Firmware 5.18.6 for 11th gen and newer Kindles - Page 4

JSWolf · 01-10-2026, 05:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michaelsoftbinb

hi all, i've just done something very idiotic, in factory resetting my kindle paperwhite 11th gen, and i have only now realized that the jailbreak i was using before (winterbreak) might no longer work, and that there is now no way of jailbreaking my kindle as of now. is there a solution for any of my numerous mistakes? i'm unsure if my reset might have broken something, as i did not follow the steps of renaming the otabinary before doing the reset. if there is no fix, im open to giving up my kindle to help in the jailbreaking effort.

If it's now on the latest firmware, you are out of luck.

Waylander · 01-10-2026, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elaine T

I wish I did, since it just happened to me. I'd been reading on mine (paperwhite 11th gen while waiting for my kid to finish choir practice, everything was fine. Practice finished, we went home, I opened my kindle again. Place holder icons instead of thumbnails of covers, and "ITEM NOT AVAILABLE" every time I try to open a book. No responses to attempts to delete - that is, I hit the three dots, select remove download and... nothing happens.
Reboot by holding the power switch down to trigger it. Nothing changed. Try again. Still nothing. Poke at settings and find library & storage management. Which showed exactly the same space available and space left that you got. Select 'manual removal' for clearing space. Nothing changes, the books are still showing up in the list, and are NOT AVAILABLE. Give up for the night but leave it charging overnight.

in the morning straight off the charger: no change. all ITEM NOT AVAILABLE. Plug it into my computer to see what Windows thinks the used space and free space are. Pull up Calibre DISPLAY BOOKS ON DEVICE, which looks about right, meaning they are all there, and delete all books by a couple authors via Calibre. Check the Properties display in Windows. Hey, lookie there, it's normal. Used space 4.3GB, Free 22.9GB. Eject and now everything looks right and behaves the way it should.

I suspect it was the plugging in to the computer that triggered whatever needed to happen to fix it. But I don't know. Still, for other people who might run into this, I've posted the steps I took that probably had something to do with bringing the functionality back to normal. I'm really glad it worked.
The only alternative I could think of was doing a robocopy backup, reset to factory, reload via robocopy and then manually sort the bulk of the books because over a thousand are side-loaded which means Amazon doesn't track them. And the robocopy theoretically puts back the info, but the device is very slow to work through it. At least it has been on the few occasions I've done that before.

I had this exact same thing happen to me over the summer with my PW5, purchased Dec 29, 2023, so only 1.5 years old. It was completely random, and also resolved itself when I plugged it into Calibre again. In the end I got rid of the device because it started to randomly restart and would get stuck in reboot for hours. In some ways I'm glad I'm not the only one who's had this glitch happen to them.

michaelsoftbinb · 01-11-2026, 02:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If it's now on the latest firmware, you are out of luck.

thanks man, ill keep in mind to not be an idiot in future.

Waylander · 01-20-2026, 11:18 AM

5.18.6 fw on my PW6 seems to mean that all ebooks, barring those from publishers that specifically don't use DRM, now show as KFX-ZIP when imported into Calibre. I'm guessing this is because of the new hardened drm introduced a couple of months ago? Anyway, it's annoying as downloading to my PW6 and transferring to Calibre no longer works for most books.

Frogm4n · 01-20-2026, 01:31 PM

Yes, DeDRM for new ebooks on the Kindle does not currently work on firmware 5.18.5+.

mergen3107 · 01-20-2026, 11:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michaelsoftbinb

hi all, i've just done something very idiotic, in factory resetting my kindle paperwhite 11th gen, and i have only now realized that the jailbreak i was using before (winterbreak) might no longer work, and that there is now no way of jailbreaking my kindle as of now. is there a solution for any of my numerous mistakes? i'm unsure if my reset might have broken something, as i did not follow the steps of renaming the otabinary before doing the reset. if there is no fix, im open to giving up my kindle to help in the jailbreaking effort.

If you just factory reseted once, you’re fine. Do teo simple restarts, then reinstall hotfix and all bin packages with MRPI.

If Kindle also updated, then yes, no luck for now

michaelsoftbinb · 01-24-2026, 08:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mergen3107

If you just factory reseted once, you’re fine. Do teo simple restarts, then reinstall hotfix and all bin packages with MRPI.

If Kindle also updated, then yes, no luck for now

yes it did update, and i am still trying to cope with this as we speak

jhowell · Yesterday, 08:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhowell

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

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."

It looks like this change is finally starting to take effect a year later.

Kindle Unlimited is now Kindle+, KDP audiobooks now included

JSWolf · Yesterday, 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhowell

It looks like this change is finally starting to take effect a year later.

Kindle Unlimited is now Kindle+, KDP audiobooks now included

And for the audiobook part, a big part of that is AI generated audiobooks.

rantanplan · Yesterday, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

And for the audiobook part, a big part of that is AI generated audiobooks.

I went through the 2-for-1 section in audible and wow, every other book has an AI created cover. Like, WTF, I use Claude for work and my nickel-projects but that shit needs to stay out of art.

JSWolf · Yesterday, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rantanplan

I went through the 2-for-1 section in audible and wow, every other book has an AI created cover. Like, WTF, I use Claude for work and my nickel-projects but that shit needs to stay out of art.

I don't mind an AI cover as it can be better then a lot of self-mangled covers. But as long as that's the only thing AI is used for, it's OK.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Kindle firmware 5.18.1 released for all 10th gen and newer Kindles	Frogm4n	Kindle Developer's Corner	73	06-11-2026 11:06 AM
Kindle Paperwhite 11th Gen (Firmware 5.18.2) – Library not updating after Jailbreak	alhnair27	Kindle Developer's Corner	3	10-19-2025 12:12 PM
Tools Kindlebt - A Bluetooth library for HF Kindles 11th gen and up	Sighery	Kindle Developer's Corner	0	10-18-2025 02:25 PM
Oxford dictionary 2nd or 3rd edition on 11th gen Kindles?	ksks	Amazon Kindle	17	10-06-2025 08:38 PM
Author_Sort on 11th Gen Kindles/Firmware 5.3, Mobi, &c.	scifantasy	Calibre	1	07-25-2022 09:58 PM

01-20-2026, 11:18 AM	#49
Waylander Guru Posts: 725 Karma: 2905052 Join Date: Oct 2013 Device: Kindle Paperwhite 6	5.18.6 fw on my PW6 seems to mean that all ebooks, barring those from publishers that specifically don't use DRM, now show as KFX-ZIP when imported into Calibre. I'm guessing this is because of the new hardened drm introduced a couple of months ago? Anyway, it's annoying as downloading to my PW6 and transferring to Calibre no longer works for most books.

01-20-2026, 01:31 PM	#50
Frogm4n Guru Posts: 727 Karma: 4500001 Join Date: Jul 2023 Device: Scribe 2022, OA2, PRS-350	Yes, DeDRM for new ebooks on the Kindle does not currently work on firmware 5.18.5+.