Hating Kindle for iPhone

[richao]

So I've purchased several books for Kindle on my iPhone and find myself doing a lot more reading. When the books I buy are readable, that is. Of the four books I've started reading, two of them have demonstrated the following behavior. Is anybody else experiencing this, and how do you make it stop? (Amazon support was, of course, no help.)

- After reading several pages, I stop and close Kindle for iPhone. When I reopen Kindle, it presents me with a totally different page of the book, generally five to 20 "location" pages beyond where I started reading.

- I've tried putting either a bookmark or highlighting on the page. Again, when I come back to the book, it never comes back to the last page I was looking at, which should be identified by a bookmark or highlight.

- Realizing that Kindle has taken me to the wrong page, I try to page backward. However, Kindle will not let me page backward, or, more accurately, the page-changing animation displays but the "previous" page is exactly identical to the page Kindle took me to when it reopened. The only difference is that the "location" page range increases: For example, if I'm on location page 750-752 when I close Kindle, Kindle might reopen the book at location page 765-767. But as I turn back trying to find the last page I read, the text does not change and after several taps, I'm still looking at location page 765-767, but the location page range is, e.g., 750-767, which is an impossibility on the iPhone screen.

- The same thing happens if I try to return to the page by selecting the bookmark from the bookmark/highlighting menu. I see the (incorrect) location page 765-767, but the location range is 750-767.

- The same thing happens if I try to return to the page I was reading by entering the location: When I enter the location where I stopped reading (750), Kindle displays, e.g., 765-767, but the location range is 750-767.

- Sometimes continuing to turn pages back repeatedly - ten or more times - will result in a blank screen for one or two seconds and then take me back as many pages as I have turned (but I won't see any of the intervening pages). In that case, I can page forward to the page I stopped reading at, but this is really a pain and takes at least a minute to figure out just where I was. This makes it impossible to use Kindle for the iPhone in the way I had envisioned: Reading a minute or two at a time as I have free snatches of time throughout the day.

The first time this happened, Amazon blamed it on the book's publisher - poor formatting, they said - and refunded my money, asked me to purchase again, and when the book demonstrated the same problem, credited my account. I don't feel like going through that again, but I have to say, I also don't feel like I should have to take a gamble every time I purchase a book from Amazon...

[Sischa]

I stop reading with the first sentence on the page when i want to stop reading. And at least for me it doesn't matter if i read on my iPhone, iPad, Kindle DX, Kindle 2 or PC it always start at this position when i am starting my next reading session (after asking for syncing my location). At least for books bought from amazon.

Strange thing that doesn't work out for you.

[leebase]

That is weird. The kindle app is far from my favorite reader app on the iphone (I prefer Stanza by far) -- but I don't have the problems you describe. Mine always opens to the page I was last on.

Is is possible that you are sharing your account with someone else? If they are reading the same book you are -- on the same account -- the app opens to the latest spot reached by either device. This is a feature you can turn off.

I just wished that feature worked better. When switching between my iPhone and iPad that syncing doesn't always work.

Lee

[cavi]

i love the kindle app, my suggestion if you have not done so yet is to remove the kindle app from the ipad, and your computer, do a sync, then redownload and install the kindle app

[amjbrown]

I've read my first book on the Kindle iPhone app and a MacBook Air, waiting for the iPad to hit the UK. No drama like you descibe - found it pretty good tbh.

[dmaul1114]

Yeah, try the uninstall and reinstall.

It should open to the same page on the iPhone or any other devices with Kindle Apps (if you use whispersync and sync it first)

[rock]

I never had an issue either with the Kindle app. Those seem like some odd glitches. I have an iPhone 3g.

[drofgnal]

Have both the Kindle for iphone and ipad. Both stay perfectly in sync.

[richao]

Maybe I will try uninstalling and reinstalling. I just hate to lose all the samples I've downloaded, but if it resolves this problem, I suppose it's worth the trouble.

In both cases, this problem has arisen with non-fiction books from smaller less-known (but still professional) publishers, so I was wondering whether some publishers just hadn't gotten the whole formatting thing down for the Kindle yet. Then again, these aren't $0.99 specials that some random dude has uploaded... (The two that have worked fine were from major publishing houses.)

Thanks, though. If I have time this weekend, I'll give this a try and report back.

[richao]

Oh, also, I'm not syncing any of my books, as I don't have another device, so that can't be it...

[scottjl]

Anyone else have access to your account? As in logs into Amazon with your user account, might somehow be using Kindle software on another device with your account? Silly question, but some families share a single account.

[richao]

No. Nobody else uses my account. At least that I know of.

I tried deleting and reinstalling the Kindle app but I get the same behavior. Maybe I just need to resign myself to this...

[scottjl]

one thing with ebooks is that a "page" isn't fixed any more. most reader software, if you change the font size, it will change the number of pages in a book. larger font = more pages, smaller font = less pages.

if you're playing around with font size that could cause you to jump around your place in a book. depending on the software you're using. i don't remember what kindle does, i haven't used it much.

other than that, i'm out of ideas. it might be that the books are somehow formatted poorly and kindle can't save a place or a bookmark in them correctly. report them to amazon, or post in the particular book's review section and see if anyone else is reporting the same issue. as you said, it's only 2 out of your 4 books, so i'm thinking it's more with the book files.

[badgoodDeb]

I *think* I've heard of such a problem with Topaz books. You might mention a book title, and see if others find the same problem (with the sample).

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by scottjl

one thing with ebooks is that a "page" isn't fixed any more. most reader software, if you change the font size, it will change the number of pages in a book. larger font = more pages, smaller font = less pages.

Shouldn't matter on the Kindle as it uses Locations that are fixed regardless of font size rather than page numbers.

So it should go back to the location you left off on even if you changed font sizes--in any case I don't think you could change the font size in that case as it would open straight to the book when you open the app, and you couldn't change font size before that.