Chapter 11

Troubleshooting

In This Chapter

Finding help online

Getting help from Amazon

Troubleshooting common problems

Resetting your Kindle Paperwhite

Most people find that their Kindle Paperwhite is a reliable, problem-free device. For the infrequent occasions when glitches occur, they're usually resolved easily. In this chapter, I show you some troubleshooting tips that solve the most common difficulties encountered by Kindle Paperwhite owners.

For other, more complex, problems, I provide some steps you can take to solve them. First, though, I point you to ways you can get help from online resources, from other Kindle Paperwhite owners, and from Amazon's Kindle customer service.

Getting Help Online

Many Kindle owners join user forums, where a wide variety of problems can be addressed by helpful forum members. Amazon has a Kindle product forum that covers Kindle Paperwhite and all its e-reader devices. You can access the forum in several ways. The easiest is to go to the main Kindle Store on Amazon and choose Discussions, at the top of the page, as shown in Figure 11-1.

To find independent Kindle user forums, use your favorite search engine to search for Kindle user forum. Posting your Kindle Paperwhite problem in the troubleshooting area of an active forum can be an efficient way of resolving perplexing issues. Most forums have resident experts who have seen it all and can provide quick answers to common questions.

Amazon also provides a Kindle Support page with links to troubleshooting tips. Go to the Manage Your Kindle page at www.amazon.com/myk. (Note that you'll be prompted to log in to Amazon if you aren't already signed in.) From the Manage Your Kindle page, you can access Kindle Support through the Kindle Help link or the Kindle Support option, as shown in Figure 11-2.

The Kindle Support page includes a selection of how-to videos. From your computer, click the link for Helpful Kindle Support Videos and then click the Kindle Paperwhite (second generation) image to see the videos available for your device. These short videos cover 24 topics, including charging; toolbars and navigation; troubleshooting Wi-Fi; and syncing. The longest video is just over two minutes.

Your Kindle Paperwhite comes with the user guide already downloaded on the device. You can also download it from the Kindle Support page. To download a user guide in German, French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, or Portuguese, go to your library through the Manage Your Kindle link (www.amazon.com/myk).

Contacting Amazon Kindle Customer Service

Kindle forums are full of appreciative reports about positive experiences with Amazon's Kindle customer service. These customer service representatives have a reputation for quickly resolving issues and for treating Kindle owners fairly and respectfully.

If your Kindle Paperwhite problem isn't readily resolved by basic troubleshooting steps, your best bet may be contacting customer service. More than likely, a ready resolution to your issue is waiting on the other end of the telephone line. The direct toll-free number for Kindle customer service is 1-866-321-8851. Customers outside the United States should call 1-206-266-0927.

From the Kindle Support page, you can choose to have a customer service representative call you. In this way, the representative can access your account before making the call, which might speed up the support process. You can also e-mail customer service or initiate a chat session from the Kindle Support page. Click the Contact Us button on the Kindle Support page to initiate help from Amazon by telephone, e-mail, or chat.

Common Problems and Solutions

In the following sections, I provide some of the more common problems reported by Kindle Paperwhite owners in community forums. For many of these problems, I provide steps for a quick resolution.

You see ghost images on the screen

Ghosting is the faint display of text or graphics that remains from a previous page even after you page forward.

This phenomenon may seem similar to the burn-in that can occur on older computer monitors — in which images of screensavers, for example, are permanently branded on the display. Fortunately, the e-ink screen doesn't burn in, and you can safely have your Kindle Paperwhite display a page or a screensaver for long periods of time.

If you encounter ghosting of a prior display on your Kindle Paperwhite, refresh the screen. To refresh the screen while reading an e-book or other content, tap near the top of the screen to display the toolbar, and then tap anywhere on the page. The display briefly flashes black as the screen refreshes and the toolbar disappears. From the Home screen, opening a book or other content causes the page to refresh — you'll know this is happening because the display briefly flashes black.

By default, your Kindle Paperwhite does a page refresh of its e-ink display every six pages. If you're experiencing ghosting issues, change the setting to have the display refresh with every page turn. Tap Menu⇒Settings⇒Reading Options. Set the Page Refresh option to On.

Having the page refresh on every page turn uses more battery power.

The device freezes or is very slow

If your Kindle Paperwhite stops behaving in its usual speedy fashion or freezes, you can typically resolve the problem by doing a menu restart or a hard restart.

Begin by performing a menu restart on your Kindle Paperwhite:

1. Tap Menu⇒Settings.
2. Tap Menu⇒Restart.

   (Restart is the third item on the drop-down menu that appears.) Your Kindle Paperwhite displays the start-up screen and a progress bar. After a minute or so, the device restarts and displays the Home screen.

