Firmware Update Firmware version 5.15.1

[jhowell]

Update: The new firmware is available again for download as of September 28.

Firmware version 5.15.1 was available earlier today but is no longer. I do not know whether this was an accidental release or if it was pulled due to a problem being discovered.

Version 5.15.1 – September 2022

Here's what's new:

Amazon Kids eBook Store: Kids can now submit requests to their parent to purchase a limited selection of books. Go to the Amazon Kids parental controls page in settings and turn Store Access on to enable this feature.

Performance improvements, bug fixes, and other general enhancements.

Undocumented changes:

• Personal documents now show cover thumbnails.

[mbrisco]

Anyone know the rhyme and reason behind Kindle’s firmware version numbers? Especially the major 5 part.

[jhowell]

The new firmware version is available again.

It can be downloaded from Kindle E-Reader Software Updates for 8th generation Kindles and newer plus the 7th generation Paperwhite.

[DenS]

epub files sending by email now have the book cover in the library

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by DenS

epub files sending by email now have the book cover in the library

Oh... This changes everything.

The question is, is this retroactive? Will the previously sent epub files magically have covers? Or do you have to re-send it?

[DenS]

Originally Posted by hleo12

Oh... This changes everything.

The question is, is this retroactive? Will the previously sent epub files magically have covers? Or do you have to re-send it?

Epub files I had before the update now have the cover in the library. There is no need to resend them.

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by DenS

Epub files I had before the update now have the cover in the library. There is no need to resend them.

That's really nice to hear. I wonder if that's something to do with the new firmware? Did you update yours?

Edit: I haven't updated my Kindle yet. I just tried to send a couple of epubs and they're all missing covers, and the title is just a bunch of jibberish letters and the author is unknown.

Edit 2: I have updated, but the covers are still missing on the previously sent epubs. I send them again and the covers do show, but the title is still just a bunch of letters.

Edit 3: It seems like Amazon isn't reading metadata from the books themselves anymore, and is just basing the title and author on the subject line, which coincidentally, Calibre has started sending emails with just jibberish subject lines when using the send to email feature. So I guess I'll have to wait before playing around with this.

It is nice that we can have covers again though.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by hleo12

Edit 3: It seems like Amazon isn't reading metadata from the books themselves anymore, and is just basing the title and author on the subject line, which coincidentally, Calibre has started sending emails with just jibberish subject lines when using the send to email feature. So I guess I'll have to wait before playing around with this.

The change at Amazon to use the file name as the title happened about a week ago. The next calibre release will go back to using an ascii-ized filename when sending an email to Kindle.

[DenS]

To fix this I change the .epub extension to .txt and send it via Send to Kindle. I can change the author field and the book name. The book cover also appears in the library.

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by jhowell

The change at Amazon to use the file name as the title happened about a week ago. The next calibre release will go back to using an ascii-ized filename when sending an email to Kindle.

Waiting it is then

Originally Posted by DenS

To fix this I change the .epub extension to .txt and send it via Send to Kindle. I can change the author field and the book name. The book cover also appears in the library.

This probably won't work for me. I have about hundreds of books that I sideloaded after the epub feature got implemented. Main reason I did so was because of the covers. But now that they're back, I might use send to kindle again. Depends on how much work I have to do. I just find it infinitely easier to send the books and categorize them in their own collections using a browser than typing up everything ont he device.

[jhowell]

It appears that with this new firmware books in KF8/AZW3 format that are marked as personal documents (CDETYPE=PDOC) will now show cover thumbnails. This is good news for those who like sideloading via calibre since it this can potentially be used to eliminate the need for the workaround that involves doing connect-eject-reconnect to make the cover thumbnails stay.

[DenS]

Deleted

[MedioPollo30]

Originally Posted by hleo12

Waiting it is then







This probably won't work for me. I have about hundreds of books that I sideloaded after the epub feature got implemented. Main reason I did so was because of the covers. But now that they're back, I might use send to kindle again. Depends on how much work I have to do. I just find it infinitely easier to send the books and categorize them in their own collections using a browser than typing up everything ont he device.

You can simply remove the download and download the book again. This way you will have the cover without having to send it again

[darrenma]

Originally Posted by hleo12

Edit 2: I have updated, but the covers are still missing on the previously sent epubs. I send them again and the covers do show, but the title is still just a bunch of letters.

there is no need to resend, just "remove download" in your kindle device, then download again, the cover shows

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by MedioPollo30

You can simply remove the download and download the book again. This way you will have the cover without having to send it again

Originally Posted by darrenma

there is no need to resend, just "remove download" in your kindle device, then download again, the cover shows

That would work for the covers and epubs I've already sent before (which is none), but not the title and author. Until Calibre is updated, any books I send now using Calibre would have just random letters for the title and 'unknown' for the author.