New Kindle Software Update 5.15.1.1 Now Available to Download

Amazon has released a new software update for Kindle ereaders. It’s been nearly 5 months since the last software update was released so it’s been quite a bit longer than usual.

The update still isn’t showing up on Amazon’s software page just yet, but thanks to a heads-up by jhowell at MobileRead you can download the update if you know how Amazon formats their links for updates. Update: The software update is now available to download from Amazon’s website.

I updated my 11th gen Kindle and so far I haven’t noticed a single difference, but Amazon is fond of making remote changes after updates so who knows what the update really contains or does. After looking at some of the changes within the update, jhowell thinks jailbroken Kindles might be affected by this update so it should probably be avoided for the time being if you have a jailbroken Kindle.

The new software version is 5.15.1.1, and it’s available for all Kindles that are still eligible for updates (meaning all Kindles released after the Kindle Voyage in 2014). However, the update isn’t available for the Kindle Scribe; it’s current firmware version is 5.16.1.

So far the release notes don’t give any details about the update. They just say the usual “Performance improvements, bug fixes, and other general enhancements”, which is what they say at the bottom of every update that gets released. Sometimes they update the release notes after some time so maybe they just haven’t added the changes yet.

Amazon generally rolls out Kindle updates slowly so it might take a few weeks or months for the update to install automatically over WiFi (usually while your Kindle is charging), but you can also download the update from Amazon and sideload it if you want to update manually.

Here’s the (meager) changelog (I’ll update it if they add something meaningful):

Version 5.15.1.1 – February 2023

Here’s what’s new:

Performance improvements, bug fixes, and other general enhancements.