Since January 2014, Amazon has been phasing in a new Content and Devices page to replace the old "Manage Your Kindle" ("MYK") page (normally used on one's computer rather than on any mobile device). 'That link now leads many of us to this new page-layout (and title) that looks entirely different and is titled "Manage Your Content & Devices." It's being rolled out slowly, and it appears that maybe half of the customers discussing this are seeing the new page.
I didn't see mine change until today (but I haven't checked the Manage Your Kindle page often).
On the other hand, a forum thread discussing the page, started in January, showing that only some customers were receiving the page, and then there was no activity between late March and May 29, 2014.
Furthermore, the new page appears to be different from what some received in January.
The important thing is that this is the new "Management" page for content and devices associated with your Kindles, once you receive or see the revised version of that Amazon webpage.
Some have reported seeing the changed page when using Google's Chrome browser but not when using IE, Firefox, or Safari. Others report it seen under Firefox but not IE, so it probably depends on your computer or location too, as far as distribution goes.
BUT some have seen the newer version of the page if they LOG OUT of Amazon and then log back in.
NOTE AND CAUTION: Amazon has been changing the new content and device management page based on feedback and its own experience since January 2014, and customers at the forum report that the latest version looks quite different from what some saw and used in January-March.
What's definitely New with what used to be the 'Manage Your Kindle' Page?
This control page now allows you to do 'Deliver' or 'Delete' actions on multiple books at one time. You can also choose from other action options for individual books.
The 'Search' option word isn't always visible and, in those cases, the magnifying glass icon for Search replaces it. This tends to happen when the size of the browser window you're using is small, with less display space available then, for web information in that window. But many had wondered where the 'Search' option was.
The page uses normal text now, and the scrolling of books and information is MUCH faster! And easier to read too.
HOWEVER, the sorting by Title is VERY GLITCHY. I was checking "Cleopatra" which had an update on it and found that when sorting by "Title: A-Z" or "Title: Z-A" that book sometimes did not show up.
The ascending sort had only four books beginning with 'C' while the descending sort showed 28 books starting with 'C'... If I waited a LONG time, then some of the missing books would show up but would be displayed out of alphabetical order (in both ascending and descending sorts). This display sorted by Title needs work.
As usual, the Sort By Author sometimes uses FIRST name and sometimes uses LAST name for the order displayed -- it seems to depend on what the data inputter (or programming function) decided.
Sometimes it sorts by last name even when showing first name + last nane (with no commas), but sometimes it sorts by First name under those circumstances. No real change here, unfortunately.
The sorting options are by title, author or purchase date, with options for ascending and descending order for each.
EXPIRED library books show up now under Loans (a category under "All" box) even after you've tried to delete them forever, but this way we can see what we've borrowed, probably read, and returned.
Also, while there are apparently more steps now to do a loan of a Kindle book to a friend,
KaJoLa points out that::
"I just did a book loan today right from the product page. Maybe you would want to try that. It was quite simple."
NON-Kindle books (in .mobi, PDF, or txt format and not purchased from Amazon) are placed in the "Docs" category rather than the "Books" category.
Settings and information for In-app subscriptions are now at the new layout's Subscription Settings
From customer discussions at the Kindle Community Forums:
FoundQuilting adds that the processes are now faster because
"...you no longer have to wait for it to load all your books before you can start doing stuff with them."
CBP the bookworm points out "an easy way to delete pending deliveries that you no longer want to have delivered. "Just bring up the ["Pending Deliveries"] category [found under "Books" box], select, and delete. Easy!"
Re requesting an Update for a book book you purchased earlier:
In the individual Cover view, if there is an Update for a book, that info shows when you click on "Actions" box to the left of the book title.
CBP the bookworm writes "...in Settings [a top-menu option on that page], click on "automatic book update" and opt in...
And, for individual books, available updates show up for the book when there's an update available for it -- click on 'Actions' box for that book title to see this. I've usually received emails from Amazon when there are book updates available, with the option to download it, or not.
Snowlady Sandy writes:
A nice thing about the search, for example , is that if you type Christmas then it will give you books of a Christmas theme, the word Christmas doesn't have to be in the title... The book All I Have To Give will come up as well as Sara In Montana..."
