Kindle Paperwhite for Dummies (41 page)

Having the page refresh on every page turn uses more battery power.

The device freezes or is very slow

If your Kindle Paperwhite stops behaving in its usual speedy fashion or freezes, you can typically resolve the problem by doing a menu restart or a hard restart.

Begin by performing a menu restart your Kindle Paperwhite:

1. Tap Menu
⇒
Settings.

2. Tap Menu
⇒
Restart.

(Restart is the third item on the drop-down menu that appears.) Your Kindle Paperwhite displays the start-up screen and a progress bar. After a minute or so, the device restarts and displays the Home screen.

If the menu restart doesn’t resolve the problem, try a hard restart:

1. Press and hold down the power button for 45 seconds.

The screen goes blank.

2. Press the power button again — just a simple press as if you were taking your Kindle Paperwhite out of sleep mode.

The start-up screen appears with a silhouetted child reading under a tree. In a few seconds, the device begins the restart process and displays a progress bar. When that restart is complete, you see the Home screen.

Sometimes a low battery can be the cause of unexpected Kindle Paperwhite behavior. If you continue to have problems, plug in your device to let it charge for at least an hour and then try a menu restart again, followed by a hard restart if necessary.

The device is behaving erratically

If your Kindle Paperwhite is exhibiting erratic behavior, such as difficulty downloading content or jumping from section to section in a book instead of moving smoothly from page to page, try a hard restart. Simply follow the directions in the preceding section. A hard restart is easy and resolves many glitches.

You can’t connect to Wi-Fi automatically

The Kindle Paperwhite automatically scans for Wi-Fi networks that are in range of your device. If one (or more) networks are found, the device will connect automatically. If a password is required, a screen appears asking you to input that information. Generally, the process is quick and easy.

Occasionally, however, you may need to connect to the Wi-Fi network manually. Follow these steps:

1. Tap Menu
⇒
Settings.

2. If the network to which you want to connect appears in the list, tap that network.

You’re finished!

3. If the network to which you want to connect doesn’t appear in the list:

a. Tap Other (at the bottom of the Wi-Fi Networks box).

A dialog box named Enter Wi-Fi Network appears, along with the on-screen keyboard.

b. Using the onscreen keyboard, enter the network name and, if applicable, the password.

c. Tap the Advanced button.

d. Work through the series of screens, entering information related to the network, including connection type, IP address, and security type.

Advance through the screens by using the up and down arrows.

If necessary, contact the person who set up the network for assistance with filling in this information.

e. When all the necessary information has been entered, tap the Connect button to join the network.

The battery discharges quickly

Amazon advertises that a single charge of the battery in the Kindle Paperwhite should last eight weeks, based on a half hour of reading each day with the wireless turned off. For voracious readers (like us), that usage is pretty minimal. Still, the battery should last at least a week or two even with daily usage with the wireless turned on.

If you notice that the battery is running down in a short period of time (48 to 72 hours), the problem may be due to unindexed content. Typically, whenever you add content to the Kindle Paperwhite, it indexes the material. This allows you to search for words or terms both within a specific book as well as across all content on the device. Occasionally, a book fails to index properly, so the device tries endlessly (and unsuccessfully) to index it, causing the battery to run down. To determine whether this is the problem, take the following steps:

1. From the Home screen, tap the Search icon.

The Search icon looks like a magnifying glass.

2. In the search box that appears, type an unusual word or even just a string of letters.

Don’t choose a common word such as
man
or
the.

3. Tap the arrow next to the box to begin the search.

4. Check for unindexed items.

To check for unindexed items, look at the bottom of the Results Screen list, after the results of the search. To see what a successful search screen looks like, see Chapter 4.

5. Remove any unindexed items.

If you have acquired this content from Amazon, it will be available to you for redownloading from the Cloud. For other content, make sure you have a backup. Samples from Amazon can be redownloaded.

6. Charge your battery completely.

Make a note of the date and keep track of how long it takes the battery to discharge. You may have to wait a few days to see whether the battery problem has resolved. When you have determined that the battery is functioning normally, you can put the offending (unindexed) items back on your Kindle Paperwhite by redownloading from the Cloud, sideloading from your computer, or resampling the content from Amazon.

If you continue to have problems, contact customer service using the steps described in the previous section, “Contacting Amazon Kindle Customer Service.”

Your Paperwhite doesn’t sync among devices

Normally, you can start reading an e-book on one device, such as your Kindle Paperwhite, and continue reading from where you left off on another device.

Amazon’s Whispersync feature enables you to move seamlessly from reading on your Kindle Paperwhite to reading on a smartphone or your computer, as shown in Figure 10-3. In addition, Whispersync for Voice allows you to sync between your Kindle Paperwhite and an Audible version of a book that you listen to on your preferred audio device with the Audible app.

When opening the e-book on the other device, you’re typically prompted with the option to move to the furthest location read (refer to Figure 10-3). If this doesn’t happen, check the following:

Amazon servers’ connection:
For Whispersync to work, the devices must be connected to Amazon’s servers. Ensure that your Kindle Paperwhite or other device has Wi-Fi or 3G connectivity when syncing.

Synchronization setting:
If your devices are connected to Amazon’s servers and synchronization still isn’t working, check your synchronization settings. Log in to Amazon and go to the Manage Your Kindle page (
www.amazon.com/myk
). Click the Manage Your Devices link, on the left side of the page. Scroll to the bottom of the page and verify that the Synchronization option is set to On.

The Synchronization setting affects
all
devices and all content associated with your account; you can’t selectively turn Device Synchronization on or off for a particular device or for a particular e-book. If you have multiple Kindles on your account (for example, Kindles that belong to you, your spouse, and your children) and everyone is reading the same e-book, the Kindle synchronizes to the last page read for everyone. In this case, you may want to turn off synchronization.

If your device is still having synchronization problems, try exiting the book to the Home screen
— rather than leaving the book open when the Kindle Paperwhite goes into sleep mode.