Troubleshooting Kindle Touch battery life

[Ginwen]

I deleted about 80 (got it down to 800) and now it's indexing away (about 450 to go). Thanks, it never would have occurred to me. I added all this to my old Kindle over time, so never really noticed (and wouldn't known how to figure out about stuff being unindexed even if I had).

[shinew]

800???! I mean do you really need to have 800 books on the kindle now? This would pretty much be an non-issue if you just load the books you're reading now and adding them later as needed or don't bother to delete already finished ones.

I admit that I don't really understand the need for those who dump this many books, or even thousands for some at once. I mean ereaders are not like ipods, and books are not like songs which you can finish most of them under 5-10min, and you can appreciate them without paying much attention. They take a lot more concentration and longer time to read. What is the purpose for loading them all at once?

Despite amazon's ad that claims to hold 3,000 books, the hardware and OS on those devices are not designed to handle(indexing) all of them at once, it's probably OK if you load them little by little, but it'll still slow down when you get not even close to the max. This is actually part of Amazon's fault for not making it clear to its average customers.

[Ginwen]

I like to have lots of choices because I never know what I'll want to read, and I've replaced a lot of my paper books with ebooks, and that's where I like to keep them. It's just a preference, and it wasn't a problem on my Kindle 2. Well ok it was a problem when I got too many books to fit, but I actually cut down from that. As far as slowing it down, not much if any. I realize it's a bit silly having so many books but I enjoy it.

As far as putting them all at once, the kindle touch instructions told me to put all the books on I wanted in collections before I copied the collections from my old device, so that's what I did. Again, didn't really occur to me it would be a problem, and I was in a rush to get everything setup. I would have copied a few at a time if I knew.

[terencek]

I'm one of those who likes to have my entire library on the K3, giving me an instant reading choice without having to hook up first to my computer and do a sideload.

But I do concede that even after indexing, having this many books (just under 1,500) on the device slows it down a lot in terms of calling up the Home page, which can take a minute or so. Other users who share my preference for a large library should be aware of this downside.

[bookfanmd]

I'm getting great battery results on my Touch. Much better than any reader I've ever owned. It came around Nov 15 and I've only charged twice since then. I didn't really need to charge the second time but had it hooked up to the computer to load books through Calibre and just let it continue to charge all night. It's still half full now and the wireless has been on the whole time. This is the first Kindle I've really liked.

I don't have a lot of books loaded, less than 100 with over 3,000 in the archive. I've been collecting Amazon freebies for a few years now.

I had ordered a Kindle 3 in July and by September was having serious battery issues. I contacted Customer service and they were not too helpful. Finally by November the battery was only lasting 1 1/2 days and I contacted Customer Service again. This time the rep was very helpful and after asking a bunch of questions sent me a new Kindle Keyboard in exchange.

[shinew]

My Kindle Touch's battery life has been excellent as well, but I only have about 50 books on it.

Originally Posted by terencek

I'm one of those who likes to have my entire library on the K3, giving me an instant reading choice without having to hook up first to my computer and do a sideload.

So I'm just trying to understand the rationale for people who load & keep that many books like yourself, as I've wondered about this sometimes. I've always assumed that for most people who carry this many books, they just have this slightly obsessive urge to always bring their entire collection with them wherever they go without actually reading half or quarter of them in the coming year. But you seem to have practical reasons for doing it.

A couple of questions for you and others who share this need if you don't mind:
- how often do you have to sideload if you only load the books you're about to read? Or just load the next 5-10 books you're about to read(I do that)?
- by needing this "instant reading choice", do you mean that you don't finish the book you're reading from one sitting to the next and just pick up a different book? or you have no idea what you want to read next until you finish the book? Personally there is always list of books which I want to read next, so a 10-book queue is more than enough for me and I always finish each book.
- do you mostly read books that you've read? I admit I don't re-read books much so I don't(and can't afford) purchase that many books ahead of time.

thanks!

[VictoriaP]

I can't answer for anyone else regarding keeping books on the device, but I am a voracious reader and re-reader, and I very frequently don't know what I'm going to be in the mood for. I also prefer to keep wireless off for the same battery reasons we've discussed all along in this thread.

I also hate cables and am rarely near a "real" computer, preferring the iPad. So sideloading from a hard drive is not my favorite activity, nor is it convenient.

Sideloading OTA from a source like Dropbox is marginally better, but I have limited Dropbox storage which is mostly tied up in more important uses (like wirelessly backing up critical things from my iPad) and frankly the Kindle's browser sucks. Yes, it works. It's also kludgy and relatively slow. And oh yeah, for some damn reason, I can't get it to download .prc files to the Touch, even though they seem to actually run fine once they're on there. Go figure.

