# Kindle for PC questions



## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

I've been using Kindle for PC for about a year, and haven't had any real problems with it. Mostly I use it for samples; I can read short ones while I'm at my desk on hold with someone.

Within the last week I've noticed some odd things, though.... Wondering whether anyone can offer suggestions for how to fix them.

1) The display options given (small box at the top left) are by title, by author, or by most recent. (It recognizes collections but for some reason those have never been a display option. That's fine, though.) I always have it set to "by most recent". But a few days ago it started showing the books by title _and in reverse alphabetical order_. It doesn't change this no matter what setting I pick. And_ reverse_ order isn't even listed as an option.

2) I liked one of the samples enough to buy it, and went to Amazon to do so. (I never buy directly from the last sample page.) After congratulating myself that I had remembered to look at the last location number before closing the sample, so that I'd know where to restart, I found that the location numbers between sample and full book didn't match. They were off by almost 700, in a book of about 4000 total. (The sample download was one day before the purchase, so I doubt it was a different version.) I checked the only other two books for which I had both the sample and the full book on my PC, and found that both were off, though by less than 200 locations. How is this possible? Did I miss some key step that I'm supposed to do only on K for PC? It's never happened to me on my K2.....

3) It doesn't seem to be syncing for pages read anymore. Every time I open a book it starts at the beginning. It syncs with Amazon to _download_ just fine, but it doesn't remember pages read. I'm not syncing between devices here; this book is only on the PC. Nobody else uses this computer, and I haven't reinstalled anything or updated anything recently....

Thoughts?


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I don't use the K4PC hardly at all. . .except as an easier way to browse my library. . . .but I wonder if the time change affected your sorting.  On regular kindles a wonky time setting can cause the sort order to do weird things.  I wonder if something similar happened.

Regardless, my suggestion would be to delete the install and download a new.  Betcha that clears up all the issues.  When you do that, you then do have to make sure the new install is properly registered to your account.


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## Jeff (Oct 28, 2008)

What operating system are you using?
What's the version number of the Kindle for PC application? (Help=>About Kindle)
Is the date and time on your computer accurate?


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## Jeff (Oct 28, 2008)

or...

do what Ann suggested while I was typing and re-install.  

The installer will ask for your Amazon account user name and password.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Jeff said:


> or...
> 
> do what Ann suggested while I was typing and re-install.
> 
> The installer will ask for your Amazon account user name and password.




I cut to the chase. 

Based on past experience, I might add.  As I say, I don't use the PC Kindle much, but one time I wanted to check something on my laptop where it's loaded and it was clearly not showing all my books. Did a sync, nothing changed, so I just deleted the whole program. Downloaded a new copy and re-installed -- it was probably an updated version -- and everything was fine.


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## Jeff (Oct 28, 2008)

Ann in Arlington said:


> I cut to the chase.
> 
> Based on past experience, I might add.  As I say, I don't use the PC Kindle much, but one time I wanted to check something on my laptop where it's loaded and it was clearly not showing all my books. Did a sync, nothing changed, so I just deleted the whole program. Downloaded a new copy and re-installed -- it was probably an updated version -- and everything was fine.


Cutting to the chase is good.

When chasing technical support issues I've developed a habit of getting all the facts before making suggestions. After Susan answered my questions the odds are very high that my suggestion would have been to remove and re-install the application.


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## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

Susan in VA said:


> 1) The display options given (small box at the top left) are by title, by author, or by most recent. (It recognizes collections but for some reason those have never been a display option. That's fine, though.) I always have it set to "by most recent". But a few days ago it started showing the books by title _and in reverse alphabetical order_. It doesn't change this no matter what setting I pick. And_ reverse_ order isn't even listed as an option.


Switch to "List view" if you're not already in it (button next to "By Author" with lines on it) - this displays your books as a list rather than as icons.

Look at the top of the columns, there will be a little arrow showing which column is the sort column, the arrow direction will show the sort order. Click the column you want, then click the arrow to get the right direction.

This _should_ still take effect when you go back to the tile view.


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

Jeff said:


> What operating system are you using?
> What's the version number of the Kindle for PC application? (Help=>About Kindle)
> Is the date and time on your computer accurate?


