Daily Archives: April 23, 2016

Amazon (Finally) Makes Announcement on Fire HD 8.9 deregister issue

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fire_announcementAmazon has made an announcement about the deregistration and factory reset issue on the Kindle Help Community forum:

If you’re having trouble finding your photos, apps, or other content on your Kindle Fire HD 8.9”, please check your current registration status by swiping down from the top of the screen, selecting More, and then selecting My Account. If your device is not registered, tap the Register button and then enter your Amazon account information. After you register your device, you may need to download your content again. To learn more, go to  http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201730090.

That link takes you to the Sync and Download Content to Your Kindle Fire page, There you will find instructions for syncing your content to your device:

To sync all content: With wireless connected, swipe down from the top of the screen to show Quick Settings, and then tap Sync.

The Sync Across Fire & Kindle Devices and Apps page implies that whether or not this restores bookmarks, highlights, etc.,  may depend on whether you have Whispersync enabled on your devices.

FYI: The Kindle Help Community forum is the one that is moderated by Amazon representatives.  It is not the same as the Amazon customer forums where customers comment and attempt to help other customers.

Related: Did your Fire tablet just de-register … again? June 17, 2016

Daily Links and Deals: 400 years after his death, here are the books that likely influenced Shakespeare

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daily_links_1Today, the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, his influence, books and a look at the film adaptations. Also, video games behind a paywall, universal languages and a browser with a built in VPN. In today’s deals, there is a Pebble Smartwatch and 14 bestsellers on sale across all retailer platforms.

Daily Links for Saturday, April 23, 2016:

White House now makes it even easier to petition the government (ReCode) The process of petitioning the White House has been somewhat convoluted. Hopefully, this will help.

Amazon locks top games behind a Prime paywall (Engadget) Do you find store exclusives distasteful? In this one, only a subset of store customers can purchase these games. What do you think?

Why a Universal Language Will Never Be a Thing (Motherboard) Do you speak Esperanto? Turns out that a universal language is more difficult than people thought for a lot of reasons.

Opera browser build adds a first: Free, unlimited VPN for secure surfing (PC World)  This is still in beta, but it is a really interesting idea. I don;t know how it will play out with sites and services like Netflix that are blocking VPNS.

Disney, CBS, Viacom worry FCC cable box proposal would do to TV what iTunes did to music (The Verge)Probably a valid concern….

And for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death:

400 years after his death, here are the books that likely influenced Shakespeare (Quartz)  and William Shakespeare 400th anniversary: The BFI collection of film adaptations you can watch online (The Independent). All of Shakespeare’s works can be found at Project Gutenberg for free!

Deals of the Day:

Amazon’s selection of Kindle Daily Deals includes 14 bestsellers like The Martian, Gone Girl and more. (Note: all the major e-tailers are offering these today.)

In Today’s Deals,  save 40% on select Pebble Smartwatches.

Amazon is still offering savings on the Fire HD 6, and deals on pre-owned Fire tablets. I am also still seeing the option for 5 payments of $58 for the Kindle Oasis pre-order. Yes, it is still not too late to order one, especially with the basic black cover.

You can also take advantage of a trade-in offer from Amazon on your old Fire tablet.

The Barnes and Noble Nook Daily Find is A Stained White Radiance (Dave Robicheaux Series #5) by James Lee Burke for $1.99. The Romance Daily Find is Almost a Scandal by Elizabeth Essex for $2.99.

Kobo’s Daily Deal is The One-in-a-Million Boy by Monica Wood for $2.99.

iTunes’ Weekly Bestsellers Under $4 includes The Marriage of Mary Russel: A Marry Russell short story by Laurie R. King for $1.99.

Google is having a one-day sale on bestsellers. (These are the same bestsellers a Amazon’s Kindle Deal of the day)

(A note on Daily Deals: All prices current at the time of posting and subject to change. Most items marked Daily Deals are good for only the day posted.

Many large promotions have discount pricing that is set by the publisher. This usually means that titles can be found at a discount price across most platforms (with iTunes sometimes being the exception). If you have a favorite retailer you like to patronize, check the title on that website. There is a good chance that they will be matching the sale price.)

Daily Links are interesting links I discover as I go about my online day. The frequency and number of links posted depend upon the daily news. I also post other, different links of interest on Twitter, Facebook, and on the Google Plus eBook Evangelist Page.

Update to the Fire reset issue

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fire HDXThere’s been a lot of interest in the post I wrote last night about the reports of owners of Fire tablets suddenly discovering their device had been deregistered without their knowledge.  I did try to call Amazon today, but had technical problems and got disconnected. Here’s the latest on the Kindle Fire deregister/factory reset issue that I can glean on the situation at this time:

Amazon is aware of the problem which seems to be particularly affecting the Fire HD 8.9″. This seems to be a bug or a glitch in software, at least as far as the 8.9′” devices are concerned. If you go to contact Kindle support, you will see the following:

help_screen_crop

(Click to enlarge)

The message under the ‘Call me now’ button says:

If you’re experiencing an issue with your Kindle Fire HD 8.9″, make sure your device is registered to your Amazon account. You can check your current registration status by swiping down from the top of the screen, selecting ‘More’, and then selecting ‘My Account’.

There was an estimate of  twelve minutes wait time to talk to Kindle support. That’s longer for Amazon in my experience. Given the long wait time, I think it is obvious that Amazon wants people to try to re-register their devices themselves before calling.

Several people reported the following response when they email or chat with customer service:

“We are sorry for the inconvenience you are experiencing. This is not we want our customers to experience.

In this regard, I would like to inform you that, the deregistration of your Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ Tablet is a known issue. As this is happening across many Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ tablets due a bug and our technical team is working to eliminate the bug.

This issue will be fixed in next 2-3 days. You need not worry about the content on your Kindle, as it will be safe in your cloud library and you can download them, once this bug is fixed in our server.

Thanks for your patience and understanding in this regard.”

One customer posted a different support response:

“Our servers were updated yesterday which seems to have introduced a bug causing devices to de-register, device which were connected to Amazon during this time got de-registered. But now the issue has been fixed.”

Some posters on the forums reported that they were instructed to re-register and then sync the device so that their content would reappear on the device. Others have reported being told that that they would have to manually download their books again. Some have reported being told that their libraries and apps would return within the next few days.

Many people have reported losing all their personal content, bookmarks, app data and email. Needless to say, a lot of people are upset with Amazon right now!

Amazon Kindle support definitely seems overwhelmed by the call volume. When I tried to  call earlier, I was transferred to a support rep, then the call was disconnected. Amazon did not call me back (generally,they do if that happens) and it took an hour and a half for the ‘Did I solve your problem’ email to arrive. The follow up email read like Amazon thought I hung on on them, so it may be an indication of just how widespread this issue is. If re-registering doesn’t work, you may need to try to call Kindle Support.

Safety PSA: If you have to call Kindle Support,use the ‘Contact us’ button on the help pages to initiate your call. There have been a number of scams perpetrated where people Google Kindle support and get the phone number for a fake site. They are then told they have to pay for support for their device. Amazon does not charge customers for customer service.

My own personal issue was with a Fire HD 6. I am not sure if the other Fire device resets are caused by the same problem, because other than the device setting resetting to default, most of my data is now showing on the device. I am still investigating the problem, but will probably wait until Monday to contact support again.

Do you have any info to share on the issue?

Update 2: Amazon has posted an announcement on this issue. Post here.

Related: Did your Fire tablet just de-register … again? June 17, 2016