Getting PW4 to auto-download books again

[Paperbackstash]

Hello!

I have another strange issue. It sounds silly, but one of my joys when turning off the Wi-Fi from my Paperwhite is seeing new books I've purchased or borrow that week pop up and start loading. Since the last update my Kindle did, books no longer download without me having to find it in the cloud and press each book to download.

Is there a setting or something that I can change back to get it to start downloading automatically again? I've never had this issue occur, so wonder if there is a trick I'm missing. This isn't a big enough deal to reset and empty the kindle and start over because of all the downloaded books and sideloaded work on there, but it's annoying me.

[Paperbackstash]

As a side note, my borrow Kindle Unlimited books are acting strangely as well. I return them from my amazon page on Kindle Unlimited, and they are showing returned there --- however, they are not deleting off my paperwhite with Wi-Fi on like they are supposed to. I just clicked one on my PW4 and it opened, but I have the amazon website open and it is showing returned

It has been about 10 hours since I returned one book, and the other was returned yesterday, so it should not be a timing issue. My Amazon Unlimited is showing the right number of books I can borrow at least, it just doesn't seem to be auto-deleting my books now. Oddly, when I click on the book on PW4, the "return to unlimited" option is missing. It is doing this with two books.

[Paperbackstash]

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=jqonls&s=9#.XNZPYaR7mHs

Shows Wi-Fi on and the two are the circles books that aren't leaving even though they've been returned


http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=167q...9#.XNZPc6R7mHs
Shows "Return to Kindle Unlimited" not on option of book

[Paperbackstash]

I just restarted to double-check and am still showing the same books. I guess the Kindle Unlimited doesn't bother me as much since they are still staying around even though no longer borrowed, but of course it's not supposed to work that way since we are only supposed to borrow 10 at once. It's mainly this downloading thing for new purchases and borrows that is bugging me

[John Hopper]

I've had this issue with having to force downloads of new books a lot in the past. I first noticed it in autumn 2017 on my Voyage and indeed it happened for most of the year or so when I used my Oasis 2. The PW4 has sometimes done this, but mostly it's been okay, and it is now. I don't know what causes this and I've never found a solution. I reported it once to Customer Services but didn't get a clear answer.

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

[Paperbackstash]

Originally Posted by John Hopper

I've had this issue with having to force downloads of new books a lot in the past. I first noticed it in autumn 2017 on my Voyage and indeed it happened for most of the year or so when I used my Oasis 2. The PW4 has sometimes done this, but mostly it's been okay, and it is now. I don't know what causes this and I've never found a solution. I reported it once to Customer Services but didn't get a clear answer.

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

Ugh, maybe it's just a random bug. Irritating though

[John Hopper]

It's happening to me again now.

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

[Paperbackstash]

Originally Posted by John Hopper

It's happening to me again now.

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

Ugh, sorry to hear that.

I bought three new books and had to manually download them again this week. What's frustrating is the change where the covers refuse to download. I left the Wi-Fi on for over an hour and double-checked that I have no indexing books (I don't, have only been slowly adding books the past few months through an occasional purchase), but still no dice. These were all purchased from Amazon directly and not side-loaded. The book downloaded (manually) but it's now cover free.

I wonder if this is an annoying glitch from the last update. Only thing I can figure.

[R Wilcox]

I'm experiencing the same problem. I've been fruitlessly searching for a solution, or even just other people reporting exactly this specific issue rather than similar ones. This is the first I've found. Please bear with me, this is long because I've tried a lot of fixes and have a bunch of observational data on how the problem developed across two different kindles.

I was fortunate enough to receive an Oasis 2nd gen as an early Christmas present. At first everything was identical to my old kindles. I kept it in airplane mode, purchased books on my computer, and let them download in batches. Restoring old books worked the same way: queue up on PC via "manage my content".

After about 10 days of ownership it installed a software update while I was in the middle of redownloading my full library. From that point onwards books would no longer automatically download, whether a new purchase or an old item queued up. I had to go to "all" and tap each title to manually download them.

I tried everything: restart with the menu command, reboot by holding the power button for 40 seconds, factory reset, de-register and re-register, deleting the wifi network, checking for stuck indexing, disabling and re-enabling Whispersync, everything. No success. Three different software versions have come out since. I dutifully installed each (manually) and the problem persisted.

Meanwhile my trusty launch era Voyage and my mother's Paperwhite (purchased at the same time as my Oasis and on my account) still worked exactly as I'd expect. So the problem is clearly device-related rather than account-wide. As of today they're still working perfectly.

The final straw came several weeks ago when I realised I couldn't get book updates because they deliver via the same system. The Oasis also started crashing if I checked the list of indexing books. I contacted kindle support. The agent was very helpful and accepted that I'd tried everything without making me repeat the useless steps. She said that she could see a lot of failed downloads on her system so she recovered the kindle's logs and system logs and sent them on to the software team. Over a week later and they didn't get back to her. Without anything else to do she sent out a replacement kindle. We both thought the problem was a faulty OS install thanks to that initial update.

