Firmware Update Kindle Firmware Update 5.16.6

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Paperbackstash

Oh, no!

I'm not manually updating this update since it sounds pointless to me, but hopefully this bug is fixed before it forces update since I use custom fonts all the time

I don't think it is a bug with this update, and it didn't wipe out mine. Custom fonts are still supported.

[DNSB]

I had the same issue with my custom fonts. A delete and recopy seems to have fixed it for me as well. Admittedly, it was before December 24, 2023 the last time I used my Paperwhite and that book did not use any of the custom fonts so they may have been missing for a while.

[Avwriter]

Does it still delete all your side-loaded books every time you take it out of airplane mode? I have been burned by this too many times, and then have to reload them and then figure out where I left off reading in each book.

[perisiana]

There's a new option that set the light brightness (not the warm one) depending on the hour of the day, or I never noticed it?

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Avwriter

Does it still delete all your side-loaded books every time you take it out of airplane mode? I have been burned by this too many times, and then have to reload them and then figure out where I left off reading in each book.

Which Kindle model are you using?

If you are using calibre I would ask on that forum here and supply more details.

I have not seen any reports like this, nor have I experienced it myself. 'Disappearing thumbnails', yes.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by tomsem

I have not seen any reports like this, nor have I experienced it myself. 'Disappearing thumbnails', yes.

There have been several complaints in the last while from people who had sideloaded content disappear from their Kindles. Some of them had been using their Kindle offline for weeks/months and the content disappeared when they either deliberately or accidentally connected their Kindle to a WiFi network.

At this point, there does not seem to be enough data to say why this happens.

[Frost015]

I share the concern for the font size of the new config UI. It's easier to navigate but it got too small to be honest. I don't have vision problems but I can see why some people dislike it. The new options are cool though. The only problem I've faced with this new update so far is the group in series option. It has disappeared and now I'm forced with my books grouped by series in the library tab.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by DNSB

There have been several complaints in the last while from people who had sideloaded content disappear from their Kindles. Some of them had been using their Kindle offline for weeks/months and the content disappeared when they either deliberately or accidentally connected their Kindle to a WiFi network.

At this point, there does not seem to be enough data to say why this happens.

Yes, we need more data.

The number of people successfully side loading without this issue vastly outnumbers those that have this issue, or we would have the data.

I do think that Kindles that now have an actual, synchronized system time may not have this issue at all.

I cited the example of replacing Scribe Notebooks prior to the update. The overwritten notebook would revert to what was synced to the cloud, because the timestamp on the side loaded notebook was 'older'. I think that's why thumbnails disappeared as well.

In this case I may guess that user does not have the book in their Kindle library, but has ASIN encoded in metadata. When it syncs content, it tries to match it up with the Kindle library, fails, and concludes the content is corrupt, and does not list it in the UI.

Of course that is some sort of bug, and in the past I've read here that people have intentionally added ASIN to turn on some features, but I never did that myself, so I don't know if something has changed that makes doing that problematic.

I think it is possible the content is still on the device, just not listed in the UI. So that is what I would want to check before concluding it was 'removed'.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by tomsem

I think it is possible the content is still on the device, just not listed in the UI. So that is what I would want to check before concluding it was 'removed'.

At least two reports have stated that the content is no longer in the directory that calibre sent it to. There is also a report in another online forum that all "liberated" KU content was removed—that person I'm somewhat lacking in sympathy for.

One possibility that I am curious about is since using Amazon to add the metadata to a file in calibre also adds the ASIN to the list of IDs and if calibre is sending the books to the device as a book and not as a document and the ASIN is being added as part of the updated metadata in the ebook, that a routine that checks for expired/deleted/returned content such as KU after a lengthy offline period is also removing those books since they would not match a book listed as current content by Amazon.

Since my Paperwhite is used more for viewing content as part of my editing/formatting workflow and not for reading (my Sage is my go-to reading device), I'm not that interested in testing this theory.

[Sumanuil]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Yes, we need more data.

It was doing this to me. It removed all sideloaded AZW3s, but not PDFs or TXTs. After the update, it hasn't done so again (yet). I went directly from 5.16.4 to 5.16.6, and I installed the update via USB, if that helps. I also remove any DRM before sideloading, if that matters.

[davedeacon]

Originally Posted by Frost015

I share the concern for the font size of the new config UI. It's easier to navigate but it got too small to be honest. I don't have vision problems but I can see why some people dislike it. The new options are cool though. The only problem I've faced with this new update so far is the group in series option. It has disappeared and now I'm forced with my books grouped by series in the library tab.

I also think the new settings screens' font is too small. I guess it was chosen by whoever set the font for this page:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/firmwarerel...O7P/en_GB.html

Other than that I like the new update.

One thing: if I set it to automatically update time I get the timezone "europe/belfast". I'm in England! I guess it's working out my timezone then taking the first entry in the list. Let's see if they listen to customer feedback!

[Quoth]

Europe: Lisbon, London, Belfast and Dublin (Edinburgh and Cardiff too) are the same time zone and will remain so as long as both UK rejects abolishing the twice a year time hop and Belfast is in the United Kingdom.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Sumanuil

It was doing this to me. It removed all sideloaded AZW3s, but not PDFs or TXTs. After the update, it hasn't done so again (yet). I went directly from 5.16.4 to 5.16.6, and I installed the update via USB, if that helps. I also remove any DRM before sideloading, if that matters.

Were you side loaded AZW3’s converted from ePub or AZW3 downloaded from your Amazon Digital Content page?

[Sumanuil]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Were you side loaded AZW3’s converted from ePub or AZW3 downloaded from your Amazon Digital Content page?

Some of each. Both would get deleted.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Sumanuil

Some of each. Both would get deleted.

Thanks, and which Kindle model is this?