Kindle Touch: "Sections & Articles" index page missing on newspapers/magazines

[matejs]

The "personal document service" is just awful. No decent web management, mails get lost on regular basis and now this. I really like my Kindle Touch, but I expected better features from amazon.

I've just finished making a script which fetches news with calibre and sends them to users according to their preferences. Only to discover the .pobi problem.

I hope they fix it soon (and I'm probably going to complain to them every day till they do). Whitelisting a .pobi extension can't be that hard.

Edit: I just spoke with the kindle support. While they were surprised that a .pobi format even exists (and claimed no kindle device supports it), they promised to forward the feedback.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by matejs

The "personal document service" is just awful. No decent web management, mails get lost on regular basis and now this. I really like my Kindle Touch, but I expected better features from amazon.

I've just finished making a script which fetches news with calibre and sends them to users according to their preferences. Only to discover the .pobi problem.

I hope they fix it soon (and I'm probably going to complain to them every day till they do). Whitelisting a .pobi extension can't be that hard.

Edit: I just spoke with the kindle support. While they were surprised that a .pobi format even exists (and claimed no kindle device supports it), they promised to forward the feedback.

Why would they want to fix a problem that allows you to avoid buying content from them or their partners

[matejs]

Originally Posted by theducks

Why would the want to fix a problem that allows you to avoid buying content from them or their partners

True enough. But I'm not giving up. If too many people start to complain, they might do something about it.
Also, rooting the device and a script for on-demand content fetching is another way to do it. But I'm reluctant to go that way as I probably don't have enough free time to do that.

Edit: As a temporary solution, I've setup calibre on a server which puts .mobi files online, so I can download them with Kindle's browser. They get opened like any other newspaper.

[Locarno]

I just spoke with an Amazon representative, and she was emphatic that the number of customer complaints/requests they receive about this issue will impact how eager they are to make a change. So e-mail them and add your voice; even ten or twenty more might be enough. Try something like this:

TO: kindle-feedback@amazon.com.
Dear Amazon,

I would very much like to have Calibre news, KindleFeeder News Feeds, or .mobi periodicals e-mailed to my @kindle.com address work as fully-functional periodical files on the Kindle Touch, so that I can use the "Sections & Articles" navigation page. Can you enable this? Right now, it seems that the e-mails are converted or otherwise set to "e-book" form, so that I cannot use the "Sections & Articles" navigation page. This is important functionality and has a big impact on my reading experience with the Kindle Touch.

[lanooz]

Originally Posted by nickredding

Would you check your Kindle Touch software version and see if Amazon has pushed an update? I'm scratching my head over why Touch and Fire behaved identically and now appear to be different. It's possible that Amazon is doing something special when delivering docs from Instapaper to Touch but that seems a bit far-fetched to me because it's way too specific.

I think most of the issues with Amazon are due to them being simple-minded (e.g. assuming there's no issue with setting the EXTH doctype to PDOC for everything emailed to a Kindle, regardless of the setting in the original). The old Kindles (V1, V2, V3 at least) don't look at the doctype and use the MOBI type to determine if a doc is a newspaper or magazine. The Fire (and, it seems, the Touch, at least initially) don't do that--rather they look at the exth doctype, and hence the problem with emailed docs. I'm thinking Amazon pushed an update to Touch that changes this behaviour.

Hm..there is no update available for my kindle. Maybe it takes time to roll the update for everyone?

[cph]

A new update ist online (5.0.3), but I suppose there's no fix for this problem yet.

[Breed92014]

Good news! I just tried sending a document to my Touch, which has been upgraded to 5.03, and it now has sections! It looks great!
Now, if they would do the same thing for the Kindle Fire, it'd be perfect.

Very exciting!

[Breed92014]

Well, a typical newspaper such as USA Today seems to behave properly. But, when I create a catalog of my books through calibre, and send it to my Touch which has been updated to 5.0.3, I can see the sections ok. But I cannot select a particular book to look at. Nothing happens when I select a book link.

Even worse, the Kindle freezes at that point and I have to reboot. I've done this 3 times in a row now, and it appears to be a real problem.

I hope someone else can verify this, and I also hope it can be easily fixed on the calibre side of things.

[WunderP]

It looks like this was resolved for the Touch with the 5.0.3 update of the firmware.

[lanooz]

yes, it's solved

[cph]

I have still the software version 5.0.0 and the periodicals have the sections now so I think it was fixed on the amazon servers/their services not in the Kindle software.

But regarding 5.0.3:

Is it also solved that the periodicals which are sent to the KT over whispernet (...@kindle.com adress) can't be deleted on the device?

[BobbyVan]

Originally Posted by cph

I have still the software version 5.0.0 and the periodicals have the sections now so I think it was fixed on the amazon servers/their services not in the Kindle software.

But regarding 5.0.3:

Is it also solved that the periodicals which are sent to the KT over whispernet (...@kindle.com adress) can't be deleted on the device?

Yes. Go to "Manage My Kindle," then go to "Personal Document Settings," then turn off "Personal Document Archiving." You can still email documents to your Kindle email address, but with that option disabled you can delete them from the device itself.

[BobbyVan]

Periodicals received via "Personal Document Service" on Kindle Touch no longer formatted as periodicals. Anyone else having this problem?

Just when I think all is right with the world... ugh!

[nelson1379]

Yes, this just broke for me too today, after working yesterday. Ugh.

[BobbyVan]

If this affects you, please contact Kindle support directly and ask them to repair what was working just a few days ago!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/conta...ndle-help.html