want to add this item."
"Remove from Workspace"
"Show items added to Workspace"

Color bookmarks:
"Introducing color bookmarks"
"Simply tap to add a bookmark. Tap the bookmark again to open color options. To remove a bookmark, tap its current color in the menu. Find all bookmarks in your annotations with your notes and highlights."

Hints:
"Show hints on page"
"Show multiple-choice hints"

Hyperlink preview, as mentioned in the release notes:
"Tap and hold on hyperlinks within the book to quickly preview its destination without leaving the current page."

Cover options:
"Use a generic cover instead of a notebook page for notebooks."
"Use a generic cover instead of a preview for documents."

Changes to Awards:
"Important Awards Update"
"We are working on making Awards better! The feature will be temporarily unavailable starting January 2026, and we will be back with exciting updates soon."

Handling black-listed devices:
" ... was reported lost or stolen. If you purchased it from Amazon, contact Amazon Customer Service. If you purchased from a third-party seller, contact the seller for resolution."

Suggestion to use the Kindle app on your phone to register and set up a Kindle device:
"For Amazon accounts without a password, we recommend setting up with your phone."
"Switch to phone setup"

There are indications that sideloaded PDFs will be converted to KFX format (YJBackedSideLoadedBook) in order to allow handwritten annotations. KPPMainApp includes "convertToYJ" and code from kindlegen. (It would be nice if they would also convert EPUBs on device but I'm not holding my breath.)

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Perhaps the issue that multiple people have complained about where books will not open? See the non-kindle unlimited books not opening thread for some examples. There are multiple other complaints here and on other sites.

That's the exact issue I'm asking about.

[Byrdie]

I was afraid of that. :-( Just tried downloading a new book via the "Manage Your Content and Devices" page but nothing happened. At all. Apparently my Kindle is not syncing. Yet strangely enough the store page loads and displays just fine.

Another screwy thing I've noticed in the Storage Management of my Paperwhite, it shows a nearly full bar that says: USED 478 MB FREE 15 MB. Yes, you read that right. It is measuring in megabytes. On a 16 GB device on which I only have around 800 books downloaded, none of which are giant, space-eating files.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Byrdie

I was afraid of that. :-( Just tried downloading a new book via the "Manage Your Content and Devices" page but nothing happened. At all. Apparently my Kindle is not syncing. Yet strangely enough the store page loads and displays just fine.

Another screwy thing I've noticed in the Storage Management of my Paperwhite, it shows a nearly full bar that says: USED 478 MB FREE 15 MB. Yes, you read that right. It is measuring in megabytes. On a 16 GB device on which I only have around 800 books downloaded, none of which are giant, space-eating files.

Have you done a call back with Amazon and told them of the problem their updated is causing?

[Byrdie]

Not yet, but that's on my agenda next.

[MikhailT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What's patched is the adbreak vulnerability. You might be able to install the new firmware and still get the jailbreak back like it other firmware where the vulnerability was fixed. Until someone who is jailborken installs this and attempts to get the jailbreak back, you won't know.

Mine's never jailbroken, got the device with firmware after the last one was available. So, I'm waiting for the new one to come out.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Perhaps the issue that multiple people have complained about where books will not open? See the non-kindle unlimited books not opening thread for some examples. There are multiple other complaints here and on other sites.

There is not much detail to go on there, except that people are using AZW3 or MOBi, as converted by calibre.

My guess is that these are all marked 'Books' (EBOK) - the calibre default - and not 'Docs' (PDOC), and probably also with some ASIN for a book that is not associated with a book that is in your Kindle library (including those forged by calibre).

I think PDOC items would not have any issue.

I would not expect this to be 'fixed' in 5.18.6, as it is a 'feature' (from Amazon's POV), not a 'bug'. It seems there is some additional checking now that takes place with reference to some database on the Kindle that includes ASIN for every Amazon purchase, as updated by latest sync.

