# Paperwhite battery percentage



## Jo Lane (Feb 13, 2017)

Hi,

OK this is driving me mad. I have recently bought a white Kindle Paperwhite, not the newest version that has just come out but the one before that. 

I gave my old one - same model but in black to my husband.

Now the thing is, his Kindle is showing the battery percentage beside the battery. Everything I've read online says this is impossible unless it's jailbroken, which it's not and never has been. When I owned it, it didn't show the battery percentage,  and he has only really read one book since I gave it to him. it definitely isn't jailbroken, for a start, he wouldn't have a clue how to do it nor would he want to.

I cannot find any way to show the percentage on mine, and cannot find anywhere online that says it's even possible.

Is this in a recent update, and if so how do you switch it on? If not, then how on earth has his Kindle started showing this percentage?

Many thanks

Jo.


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## patrickt (Aug 28, 2010)

My Paperwhites now have the battery percentage showing. Check to see if you're running firmware version 5.10.1.1. If you're not, get it.

To check firmware version go to settings, settings again, press three dots in upper right corner and then device info.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

what patrickt said ... there was an update back in mid October for all but the oldest of devices. Among other things, it added the percentage to the battery indicator -- apparently a thing people REALLY LIKED from the second gen Oasis, where it was an option if you turned on some of the accessibility features. So they added it across the board as standard.

To find the update, go to this page:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200529680

That's the page for all kindle devices. You can use the pictures (scroll down under the Fire line for kindles) or the word links down the left side to go to the page for your device.

If you need help figuring out which generation of Paperwhite you have, here's a page that helps with that:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=201263790

It gives you 'distinguishing' characteristics for the various 'generations'. It is important that you download and apply the correct update, even though they're numbered similarly, as the wrong one won't work. There should be a link on the update page, as well, as to how to download the file to your computer and update it manually.

Interestingly, the current PW version is shown as 10th generation. The only 9th generation Kindle is the larger screen Oasis. The 8th generation includes a basic kindle model and the original Oasis. So the next newest PW is part of the 7th generation, which also includes the Voyage and a basic model. Here's the weird thing: for the 7th gen PW, the current firmware version is shown as 5.9.7. Which is mostly odd as the 6th gen version is shown as 5.10.1.1. And both the other devices in the 7th gen show 5.10.1.1.

So. Figure out which generation you have. Make sure the software is updated. And if you're a 7th gen PW it might be worth it to contact Amazon. Not sure why the update isn't available on that page to download and install, if, indeed, the latest should be 5.10.1.1, but they should be able to push it to your device manually, or something.

Good Luck!


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## Jo Lane (Feb 13, 2017)

Thanks all. First thing I did was check the menu to see if there was an update available but update my Kindle is greyed out and I assumed I was on the latest version, however, I'm not. I'm currently on 5.9.7 but as I said, Update your Kindle is greyed out, so there seems to be no way to get the later version.  I don't know why I can't get it, and am not sure how I can get it. My Kindle is connected to the internet and I have no trouble downloading books. 
I tried restarting the Kindle but that has not helped. As far as my device is concerned, there is no update 

I'll try manually doing it and see if that works, but it has always auto-updated before with no issue. 

Okay so I'm confused now. I'm assuming that mine must be 7th generation then as 6th generation update didn't work. It was bought not long before the Paperwhite 4 came out this year. So as Ann in Arlington said it seems my version doesn't have an update. Thanks for the help, I guess I'll contact Amazon about it.


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## Jo Lane (Feb 13, 2017)

So I spoke to Amazon and was told the update had been taken down due to some issues it had. They first said it had been taken down for all Paperwhites, but when I mentioned that 10.1.1 for 6th generation was still up they said sorry it's just the 7th generation. So I have to wait for them to put it back up, but they have no idea when that will be.

Thanks again for the help

Jo


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## HLS (Feb 23, 2018)

You can get the update by plugging your kindle into your PC . This is your model I believe. you download to pc then drag and drop into kindle

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_left_v4_sib?ie=UTF8&nodeId=202065490


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