Can't move past Location 2 in some purchased books

[Dansereal]

Hi,

In the last couple of weeks, a handful of the many books I've bought from Amazon have been delivered to my Fire in an unreadable state.  

The symptoms are always the same.  The book's cover appears at Location 1.  At Location 2 the book's title appears at the upper left of the page, but otherwise the page is empty.  I can't swipe or scroll past Location 2, even though the scroll bar assures me there are several thousand locations in the downloaded book.

The very same book will get delivered just fine to the Kindle apps on my iPhone and PC -- just not to my Fire.

First time I had the problem, Amazon's tech support took me all the way down their troubleshooting script to a factory reset.  The factory reset solved the problem, all right, but I spend a couple of hours afterwards re-downloading 350+ books from Amazon's cloud and a similar number of public-domain AZWs and PDFs to my docs folder.

So the next time I had this problem, I spent a day applying all my awesome IT-Guy smarts before I gave up and called Amazon support.  This time I said, "Do your worst, but please don't ask me to do a factory reset."  They wound up refunding my money.

Up to that point, the problem had been limited to books in a venerable series called "The Story of Civilization," by Will Durant.  I concluded there was something amiss with the DRM for that series, and I'd be OK as long as I left it alone.

And that's been true till today, when I bought a recent bestseller not by Will Durant.  Same symptoms. Reads just fine in my iPhone and PC Kindle apps.  Can't get past Location 2 on my Fire.

So now we're talking five duds out of hundreds of downloads from Amazon's Kindle store.  Should I just live with it?  I do have my iPhone and PC, after all.

Thanks!

Greg

[Betsy the Quilter]

Greg,

Welcome to KindleBoards!

If you download a sample of the same book you are having trouble with, does the same thing happen?   If you let me know the exact title of the books you are having trouble with, I'll try downloading them to my Fire and see what happens.

Betsy

[Dansereal]

If you download a sample of the same book you are having trouble with, does the same thing happen?   If you let me know the exact title of the books you are having trouble with, I'll try downloading them to my Fire and see what happens.

Betsy

Betsy,

Great idea!  As a matter of fact, samples I downloaded to my Fire this morning exhibit the aforementioned symptoms.

The five titles are:

The Age of Voltaire, by Will Durant
The Age of Louis XIV,  "  "
The Life of Greece, "  "
Caesar and Christ, "  "
Washington Rules, by Andrew Bacevich

Thanks!

Greg

[Ann in Arlington]

I just d/l'd the sample of the Durant Voltaire title.  It seemed to all be there. . . .there was a LOT of front matter -- forwards and tables of contents and such. . .but then the book started at the prologue and continued.  Didn't notice any images which, as I recall, there are some of in the Durant series. . .but there appeared to be links to images in the ToC so probably they're all at the back or maybe properly linked in the full book.

[Dansereal]

Ann,

Thanks.  Did you download to a Fire?  

I'm guessing it's nothing to do with the Fire per se, though.  It's more as if some device-specific piece of DRM metadata gets set wrong at delivery time, and doesn't get flushed from the reader unless you go all the way to a factory reset.

Here's the weird thing, though:

1.  I buy Age of Voltaire and Age of Louis XIV.   They come down to my Fire stuck at Location 2.

2.  Factory reset, per Amazon support, unsticks them.

3.  The following week I buy Caesar and Christ and The Life of Greece.  They come down stuck at Location 2.

4.  I do another factory reset.  Briefly, a couple of them are unstuck, but within a few minutes, all four are stuck at Location 2.

5.  I get a full refund for all four from the Amazon folks, who remove them from my library.  (Not the end of the world, since I own the Durant series in hard copy.)

6.  Life is good until yesterday when I buy the Bacevich book, which comes down to my Fire stuck at Location 2.  

Now I'm spooked.  Maybe it's time to stop buying books from Amazon for a while, till the problem is more widely reported and Amazon comes up with a solution.

