Help with Scribe

[nikoldije]

Some guy is selling first Kindle Scribe for around 200eur

Kindle Scribe 16GB brand new, it is black listed and comes with firmware 5.16.6.

Does anybody know what are my options with this device and firmware and fact that it black listed.

I need it only as a reader for manga and maybe some comics. I am not interested in note taking or any other functions, just want to side load manga over USB and read like i am using my Kobo libra 2 at the moment.

Please advise if this is possible

Thank You

[Josieb1]

All I know about blacklisted devices is you can’t set up collections.

[alphonk]

Same boat here, but a couple of years deeper. I picked up a 1st gen Scribe
back in 2024 also blacklisted, currently on 5.16.6.1, kept in airplane mode
since day one to avoid any OTA pushing me into 5.18.x territory.

Confirming Josieb1's point on usage: sideloading via USB works fine for
reading. PDFs, EPUBs (after Calibre conversion to AZW3/KFX), comics — all
readable. The Scribe's note-taking feature is the one thing that hard-requires
a registered Amazon account in my experience; everything else seems to
tolerate the blacklisted state.

On the jailbreak side though, has anything changed recently? My read of the
current landscape is that we're stuck:

- LanguageBreak caps at 5.16.2.1.1
- WinterBreak2 is for <5.16.4 (5.16.5 maybe)
- Nosebleed excludes Scribe (sandbox enabled per hhhhhhhhh's writeup on
CVE-2020-16040)
- AdBreak needs ad-supported, Scribe never had an ad variant (confirmed by
Ruinemacil in the AdBreak thread)

So we're in an orphan window between LanguageBreak and Nosebleed with no
known method. Anyone aware of in-progress work on a sandbox escape for
Scribe in this firmware range, or is the realistic answer "this combo is
permanently orphaned"?

Happy to share any device info that might help someone poking at it.

[nikoldije]

Originally Posted by alphonk

Same boat here, but a couple of years deeper. I picked up a 1st gen Scribe
back in 2024 also blacklisted, currently on 5.16.6.1, kept in airplane mode
since day one to avoid any OTA pushing me into 5.18.x territory.

Confirming Josieb1's point on usage: sideloading via USB works fine for
reading. PDFs, EPUBs (after Calibre conversion to AZW3/KFX), comics — all
readable. The Scribe's note-taking feature is the one thing that hard-requires
a registered Amazon account in my experience; everything else seems to
tolerate the blacklisted state.

On the jailbreak side though, has anything changed recently? My read of the
current landscape is that we're stuck:

- LanguageBreak caps at 5.16.2.1.1
- WinterBreak2 is for <5.16.4 (5.16.5 maybe)
- Nosebleed excludes Scribe (sandbox enabled per hhhhhhhhh's writeup on
CVE-2020-16040)
- AdBreak needs ad-supported, Scribe never had an ad variant (confirmed by
Ruinemacil in the AdBreak thread)

So we're in an orphan window between LanguageBreak and Nosebleed with no
known method. Anyone aware of in-progress work on a sandbox escape for
Scribe in this firmware range, or is the realistic answer "this combo is
permanently orphaned"?

Happy to share any device info that might help someone poking at it.

Well if reading is working, that is all that I need, KO reader would be a nice bonus but i am fine without it as I am right now, I will probably go for it because for 200e I can hardly find an unused reader with 10 inch 300ppi (at least in my country).

Thanks for info!!

[Frogm4n]

Last I've read is that the Scribe must be registered to an Amazon account to get past setup on firmware 5.16.3 and up. Blacklisted devices are blocked from doing so. The Scribe is a brick otherwise. There were some ways to get around it on lower firmware but that ship has sailed for almost any OG device that isn't NIB.