If the menu restart doesn't resolve the problem, try a hard restart:

1. Press and hold down the power button for 7 to 15 seconds.

   A pop-up menu appears, as shown in Figure 11-3.

2. Tap Restart.

   The start-up screen appears with a silhouetted child reading under a tree. In a few seconds, the device begins the restart process and displays a progress bar. When that restart is complete, you see the Home screen.

Sometimes a low battery can be the cause of unexpected Kindle Paperwhite behavior. If you continue to have problems, plug in your device to let it charge for at least an hour and then try a menu restart again, followed by a hard restart if necessary.

The device is behaving erratically

If your Kindle Paperwhite is exhibiting erratic behavior, such as difficulty downloading content or jumping from section to section in a book instead of moving smoothly from page to page, try a hard restart. Simply follow the directions in the preceding section. A hard restart is easy and resolves many glitches.

You can't connect to Wi-Fi automatically

The Kindle Paperwhite automatically scans for Wi-Fi networks that are in range of your device. If one (or more) networks are found, the device will connect automatically. If a password is required, a screen appears asking you to input that information. Generally, the process is quick and easy.

Occasionally, however, you may need to connect to the Wi-Fi network manually. Follow these steps:

1. Tap Menu⇒Settings.
2. If the network to which you want to connect appears in the list, tap that network.

   You're finished!

3. If the network to which you want to connect doesn't appear in the list:
   1. Tap Other (at the bottom of the Wi-Fi Networks box).

      A dialog box named Enter Wi-Fi Network appears, along with the on-screen keyboard.

   2. Using the onscreen keyboard, enter the network name and, if applicable, the password.
   3. Tap the Advanced button.
   4. Work through the series of screens, entering information related to the network, including connection type, IP address, and security type.

      Advance through the screens by using the up anddown arrows.

      If necessary, contact the person who set up the network for assistance with filling in this information.

   5. When all the necessary information has been entered, tap the Connect button to join the network.

If your Kindle Paperwhite is connected to your home network but can't connect to Amazon, you may need to reestablish the connection. Tap Menu⇒Settings⇒Wi-Fi Networks, and then tap the network that has a check mark to its left. When the Forget Network? dialog box appears, tap Forget. You'll have to reselect the network and enter the password (if one is required).

If you're having trouble connecting to your home network, unplug the Wi-Fi router, wait at least 60 seconds, and then plug it in and wait for the network to restart.

The battery discharges quickly

Amazon advertises that a single charge of the battery in the Kindle Paperwhite should last eight weeks, based on a half-hour of reading each day with minimal use of the wireless and the light set at 10. For voracious readers (like me), that usage is slight. Still, the battery should last at least a week or two even with daily usage with the wireless turned on.

If you notice that the battery is running down in a short period of time (48 to 72 hours), the problem may be due to unindexed content. Typically, whenever you add content to the Kindle Paperwhite, it indexes the material. This allows you to search for words or terms both within a specific book as well as across all content on the device. Occasionally, a book fails to index properly, so the device tries endlessly (and unsuccessfully) to index it, causing the battery to run down. To determine whether this is the problem, take the following steps:

1. From the Home screen, tap the Search icon.
2. Make sure that All Text is displayed to the right of the search box.

   If it isn't, tap the phrase that does appear to open a drop-down menu and select All Text — the second choice in the list.

3. Type an unusual word or just a string of letters.

   Don't choose a common word such as man or the.

4. Tap the arrow next to the box to begin the search.
5. Check for unindexed items.

   Look below the list of search results (if any) for Items Not Yet Indexed. ( To see what a successful search screen looks like, see Chapter 4.) Tap the Items Not Yet Indexed line to see the items that haven't been indexed.

6. If you have an unindexed item, remove it by pressing and holding down on it and then selecting Delete from the menu that appears.

   If you've acquired this content from Amazon, it will be available to you for redownloading from the Cloud. For other content, make sure you have a backup. Samples from Amazon must be redownloaded from the book's Amazon page, so make a note of those before deleting, if you want to resample that content.

7. Charge your battery completely.

Make a note of the date and keep track of how long it takes the battery to discharge. You may have to wait a few days to see whether the battery problem has resolved. When you've determined that the battery is functioning normally, you can put the offending (unindexed) items back on your Kindle Paperwhite by redownloading from the Cloud, sideloading from your computer, or resampling the content from Amazon.

