Kindle Paperwhite now missing page numbers

[sparklemotion]

A little background... I bought the Kindle Paperwhite 2nd generation when it first came out in October of last year. I did NOT register it and used it up until now unregistered. I had page numbers in ALL of my books. They always showed in the bottom left corner. This was on all my books, ones I bought from Amazon and even ones that I didn't.

Well, last night on a whim I decided to register my kindle to see if I liked the Goodreads integration and the changes to collections. I decided I didn't like the changes it made to my kindle so I deregistered it and reset the device to new and started fresh.

I then loaded all my books back on it via Calibre. The books have been indexed as I'm able to use the search function. However, none of my books have page numbers now, including the book I was currently reading that DID have page numbers showing when I was reading it previous to registering it.

Any thoughts? I have gone into the settings in reading progress where you can change between location in book, time left in chapter and time left in book and page numbers is no longer listed as an option to choose whereas before it was.

Any ideas on how I can get page numbers back and get my books to behave as they did before I registered it? I really regret registering it now.

[dordale]

Sorry--don't have a solution to your problem. But wanted to let you know that I have a PW2 that's registered and I can see page numbers in most of my books. A few that I've purchased from Amazon don't have page numbers, but all of the ones that I've converted in Calibre do have page numbers. Don't know why registering your PW would cause the page numbers not to work--but hope you can get it figured out!

[Glorfindel]

Did they stop when you registered or when you deregistered?

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by dordale

Sorry--don't have a solution to your problem. But wanted to let you know that I have a PW2 that's registered and I can see page numbers in most of my books. A few that I've purchased from Amazon don't have page numbers, but all of the ones that I've converted in Calibre do have page numbers. Don't know why registering your PW would cause the page numbers not to work--but hope you can get it figured out!

Thanks for your reply, dordale. I wonder if there's a change I can make in calibre to get them back. Maybe I did something differently when I added them the first time. Other than that, I really don't know what to make of it or how to get them back. When you check reading progress from inside an open book does it list page numbers as an option to switch to? Mine no longer does.

Originally Posted by Glorfindel

Did they stop when you registered or when you deregistered?

When I deregistered it. Although, like I mentioned previously, they did work for months when I had I bought it and didn't register it initially. Very confusing.

[sparklemotion]

I sorted it. I reconverted the mobi file in calibre and that somehow made the difference. Yay. So I need to remove the other books and reconvert them too, I suppose. Some I put on as AZW3 files and it seems they may have to be mobi files for the page numbers to work? At least it appears that way...

[Glorfindel]

What is wrong with having it registered? That would be the easiest solution I think.

[dordale]

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

I sorted it. I reconverted the mobi file in calibre and that somehow made the difference. Yay. So I need to remove the other books and reconvert them too, I suppose. Some I put on as AZW3 files and it seems they may have to be mobi files for the page numbers to work? At least it appears that way...

Glad you got page numbers working again...but the page #s should be working in AZW3 files. That's what I always convert to in Calibre and I have page #s for the AZW3 files on my KPW2. Very curious indeed!

[Glorfindel]

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

I sorted it. I reconverted the mobi file in calibre and that somehow made the difference. Yay. So I need to remove the other books and reconvert them too, I suppose. Some I put on as AZW3 files and it seems they may have to be mobi files for the page numbers to work? At least it appears that way...

And yes, I didn't see this

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by dordale

Glad you got page numbers working again...but the page #s should be working in AZW3 files. That's what I always convert to in Calibre and I have page #s for the AZW3 files on my KPW2. Very curious indeed!

Hmm.. Maybe I'll try doing a reconvert on one of my AZW3 files and experiment. The whole thing is confusing to me, but I'm just happy I have them back!

Originally Posted by Glorfindel

And yes, I didn't see this

Yes, I got it working. Just too bad I don't entirely understand how. haha.

[susan_cassidy]

Page numbers are an extra feature of Calibre. I believe that you have to have a plug-in or something for it to work. And they are only estimated page numbers, not the real page numbers that Amazon books come with.

[eschwartz]

Books purchased at Amazon will have real page numbers added automatically. As long as the book has page numbers available, anyway. It is in documents/book-title.sdr/book-title.apnx although the first time you open the book (on a KT at least) it gets merged ino the annotations file...