Other changes
If you have thousands of books, the main control page just keeps adding information as you scroll down it and it's therefore a slow process, so it's best to do a search for a given book.
Add that this long forever-scrolling page (for those with thousands of books) can use up a lot of computer memory and become more sluggish as it goes -- worse, if you have thousands of books, you won't be able to view them all on that page.
At a certain point, depending on your computer, or when performing delete actions on multiple items, it can stop at a given point, taking you back to the beginning. No fun in those cases. Don't try to do too much at a time.
Depending on your computer, maybe, some can perform an action on up to 10 items at a time. Others find they can, at least initially, act on up to 25 at a time).
SO, remember the SEARCH option as well as options to start from the opposite end of a sort or to display books by another display category (title, author, or purchase date).
NOTE: to return to the beginning of your full list of books after a Search action, you need to empty the search box.
Viewing the new Manage Your Kindle ["Content and Devices"] page on a SMALLER device (laptop or tablet), if you don't have a computer to do this, can seem difficult, as the normal resizing and zooming of FONTs doesn't work and the page can be unreadable then.
Customer monilee writes:
" I received an email from Amazon. Just in case anyone else had a problem reading the newest myk page you have to triple tap on that page to enlarge it. Made it much easier for me to use once I could see it. '
BUT that did NOT work for my HDX 8.9" Kindle Fire Tablet, while my Microsoft Surface Pro 2 Windows 8.1 laptop CAN resize the page and fonts normally -- the Kindle Fire HDX resists any attempt to zoom the Manage Your Kindle and Devices page or fonts on fixed-size pages. The page is readable, as-is, on the larger 8.9" HDX tablet though.
[Update 6/16/14: In the Comments section of this post, Tom Semple wrote that he believed this function would have to be enabled in "Accessibility" settings.
Sure enough that's true; On my 8.9" Kindle Fire HDX, I found the setting labeled as "Screen Magnifier" option under the 'Accessibility' setting.
My Kindle Fire HD 7" Gen 1 (Yr 2012) does NOT have this feature, but I think it's probably enabled in Yr 2013's Kindle Fire HD Gen 2.
After enabling the Screen Magnifier, you can triple-tap on a page layout that normally doesn't allow zoomed enlargements of the text, and the text will be larger and definitely easier to read. To get the text size back to normal setting, triple-tap the display again. (Thanks, Tom! -- End of update]
Upshot
SO, it seems the new page is being rolled out in a second phase, starting a couple of days ago.
Most won't see it right away, I imagine. I'm usually among the last to get new updates, so I thought I should get some info together, because the first phase of this was very confusing to some. That earlier version (some reported that they were later returned to seeing the old Manage Your Kindle page) had an option to show the list of books with cover images but apparently that was just too slow-loading for anyone and that's no longer an option at this time. (I'm glad).
There were reports of an interesting new option in that first version, involving the option to select a device to see which books were already downloaded to it (those titles had checkmarks beside them) and also showed 'downloadable' arrows for books in the Cloud library that were not on the device. This interesting feature isn't on my version of the new Content and Kindle-compatible Device management page, but maybe they'll try adding that again later.
I'll be interested in what readers discover: joys or pains, etc., and any workarounds you've found.
Current Kindle Models for reference, plus free-ebook search links.
Check often: Temporarily-free recently published Kindle books
Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources. Top 100 free bestsellers. Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published free books, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.
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Good info! I wonder if "Sorting by title" could be glitchy because publishers don't always get the metadata right in books? But while these features are useful, what I really, really want is to be able to label books into collections from the "Manage my Kindle" page! Do you know if Amazon is even thinking about this?
ReplyDeleteHi, Carmen. They've done it for Cloud books for the mobile apps, so I'd think they have the basics to work with for that. Probably have to stabilize the basic lists first. The missing books eventually show up, but the way they're loaded makes incomplete list-displays for awhile. The more complex and server processes-heavy stuff later, I imagine.
DeleteIt's much faster for MUCH of what I want to do, but could still be better. They've got the shopping experience down, why is browsing items I've purchased so hard? I've got a huge screen and the popups are still these small windows.