If more than one item appeared on the unindexed content list and you want to put these items back on your Kindle Paperwhite, add them one at a time and wait for each to finish indexing before adding the next. In this way, if a problem exists with specific content, you can more easily identify which book is the offender.

If you continue to have problems, contact customer service using the steps described in the previous section, “Contacting Amazon Kindle Customer Service.”

Your Paperwhite doesn't sync among devices

Normally, you can start reading an e-book on one device, such as your Kindle Paperwhite, and continue reading from where you left off on another device.

Amazon's Whispersync feature enables you to move seamlessly from reading on your Kindle Paperwhite to reading on a smartphone or your computer, as shown in Figure 11-4. In addition, Whispersync for Voice allows you to sync between your Kindle Paperwhite and an Audible version of a book that you listen to on your preferred audio device with the Audible app.

When opening the e-book on the other device, you're typically prompted with the option to move to the furthest location read (refer to Figure 11-4). If this doesn't happen, check the following:

• Connection to Amazon's servers: For Whispersync to work, the devices must be connected to Amazon's servers. Ensure that your Kindle Paperwhite or other device has Wi-Fi or 3G connectivity when syncing.
• Synchronization setting: If your devices are connected to Amazon's servers and synchronization still isn't working, check your synchronization settings. Log in to Amazon and go to the Manage Your Kindle page (www.amazon.com/myk). Look at the left column and scroll down to the Whispersync Device Synchronization link. Choose that link, and verify that the Synchronization option is set to On.

  The Synchronization setting affects all devices and all content associated with your account; you can't selectively turn Device Synchronization on or off for a particular device or for a particular e-book. If you have multiple Kindles on your account (for example, Kindles that belong to you, your spouse, and your children) and everyone is reading the same e-book, the Kindle synchronizes to the last page read for everyone. In this case, you may want to turn off synchronization.

You can reset the last page read from Your Kindle Library at Manage Your Kindle. Next to the appropriate title, click the Actions box. From the drop-down menu that appears, select Clear Furthest Page Read.

If your device is still having synchronization problems, try exiting the book to the Home screen — rather than leaving the book open when the Kindle Paperwhite goes into Sleep mode.

An e-book won't open or stops responding

If your Kindle Paperwhite freezes or starts behaving strangely when you're reading a particular e-book or other content, try a menu restart and then, if necessary, a hard restart. For directions, see “The device freezes or is very slow” section, earlier in this chapter.

If those solutions don't work, the file might be corrupted and removing the item might solve the problem. However, if the book came from a source other than Amazon, you should have a backup before deleting it from your Kindle Paperwhite. If you bought the book from Amazon, it will be stored in the Cloud and you can redownload it to your device.

Remove the item and then restart your Kindle Paperwhite by following these steps:

1. From the Home screen, tap and hold down on the item.

   A pop-up menu appears, with several options.

2. Tap the Remove from Device option or, for samples, the Delete This Sample option.

   The e-book or sample is removed from your Kindle Paperwhite.

3. Restart your Kindle Paperwhite by pressing and holding the power button for 7–15 seconds and tapping Restart on the pop-up menu that appears.

Try reading other content to see whether the symptoms have cleared up. If so, you can try downloading the e-book again from Amazon by selecting it from the Cloud on your Home screen or sideloading it to your device from your computer. If none of these steps work, contact customer service using the steps described in the previous section, “Contacting Amazon Kindle Customer Service.”

A downloaded item doesn't appear on the Home screen

At times, an item you've downloaded wirelessly or transferred by USB to your Kindle Paperwhite doesn't appear on your Home screen. Usually the Kindle Paperwhite refreshes its content listing immediately when new content is added. But if that doesn't happen, tap Menu from the Home screen and then tap Sync and Check for Items. If that doesn't work, try a menu restart, as described in “The device freezes or is very slow” section, earlier in this chapter. This action forces your Kindle to refresh its content listing.

If you've transferred content to your Kindle via USB, make sure the content is in the Documents folder on your device. If you've inadvertently placed an e-book in the root directory, it won't appear on your Home screen.

The Home screen displays items out of order

You can display items on your Home screen by Recent, Title, Author, or Collections. Occasionally, items aren't displayed in the correct order.

To resolve this problem, do a quick resync:

1. From the Home screen, tap the Menu icon.
2. Tap Sync and Check for Items.

   Sync and Check for Items is the fourth option on the drop-down menu. Your Home screen displays items in proper order.

Make sure the clock on your Kindle Paperwhite is set to the correct time. If the clock is not accurate, the device will not sync properly, resulting in a Home page with books not listed in the proper order. To set the time, tap Menu⇒Settings⇒Device Options⇒Device Time.

