# Transferring Collections from Kindle to Kindle or Kindle to PC?



## LilKaylie (Jul 8, 2010)

My kindle is now broken, just a few weeks out of the original manufacturers warranty. I'm not sure what happened, it was on my desk and then all of the sudden I come back and now there's two lines on it like someone dropped a heavy object on it. It's part of the screen saver I imagine was on the kindle when it got damaged. The lines are like a 90 degree angle, the one going straight up is bold and about 1/4 inch thick, the other is just thick enough to miss a full line of whatever text should have originally been there.To say the least I'm an unhappy person tonight...

After I get off work I will be calling Amazon to see if there is anything they can do to help me out. But in the meantime I wonder if there is a way to transfer my kindle collection to my Kindle PC and keep all my books organized in the same collection, or will I have to do it all over again. I've got more than ten collections with ten to twenty books each in them plus they've all been renamed with Calibre to keep them in order.

Does anyone know of a way to keep the books in the collections without having to re-download everything, change the names again, and keep them in the correct order? I tried searching in the Google custom search but when I search kindle collections, well I get a lot of book collection information and not exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks in advance! Keep your kindles safe  

Edit: The kindle was starting to have battery problems a few weeks before, as well as it seemed to have persistent screen saver/book information on its screen even when the device was off. I could always still read the page that I'd read last when Kindle was off, or see the full default screen saver image. Is/was that normal?


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## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

Take a look at this thread http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,47348.msg823209.html#msg823209

It looks from what that software does that the collections are stored in Collections.json which is lurking in the hidden "System" folder on your Kindle.

So, theoretically at least, if you backed up the "Documents" folder from your old Kindle and the Collections.json file and copied them to your new Kindle, everything would work OK.

For Amazon bought (DRM protected) books you may need to make sure your new Kindle is registered on your account before you copy the files back, or you may need to pull them back from your archive first then restore the collections.json.

I should emphasise that this is all guesswork on my part, if it all goes wrong please don't shout at me!


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## Linjeakel (Mar 17, 2010)

While you may be able to copy the collections file over to a new Kindle (I've never tried it) you _can't_ copy all the contents of the 'documents' folder. Any books downloaded from Amazon are Kindle specific and won't open on a new one - you'll have to download them again from your archive on the new one. Any non-Amazon books on the otherhand _can_ be copied.

If you put all your books onto your new Kindle first and then go to your 'archived items' on the new Kindle, you can transfer all your collections from there. However, only books downloaded from Amazon will slot back into the collection you assigned them to on the old one. I don't know if transferring the collection file instead would also mean any other books would do so as well.


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## jhanel (Dec 22, 2010)

All of the files you downloaded through amazon will be on your new kindle auto-magically. If not, then you'll see them in the "Archive" collection. (Ta Da!!!) The documents that you copied to the kindle on your own (i.e. books from Smashwords, etc) you'll have to put on your new kindle by hand again.

As for the collections.... I don't know. My guess is that you'll have to create them all over again. (EEeeep!) That might be a big task.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

jhanel said:


> As for the collections.... I don't know. My guess is that you'll have to create them all over again. (EEeeep!) That might be a big task.


Nope. . . .after you have sent all the books to your new Kindle, go to "Archived Items". The top option will be "Add Other Device Collections". Click it, and pick the other device and it will import them and your books will sort to wherever they were on the other Kindle.

Note: if you've already de-registered the old Kindle, I'm not sure this will work. . . . .


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## LilKaylie (Jul 8, 2010)

Thank you all for taking the time to respond. We will have to see how it works when I receive my replacement kindle tonight, as I will be at work when it should come in. Amazon Kindle Support was gracious enough to send me a refurbished one, although I'm not sure how keen I am on the idea of a refurb, but they weren't under any obligation to help me anyway as my 1 year was up.

EEP! One thing of note, if anyone has this issue happen please *remember to return your previous device* to Amazon!! I did recieve an e-mail stating if I did not return it I would be charged the original price of $259, even now the newer Kindle is out and cheaper, plus my device will be a refurbished one not new. I will still be responsible for the original price of the device! Wowzers!! 



jhanel said:


> All of the files you downloaded through amazon will be on your new kindle auto-magically. If not, then you'll see them in the "Archive" collection. (Ta Da!!!) The documents that you copied to the kindle on your own (i.e. books from Smashwords, etc) you'll have to put on your new kindle by hand again.


 Jhanel - This made me  thanks for helping cheer me up with silliness, its normally the easiest way with me.


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

Back when I had to return my Kindle due to the sunfade issue, I made a checklist for checking out the new Kindle. After I had to return one due to a broken screen, I updated the checklist. The checklist I use is at http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,6435.msg166183.html#msg166183.

I definitely recommend backing up all the files on the Kindle. The files that hold the annotations, bookmarks, location, and underlined passages for each book do not have DRM and can be moved from one Kindle to another. The MyClippings.txt file also contains much of this but in a single file to be read by people. The book-specific files will contain the information even if it was not sent to Amazon or is on a book not purchased from Amazon.