Anyway, if you configure the device driver in calibre you can turn off (it's on by default) the auto-generation of a pseudo-apnx which guesstimates the pagenumbers. Also you can set it to accurate mode, or to derive page count from a custom column.

This works for both mobi and azw3. It is part of the send process, not conversion, so reconverting shouldn't make a difference?

[NiLuJe]

I vaguely remember people mentioning having to download (or send, or push, whatever, as long as it's done through an Amazon service) a book from Amazon to 'unlock' page numbers, which makes no sense whatsoever to me, because it's not a feature tied to the registration process AFAICT, and as eschwartz said, it's a single measly file sent by Calibre during the "Send To Device" process...

What I can say is that the format changed a bit with the advent of KF8, but I can't remember how Calibre decides which format to send (and I'm the one who did the KF8 tweaks for that... >_<").

EDIT: Yep, I went with what I thought was the safe way at the time (i.e. sending the new format w/ KF8 files, and the old format w/ Mobi6 files, instead of checking the target device model to make the decision [which, while doable, is annoyingly complex and potentially not 100% accurate on every platform...]).

TL;DR: So that might explain it, and the trick might be to – if it doesn't work with KF8 files at first – try sending a Mobi6 one to 'unbreak' everything .

[sparklemotion]

Thanks for the replies and thoughts everyone.

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Books purchased at Amazon will have real page numbers added automatically. As long as the book has page numbers available, anyway. It is in documents/book-title.sdr/book-title.apnx although the first time you open the book (on a KT at least) it gets merged ino the annotations file...

Anyway, if you configure the device driver in calibre you can turn off (it's on by default) the auto-generation of a pseudo-apnx which guesstimates the pagenumbers. Also you can set it to accurate mode, or to derive page count from a custom column.

This works for both mobi and azw3. It is part of the send process, not conversion, so reconverting shouldn't make a difference?

You would think it wouldn't, but for whatever reason it seemed to in my case. Strange, eh? And my Amazon purchased books that do have page numbers, but did previously, lost their page numbers until I reconverted and sent that one book file and then I noticed they actually appeared in the others as well then. Very strange behavior. It almost seems like sending that file forced some sort of change. Now all the books I have put on since have page numbers again.

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

I vaguely remember people mentioning having to download (or send, or push, whatever, as long as it's done through an Amazon service) a book from Amazon to 'unlock' page numbers, which makes no sense whatsoever to me, because it's not a feature tied to the registration process AFAICT, and as eschwartz said, it's a single measly file sent by Calibre during the "Send To Device" process...

What I can say is that the format changed a bit with the advent of KF8, but I can't remember how Calibre decides which format to send (and I'm the one who did the KF8 tweaks for that... >_<").

EDIT: Yep, I went with what I thought was the safe way at the time (i.e. sending the new format w/ KF8 files, and the old format w/ Mobi6 files, instead of checking the target device model to make the decision [which, while doable, is annoyingly complex and potentially not 100% accurate on every platform...]).

TL;DR: So that might explain it, and the trick might be to – if it doesn't work with KF8 files at first – try sending a Mobi6 one to 'unbreak' everything .

Thanks for your reply. This seriously is what seemed to work for me. Sending that one mobi file seemed to literally unbreak everything as if by magic. Go figure.

[dordale]

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

Thanks for your reply. This seriously is what seemed to work for me. Sending that one mobi file seemed to literally unbreak everything as if by magic. Go figure.

Very strange indeed! Glad you got page numbers working again SparkleMotion. A real puzzler as to how/why Amazon decided to program page numbers on the PW this way!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by dordale

Very strange indeed! Glad you got page numbers working again SparkleMotion. A real puzzler as to how/why Amazon decided to program page numbers on the PW this way!

Page numbers are stored in the file with an extension of ".apnx" which is in the "Sidecar" folder associated with the book on the Kindle. If that file exists, you have page numbers; if it doesn't exist, you don't. The apnx file can either be sent by Amazon (if you download the book directly from Amazon) or can be created and sent by Calibre.

There's really nothing complicated about it.