# Books Deleted from Kindle Paperwhite Keep Coming Back



## jessesmith (Jun 11, 2016)

Having searched numerous forums, I now realize I did a bad thing - deleted books and documents from my Kindle Paperwhite's "documents" folder using Windows Explorer across a USB link. Too bad Paperwhite doesn't come with a warning not to do this. I thought it was fine because that's how I transferred the mobi files to the Paperwhite "documents" folder, as these were not Amazon purchases. Now, no matter what technique I use to "delete" these books, including touchscreen delete menu and Reset Device, they always reappear in my Paperwhite's "documents" folder when I turn it on - presumably because their sidecar files are restoring them.

Note - these books are not stored on the cloud and they are not detected by Manage Your Content. So where are these sidecar files, and how can I delete them to keep these books and documents from constantly being restored to my "documents" folder? (BTW - Kindle tech support is useless - the techs I have spoken with are clearly not "techs," merely working off scripts with no intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the Kindle file system.)

The key issue here is the existence of companion sidecar files somewhere inside the Kindle file system which are re-creating these books each time I delete them. I need the help of a supergeek who understands how sidecar files work within the Kindle file system. Thanks for any help!


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

If you preform a device reset it will return it to 'factory condition. From the home screen: menu/settings/menu/reset to factory.  That should clear out any files of any sort from the device. So it will remove your ghost files, but will also remove any REAL files you have on it. You'd then have to reload any files you do want on there.

If you want to do anything more 'invasive' in terms of file management, you might have better luck asking your question on mobile read -- there are folks there who play with the code and have a much better understanding of what underlies the file management system.


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## jessesmith (Jun 11, 2016)

As I said in my original post, "Reset Device" brings the books back. "Reset to Factory" is not an option on my generation Paperwhite. The choice is menu/Settings/menu/Reset Device. Where is "mobile read"?


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

There are two sorts of 'reset'.  One is 'restart' and one is 'reset' . . . Restart just restarts it -- useful if it's gotten glitchy -- takes a minute or two but all the files are still there. Reset (whether it says 'to factory' or 'device') should return it to factory conditions and remove all files. You'd have to then re-register it to your account and reset your WiFi credentials, etc. I only mention this because people often say 'reset' when what they're talking about is having done a restart.

If you're actually doing a RESET, it surprises me that there are orphan files or pointers that are still there after doing so.

MobileRead.com is a separate forum that has sections on many different eInk readers as well as sections on manipulating the software, etc. Folks here mostly just use the thing; folks at MobileRead like to delve into the software/OS and see what new tricks they can teach it. 

I've only ever loaded things via Amazon's systems though I was aware that if I side loaded something via USB that I still had to delete it via Kindle vs using the computer's file management. It all seemed like more trouble than it needed to be for me, and using Amazon's server is so easy, that's just the way I do it. Sorry to not be more helpful.


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