I’ve been seeing a lot of reports online lately, especially over on Amazon’s Kindle forum, of people having problems downloading ebooks to Kindles. It seems to be a fairly widespread issue caused by one of the recent software updates.
If your Kindle won’t download ebooks, or just certain ebooks won’t download, there are some steps you can take to try and fix the problem, but the standard procedure doesn’t seem to be working in most cases.
I’ve seen a couple reports of a factory reset fixing the problem with some Kindles, but you’ll have to redownload all your content after a reset so if that doesn’t fix the problem you won’t even be able to read any of the books your Kindle had already downloaded, so it’s a bit risky.
I’ve encountered this new bug myself on my 12th gen Kindle Paperwhite. I don’t have any problems downloading most books (but then again I’ve only tried a handful), but there’s one particular ebook that I bought from Amazon that refuses to download no matter what I do. It won’t download in Kids Mode and it won’t download in regular mode. It starts to download and the percentage meter goes up to 10% or so, and then it stops and reverts to not downloading.
This problem started after one of the many recent software updates. I’m not sure exactly which version is was, but I think it started with software version 5.18.5 when they added the new DRM to Kindles, but I had issues with Kids Mode deleting ebooks before then.
I tried all the steps outlined in the article I posted 10 years ago about fixing ebooks not downloading and nothing works. I tried downloading the ebook to my 12th gen Paperwhite SE and it downloaded just fine, but it’s running older 5.18.3 software.
A couple months ago I asked the question if it’s better to keep Kindles online or offline. Well, I’m keeping my SE Paperwhite offline from now on except to download ebooks so that it can’t download any more software updates. My internet is too slow to download an update in the time it takes to download an ebook so that might actually work for a while. Kindle updates just aren’t worth it anymore with all the new bugs and DRM changes that Amazon is constantly adding.
If you’ve encountered this problem with your Kindle not downloading ebooks, leave a comment below if you found a fix that worked for you.
My Kindle Paperwhite SE does not have problems downloading eBooks purchased from Amazon. It does have an issue showing eBook covers for some eBooks I have purchased. I have noticed that eBooks no longer available on the Amazon Kindle bookstore or those that differ from the original eBook purchased (a new version of the same eBook you have previously purchased) will not show the book covers on the Kindle Paperwhite. The eBooks’ book covers always show on the Kindle Colorsoft no matter what, even if the eBook was previously purchased and is no longer on the Amazon Kindle bookstore or if a new version is available and it has replaced the previous version. I have no clue why this issue occurs.
I jail broke and prevented all updates on all my kindles using the latest ad related method. Still on 5.18.4.xx and might downgrade.
Been having this won’t download books problem since Feb or March this year. Suspect issue came in at end of versions 5.17 or start of version 5.18.
Check if there are two instances of the book on your kindle or content manger. Use the title and then search by author. Any book that’s been republished using two different author names like a pen name that gets changed to their real name, or has a title change and you’ve bought both versions will exhibit this issue. Same of the same book is viewed by multiple accounts or was bought by two accounts on the same device as per family sharing, or two libraries are merged as part of family sharing.
Fixed by removing the previous download from your device as only one instance can exist on one device at a time regardless of account separation.
FWIW, in its continuing war on users, Amazon has prevented downgrading Kindle firmware: Once the version gets upgraded, there’s no going back.
There’s always KoReader, though.