The replacement kindle arrived. It came out the box with the very latest OS version, including the read/unread filter. Everything worked perfectly. So I started to redownload my library. I've got over 2,700 books because I read like I breathe. I queued them up an author at a time on my PC, in batches of around 20-30 books at once. I waited for each batch to download before queuing another, keeping my kindle awake on my desk next to me as I worked. I took breaks to let it index, and checked periodically to see if indexing was progressing ok. At first they appeared instantly. About 200 books in they appeared after 5 minutes. Around 250 books in and only 3/4 of each batch would turn up, and invariably 5-10 minutes after being sent. Sometimes those missing titles would turn up in dribs and drabs in other batches, sometimes not. By around 300 books in I was waiting 25 minutes after clicking send for them to show up and half of the titles in each batch were missing. By around 350 books I was waiting an hour. 400, until the next day for them to show up. After that, nothing. No matter how long I wait, what I queue, where I send them from, whether I buy a new book or not, they will not turn up. It's a 32GB model and I've got 22GB free so space isn't the issue. The only way to get books to download is to toggle to "all" and tap each title. It just took me a week to download the remaining 2,000-ish books manually, complete with large amounts of time sat poking the kindle every 5 minutes to keep it awake because for some insane reason the Oasis won't index if charging and in sleep mode like the old models.

There's a new problem too: the kindle won't recognise that I own a new purchase. I picked up a book from Sunday's sale and of course it won't automatically download. So I went to manually download it, and it's not on my list. I searched for it on the kindle itself and it won't show in my owned items. On the kindle's own shop page the buy button has turned into "go to library" so it knows I own it; when I press the button I get "This title is unavailable at this time. Please try again later. If the problem persists please contact kindle support at [website address]." If I look on my PC in "manage my content" the book is listed. I've queued it and downloaded it successfully on my Voyage so again it's a device-related issue rather than account-wide. I've rebooted the Oasis, everything full of a factory reset and here I am, 3 days later, still unable to download this book onto my Oasis.

To further test things out I purchased another book on the kindle's own shop, something I never normally do. Downloaded immediately, everything's fine.

I contacted support again, got someone who clearly didn't know much and who had to keep putting me on hold for long periods to look at the same help pages I've already seen. I don't blame the agent at all because she tried her best but she wasn't equipped to help, couldn't help, and the call ended with her insisting that I do a factory reset again against my polite protests that I've already tried it and it won't help. She's going to phone back tomorrow to find out if the reset fixed things. I suppose I'll lie and say that I did another reset and it didn't help; I'm not spending another week rebuilding my library for a previously attempted suggestion. Or I could 'miss' the call and contact them again in the hopes of getting someone else.

I've got no sideloaded books. No Kindle Unlimited or library books. No documents. No audiobooks. No comics. Just years of plain old purchased from Amazon ebooks.

The Oasis clearly isn't talking to Amazon's server properly. I currently suspect the problem might lie in the device's queue on Amazon's side. Something must have jammed it up during the mass download, and probably the same on my original Oasis too. I kept asking if today's CS agent could get my queue emptied but she didn't know and wouldn't pursue it. I can't attempt it myself as the queue in "manage my content" on the website is always empty. Does anyone know if Amazon can clear a kindle's download queue?

At this point I don't know what to do. I read several books a week, easily, and my sight isn't wonderful so I rely on my kindle. My poor Voyage has been read half to death so I need this new one to work.

Misery likes company though, right? So I'm posting here. And you never know, the wall of text above might help someone figure something out.

[tomsem]

Go to the Manage Your Content and Devices page on Amazon (or in Amazon mobile app) and check to see what the Default Device is (or make sure the Kindle in question is Default). I’ve been having a problem over the last year or two where default device changes without my having done anything. My theory is that it happens whenever I register a new Amazon device or Kindle app, but it might be something more random. In any case it is annoying.

Obviously if the default device points somewhere other than the device you are using, purchase made elsewhere will not show up automatically on it.

[R Wilcox]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Go to the Manage Your Content and Devices page on Amazon (or in Amazon mobile app) and check to see what the Default Device is (or make sure the Kindle in question is Default). I’ve been having a problem over the last year or two where default device changes without my having done anything. My theory is that it happens whenever I register a new Amazon device or Kindle app, but it might be something more random. In any case it is annoying.

Obviously if the default device points somewhere other than the device you are using, purchase made elsewhere will not show up automatically on it.

Thanks for the suggestion. I just checked and the replacement Oasis is still listed as the default. Just in case there's a hiccough with that listing I've tried sending a book and selecting the Oasis from the drop-down list to make sure it's definitely going to the right device. No joy.

The customer service agent phoned back just now. She's found out that the download queue is called the job list and that it can be cleared. What a nice lady for going to ask someone for the answer. Anyway, mine had over 4 pages of books pending, which is over 100 titles. Exactly what I expected! She cleared it … and nothing. Kindle still won't download. My recent purchase still won't show up anywhere on the device. That was my last idea so now I'm completely stumped.

The case is being sent back to the engineer team. I'll hear again in 3-5 days.

[patrickt]

I don't order a hundred books at a time but they always download a few minutes after I place the order. I don't turn WiFi on and off. Sometimes, usually in the evening, if I order a half-dozen books or more they will queue for a few minutes.

[Paperbackstash]

I just double-checked in case it's changed, and my Kindle is still registered as default.

Unfortunately the problem is still persisting.

R Wilcox, it sounds like your problems have become a little more expansive than mine, I hope you are able to resolve your issue too.

[Paperbackstash]

Originally Posted by patrickt

I don't order a hundred books at a time but they always download a few minutes after I place the order. I don't turn WiFi on and off. Sometimes, usually in the evening, if I order a half-dozen books or more they will queue for a few minutes.

I leave my Airplane mode on to conserve battery - and at work throughout the week I don't have access to Wi-Fi anyway, so it would just keep searching and unable to connect. I noticed a weird thing this weekend - I turned off the Airplane mode for about 30 minutes to try and see if that would help (again), and it seems the battery started draining much faster than usual. Very odd. I don't have indexing books and have only added a scattered few over the past two months.

[Barbara1955]

MAKE Sure that the PW4 Is the Device you pick to Auto Download to under your devices on your PC. It Works!!