# PW 1st. Gen. Stuck on Landscape



## Trophywife007 (Aug 31, 2009)

My MIL has a 1st. generation PaperWhite and it seems to be stuck on landscape mode.  Here's what I already tried:

1) While I was in one of the books, I touched the top of the page and then touched the menu button but the option to go to portrait was not there.  I then hit settings and it also was not offered.

2) I did a reset through the menu and still nothing.

Suggestions anyone?

Thanks in advance!


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Did you try more than one book?  
Is it just in the book or all the time?
I am thinking it might be the book.  I have run across a couple that were landscape only.
Tomorrow morning a PW owner should be on.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

As far as I know -- and I just checked on my 2nd gen PW (2013 model) -- there's no 'landscape/portrait' toggle on it.  There was on the DX -- which was a large screen eInk device.  And there is on the Fires.  I don't think the smaller eInk Kindles have ever had a 'landscape' option.  But I may be misremembering that.

Cin's question is good: is it ALL books, or just one of them? If just one, that's just how the publisher made it -- which is weird, but there you go.  Is it maybe a PDF?

If it's all books -- even those that are very definitely kindle books from Amazon -- something is definitely not right.  My suggestion is to contact Kindle CS.


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## Andra (Nov 19, 2008)

I have a 1st gen PW.  If you tell us the book, I can download the sample and take a look.  But I think Ann is correct - I don't remember there being a landscape mode on any of my e-ink Kindles except the DX.  (going off to check now...)


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

there is a "toggle" to change from landscape to portrait on my PW.  when i'm in a book and touch the top, the icon on the far right (the 3 lines) lists "shop kindle store, portrait mode, sync.... add bookmark."

i don't have to go all the way into settings.  

now, as has been said, it might be something hard coded in the file, but until the OP answers we can't know.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

All my small e-ink kindles have a portrait and landscape mode. The basic even has 4 options, while my PW only has 2. Meaning on the basic you can turn it on its head. On my PW1 its in the menu and if you are on portait, you get the option landscape to pick and if you are on landscape you get portrait as an option. Only from within a book though. I never had that option missing though so that is very odd. 

Like others said, we can check the book through the sample on ours and I would try to delete that particular book off the kindle.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

telracs said:


> there is a "toggle" to change from landscape to portrait on my PW. when i'm in a book and touch the top, the icon on the far right (the 3 lines) lists "shop kindle store, portrait mode, sync.... add bookmark."
> 
> i don't have to go all the way into settings.
> 
> now, as has been said, it might be something hard coded in the file, but until the OP answers we can't know.


Ah! So you have to be IN a book. Yes! I found it. I never noticed it before because I never had the need or desire to go into landscape mode. Never bad to learn something new. 

As Atunah said, though, it's odd that it would not be there for a given book. Deleting the book and re-downloading it may fix the problem if it's a corrupted file.


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## Trophywife007 (Aug 31, 2009)

I did try it on another book she had but it was the same.  At least now I know I was looking in the right place.  I do have access to her account so I'll see what that book does on my Kindle.

Thanks!


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

You said you did a reset? Did you mean a restart? Or did you reset to factory?

If it's happening on more than one book I'd guess it's a device glitch rather than a book glitch.  If a restart/reboot didn't work, resetting to factory might -- but then she'll lose all her settings and all the books on the device.  I think I'd contact Kindle CS before going that route.

Let us know what you find out!


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## Andra (Nov 19, 2008)

I learn something new every day   I guess I've never actually LOOKED for a landscape setting on my smaller devices.
But it's there when I am in a book just like telracs said.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

Ann in Arlington said:


> Ah! So you have to be IN a book. Yes! I found it. I never noticed it before because I never had the need or desire to go into landscape mode. Never bad to learn something new.
> 
> As Atunah said, though, it's odd that it would not be there for a given book. Deleting the book and re-downloading it may fix the problem if it's a corrupted file.


yup, only in the books. and it DOESN'T change the orientation of the home screen, that stays portrait no matter what.


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## tsemple (Apr 27, 2009)

When you are in landscape, you can't see all of the menu options at once. You have to scroll (drag with your finger) the menu up to see the option to select Portrait Mode.

Paperwhite (like all eink kindles) has always had Landscape Mode. Kindle Touch did not at first, but it was added in an update.


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## Trophywife007 (Aug 31, 2009)

tsemple said:


> When you are in landscape, you can't see all of the menu options at once. You have to scroll (drag with your finger) the menu up to see the option to select Portrait Mode.
> 
> Paperwhite (like all eink kindles) has always had Landscape Mode. Kindle Touch did not at first, but it was added in an update.


I'm seeing her today, so I'll check it out. Thanks!


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## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

tsemple said:


> When you are in landscape, you can't see all of the menu options at once. You have to scroll (drag with your finger) the menu up to see the option to select Portrait Mode.
> 
> Paperwhite (like all eink kindles) has always had Landscape Mode. Kindle Touch did not at first, but it was added in an update.


I had never tried my Paperwhite in landscape mode till seeing this and can clearly understand now how it would make it impossible to find the portrait mode button without scrolling. Whodathunkit?


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## Dragle (Dec 10, 2011)

Yes, I remember a thread a while back where someone got stuck in landscape mode and had a lot of trouble trying to scroll the menu to get to the option to switch back to portrait.  You have to do it just right, in the middle of the menu words, not along the side where you see a "scrollbar".  The curse of the touch screen!


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## Trophywife007 (Aug 31, 2009)

tsemple said:


> When you are in landscape, you can't see all of the menu options at once. You have to scroll (drag with your finger) the menu up to see the option to select Portrait Mode.
> 
> Paperwhite (like all eink kindles) has always had Landscape Mode. Kindle Touch did not at first, but it was added in an update.





Dragle said:


> Yes, I remember a thread a while back where someone got stuck in landscape mode and had a lot of trouble trying to scroll the menu to get to the option to switch back to portrait. You have to do it just right, in the middle of the menu words, not along the side where you see a "scrollbar". The curse of the touch screen!


It worked! She has PW1. I looked for the portrait/landscape toggle on my PW2 but it shows up and you don't have to scroll, so I couldn't figure out why it didn't work similarly on hers. You have to scroll down the menu in landscape mode to find the toggle for portrait on PW1.

Many, many thanks!


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Trophywife007 said:


> It worked! She has PW1. I looked for the portrait/landscape toggle on my PW2 but it shows up and you don't have to scroll, so I couldn't figure out why it didn't work similarly on hers. You have to scroll down the menu in landscape mode to find the toggle for portrait on PW1.
> 
> Many, many thanks!


Yay!

Betsy


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