I do not know if the collection information has changed, but a summary of what was available last May can be found on the post http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,24564.msg458349.html#msg458349.

When my screen was damaged, I could not see the upper right quarter of the screen but I was able to remove personal information and do the other activities by knowing my starting place and counting up/down movements. If you cannot see the menu area of the screen it is still possible to select menu choices by starting from a known location such as the Home page and doing key movements based on what is expected. While this is easiest with another Kindle nearby in order to see the menu choices, the following can be used to toggle the wireless on/off in order to make sure your Kindle has the opportunity to send any unsent information (current location in books, Collections and their contents, notes, bookmarks, etc.) before you de-register it:
Press Home to get you to the Home page. 
Press Menu to bring up the menu.
Press Up a few times with the 5-way to get to the first menu item and then press to select. 
Wait a few minutes and then do it again. That will give the Kindle the chance to send the info whether wireless was on or off when the screen was damaged.


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## LilKaylie (Jul 8, 2010)

Annalog, thanks for adding the additional information. I will have to take that into consideration in the next few days... 

My replacement kindle has burned images in its background. Each time the screen saver comes on, it re-burns the current image into the background where I'm on the home page and I still have it in the background. I've had it for less than 12hrs so far, so I called Kindle Support, spent my 15 minute break while at work trying to troubleshoot and then get yet another replacement. Now because I had to get back to work as my break was up, the guy couldn't/wouldn't order my replacement because I couldn't verify the last 4 of my card# on my kindle account...   The original associate that helped me out knew I was driving the night I called in the problem and didn't require verification... so I don't know why this guy required it. I verified everything else BUT that.

I will be recieving my 3rd kindle, my 2nd re-furbish, in the next few days when I call on lunch to provide them the required information,if they don't make me troubleshoot again. I asked the guy what Amazon would do if I experienced the exact same issue when I received my newest replacement. He suggested then they would give me another refurbish  

Has this been your experience with Amazon? I understand they did me a favor by giving me a replacement for my New kindle that was less then a month out of warranty, but still this seems ridiculous to me considering how much money I spend on buying books/other products.


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

My experiences with Amazon support has been very good. I know that my current K2 that they sent after my screen cracked was a refurbished Kindle. 

Did the person at Kindle Support have you try the ALT-G key combination for a screen refresh? Your description sounds like ghosting. How strong is the screen-saver image after going to the home page? Is it faint or does it interfere with reading? While my current Kindle has almost no problems with ghosting, a couple of my previous Kindles did have minor ghosting problems. (I could make out the previous image but it did not interfere with reading and went away after holding ALT and pressing G. After a while I would stop noticing the ghosting.)

Did the Kindle support person ask you to verify your Kindle software version? Since your Kindle was a month out of warranty, I am assuming it is a K2 (second generation) and not the newest Kindle (latest generation). Is that correct? If so, this makes me wonder if the replacement Kindle has the latest upgrade. I no longer remember which upgrade added the additional screen refresh when waking up the Kindle. Which version is in the lower right corner of the settings screen? (Go to Home menu and select Settings.) My Kindle has 2.5.6 but I looked on the Amazon Kindle Support software update page and saw that the current version is 2.5.7. The version has to be at least 2.5 to have Collections.


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## LilKaylie (Jul 8, 2010)

Annalog: To answer your question Yes I have a K2, they did not have me try the Alt+G but I tried it anyway, before I call anyone for support I do my research. He had me hold the slider over for 20 seconds and the ghosting, as you call it, continued to persist. The software version is the most up to date, as Kindle specifies there is no current update available. Depending on the darkness of the screen saver, it does present a problem for reading. Of course since you know the ghosting isn't supposed to be there, your eye keeps being drawn to it. 

I've had four excellent experiences with Amazon Customer Support, and two bad experiences. I'm hoping the excellent ratio continues to rise. 

Edit: I'm also experiencing something wierd. I'm not sure if I just don't transfer books from out of a collection to a collection often enough... I have 14 pages worth of books in my archive. When I transfer a book to a collection by opening the collection then selecting add/remove, it shows the entire archive, even the books I've put into other collections. I could have sworn my other Kindle didn't do this... Am I going nuts?   I thought because the book was already put into a collection that it would disappear off the book list I could put into the collection I am trying to add to, therefore reducing the amount of pages I have to scroll through to look for the book I wanted.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

dawifey2007 said:


> Edit: I'm also experiencing something wierd. I'm not sure if I just don't transfer books from out of a collection to a collection often enough... I have 14 pages worth of books in my archive. When I transfer a book to a collection by opening the collection then selecting add/remove, it shows the entire archive, even the books I've put into other collections. I could have sworn my other Kindle didn't do this... Am I going nuts?  I thought because the book was already put into a collection that it would disappear off the book list I could put into the collection I am trying to add to, therefore reducing the amount of pages I have to scroll through to look for the book I wanted.


If a book is in any collection, it will not show on the home page when sorting by collections. It can be in more than one collection, though. In the "archived items" list, it shows everything NOT already on your kindle and is NOT sorted by collections.

