Amazon has released another software update for Kindle ereaders, but for some reason it’s not available for all the models that updates are usually available for, at least not yet.
This is the second Kindle update that Amazon has released this month, which is highly unusual. There must be a serious bug or security issue that they wanted to get fixed.
Once again the release notes just give the generic “performance improvements, bug fixes, and other general enhancements” statement so who knows what they really changed with this update, and the date of the release isn’t even correct (it says July), and they never updated the release notes for the last update.
The update version went from 5.16.2.1.1 with the last update to 5.16.3 so you’d think something significant changed with this update, but so far I can’t find anything different (except list view for collections is now available on my Kindle Scribe, but that might have happened before the update).
The weird thing about this update is it’s only available for the 10th generation Kindle Paperwhite and newer. It’s not available for the first or second gen Oasis, or the Kindle Paperwhite 3.
This might be a sign that Kindles older than the 10th gen models are no longer going to get updates. On the Amazon Kindle security updates page, it says Kindles will receive guaranteed security patches for at least four years after a device is last available to purchase new from Amazon’s website.
The Kindle Oasis 2 was released in 2017 and then it was replaced by the Kindle Oasis 3 in July of 2019 so the timeline makes sense—it’s been just over 4 years now.
Kindle software updates are usually rolled out in phases. You can wait for the update to automatically download and install on your Kindle at some point in the coming weeks or months, or you can install the update manually whenever you’d like. It’s available to download from the Kindle Software Updates page at Amazon.
I don’t know about you folks, but I often encounter a problem when trying to manually update my Kindles lately. After putting the update on the Kindle’s drive, the update option in the settings menu remains greyed out so there’s no way to trigger the update. However, I’ve discovered that restarting the Kindle will trigger the update to install, provided the battery is sufficiently charged.
I guess my 2017 Oasis is out of luck then. Or is it? One never knows whether one actually WANTS a Kindle update. I’m content as long as the device works to download and read books. I can do without worrying over updates that rarely bring any functionality that I want.
I hope that they don’t remove the ability to access the Kindle store from the Oasis 2 any time soon, but I don’t see any good reason why they should, so I’m not overly worried on that score.
Still, given my Kobo Aura HD from 2013 is still getting updates, makes me glad that my primary readers are Kobos.
My Kobo Mini can’t even download the books I bought for it any more, let alone receive updates.
Have you done the cheat and installed the Kobo Glo firmware on your Mini.
I have just done it on my wife’s and it is now all working again but just thinks that it is a Glo rather than a Mini.
Unfortunately, she had already ordered a new Kobo Nia but it does have the back-lit screen so is happy to have them both.
A quick search on the web brings up instructions on where to find the software and how to install it.
Hope this helps.
I’ve got to figure out how to read my Kindle books on a Kobo. And how to get them from Saturn or Pluto or wherever they’re sitting waiting to be sent into my Kindle to be able to make them Kobo readable. And once (if) I get all that then get a Sage with 8″ screen and buttons. Then I guess I won’t care when they abandon my Kindles although I have a while I guess since I have the Scribe, Oasis 3 and latest 6.8″ PW.
When it comes to retrieving your purchased (or even free) Kindle books, I personally would figure it out sooner, rather than later.
Why? Because the newer Kindle KFX DRM is a tough one. Someone broke it once, but Amazon was able to immediately substitute a new encryption, meaning that there is now likely to be little effort by anyone to decrypt DRM for KFX files.
Currently, one CAN remove DRM from AZW3 files, but it can be trickier for folks to download these, especially if they don’t own a Kindle e-ink device. Remember, Amazon could change things to where getting a decryptable file is impossible. While it probably won’t happen immediately, when/if it does happen, there will likely be no warning!
So, the time to retrieve your AZW3 files is NOW. Since you have registered Kindles, it will be easy to download AZW3 files to your computer. Go to your Kindle library on Amazon.com.
Your Account > Content and Devices > Books
Then select the book you wish to download. On the right, click More Actions > Download and Transfer via USB. Be careful, don’t hit the nearby DELETE button! Download and Transfer via USB opens a popup where you select the device you wish to transfer it to. Probably best to consistently use one device, preferably recent.
The above gets you a file that can be decrypted.
You still need to go find the NoDRM Calibre plugin on GitHub, install Calibre if you don’t already use it, then install and configure the plugin. Google will be your friend in these matters.
Once that’s done, then all you do from there is simply add your AZW3 ebooks to your Calibre library, and DRM is removed upon import. Then you can convert the ebook to epub or kepub format for Kobo as you like.
I’d get your ebook files downloaded and BACKED UP, and then worry about removing the DRM. That task of retrieving all your books as AZW3 files may be a royal pain depending on how many ebooks you have. For the future, do it as you buy, so it doesn’t become a hassle.
Thank you for your excellent replies. They have educated me and given me a course to follow.
P.S. If you have a really huge Kindle library, you might want to go ahead, find the NoDRM plugin, be sure you can get it working in Calibre before trying to download ALL your ebooks.
I just read a post on Reddit where someone with some 2000+ Kindle books took 3 days to get them all downloaded. I don’t think there is any batch download and transfer via USB option, so it can be a project, for sure!
Makes me glad I’ve always had the habit of removing DRM as soon as I purchase.
