# All my books disappeared!



## Jon12345 (Oct 27, 2012)

I am new to Kindle so no doubt its user error.

I had a list of books showing in my Paperwhite Kindle. Then, I clicked create new collection and gave it a name. Then all my books seemed to disappear. So, I deleted the collection and I still can't see my books. However, when I plug my Kindle into the usb socket, I can see all my books are still under the Documents folder.

What's going on?

Thanks,

Jon


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## KimberlyinMN (Dec 30, 2009)

I'd say reboot the Kindle.  (I don't know how to do this with the PW.. with the basic Kindle, I have to hold the power button down for 20 seconds and release.)


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## Jon12345 (Oct 27, 2012)

Is Reboot the same as restart? It has Restart or Reset Device under the options menu.


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## KimberlyinMN (Dec 30, 2009)

Ah... yes, choose Restart.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

It's restart!

And welcome to KindleBoards!

Betsy


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## Jon12345 (Oct 27, 2012)

That didn't fix it. Still can't see any of my books, even though they are showing to be present in Windows Explorer.


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## KimberlyinMN (Dec 30, 2009)

Do you see your Archives folder?  Can you try downloading one of the books again?


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Try this:  Go to the home screen.  Be sure "Device" is bold and be sure it says "My Items" and "Title."  You should see all the books that you have downloaded -- as well as any collections you've made -- listed alphabetically.  

If you have it showing, say "Books" and "Collections" and you don't have any books that are NOT in collections, you won't have anything showing on the home screen.


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## Jon12345 (Oct 27, 2012)

The thing is, I see all the book files already on the Kindle device. But for some reason the Kindle is no longer picking them up. Does that make sense?


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Did you try what I suggested: because it doesn't really matter what files you see when it's hooked to the computer. You need to work out if the organization built into the Kindle is working correctly. And if, for example, you have it set to show Books and Collections and don't have any books that you haven't got IN a collection, the home screen will show _nothing at all_.

Play around with the choices: All Items, Books, Periodicals, Docs, or Active Content, Recent, Title, Author, or Collections. Depending on how you have those set more or fewer items will actually show on the home screen. Specifically, if you have selected All Items/My Items and then anything that is NOT collections, you should see your titles.


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## Jon12345 (Oct 27, 2012)

I go to Home, Device is bolded and it says My Items(0) and Title. No books listed. If I press Title it shows Collections greyed out, so I have no collections. 

Shall I just do a "Reset Device"?

One extra thing. i have Calibre installed on my PC and it has installed these in the root:

driveinfo.calibre
metadata.calibre


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I don't use Calibre so I have no idea if that could be part of the problem. But it sounds like you might have accidentally deleted all your books. The file names may still be there, but the pointers are gone so the kindle doesn't _know_ they're there.

If the restart via software hasn't worked, you can try a restart via hardware: hold the power button for about 30 seconds. It'll appear to turn off entirely and then will restart itself. Let it complete the restart.

If that doesn't work, you have nothing to lose by doing a reset to factory conditions. . .which is available via the menu: from home -- menu/settings/menu/reset. You will have to re enter your wifi credentials and may have to re-register it to your Amazon account.

If none of that works, it's probably time to contact Kindle Customer Service.


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## Jon12345 (Oct 27, 2012)

I've tracked it down to one rough ebook. When I deleted that I could see my other files. Odd.

Thanks for your help guys.


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