You can set the Kindle Paperwhite 3G to update the clock automatically. On a Wi-Fi–only Kindle Paperwhite, you must set the clock manually. Keep this fact in mind when traveling or if you live in an area with daylight saving time.

The device doesn't recognize your password

You can use a password to protect access to your Kindle Paperwhite. If the password that you set for your device isn't working, you have some troubleshooting options:

• Be sure you enter the password correctly.
• Try some variations of the password. Maybe you mistyped it (twice) when you originally set it up.
• If you have more than one Kindle in your household, make sure you enter the password on the right device. Sorry, I have to include this one!

I hope one of these troubleshooting steps helps because the next remedy — resetting your password — is drastic. This solution wipes all content from your Kindle Paperwhite and deregisters it from Amazon. Reinstalling all your books, personal documents, and collection can be done, but it takes time.

To reset your password, type 111222777 in the Password field and then tap OK. Your Kindle is wiped clean. You now have to register the device again with Amazon (as detailed in Chapter 2) and download content again as desired from your Amazon archive, either by using the Cloud or pushing content to your Kindle Paperwhite (see Chapter 5).

An e-book you purchased hasn't downloaded from the Kindle Store

You've purchased an e-book — or some other content — from the Kindle Store, and it hasn't appeared on your Home screen. Or perhaps your subscription content doesn't load automatically.

If you don't see content that should be downloaded, try these tips:

• If you have a Wi-Fi–only Kindle Paperwhite, make sure it's connected to a Wi-Fi network. If it is, you'll see the Wi-Fi indicator in the top-right corner of the Home screen. The device must be connected to Wi-Fi to download e-books and other content from the Kindle Store.
• If you have a Kindle Paperwhite 3G, ensure that it's either connected to a Wi-Fi network or in a 3G coverage area. The bars at the top of the Home screen indicate the strength of the 3G signal. If the 3G signal is weak (two bars or less), Kindle Store connectivity may be slow or disrupted.

  If your Kindle Paperwhite is adequately connected via Wi-Fi or 3G but you're still having trouble downloading content, try this: From the Home screen, tap the Menu icon and select Sync and Check for Items.

• Ensure that the battery is charged sufficiently. When the battery level is low, connectivity may be affected. If the battery charge meter, which is displayed in the top-right corner of the Home screen, is less than 25 percent, plug in your Kindle Paperwhite and let it charge for a few hours.
• Make sure the e-book is in your library at Amazon. When you make a purchase, you receive a confirmation e-mail from Amazon. If you don't receive the e-mail and the book doesn't appear in your library, you may not have successfully completed the purchase. In that case, buy the book again. If the problem persists, contact customer service (see “Contacting Amazon Kindle Customer Service,” earlier in the chapter).

If you can't find a book, make sure it isn't somewhere unexpected on your Kindle. Change the sort order to By Author or Recent. If you are redownloading a book that was previously placed in a collection on your Kindle Paperwhite, it will redownload to that collection.

Another reason why an e-book might not download to your Kindle is a problem or delay with Amazon's servers. Try waiting for a few hours and see whether the e-book downloads eventually.

What to Do as a Last Resort

If all else fails, you can reset your Kindle Paperwhite back to factory specifications.

A factory reset is also a way to wipe your Kindle Paperwhite clean if you ever decide to give it as a gift or sell it.

Resetting your Kindle Paperwhite is a last-resort step. Before you carry out a factory reset, try the more common and less drastic fixes described in the “Common Problems and Solutions” section, earlier in this chapter. Also, consider calling Amazon Kindle customer service before undertaking a factory reset on your own. (See “Contacting Amazon Kindle Customer Service,” earlier in the chapter.)

To reset your Kindle Paperwhite to its original out-of-the-box state, follow these steps:

1. Tap Menu⇒Settings.
2. Tap Menu⇒>Reset Device.
3. When you see the warning, tap Yes. (To back out without resetting, you'd tap No.)

   Your Kindle Paperwhite resets. You have to re-register the device with Amazon and download your Kindle e-books and other content from the Cloud at your Amazon account. You also need to retransfer any personal documents that you've loaded on your Kindle Paperwhite from your computer.

Personal documents that you have sent to your Kindle Paperwhite via e-mail are stored in the Cloud at your Amazon account. You can transfer these documents to your Kindle Paperwhite just like any other content stored in the Cloud.

If you have a Wi-Fi–only Kindle Paperwhite, be sure to have the Wi-Fi password for your router. You'll need that password to connect the device to the wireless service. Without a Wi-Fi or 3G connection, you won't be able to transfer content.