# Can you register your Kindle if you don't have an email addy?



## Ricky Sides (Sep 16, 2009)

Hi there folks,

I'm sorry if this has been answered elsewhere, but I tried a search and couldn't find the answer.

My aunt bought a Kindle at Target today. She's trying to get it registered so she can purchase books. But she doesn't have an email address. Never has had one. Doesn't own a computer. 

What do we need to do to get her registered?

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Sincerely,
Ricky


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

If she wants to register it (and more importantly, purchase books from Amazon), I believe she will have to have an account with Amazon, which means at the least an email address with a password and probably a credit card number unless she wants to buy things with gift cards. I'm not even sure the credit card is optional. 

If she is not going to buy books from Amazon there's no need to register it, as far as I know.

When purchased from Amazon they come pre-registered, so I haven’t been through another way of doing it.


Mike


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## Ricky Sides (Sep 16, 2009)

Well, she's got the credit card, but no email address because she doesn't have a computer. I guess I could try to set up an email account for her on hotmail or Yahoo.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

Before you act on it, wait until someone verifies the accuracy of my post. I'm not entirely sure you need an email address but don't see how things would work without it. Notifications get sent to your email address when you buy a book from Amazon, for instance.

Mike


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## Ricky Sides (Sep 16, 2009)

Alright, Mike. Thanks. 

I guess, if it becomes necessary, I can let her register her Kindle on my account. But that's going to be problematic. She lives 30 miles from me, and coming to see me monthly to pay for her purchases would be inconvenient for her.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

If you have here set up an email account somewhere, you might want to do a little research here to find out if any particular email service is easier to use on the Kindle's browser, since it sounds like for now that will be her only way to regularly access email?


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## Ricky Sides (Sep 16, 2009)

That's a good point. I'll do that. Thank you. You probably saved us some problems.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

If she wants to buy books from Amazon she absolutely needs to have an account.  That will require an e-mail address.  She'll set her own password.  To use one click she'll have to enter a credit card but once it's set up, she can buy and apply a gift certificate amount and then remove the CC info if she'd prefer it not be stored at Amazon.  When she runs low of funds, she'll need to buy a new GC. . .which will require again entering the CC info just for that purpose.  The GC can come by e-mail.

If she's not computer literate, I don't think I'd suggest the Kindle for using e-mail. . . I just don't think it's going to be as intuitive. You'd be better off getting her a netbook and setting her up a hotmail or gmail account.  On the other hand, maybe what you learn first is always the easiest. 

Even if she doesn't want a computer, you can set up a separate account for her as long as you use her email address.  You can probably set up your computer to get her email -- assuming she has no need or desire to check it herself.  The key is that she has an account.

As far as simply putting her on your account, that's dead easy to do. . . .paying for books won't be a big deal if she gives you a Gift Certificate to apply for her share of things. . .she can probably get them at Target so she could get a card and send it to you in the mail -- she doesn't need to have online access to do it. Then you just keep track of what she's bought via the Kindle -- the notices will come to your email account so you'll always know -- and let her know when you need for her to send another card.  Or you could let her know each month how much she owes you and she can send you a check or money order.  I mean, face-to-face is nice for visiting but really isn't necessary for money transfer.   Note that, if she's on your account, she can see all the books you've bought. . .for some that might be problematic.


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## Ricky Sides (Sep 16, 2009)

Ann,

Thank you so much for that advice. That took a lot of effort on your part and I appreciate it.

She's a dear lady, but not computer savvy. A notebook would probably confuse her. I'm beginning to think just adding her Kindle to my account would be best. Then, when she buys books, I'll get the receipt via email and can total the charges monthly easily enough. 

She's somewhat vision impaired. She's had to purchase large print books in the past, so the ability to increase text size was a strong selling point for her to purchase a Kindle. Aunt Bea talked to my mom to see if she liked her Kindle and mom gave her such an enthusiastic reference for the device that she bought her own.

Thank you again for your advice.

Sincerely,
Ricky


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Maybe she could add her kindle to your mom's account?  Or is she also on yours?  But, yeah, that sounds like the best solution.  She might have a bit of a hard time ordering books from the Kindle, but between you and your Mom you could send her books you think she'd like. . .and if there are any specific titles she can tell you and you can send them to her.


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## Ricky Sides (Sep 16, 2009)

Mom is on my account too. Lol, it's gonna get crowded in there, but mom is in the same boat. An avid reader, who isn't computer savvy. I guess they'll be able to 1 click their purchases, which would be charged to my CC and we'll settle up monthly. Or she may be like mom and just inform me if there's a particular book she's interested in getting for her Kindle.

They both wanted to read the rest of my books, and it was either a computer or Kindle because I haven't released them all in paperback version.   They opted for Kindle. I just learned today how to rename my mom's. I'm learning, bit by bit.

Have a great day,
Ricky


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I doubt you'll have any problems. . .just be sure that "sync" is turned off. . .the toggle is a link all the way at the bottom of the manage your kindle page. . .this way if more than one of you is reading the same book at the same time the devices won't keep trying to put them at the same page. . . . .as to crowded. . .there are folks here with way more than 3 people on the account. . .


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## Ricky Sides (Sep 16, 2009)

That's great advice Ann. I wondered why my Kindle kept putting mom's reading material at the top of my home page. I just figured out how to unsynch our Kindles this morning. I'm such a Kindle newbie. But I'm learning. At least I didn't damage my Kindle trying to remove the two step instructions when I took it out of the box. I finally remembered a post someone made here on the Kindleboards that said it was an actual display by the Kindle. It took me two days to learn how to turn it off. But you know how it is. Guys don't need no instruction books!  LOL.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

Ricky Sides said:


> Guys don't need no instruction books!  LOL.


If you browse through the messages here, you'll find that gals don't need instruction manuals, either. A large percentage of questions asked here could be answered by a few minutes read through the User Guide.  

Mike
(a compulsive reader of manuals)


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

<chuckling> We just got a new TiVo which had to be set up to work with our cable system and home network. So DH started the set up on the TiVo screen and of course got to the point where it needed to talk to the network and it couldn't. I said, "did you set up the network adapter; there were steps to do that in the little booklet that came with it? You need to do it via the computer so it knows what our network is."

Mind you, it said this very clearly; it's not like it was hidden.

So he turned on the computer and connected the network adapter and proceeded to try to set it up via some setting in Windows. He was very annoyed that he couldn't find the place to do it. I looked in the little booklet and said, "it says to go to this IP address in the browser and follow the steps." Oh. Sure enough, he did that it was finished in about 2 minutes.

The whole process probably took twice as long as it would have if he'd read first.


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## Ricky Sides (Sep 16, 2009)

LOL. Read the instructions? Believe it or not, I generally do try to read the instructions. I was just so eager to get to playing with my Kindle I didn't want to waste time in reading the instructions, so I skimmed them. Ok, apparently, I didn't absorb enough.  

Edit: My aunt and mom just left. She's good to go now. I ended up putting her on my account.


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## meeko350 (Aug 25, 2010)

You could always add her to your account and also had her credit card to your account.  I have my cc, my debit card & hubby's cc on my account.  If I buy something for him, I put it on his card.  You probably already have your own "buy with one click", set up, so when she wants to order, just go to your account & temporarily change your one click settings so she can order using her cc, or you can order for her using her cc.  
Or if she has a smartphone, set up her own email and amazon account and she can check email on her phone.


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## Ricky Sides (Sep 16, 2009)

Meeko350,

Those are all good suggestions. Thank you for the advice.


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