# WTF Happened to the Kindle Fire HD??? Text to speech is GONE with this update!



## Giselle London

Hopefully I'm getting worked up over nothing but I don't think so.  I posted this on another board, but I thought you guys might know more.

Last night, my kindle fire hd started an automatic update (man, i hate those).  So it reboots, and later I'm going to bed, and put on my earphones so I can go to sleep listening to a book every night, as I always do, when....

OMG!!!  Where is the play button?  

That's right.  The play button, which is used to start the text to speech playing is GONE.  I've looked everywhere, I see no way to turn it on.  They had BETTER NOT have gotten rid of it, to force us all to buy audio books.  Cuz I tell you now, I will buy NOTHING from them until they fix this.  As an extremely busy mom, this is the ONLY way I have the time to read, and as an author, I use it to help in my editing.  I NEED this feature.  I ditched my nook to buy a kindle two years ago, specifically for this feature.  I'm furious.  

Hopefully this is a glitch, but I don't think it is.  I even went into the settings, where the help menu says you can activate text to speech, and it's not there.  Have you guys noticed this on your Fires?

If you value your text to speech, do NOT turn off airplane mode, or your Fire will be ruined for you.  I'm writing to amazon to complain.  I am soooo mad.


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## Ann in Arlington

I haven't had time to check either of my Fires but I'm guessing that you're over-reacting a tad.  If anything, the updates (see this thread) added functionality. It's certainly possible the controls have been changed to be consistent across all devices.

Do make sure, of course, that the book you're reading has Text to Speech enabled. . .not all do!


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## Dragle

I just checked and I have the latest update, and text to speech is still there.   You may have to go into the book's settings and turn it back on as the update reset it to off.


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## Giselle London

Actually, I already tried that.  It's not there.  I followed the directions in the guide, went to settings, there is nothing in there about text to speech.  Unless I'm in the wrong place, which I don't think I am.  My husband couldn't figure it out either.  So if it's not an update issue, then maybe my kindle got messed up during the update.  Wouldn't suprise me.  The Kindle app crashes every ten minutes when I use text to speech.  I think I may need to return this lemon.

thanks, guys.  Hopefully the next one I get will be normal and crash-free. I can't live without my TTS.



ETA:  The place I'm going to is within the book, up in the left hand corner, labeled settings.  I click it and the options are:  Fonts Size, Line Spacing, Margins, Color Mode, Font, Popular Highlights.  That's it.  And it doesn't scroll up or down or side to side to show any other options.


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## Atunah

I never used TTS on my Fire HD so I just opened a book I know has it and its already there at the bottom. Meaning I tab the top and it brings up the top and bottom menu and on the bottom where it shows me the locations, there is a play arrow and it tells me play to listen to TTS. 


And its on by default. My Fire just updated like 10 minutes ago. I had it off wifi for a few days. Its a 8.9 HD. 

In the top setting menu the Aa, under more options is where I turn on and off TTS. 

Are you saying that part is gone from the menu? You don't have a more options under font? 

eta: reading your post my Aa looks a bit different. its 
Font size
Line Spacing
Margins
Color Mode
Font
More options

under more options I have
two column
popular highlights
text to speech.


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## Giselle London

Yes, right, the "more options" part is not there.  That's what I was looking for, and it's not there.  All there was is exactly what I listed, in that order.  

So basically, my kindle is screwed up.  *sigh*  Guess I need to call Amazon in the morning.

Thanks for helping guys.   At least I know the problem is isolated to my kindle.


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## Seamonkey

I don't have popular highlights (under more options) just two column and text to speech, both set to on)

I was just using TTS this morning in one book and just now tried it in another and it works fine.  My Fire HD 8.9" undated sometime before last night.

Hope there is an easy fix for you..  maybe a hard reset.


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## Dragle

I would try 1. Hard reboot, 2. Re-apply the update, 3. Contact CS.


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## Betsy the Quilter

I'm updating now.  Just curious, for those who haven't yet updated, or someone who knows, what was the update version before updating to 8.3?  Mine was 8.1.4xxx  Did I miss an update?

Betsy


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## Betsy the Quilter

So, a couple things. First, after the update, I still have TTS, so Giselle, I would follow Dragle's steps. If you need to contact Kindle CS, the number is below.

(Amazon US customers inside the US: 1-866-321-8851, outside the US: 1-206-266-0927. Other customers, see here.)

Interestingly, I tried synching my device, as the instructions for applying the update indicated, and nothing seemed to happen. Then, I navigated to the update page using my Fire's web browser and downloaded the file. With no further effort on my part, the device upgraded (the status line said "upgrading" not "updating"). So I have "time to read" now AND TTS.

I did note that if you are in a book that does not have TTS available, the option to turn it on or off is still there under More Options; but it will say "Not available for this title." So the fact that the option is not there at all is a clear indicator of a problem with the download or the update.

Betsy


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## Ann in Arlington

Mine was 8.1.4 something too earlier today. . . . while I as out it updated to 8.3 on the HD 4G. And my HD7 is now at 7.2.3  . . . . didn't think to look at it last night but I'm sure the update wasn't there yet because the 'time to finish' was definitely not on it.  And, actually, it doesn't seem to be on it now, either, so maybe it's not updated yet. . . .


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## Betsy the Quilter

Soon as I opened a book, it said "Learning reading speed."  And it's showing reading speed now, although it says there's one minute left in a book I haven't started yet.  

Betsy


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## Ann in Arlington

'kay. . . . I just went to the update on the Fire broswer and it's apparently doing so. . . . .slow, though. . . . .


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## Linjeakel

Ann in Arlington said:


> Mine was 8.1.4 something too earlier today. . . . while I as out it updated to 8.3 on the HD 4G. And my HD7 is now at 7.2.3 . . . . didn't think to look at it last night but I'm sure the update wasn't there yet because the 'time to finish' was definitely not on it. And, actually, it doesn't seem to be on it now, either, so maybe it's not updated yet. . . .


My HD7 updated yesterday to 7.3.0 - if yours is on 7.2.3 then you still need the update.


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## Ann in Arlington

Is that your yesterday? or My yesterday? 

Yeah, mine were both pretty dead last night which is no doubt why they didn't update.  I plugged the 4G in overnight and, as I said, it  updated while I was out at the grocery store. . . . .  Then I plugged in the HD7 and have now initiated the download manually.  TtS is definitely still on the 4G.


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## Jesslyn

I kind of wish we had the option to update or not, but I guess Amazon likes to keep everyone synched.


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## TerryS

I agree there, Jess, as far as having a choice. Or allow me to go back if there's an issue.


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## Seamonkey

They could do that if they made a feature with off/on option.  Supporting multiple releases is definitely a downer, but better programming would allow us to choose features like that.  I can live with it but it is kind of annoying.


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