I think another scenario that I may have observed is that even a side-loaded Amazon purchase (e.g. KFX with DRM removed) will fail to open if the device has not synced since the purchase was made. At least with recent firmware versions. If that is the case then workaround would be to convert to ePub and then back to KFX with KFX output default PDOC (or just do a sync).

But this is not the scenario people in that thread are considering.

[tomsem]

Those are some interesting features. Workspace changes were part of the announcement.

Will be interesting to see if Shapes are actual objects or just 'stroke macros' (I suspect the latter).

And converting side-loaded PDF to print replica will be welcomed by some (but can you export it without sending to some web service?).

hyperlink preview has yet to be observed in the wild.

Kindle+ may be some new subscription offering (KU + Comixology Unlimited? - currently it is not possible to filter or manage CU titles on Kindles, which has always puzzled me since Colorsoft has color and manga usually are just B&W).

There is a Reddit post --
https://www.reddit.com/r/kindlescrib...p/theory_time/

that shows some new toolbar icon when selecting something, maybe it has something to do with Shapes, or color picker.

[Byrdie]

In my case, the Kindle has never been connected to Calibre or even to my computer. All of the Amazon purchased books on it are direct store downloads, and all of the ones I got elsewhere were sideloaded via Send To Kindle. They all opened and worked just fine before my Paperwhite got this update so I don't think it's a conversion issue. Especially since Calibre wasn't involved.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by tomsem

There is not much detail to go on there, except that people are using AZW3 or MOBi, as converted by calibre.

My guess is that these are all marked 'Books' (EBOK) - the calibre default - and not 'Docs' (PDOC), and probably also with some ASIN for a book that is not associated with a book that is in your Kindle library (including those forged by calibre).

Several of the complaints I've seen elsewhere are from people who are not using calibre. They are reporting that books purchased from Amazon and synced to their Kindle eInk devices are not opening with several also reporting that books sent using Send to Kindle are not opening on their Kindle eInk devices. Several mentions that those books will open on the Kindle app on Android, iOS/iPadOS, Windows and Mac.

A couple did report that doing a factory reset helped while others stated that it did not.

See kindle not loading or opening books for an example. That one also mentions the out of space issue and a claim that connecting to USB will help correct that.

[tomsem]

Well that's a puzzler, for sure. Not having any issues with the update myself (Colorsoft)

In a few cases I have fixed (manual) update weirdness by doing restart, and applying the update again.

Wonder if these reports include OTA updates, or MTP Kindles. The Reddit thread doesn't identify the model or even that the issue had anything do with an update.

[JoeC]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Well that's a puzzler, for sure. Not having any issues with the update myself (Colorsoft)

In a few cases I have fixed (manual) update weirdness by doing restart, and applying the update again.

Wonder if these reports include OTA updates, or MTP Kindles. The Reddit thread doesn't identify the model or even that it had anything do with an update.

No issues here either.

[Byrdie]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Several of the complaints I've seen elsewhere are from people who are not using calibre. They are reporting that books purchased from Amazon and synced to their Kindle eInk devices are not opening with several also reporting that books sent using Send to Kindle are not opening on their Kindle eInk devices. Several mentions that those books will open on the Kindle app on Android, iOS/iPadOS, Windows and Mac.

A couple did report that doing a factory reset helped while others stated that it did not.

See kindle not loading or opening books for an example. That one also mentions the out of space issue and a claim that connecting to USB will help correct that.

Thanks for the link, it was indeed the out of space glitch that was the problem. Connecting to USB got it properly sorted, though Windows 11 threw a popup asking if I wanted it to "fix" my device. (Do NOT allow this, btw, or you'll most likely have bigger problems!) I ignored Windows "helpful" suggestion and just let the Kindle stay connected for a few minutes then safely ejected it. Practically Snoopy danced for joy on seeing all my books, even the Send-to-Kindle sideloads, present and accounted for. The correct amounts of Used and Free space are also showing. Whew! What a relief!

Still don't know if the update triggered the glitch or not but it's the first time that happened AND it did so right after the update was installed. Which to me makes it a likely suspect but who knows? Hopefully it won't happen again.