Firmware 5.18.6 for 11th gen and newer Kindles

[Frogm4n]

The Release Notes are slightly less vague than usual. They claim that this adds a new feature:

Version 5.18.6 – September 2025

Here's what's new:

Book Link Preview Window: Long press internal links within a book to open a preview window.

Performance improvements, bug fixes, and other general enhancements.

I don't see this as a possible vector for a new jailbreak. Nope. Never.

[rantanplan]

This "fixes" adbreak, right?

[hhhhhhhhh]

Originally Posted by rantanplan

This "fixes" adbreak, right?

Yes, it appears to have been patched in 5.18.6.

[Quoth]

Book Link Preview Window: Long press internal links within a book to open a preview window.

Sounds like a pop-up footnote if the linked text is short?

[rantanplan]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Sounds like a pop-up footnote if the linked text is short?

Sort of like it works on Kobo, doesn't it?

[MikhailT]

Does anyone have a screenshot of this?

Someone mentioned on Reddit it has a major performance gain on Colorsoft, improved zoom map as well.

Not sure if it is worth losing the jailbreak support yet, still waiting for the new jailbreak to be available but faster OS would be nice.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Sounds like a pop-up footnote if the linked text is short?

Kindle already has pop-up footnotes, for some years now, so this is something different.

I installed the update on my Colorsoft and tried long-pressing a table of contents link (expecting page preview?) but it just selected a word and the usual menu when selecting something. I did re-download the book in case the behavior is defined in some sidecar file.

So hmm. Maybe it's for non-toc links like to a figure or table or some such. The book I tried it with does not have any of these.

[MikhailT]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Kindle already has pop-up footnotes, for some years now, so this is something different.

I installed the update on my Colorsoft and tried long-pressing a table of contents link (expecting page preview?) but it just selected a word and the usual menu when selecting something. I did re-download the book in case the behavior is defined in some sidecar file.

So hmm. Maybe it's for non-toc links like to a figure or table or some such. The book I tried it with does not have any of these.

Did you notice any performance differences? Someone reported it is much faster.

[cellaris]

The same thing happens to me. Either it doesn't work, or Amazon needs to clarify what this means.

[DNSB]

On quite a few occasions, new features announced in Kindle firmware updates have taken a rather long time to be activated for the end users. This has lead to a large collection of suggestions as to how to get those features to kick in, most of which don't seem to work for more than one or two people. Though dancing naked widdershins under a oak tree by the new moon has proven to be an excellent source of laughter.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by MikhailT

Does anyone have a screenshot of this?

Someone mentioned on Reddit it has a major performance gain on Colorsoft, improved zoom map as well.

Not sure if it is worth losing the jailbreak support yet, still waiting for the new jailbreak to be available but faster OS would be nice.

What's patched is the adbreak vulnerability. You might be able to install the new firmware and still get the jailbreak back like it other firmware where the vulnerability was fixed. Until someone who is jailborken installs this and attempts to get the jailbreak back, you won't know.

[JSWolf]

Does this firmware fix sideloaded eBooks so they work as they should?

[Byrdie]

This wonderful new update has completely borked my Kindle! It was working just fine before, then last night I connected to wifi so I could return some Kindle Unlimited books I'd finished and borrow some new ones. During said process my Paperwhite downloaded 5.18.6 firmware, installed it and rebooted. At first all seemed well and I went back to grab another 5 or 6 books which were NOT Kindle Unlimited. Again everything seemed ok, I checked that the new books were on the device and working, picked the one I'd planned to read then went back into airplane mode and closed the sleepcover -- Amazon's own, not a 3rd party one and I've never had problems with it. Full battery too, so that wasn't an issue. I opened it again an hour or two later only to find it was in the middle of another, unexpected reboot. But this time when it loaded my Home and Library pages I saw no covers, just placeholder icons, and whenever I tried opening a book I knew very well was on there I got a popup saying: "Item Not Available. The item you were reading has been removed and is no longer available on your Kindle" with an OK button.

This happened with ALL my books, not just the KU ones. And ALL documents -- books I'd sideloaded using the approved Send-To-Kindle method and never had any vanish on me or lock me out of before.

I tried deleting and downloading some of the books again but soon found that was impossible. Nothing wrong with my wifi connection, but nothing happens at all when I go to sync, download or remove anything. And for some reason, I am seeing pretty bizarre numbers when I check how much room is left on it. It says I have 0.01 GB left out of 0.48 GB. That makes absolutely NO sense! My Paperwhite is a 16 GB model and I've barely used 2 GB since I bought it two years ago.

I think my books may actually still be on it somewhere, as on waking it I can see the covers briefly flash before it displays pages full of blank cover icons that do absolutely nothing but tell me "ITEM NOT AVAILABLE" every time I try to open a book.

Anybody have a clue what caused this mess? Desperate for a fix because right now I have NO ereaders as my Kobo Libre died months ago and I've yet to find a suitable replacement. Nor can I read paper books, even the Large Print ones, due to disability. I am a very unhappy little birdie right now, thanks to Amazon and their unavoidable update nonsense. :-(

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Does this firmware fix sideloaded eBooks so they work as they should?

Can you be more specific?

[DNSB]

Perhaps the issue that multiple people have complained about where books will not open? See the non-kindle unlimited books not opening thread for some examples. There are multiple other complaints here and on other sites.