Greg

[Betsy the Quilter]

Greg--

I also downloaded the sample onto my Fire, no problem, went to the end, location 2239.

So I purchased the full book (and subsequently returned it*  ).  No problem there either, went to location 28609 in the book.

So, it does appear that there is something wrong with your device and books.  I would contact Kindle CS again and ask for a replacement Fire.  If you need to, download a few more samples from their bestseller list and see if it happens with them, too.

Betsy

*the only time I buy books and return them is when troubleshooting for a member, I've never returned a book otherwise.  Just sayin'.

[Ann in Arlington]

I really don't think it's an amazon problem. . .I think there's something with your device. I'd d/l'd to my Baby Kindle but just tried it also on the Fire.  Samples read fine.  As Betsy suggests, contact KIDNLE CS and explain the problem and ask for a replacement.

OR. . . . .if you're doing this at home, you might try going to some other WiFi hotspot. . . .maybe corrupted files are coming down over a bad connection.  The factory reset just jogs it awake and fixes it temporarily.  Either way, it's a problem.

[Dansereal]

Betsy,

*the only time I buy books and return them is when troubleshooting for a member, I've never returned a book otherwise.  Just sayin'.

I thought it was very gracious of the Amazon folks, during my second session with them, to let me return the first two Durant books, since more than seven days had elapsed since I'd bought them.  But it may also be indicative that they -- including a 2nd-tier expert -- don't have any idea what might be going on.  No one suggested a replacement Fire.

Thanks again for your help!

Greg

[Dansereal]

OR. . . . .if you're doing this at home, you might try going to some other WiFi hotspot. . . .maybe corrupted files are coming down over a bad connection.  The factory reset just jogs it awake and fixes it temporarily.  Either way, it's a problem.

Just bought Rousseau and Revolution from the Durant series. Same problem.  

The book downloads just fine to my Kindle for PC app using the same home WiFi connection that my Fire uses, so given the choice between a bad Kindle and a bad WiFi connection, I guess I'd vote for its being a bad Kindle.

I don't think it's a problem with the length of the books.  I've bought dozens of complete-works-of that are many times longer, no problem.  Granted, many of these were of the $.99-$2.99 variety and possibly DRM-free, but I've also bought a number of more recent and expensive long books without a hitch.

I guess I'm skeptical that the problem's with my Fire in particular, but the only way I would know for sure is to ask for a replacement.  I'll post here if that turns out to be the solution.

Thanks for your help, Ann.

Greg

[Betsy the Quilter]

Please do  let us know.  Ask to speak to a supervisor if you have to.  Let them know other people have downloaded the same books to their Fires with no problems.

Have you been able to have any successful downloads of books to the Fire?  That is, books you downloaded and had no problems?  It really does seem to be a device issue to me at this point.  Perhaps there's a bad spot in the memory that is being used for the books or something.

It was great that Amazon let you return the books--their CS is really good.

Betsy

[Dansereal]

Have you been able to have any successful downloads of books to the Fire?  That is, books you downloaded and had no problems?  

Well, yes.  About 400.  Or closer to 700, if you count books I've downloaded from archiv.org and manybooks.net to my Docs folder.

It was great that Amazon let you return the books--their CS is really good.

I would say their CS is responsive and gracious, as I'd expect them to be.

Greg

[Betsy the Quilter]

Well, yes.  About 400.  Or

I would say their CS is responsive and gracious, as I'd expect them to be.

Greg

Do you have that many on your Fire now?

Betsy

[Dansereal]

Do you have that many on your Fire now?

Betsy

Yes.

[Betsy the Quilter]

So it's only recently that you've started having problems with the books you downloaded? 

How much space do you have left on the device?

Betsy

[Dansereal]

So it's only recently that you've started having problems with the books you downloaded?  

How much space do you have left on the device?

Betsy

I have 3 Gb left.  The problem started about two weeks ago.  During that time I've bought and downloaded many, many books that have displayed just fine.

