# Help Please: Removing Custom Screensavers



## wizard6 (Nov 9, 2008)

Please excuse me if this is not the proper place to ask for help,however I need HELP!
I followed instructions and placed pics on my kindle for a screensaver...now I wish to return to the kindle screensavers and have followed all instructions to remove but alas they still remain. I must be missing a hidden file somewhere bur can't figure it out Any help would be most appreciated!
Thanks!
MJ


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## hazeldazel (Oct 30, 2008)

sorry can't help you, all I know is that the pics show up randomly in sleep mode.  Hopefully someone like Leslie will know the answer...


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## Linda Cannon-Mott (Oct 28, 2008)

I don't know but if you send a PM to Harvey or Leslie I'm, sure either can answer your question.


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## quickfics (Oct 27, 2008)

From the MobileRead forum:



> If you want to get rid of your custom screen savers, follow these steps:
> 
> 1. Attach the Kindle to a computer using the USB cord.
> 2. Using Windows Explorer (or whatever you use to see individual files/folders) , go to your Kindle drive under My Computer.
> ...


I hope these are the instructions you are following.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

You may also need to uncheck a line that says "Hide protected operating system files (recommended).", a little below the "Show hidden files and folders."  I had to on my Win XP system.

Then I was able to delete the screen_saver folder and my original files returned.

Betsy


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## Wisteria Clematis (Oct 29, 2008)

Shouldn't this thread be in the tips and useful tricks section of the board?


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

Wisteria Clematis said:


> Shouldn't this thread be in the tips and useful tricks section of the board?


Yes, I'll move it. I am also changing the name of the thread to be a little more descriptive.

Leslie


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

Okay, so I just did this myself so I can report back with some data.

As Betsy said, the screensavers folder is hidden. You need to choose the option to see hidden files and folders. Go to system > screensavers. Open that folder. Delete the files that are in it (in my case there were two, one with a .gz extension).

Unmount the Kindle. Wait for the home page to show up. Use Alt-Aa to put the Kindle to sleep. You might need to do it an extra time, but when I did do it an extra time, there was Oscar Wilde, big as life. 

Try this and report back to let us know if it works, okay?

L


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I've got some more info to on the custom screensavers that I'm going to post but I had to pause to throw a yellow card in the Book Corner.

Will post in a few minutes!

Betsy


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Great! We've had several questions related on adding and then removing custom screensavers, I got curious and started doing some testing on Eleanor, which is how I discovered the missing step about showing system files I commented on below. It really helped me understand what happens when we add screensavers.

When you create custom screensavers (see below), the Kindle secretly creates ANOTHER screensaver folder "screen_saver" in the Kindle's system folder, which is normally hidden to view. In this folder are copies of the custom files you added, renamed in the order you selected them: "screen_saver_0.gz", "screen_saver_1.gz". Any pictures for which you do not press alt-shift-0 on are not here, even if they are in the "screensavers" folder you created. There is also an additional file called "screen_saver_last" which keeps track of the last screensaver displayed (this file only contains a single integer 0, 1, etc...)

To go back to the built-in original screensavers, you delete the whole secret folder in the system folder: "screen_saver". You DO NOT have to remove the pictures & screensavers folders that YOU added. If you want to remove just some of the custom screensavers, unless you know what order you added them in, you will have to delete the whole screen_saver folder as you can't tell from the filenames in the screen_saver folder which file is which, and then re-add with the Alt-Shift-0. If you DO know the order, ie, you can delete only the files you don't want, for example, screen_saver_0.gz"

You can keep the pictures & screensavers folders in the Screensavers book that was created, just for browsing or for adding a different screensaver from your collection at a later date.

Hope this helps!

Betsy

As many know, Leslie covers adding custom screensavers on Location 381 of her book, _The Amazon Kindle FAQ_ availlable at Amazon:










Overview: you connect the Kindle to your PC via USB and create a folder, either on the Kindle itself or on the SD card, called _pictures _and then a subfolder called _screensavers _within the pictures folder. Note that they must be all in lowercase letters.

You copy the desired images into the _screensavers _folder. (Complete details elsewhere in the forum or in Leslie's book, this is just an overview).

Then, after safely removing the Kindle from the PC, on your Kindle, you go to Home and press Alt-z, which creates a book called _screensavers_.

You open that book and find the first image you want to use.

Press Alt-F if the battery indicator shows up at the bottom of the picture, this makes it full screen.

Then press Alt-shift-0 (zero) to copy it as a screensaver to the secret system screensaver file.

After doing this, you can press Alt-aA to put the Kindle to sleep and see your new screensavers.


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## BSquared18 (Apr 26, 2011)

Hello,

I noticed that these posts are quite old. Does this information apply to Kindle Version 3 too?

Thanks,
Bill


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

No. . . this thread is specifically about changing screen saver pictures for the first generation Kindle. . .there are other threads that pertain to newer versions. . . . .


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