There’s a new software update available for 11th and 12th gen Kindles, plus all versions of the Kindle Colorsoft and Kindle Scribe. The new software version is 5.18.6 for all compatible models.
It looks like Amazon has given up updating 10th gen Kindles, as they stopped getting these updates back in March/April. They’re supposed to get security updates through 2026, but apparently they aren’t getting any more new feature updates.
According to the release notes, this 5.18.6 update adds a new book link preview window when you long-press on internal links within ebooks. That’s the only changes listed, but as we know Amazon frequently doesn’t list all the changes in the release notes.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this update has a bunch of changes under the hood for the new Kindle Scribes. They have to be getting close to releasing them by now, and they’re probably going to start sending them out to tech sites so they can post their phoney sponsored reviews and they’ll need to have the latest software installed.
The first thing I did after updating my 12th gen Kindle Paperwhite to the new 5.18.6 software was to see if the book that refuses to download since the last update would download now, and of course it still fails to download every time I try.
The update also removed some of the books I had already had downloaded, but I was able to redownload them without a problem. It’s just that one book that won’t work.
You can download the 5.18.6 update from the Kindle Software Updates page on Amazon’s website. Or you can wait for it to automatically install on its own at some point.
The release notes are listed below. Once again they got the date wrong. How are we supposed to trust these software updates when they can’t even get the date right on the release notes? The update is dated two months ago even though this is the third update they’ve released since September.
Version 5.18.6 – September 2025
Here’s what’s new:
Book Link Preview Window: Long press internal links within a book to open a preview window.
Performance improvements, bug fixes, and other general enhancements.
When you’re done waiting for Bezos’ H1B Kindle team to undo what they were told to fix, you know where to find us.
But people sure get defensive when negative things are mentioned about Kobos. Interesting.
My kindles do seem to wake up a bit faster now. And the scribe seems to also be a little faster.
I haven’t noticed any difference with this software update. Everything works the same as always, neither better nor worse, neither faster nor slower. The only thing I’ve seen (so far) that has changed is the design of the tab that delimits highlighted words or phrases. Otherwise, everything is the same. I’m not quite sure what the new feature announced refers to. The links still work as before. Pressing and holding has no different effect.
I don’t think they’ve activated the new link feature yet. It turns out there are a bunch of changes that haven’t been activated yet. They’re probably waiting for the new Scribes to get released.
Looks like 5.18.6 patches AdBreak. Luckily, updates stopped for my Oasis at 5.18.2…