There’s another new software update available for all 10th and 11th generation Kindles, including the Kindle Scribe, the Kindle Paperwhite 4 and 5, the Kindle Oasis 3, and the last two entry-level Kindles from 2022 and 2019.
Amazon just released an update earlier this month that didn’t really seem to change anything. Releasing two sets of firmware updates in one month is rather unusual when it comes to Kindles.
But they did something with this update that they haven’t done in a long time. The developers actually updated the release notes to say what changed, and the date is actually correct this time too!
Admittedly, not much has changed with this update unless they didn’t mention everything but at least there’s something. Here’s the release notes:
Version 5.16.4 – October 2023
Here’s what’s new:
Goodreads: Streamlined experience to track reading progress.
Performance improvements, bug fixes, and other general enhancements.
There’s not a lot to get excited about there, but if you like using Goodreads on your Kindle then this update might be worth checking out. I never use Goodreads so I wouldn’t notice the changes if I saw them. Feel free to leave a comment if you want to explain what changes were made, and if it’s actually an improvement that’s worthy of its own software update or not.
The way Kindle updates work is you can do nothing and the update will automatically download and install at some point in the near future, although it can sometimes take several weeks, and obviously you need to have WiFi connected for that to happen.
You can also download the update from Amazon’s Kindle Software Updates page and install in manually whenever you’d like. They have a link to the instructions on that page. Just make sure to download the proper update for you specific model; the wrong update cannot be installed anyway so it’s not easy to mess up.
Hello Nathan, question. So I use a Mac and suddenly every time I connect my Kindle scribe, It is no longer recognized by the Mac, so Amazon prompted me to download, android USB file transfer. This was never an issue before, just suddenly as in this week. My Mac used to always recognize my scribe. When I downloaded the android file transfer my Kindle scribe files show up. That way I can add fonts, etc. The only problem with this is now caliber doesn’t recognize my scribe, I also can’t manually download updates to scribe. When I transfer the Kindle downloaded update through android file transfer the Scribe doesn’t recognize it in the settings. This is not an issue with any of my other kindles, Oasis 3, Kindle PW3 or Kindle PW5. This is only a problem with my Kindle scribe. Very weird and like I said, this randomly suddenly just started happening. Are you familiar with this issue?
Experiencing same issue, to a t.
Latest version of calibre works
They made it so the Scribe uses MTP a couple updates ago. I don’t have a Mac so I don’t know the specifics but like alpha said you might try the latest version of Calibre. I don’t know if it’s the same as your issue but the last few updates didn’t work the first time I put them on my Scribe. The file name of the update gets changed and then nothing happens and the update option remains greyed out in settings. I have to delete the file and then copy the update to it again and then it works. It seems like these updates lately are creating more problems than they are solving.
Definitely updated the user interface of Goodreads. Instead of having just a list of books it now breaks it up into your want to read books, currently reading, and read books. It looks more like the Home page of your kindle. BUT, you still can’t manually enter the progress in the book itself of those you are currently reading. You can only change the category of want to red / currently reading / read. So, still not as useful as the app on the phone. A half baked update to Goodreads.
I noticed that the recent update still does not fix a problem I have with my paperwhite 11th gen when using voiceview. Randomly it will re-read the same page even though on the screen it has moved to the next page. The only work around is to tap on the screen and then restart voiceview.. This has been happening since I got my device over a year ago. It also happens on my basic 10th gen, but not as often.
It seems like there are a lot of problems that never get fixed, but they’ll probably find a way to close the new jailbreak loophole as soon as possible.
Someone in reddit mentioned that the browser has actually been updated. It is still no Chrome browser, but supposedly it has been improved. When I opened it up just now it gave me a notice I have not seen before, that it has limited memory and web pages with animation or other fancy features may load slowly or not at all.
I saw some comments about that too so I just tried loading up 5.16.4 on one of my Paperwhites and quickly compared it to one with the older software and I’m not seeing any improvements or differences at all. It’s still as crappy as ever. What model are you using?
Update: Here’s a post about it: Some Kindles Getting New Improved Web Browser.
It was on my Paperwhite 11th gen with 8 GB RAM. I had done the manual update rather than wait for it to happen. I also got it on my basic 10th gen, which I manually updated too.
it is a chromium. after extract kpw5 uodate bin, you can find it.
check “https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=357173”
Paperwhite 11th gen signature edition – went and loaded up 5.16.4 and the browser refuses to update. Still the same web browser as before. No idea how people are getting theirs updated. Anyone have any ideas?
Mine says 5.16.4 (4131240058)
It’s not unusual for new features to take some time to show up for everybody, as Amazon tends to rollout changes gradually.
The new browser looks nice, but unfortunately it seems to restrict azw3 downloads now. I used to be able to grab azw books from my calibre server and from Standard Ebooks, but now I get a warning that says:
“Invalid File Type
The web browser cannot download this kind of file.
Only files with the extension .AZW, .PRC, .MOBI or .TXT can be downloaded to your Kindle.”
Hopefully this is just a bug…
Since the update, my screen is too sensitive to use properly, and settings randomly change. Example: AutoRotate switched from On to Off, and the Esperanto keyboard changed to Russian. Help please
Have you tried rebooting?
Hahahaha.