I don’t know if the 6.8 Signature Kindle is included.? Also, that kindle no longer completely charges. I do read a lot – perhaps 4 hrs/day, and I also read all night (perhaps 5-6 hrs). Always a reader but going into quarantine established new habits.
I sold my Kindle Paperwhite 3 to a friend and can’t believe after 8 years perhaps the updates have stopped for it.
My friend is still perfectly content with it. She says when it no longer turns on or can’t download any books then she’ll look for a replacement. Most of her books aren’t from Amazon so who knows how long it will last.
For me the Kindle PW 5 will still be getting updated for many years so I’m set.
It also could have to do with the fact that my Paperwhite is completely booked and won’t download anything again (it happened when I got it and seemed to get better for a while). When I contacted tech support, they wanted my logs and I had to send than as a link to a drive file because the log of a freshly reset Paperwhite was so large….
I wish they had stopped all updates at 5.13.6 or even before then.
My Scribe now requires Android File Transfer to be used on my Mac, after I did the 5.16.3 update. Odd for a number of reasons; firstly because I was able to use Finder just fine to load the update file onto the device. Also odd because the software is Linux based, yet it now behaves like my Android based BOOX Nova Air. To be honest, it’s kinda janky and unprofessional now. I guess they REALLY want us to use Send to Kindle and have everything pass through their servers.
There is a Scribe only feature, if you can call it that:
* Connect Kindle Scribe over USB using Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) instead of emulating a disk drive.
Both of my Scribes connect now with MTP and not as USB file storage. You need an MTP client to view and manage content, and you cannot use command line tools. On Mac you need something like Android File Transfer. MTP support is built into Window Explorer.
Fortunately calibre has MTP support, though it needs some cosmetic fixes for Scribes that are now use MTP for file transfer.
It’s not clear the feature is enabled for all Scribes; Amazon frequently rolls out new features progressively, so it is only a matter of time before all Scribes with this update switch over.
There is no clear benefit to users, quite the reverse, so the motivation may be to defeat potential jail break, or prepare for future changes. Without knowing the reason for this change, it seems as likely as not to switch for the other Kindles with 5.16.3 in the future.
Note all of the Kindles getting 5.16.3 have USB C ports. So that appears to be cutoff for this update.
Thanks for the info. One thing though, the 10th gen Kindle Oasis doesn’t have a USB-C port.
I recently traded up from my Paperwhite to an Oasis and it’s the biggest mistake I ever made. I didn’t start to use it until 3 weeks after I got it. And I didn’t notice till after the return window that only a third of my cloud books were visible or available. While there are all kinds of threads about this issue, Amazon will acknowledge it and there is no fix. I spent hours on the phone with them and traded numerous emails and tried every fix. They even tried to blame it on my router cache, and when I told them that wasn’t a thing they questioned my IT credentials. And if I search on the device in the store for a book I know I bought it shows that it was purchased but I get a download error. I can still send books directly from the website to the device but then the collections won’t sync. In the end Amazon told me there were no problems and they wouldn’t exchange the device. I can literally see 25,000 more books on my Paperwhite, any of my Kindle fires and even my old Kindle keyboard. I had hoped a firmware update was solve the problem but it didn’t.
I can see the screen problem with one of the lights on your Kindle from here. Get an exchange and maybe the new one will work? I’ve never had a single failure to send a book to my Oasis. Good luck.
Update greyed out issue can be resolve by doing Restart before copying .bin file over.
Do NOT Restart if bin file is there: I have had this result in incomplete update. Always wait for Update to enable or start over: remove .bin, restart, copy bin again.
Don’t know why this happens, it never used to.
As to why only newer Kindles, may be they are starting to observe 4 year rule, or it has to do with move to MTP (support only on USB-C Kindles?).
Has anyone had problems with this update? My kindle paperwhite signature edition (18 months old) is locked on the lock screen.since Saturday.
I’ve had issues with my paperwhite since earlier this summer, I guess with the first update. It would just randomly start changing pages, highlighting things, looking up words. It stopped for a bit and then started up again this past week. I tried to restart it and now it won’t go past the start up page. Won’t turn off, won’t do anything. I’m past my replacement date for it so I don’t know if they’ll actually do anything for me. I think it’s not working because of the updates so you would think they would. It’s only 2 years old.
I haven’t done the second update, but the first seemed to take away the tap to show page numbers/location on my Kindle PW. I’m hoping this update brings that back.
I’ve got the problem with the version 5.16.2.1.1 that it’s now Arabic although I have a European version bought in Germany. I can only choose between two Arabic fonts, Wikipedia is in Arabic, dictionary is Arabic. And my Paperwhite 10 and my Oasis 10 aren’t stable anymore. They restart several times a day which is unusual.
If you are on this version Sandra, the best thing you can do is to Jailbrake it and install KOReader, there you can set it in the language you want and you will have a lot of display options much better than what Amazon offers in their software.
I have a Paperwhite 3 with the 5.13.6 firmware, so I guess it’s all set. I keep the device unregistered and on permanent airplane mode anyway, and all of my content is side-loaded. I’m willing to forego the more advanced features in order to have a simple e-reader, without connections to amazon. It works fine, if a bit sluggishly by today’s standards.