You're talking to a real book nut.  I have several thousand physical books in my house, and I'm experimenting to see how many I can replace with Kindle editions. Cyber-hoarding isn't nearly as hard on loved ones as the hoarding of palpable objects 

Greg

[Dansereal]

FWIW, I just got off an hour-long chat session with Amazon CS, 1st and 2nd-tier, during which I re-purchased two or three of the problem books, each time with the same result.

They're going to get back with me in the next couple of days.  The 2nd-tier tech told me it was "indeed a rare case."  Hope so, and hope it's fixable. 

He doesn't think it's my Kindle -- nor do I, really.  For me it's an IT-guy hunch I can't state precisely.

Will post when I know more.

Greg

[Betsy the Quilter]

FWIW, I just got off an hour-long chat session with Amazon CS, 1st and 2nd-tier, during which I re-purchased two or three of the problem books, each time with the same result.

They're going to get back with me in the next couple of days.  The 2nd-tier tech told me it was "indeed a rare case."  Hope so, and hope it's fixable.  

He doesn't think it's my Kindle -- nor do I, really.  For me it's an IT-guy hunch I can't state precisely.

Will post when I know more.

Greg

I understand book hoarding  ...if you've downloaded many other books that worked fine except these, I agree it doesn't sound like a hardware issue.  But something about your device or connection is interfering with those books....as Ann and I did not have those problems.

keep us posted!

Betsy

[triplehelix]

Any update on this? I just registered as this is the only thread I've found on this issue. This same error occurred to me last night on a book that I had read the first 8 chapters without issue on the same kindle fire. I tried to download the sample and it had the same error. The book is "The detachment" by Barry Eisler I purchased it during the kindle deal of the day a few days ago. I got it to load properly on my Android phone, but nothing I've tried has been able to get it to properly load on my kindle fire anymore.

[Betsy the Quilter]

I just downloaded the sample and it works fine for me on the Fire.  Is this the only book you've had problems with so far, triplehelix?

Welcome to KindleBoards!!

Betsy

[triplehelix]

yes, so far it is the only one. I've only had my kindle for 5 days however so I have not had much time to discover if I can replicate it with any other books. I have stopped purchasing books until this is resolved and am only downloading free kindle books at the moment. None of those that I have tried (only a few) have had any issues.

I'm considering deregistering my Kindle and reregistering it. Has anyone had an experience with that, I worry that there my be a lock for being able to reregister a device to the same account within a certain time period or what not. My thought is just that if It works on my mobile phone maybe reregistering will help correct my error.

Let me know what you think.

[Betsy the Quilter]

Deregistering and registering should not lock your device, it is often recommended by CS in troubleshooting problems. My granddaughter did it on Christmas day.  Let us know if it helps or if you have any other questions.

You might also contact Kindle Customer Support.  The link has contact information for them.

Betsy

[triplehelix]

Deregistering and reregistering my kindle solved the error in my case. Good luck to anyone with the same problem.

[Dansereal]

Deregistering and reregistering my kindle solved the error in my case. Good luck to anyone with the same problem.

Thanks for the info, Triplehelix!  Before I try this at home, can you tell me whether you had to re-download your other, just-fine books to your Fire after registering/deregistering?

I might just go ahead and do it anyway ...

No followup from Amazon CS, BTW.

Greg

[Betsy the Quilter]

Deregistering removes all content from the Fire, unlike the eInk devices.

Betsy

[valleycat1]

Have you tried removing the book from your device & then re-downloading it from your Amazon account to see if the problem with a particular book persists?

[Dansereal]

Deregistering removes all content from the Fire, unlike the eInk devices.

Betsy

Thanks, Betsy.  Duly warned.

Greg

[Dansereal]

Have you tried removing the book from your device & then re-downloading it from your Amazon account to see if the problem with a particular book persists?

Thanks for the suggestion.  If only it were that simple!

Greg