Now that Amazon has widely started rolling out the new homescreen and library view on Kindle ereaders after the latest software update, I put together a quick video showing how the new homescreen and library work.
The homescreen has a new layout with a horizontally scrollable list of books on top and recommendations listed below, which isn’t much different than before, but now there’s a word cloud to choose genres for recommended content (I still don’t understand why they don’t add the same genre sorting option for purchased content).
It’s worth noting that you rarely ever have to look at the new homescreen if you don’t want to; you can just keep it on the library tab instead and for the most part it will stay there. There is no way to disable the homescreen anymore like you could on older software, but that changed happened several months ago when they first started changing the user interface.
The new library view has some new sorting and filtering options, and collections now have their own separate Collections View. The weird thing about that is it only supports cover view and not list view, but you can still view your collections in list view if you change the collection view option in settings (see here for more information about how collections work after the latest Kindle update).
The new list view now shows covers, and there’s no longer an option for list view without covers, and now less items are shown on screen at one time. Cover view is still an option as well, and now covers are a little larger. It still shows 6 titles on screen at once like before.
The biggest change to Library view is there’s just one long vertical list now, instead of pages that you scroll through from left to right, so entering page numbers or letters to jump to a different part of the library is no longer an option. You have to use arrows or the scroll bar to navigate the library list instead, and if you hold down on the arrows it will scan through the list (usually, sometimes pressing and holding doesn’t register).
Like It or Hate It?
In the twelve years I’ve been running this website, I’ve never seen so many complaints about a new software update before, not even close. Every day more people leave comments saying how much they hate the new interface.
There are a lot of complaints related to how there is no list view anymore without covers, and how the fonts are smaller and harder to read now, and some people that setup a bunch of collections are having a hard time adapting to a new system that works differently than before.
There’s also a number of complaints about some books not opening or disappearing after the update. I haven’t experienced that problem, but if an ebook won’t download your best bet would be to remove it and then re-download it, which may require using the Manage Your Content page at Amazon.
People are always asking if they can downgrade to the older software to go back to how things were before, but unless your Kindle was jailbroken before the update happened, there is no way to go back once your Kindle updates to the new layout, so either keep your Kindle in airplane mode indefinitely moving forward if you don’t want to update, or just learn to adapt to the new user interface—it’s really not that much different than before.
The biggest thing is you have to get used to using the filter options to sort your content by different types, and sorting to view only downloaded content helps make the list more manageable.
Personally, I like the new list view but I think scrolling through one long list of hundreds or thousands of books with no point of reference is just about useless.
Frankly, I’m more annoyed by the removal of the back button a couple of updates ago than the changes they made to the home and library view with this update, but I don’t use collections and never cared for the old list view so it just goes to show we all have different opinions when it comes to this kind of stuff.
Have they fixed the problem of side-loaded books losing their covers, yet?
Now I’m going to go hug my PW2.
Hi Tea,
A couple of years ago, when the problem of disappearing covers on side loaded books first appeared, I discovered that there’s an easy way to stop it happening. All you need to do is make sure that your Kindle in in Airplane mode when you are loading books. Then once you’ve detached the Kindle from your computer and the books are fully loaded, do a restart. Once the Kindle has finished the restart you can safely go online and the book covers will stay in place.
Without going into too much boring detail, I discovered that when you side load books, an image of each book cover is created in the Kindle’s thumbnail folder. Also created in the thumbnail folder, is a 0Kb partial file for each book cover and these tiny partial files seem to be the things that interact with Amazon’s servers and cause the covers to change/disappear. When you do a restart these little partial files are automatically deleted by the Kindle and the covers stay in place and remain intact.
Hope this info is of help? – Al
I saw the folder and thought, “What a waste of space”. I will keep a copy of your instructions and try it out soon.
Thank you so much!
Thanks for this run through, I hadn’t had to use the filter views since the update as I just started reading a book so I found it useful.
*TEA I only side load books via email always converted to mobi, almost all have covers displayed. I don’t know if that makes a difference it’s the only way I’ve done it via Android tablet.
Am I mistaken, but isn’t this layout similar to that on the Kindle app that’s been running on Android and iOs tablets for years?
This is off topic, but I’ve noticed a location number is given in the lower left of my new Kindle not a page number. Is there any way I can have the page number displayed? Thanks.
Touch the lower lett screen where you now see location number, touch it once or twice .. you will see info change from location numer to plage number
I’ve found that if I open another version of the ebook in question on a Kondle Fire it the in the app on my Windows laptop, the page number always appears – and then when it syncs again and I go back to the original version, the page numbers then automatically appear. Something on the sync back from the other version makes it happen. Who knows why.
I’m having multiple issues. 1. When I download books on my Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition, they disappear. Then I have to try to download the books again. It takes 2-3 tries before a book actually downloads. 2. Multiple copies of the same book shows when group series is on. I may download book 1 in a book series, but the group series folder will show 2 copies of Book 1 or 2 copies of Book 2, and so forth. 3. Book covers will not download sometimes. These are not side loaded books. I usually don’t have a problem with side loaded books on my Kindle Paperwhite SE showing book covers. It is the Amazon Kindle app on my S22 Ultra that has problems showing book covers for side loaded books. On my Paperwhite SE, I have to delete the book and re-download it. Then, the book covers will show. 4. The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition slows down tremendously. It moves so slow at times, I cannot open a book to read. The only way to remedy the problem is to restart the device. Let me say this. I had none of these problems before this Homescreen update. It is almost as if the Amazon update is using so many memory resources that the device cannot handle simple tasks. These devices needed more RAM in my opinion. Also, I wish Amazon let us filter for books that are still in the cloud, in case we want to download all purchased books to the device. Lastly, I wish we had the page numbers for the Library screen again.
And this small font on the list view…hate it
View by collections filter is great and solves my major irritation with this UI.
Absolutely hate it. I’m a big guy with big fingers and over five thousand books on my kindle (dont ask! and dont judge!)]. The scroll thing is a nightmare for me.
And I agree – when the Revolution finally happens and they’re lining up people against the wall to be shot, whoever’s idea it was to get rid of the Back button needs to be in that first group (along with Chuck Lorre)
The update has clearly been done by people who don’t use a kindle.
Covers view in collections is incredibly stupid – I can no longer see the title or author on half my books! I like crime novels, they have dark covers, reds and blacks, dark text… without the colour all I see now is an amorphous blob of blackness that may or may not be hiding some text.
I have sorted my books into collections so that I can browse the kind of books I want to read next and pick one that appeals at that time. Now I have to guess what books I have and search for the titles or authors. Fine for my favourite authors, but that quirky book I bought a couple of months back – I have no chance of remembering what it was called or who it was by.
I got to bed last night with half an hour reading time and a new book to choose. I spent the whole half hour trying to work out if there was a way I could see the books in my collection!
And scrolling? No paging back and forth… can someone explain how that is an ‘improvement’?
Absolute blocks, what a pile of carp!
I’m joining the haters on this one.
To the point that I’m thinking of ditching my kindle and going back to only reading real books.
The lack of list view is a nightmare! I have nearly 1000 books sorted into 6 collections and it now takes me an age to find anything.
It looks messy and some of the book titles are quite hard to read thanks to the cover designs.
Wish Kindle would do another update and give us an option to use our old settings!