Kindle Paperwhite displaying "My Items (0)"; Ideas?

[CuriousJay]

My KindlePaperwhite is suddenly displaying zero items: "My Items (0)"

I've done some reading over past forum posts and it seems the simplest way to fix this problem would be to wipe the Kindle. I could do that, but I'm also kind of curious about *why* it happened and if there is any clever trick I can use to force the Kindle to re-index the books that are on it to properly display them.

Here's the situation:

I read the Kindle a few days ago. It was fine.

I added two or three books via Calibre last night. I'm pretty sure I didn't properly eject the Kindle, I just waited for it to finish transferring the files and pulled the USB cord. I open the Kindle and see "My Items (0)".

Out of curiosity, I jumped into my "Cloud" list and pulled down a book from Amazon. Curiously, I can open the book and read it from Cloud view, but it never shows up in Device view (where it still shows "My Items (0)".

If I mount the device on my computer Calibre (and the regular file explorer) both show the device is still full of books: both the Calibre loaded books and the official Amazon books.

I read in a post or two that sometimes a bad conversion can cause a hangup, so I deleted the three books I had recently loaded. No change.

Is there anyway to force the Kindle to reindex its contents? Like I said, I know I can just wipe the device and do it over, but I'm really curious to see if there is a way to fix the issue without a total wipe. Thanks!

[Barbara1955]

Reboot!

[CuriousJay]

Originally Posted by Katie1

Reboot!

Oh sorry, I forgot to add that. I did reboot (both in Airplane mode, which I was in originally, and out of Airplane mode just to see if the non-connectivity was part of the issue).

[Barbara1955]

I did what you done mines a K3 reboot always worked for me. Hopefully some one with a PW will come up with an idea.

[Barbara1955]

BTW it might help to place this in the Kindle Forum.

[pidgeon92]

What happens if you try to add another book from calibre, one that was not on the device before the problem occurred?

[CuriousJay]

Originally Posted by pidgeon92

What happens if you try to add another book from calibre, one that was not on the device before the problem occurred?

Tried this out: Calibre says the book is there, if I browse the file structure on the Kindle in Windows Explorer, the book is there, but when I eject the Kindle it still lists 0 items on the device. =/

[nynaevelan]

Originally Posted by CuriousJay

Is there anyway to force the Kindle to reindex its contents? Like I said, I know I can just wipe the device and do it over, but I'm really curious to see if there is a way to fix the issue without a total wipe. Thanks!

I go into the \system\search index\ directory and delete everything there, this will force the device to reindex.

[Barbara1955]

You may have to reformat & then rebook then add the books 1 at a time. I also had to do that when my K3 got stuck. Someone later told me I shouldn't but it did work with no more problems.

[CuriousJay]

Originally Posted by nynaevelan

I go into the \system\search index\ directory and delete everything there, this will force the device to reindex.

Tried that: it does indeed make a new (and smaller) index database, but it doesn't resolve the issue.

[CuriousJay]

Originally Posted by Katie1

You may have to reformat & then rebook then add the books 1 at a time. I also had to do that when my K3 got stuck. Someone later told me I shouldn't but it did work with no more problems.

I have a feeling that's going to be the ultimate and only viable solution, but I am having fun poking around inside the Kindle to try and solve it without a total wipe.

[DreamWriter]

Make sure the time is correct on your device and then sync it.

[CuriousJay]

Originally Posted by DreamWriter

Make sure the time is correct on your device and then sync it.

I wish I'd had a chance to try this one out! After spending some time this morning dinking around with it some more I opted to wipe it and actually get some real work done

If the issue crops up again, I'm going to check the time on the device.

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by CuriousJay

I wish I'd had a chance to try this one out! After spending some time this morning dinking around with it some more I opted to wipe it and actually get some real work done

If the issue crops up again, I'm going to check the time on the device.

My suggestion was a long shot, anyway. I know that incorrect device time sometimes causes problems on the Kindle Keyboard, so I thought I'd mention it.

I hope your Paperwhite works correctly in the future.

[CuriousJay]

Originally Posted by DreamWriter

My suggestion was a long shot, anyway. I know that incorrect device time sometimes causes problems on the Kindle Keyboard, so I thought I'd mention it.

I hope your Paperwhite works correctly in the future.

Sometimes it's the long shot things that work, I know I've fixed more than a few computer problems over the last 25 years with long-shot "Ehhh I'll just try this" solutions.

Fingers crossed! This is the first time I've had any problems with any of my Kindles. I'm hoping it was just a very isolated glitch.