Windows 7
version 1.9.1, updated 3/11/2012 (ahh! I'll bet the weirdness started with that update....)
And yes, date and time are accurate.


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

Morf said:


> Switch to "List view" if you're not already in it (button next to "By Author" with lines on it) - this displays your books as a list rather than as icons.
> 
> Look at the top of the columns, there will be a little arrow showing which column is the sort column, the arrow direction will show the sort order. Click the column you want, then click the arrow to get the right direction.
> 
> This _should_ still take effect when you go back to the tile view.


Great suggestion, thank you, Morf! In the list view, it let me not only reverse the order but also switch to "most recent" again.

The only odd glitch was that it would not let me go back to icons. The button was unresponsive. But shutting it down and restarting the program brought it back up as icons AND sorted the way I wanted. (Which makes no sense to me, that it would remember my sorting but still default to icons. )

So item #1 is now fixed, yay!


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

Ann and Jeff  --  I hesitate to re-install it because I still have a bunch of unread samples...  they'd all go away....  and if I copy them to the PC first and then copy them back, would they still work on a newly-installed version?  Wouldn't it appear to be a different device?


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Susan in VA said:


> Ann and Jeff -- I hesitate to re-install it because I still have a bunch of unread samples... they'd all go away.... and if I copy them to the PC first and then copy them back, would they still work on a newly-installed version? Wouldn't it appear to be a different device?


Samples aren't DRM'd. You can even email them to people, so, no, you should be okay.

Betsy


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I don't think they would, Susan. . . .they're stored in a folder called "my kindle content" which folder I don't think would be deleted if you reinstalled.  . . . . but I can't promise that so I certainly understand your hesitation.


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## Jeff (Oct 28, 2008)

Susan in VA said:


> Wouldn't it appear to be a different device?


I don't know for sure, but the application _should_ know the processor's ID.


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Samples aren't DRM'd. You can even email them to people, so, no, you should be okay.





Jeff said:


> I don't know for sure, but the application _should_ know the processor's ID.


All righty then. I'll reinstall. If I lose my samples you two are in trouble.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I would copy them just to be sure that the reinstall doesn't remove them (though I agree, they shouldn't) but I did just test the non-DRM-ness by copying a sample from my K4 to my PC and it opened fine on the PC, so they haven't changed that.

Betsy


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## Jeff (Oct 28, 2008)

Susan in VA said:


> All righty then. I'll reinstall. If I lose my samples you two are in trouble.


Betsy's right. I forgot that there's no DRM on samples. I've actually emailed samples to others and they always work, regardless of the device.


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## D/W (Dec 29, 2010)

Susan in VA said:


> It recognizes collections but for some reason those have never been a display option.


If you click on a collection name in the left pane within Kindle for PC, it will display all books assigned to that collection in the right pane. Does that not happen for you?


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

DreamWeaver said:


> If you click on a collection name in the left pane within Kindle for PC, it will display all books assigned to that collection in the right pane. Does that not happen for you?


Yes, it does that. But with my K2, if I set it to sort by collections, it will show ONLY the collections (plus any books that aren't in any collection yet). This is useful when you want to show someone the screen without showing them all your recent reads. On the PC version, it shows titles no matter what --- the only choice is between just the ones in a particular collection and _all_ of them. But fewer people are around when I'm at my computer, so that's not really an issue.


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## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

I have a "Demo" collection on my Kindle, which has two or three free books in it (including Winnie-the-Pooh!) which I use when I want to show people how it works.

This means that, as you say, people can't see what I'm reading, only the demo books, and also means they can page through a book without losing my place in my current book.


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## D/W (Dec 29, 2010)

I just learned elsewhere that there were glitches in recent Kindle for PC versions. The latest version of the software (1.9.2) should fix some problems. Here's a link to the software download pages: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=sa_menu_karl3?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771.


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

DreamWeaver said:


> I just learned elsewhere that there were glitches in recent Kindle for PC versions.


Ah, that explains it.

I have the newest version now (1.9.2) and it remembers my location again.  That takes care of item # 3. (And my samples are alive and well.)  Thank you to all you helpful people!!

The location discrepancy (item #2) is still there. Kind of odd. I thought that sample files were taken directly from the full book itself, but it appears that they must be separate files, perhaps with slightly different formatting or maybe different front material to account for the changed location numbers.


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