ReplyDeleteI want to send a book to several devices (my eink kindle, iPad and phone app), it's way too many clicks. With the popup that they use, why can't it let me select several books at once. This lets me use Amazon's syncing feature between the devices, this is a HUGE selling point IMHO but a hassle to send the books out. And if you hover above another row (and automatically selecting it) while in the process you get an error (I don't own that device).
You can select several books to send at once but I always get a "that kindle isn't attached to this account" (even though they just let me pick that device from the drop down).
FYI, the above errors were the latest version of safari.
Gary
Gary, thanks for that feedback. I agree on most of those points. They've been changing things since January in response to forum and customer-support-help squawks. Be sure you let them know also at kindle-feedback@amazon.com, as they log those or count points made and pass them onto development team.
DeleteThe 'triple tap' zoom function on the Fire has to be enabled in Accessibility settings, I believe.
ReplyDeleteI haven't noticed any sorting issues, and it seems to work with all the browsers I've tried. Except for the Paperwhite browser, which tries to load, but crashes. It's much more mobile browser friendly as well.
Search is definitely the quickest way to find things, but they need to make it easier to clear the search and restore the unfiltered list.
Multiple selection turns out to be fairly limited with a large collection as there is too much scrolling. Again it is faster just to search for one at a time, except for some edge cases (say if you wanted to send all of your Stephen King books to a kindle).
But in any case it is much better than the 'classic' MYK page. And going forward it might be easier to add new functionality (like showing which devices a book is on, filter by device etc.)
Tom, thanks! I found the 'triple tap' under "Screen Magnifier" option of 'Accessibility' setting on my HDX. Haven't tried it on HD tablets Generation 1 and Gen2 yet
DeleteYes, I'd been shocked if the Paperwhite (limited in memory) could handle that page.
Re Search function, yes -- They should have something like "New search" option, which clears the existing search text..
I agree. I'd left in the "MUCH" faster reaction, which is key, and there's room to improve it. Have always wanted to be able to see which devices have a certain book, but my situation (owning a lot of Kindles in various models in order to explore them for how-to questions) is unusual in that I often get messages that I've exceeded the max number of devices for a book -- however, now most Kindle users have smart phones, at least one tablet app and desktop ones .
I love my Kindle for iPad but the whole think with Kindle seems badly set up for lots of users. Even only with my wife and I (voracious readers both) collections does just not hack it. Why not do this: Show what collections books are in when they are shown in a list. Have a collection which shows all books not actually in a collection. Enable collection management on the PC or Mac.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I wish that the Kindle Fire tablets, when we add a book to collections, would -- as before -- indicate for collection icons shown, whether they're already in that Collection. That used to be true. And essential information for many of us. That no longer is true as of v 4.5.2. We're hoping that was just an oversight but it appears not to be.
DeleteAs for books in a list showing what collections they're in, that would be a load on servers (the lookup and array after getting results for each) that would be unnecessary unless a person specifically requested the information. And, if generally done for a Kindle for iPad app when just displaying books in a list, this then would be for those who don't even use Kindles, so it would not likely be financially feasible, but most of all not practical.
Any Collection information wiill be server-intensive and will cause a slow-down as lookups are done, collated, and presented (for now millions of people listing books when opening up the Kindles) and affect the user experience. Some people have *thousands* of books in their Cloud. Some actually have thousands on the device.
Am totally with you on the wish for Collection management on the computers.
Hi I have a Kindle reader and have changed my credit card. I have updated the card on AMAZON website . The Kindle still advises that there is a problem as a previous book ordered could not be charged to the old credit card
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Mark Meltzer and Debby Lapidos Meltzer
Mark and Debby, sorry for the delay in replying.
DeleteBest thing to do is call Kindle Support direct and let them know about this problem -- they'll be able to get it straightened out.
If you're in the U.S. call (during the Pacific Coast workday to get best service) at 866-321-8851 ...
If you're not in the U.S., it's easier to have them call you back - go to http://amzn.to/kcallme" ...
Let me know how this goes for you, if you get back for this note.