If sorting by other than collections -- the books will always be listed on your home page intermingled with your collections.


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

dawifey2007 said:


> ...
> Edit: I'm also experiencing something wierd. I'm not sure if I just don't transfer books from out of a collection to a collection often enough... I have 14 pages worth of books in my archive. When I transfer a book to a collection by opening the collection then selecting add/remove, it shows the entire archive, even the books I've put into other collections. I could have sworn my other Kindle didn't do this... Am I going nuts?  I thought because the book was already put into a collection that it would disappear off the book list I could put into the collection I am trying to add to, therefore reducing the amount of pages I have to scroll through to look for the book I wanted.


Since a book can exist in more than one collection, you will see the entire book list when adding books to a collection or the entire list of collections when choosing collections for a book. I suspect that the change you are noticing is the sort order on the Home page. The options are Most Recent First, Title, Author, and Collections. The first three will show all of the items and the collections on the Home page while the last will only show Collections and items not in a collection.

There are at least two ways to add/remove books in a collection. The second method should make it easier to find the books not in a collection.

One is the one you mentioned where you open the collection and then selecting add/remove for the books. This method will show all the books on your Kindle.

The other one is the one I use more frequently. Go to the Home Page. If the Home page is sorted by Collections, then your Collections might be listed first followed by all of the items that are not in any collection. (Mine are listed first but it might be due to the names I used.) If you put the cursor on an item that you want to add to a collection and then push the 5-Way to the right. (Do NOT go to the left as this) this will bring up Delete.) Going to the right will bring up a list of choices for the item. One of these is Add to Collection.... Select that choice and that will bring up a page with a list of your Collections. You can choose to have this list sorted by Title or Most Recent First. You can then add/remove the item from one or more Collections.

(I was interrupted while typing this and see that Ann has answered it all as well.)


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## LilKaylie (Jul 8, 2010)

You're both awesome   Thank you for clarifying that part.

The 2nd call of the day to Amazon Customer Support went better, Nicole was more friendly about the issue. Ultimately she said that the issue that I'm having with the refurb is unusual and that my next replacement shouldn't give me so much a hassle. She said that there's ultimately no plan to help me upgrade to a new k3, which was my next question if she wasn't reading my mind. She said realistically I could go through 4-5 refurbs before they had the possibility of thinking about helping me on the price of a new kindle.   But of course, I have the warranty with any refurbished kindle so I could potentially go through exchanging after exchanging if I had to.

Other than the transferring of collection information, the next worst part is the having to try to get my skin off the old kindle to put it on the replacement. At this point it may be less of a hassle to just toss it out or find something else to put it on.

Anyway, thank you all for helping me out. It is greatly appreciated from someone aspires to become as wise as you on this subject


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

There are some threads with tips and experiences of moving skins. I think that they are in the Accessories section but I am not sure as I have never skinned my Kindle. (I bought a skin for a K1 when my Kindle was ordered in November 2008. However the order was a day too late. When my Kindle arrived in February 2009, it was the second generation and the skin was for the first generation. I found a home for that skin and then never purchased another one.)  

I remember that some of the posts mentioned hairdryers for shrinking stretched skins. I also remember that different brands of skins had different issues. Hope that helps in your search.


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## LilKaylie (Jul 8, 2010)

Does anyone recall how long a k2 battery should last with the 3G on constantly? I fully charged it til green light on Sunday night, left it off til Monday afternoon. From Monday's just about no use, til now the battery is half gone. I can't recall if this is normal, or if its because the item is refurbished...


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

With 3G on all the time? I would go with 3-4 days.


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

dawifey2007 said:


> Does anyone recall how long a k2 battery should last with the 3G on constantly? I fully charged it til green light on Sunday night, left it off til Monday afternoon. From Monday's just about no use, til now the battery is half gone. I can't recall if this is normal, or if its because the item is refurbished...


If you loaded a bunch of books, the battery drain from indexing the books would be normal. If this is the case, that is about the battery drain I would expect.

The battery will also drain more quickly if at least one book cannot be indexed. (Search for a nonsense or very rare word to see if there are unindexed books. I search for 'brillig' as I know it is in only three books on my K2.)

Also, the rate of battery drain with wireless on depends on the type of wireless signal your K2 can find. I live in a rural area where my K2 often connects to a 1X signal or to a very weak 3G signal. This drains my battery much quicker than when I am at work where a strong 3G signal is available. For this reason I usually leave the wireless off on my K2 so I am not sure how long the battery will last with 3G on but where the Kindle is not actively being used to download books or use the browser.

My memory seems to think that the expected battery charge was 1 week with 3G and 3 weeks with wireless off but I am not certain. There are probably some old threads that listed the expected battery charge life.

I usually charge my K2 when it reaches half. I tend to use the browser quite a bit to access KB and for the Amazon daily blog. I usually charge my K2 about every 3 or 4 days. This was true when I was using new K2s as well as with my current refurbished one. There have been times when I have charged my K2 daily when I did not have access to computer to read or send e-mail and used my K2 for that as well. (I do not have a smart phone.  )


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