Downloading from Amazon's archives is marginally better, but of course, nothing's actually sorted up there. Finding a book isn't a matter of, oh, I'm in the mood for sci-fi, filter just that category and browse just the 100 or so books in there. Neither the archives on the computer nor the Kindle itself show me covers in a list form, at a glance, so I don't have that to guide my choices either (it would make a difference, as I'm a visual person and more likely to recognize the cover than the title). Having my fairly extensive library sorted into smaller categories that are relevant to me on the Kindle makes all that easier.

I want choosing what to read next to be faster and easier than it is to actually walk into my physical library in my house and pick a book off the shelf. Keeping everything well sorted and on my device accomplishes that, and moreover, does it no matter where in the world I take the Kindle.

(Interestingly enough, during the year that I read predominantly on the iPad, I stored only 20 books or so on the device and left everything else in the cloud. The differences I think are accounted for by: a) always-on wifi, b) color covers to search in the archives, and c) Dropbox app integrated with Kindle app (well, and it's jailbroken so I can move things behind the scenes very easily). The lack of categories in the app made it a lot less appealing to keep much directly on the device.)

[LibertyToad]

That sounds to me like it is discharging pretty fast (shrug). I'm pretty sure my Touch runs longer than that. I can read for about 90 mins and the battery bar doesn't move. When I plug it in the next morning, it says it is fully charged (based on the light) FWIW.

I understand that you should let drain the battery a couple of times to condition it when you get it to improve battery life and that is what I did.

Sorry, I read to the bottom of the post. Sounds like it was the indexing...never mind...grin.

[terencek]

Originally Posted by shinew

So I'm just trying to understand the rationale for people who load & keep that many books like yourself, as I've wondered about this sometimes. I've always assumed that for most people who carry this many books, they just have this slightly obsessive urge to always bring their entire collection with them wherever they go without actually reading half or quarter of them in the coming year. But you seem to have practical reasons for doing it.

Speaking for myself, having my whole collection on the Kindle is like wandering into my public library (which I no longer do since the advent of this wondrous device!). I can browse among my 1,500 books (and no, I almost never re-read....) and pick out what takes my fancy there and then. No messing around with cables to sideload, instant gratification. Yes I probably do read a couple of books concurrently, particularly if one is non-fiction when I vary between that and a fast read for variety.

And to answer one more of the questions: yes, I did pretty much slap the whole collection on in a few sideloading sessions (split to prevent the well-known choking which comes with indexing) and since then have no need to add any more for a while. Like many I suspect, I get through a book or three a week (and then delete them from the Kindle though I always have at least one backup and a full Kindle mirror image on my hard drive).

[Jonas777]

Regarding battery life: do the touchscreen make this model use more power than the models without touchscreen? This touchscreen works by (invisible) lightbeams across the screen doesn't it?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Jonas777

Regarding battery life: do the touchscreen make this model use more power than the models without touchscreen? This touchscreen works by (invisible) lightbeams across the screen doesn't it?

In theory, yes, but the power usage of those IR LEDs is going to be exceedingly small. I doubt that it makes any measurable difference.

[Ginwen]

Getting everything indexed, which took 2 or 3 days (partly because I was doing pretty small chunks, partly because of the issue below) seems to have helped a lot.

One thing I ran into as I was doing it is that, 2 or 3 times while copying stuff over, it just stopped indexing anything. I tried deleting the 5 or so that were on there each time it happened, but it wouldn't index anything else either. I deleted a few things that were already indexed and it started working again. Not sure if it was just kind of hung-up and deleting something cleared that up, or if there is some limit on what it will index that is different than the index on the device. As long as it was taking I didn't really feel like experimenting

Anyway, I just wanted to let people know that it was a bit of a headache, but it did help, and thanks again for all the assistance.

[sarahsbloke]

Originally Posted by shinew

My Kindle Touch's battery life has been excellent as well, but I only have about 50 books on it.


So I'm just trying to understand the rationale for people who load & keep that many books like yourself, as I've wondered about this sometimes. I've always assumed that for most people who carry this many books, they just have this slightly obsessive urge to always bring their entire collection with them wherever they go without actually reading half or quarter of them in the coming year. But you seem to have practical reasons for doing it.

We are survivalists waiting for the end of the world (as we know it).
If we survive with our Kindles intact and all our books on it, we will have entertainment for the rest of our lives. (charging if fairly trivial)
But try accessing your dropbox cloud after a nuclear EMP blast, or the fall of civilisation from pandemic disease!

Alternatively, like me, you could live in the jungle with access to nothing apart from your Kindle.