How To Manually Update Your Kindle If You Miss the Deadline
It’s only a day past the 22 March deadline for the critical Kindle update, and early reports suggest that not everyone got the emails, post cards, and phone calls from Amazon about the update.
If you’re one of the Kindle owners who didn’t get the update in time, don’t panic. If you missed the deadline, there is still a way for you to install the update.
The process will require a computer, your Kindle, and and a USB cable to connect the two, and you should also fully charge your Kindle before you start just to make sure that you have enough power to complete the process.
Here are the first steps to manually update your Kindle.
- First, determine which model you have. The best way to do that is to match your Kindle to one of the models on this page.
- And then to determine the firmware, open the settings menu. Then open the dropdown menu and select the "device info" option. This will tell you which version of the firmware your Kindle is currently running.
If the firmware number matches one of the numbers on this help page then you already have the update. Also, if you can’t find your Kindle on that second page then you don’t need the update at all.
But if the firmware number is different then you’ll need to keep going and install the update.
Here are links to the download pages:
- Kindle 1st Generation (2007)
- Kindle 2nd Generation (2009)
- Kindle DX (2009)
- Kindle Keyboard (2010)
- Kindle 4th Generation (2011), Kindle 5th Generation (2012)
- Kindle Touch (2011)
- Kindle Paperwhite 5th Generation (2012)
You can visit the pages above to download the update. Depending on how long it’s been since your Kindle connected to the internet, you may need to install one or more updates.
Each update will need to be installed one at a time, in the correct order. Here’s how:
- Download the update to your computer, and then copy it to your Kindle using the USB cable.
- Disconnect your Kindle from your computer.
- Open the settings menu on your Kindle, and then open the dropdown menu. You should see an option labeled "Update your Kindle". Select it, and then confirm the update.
Your Kindle’s screen should then flicker a few times, and then you will see the update status as a progress bar.
If you don’t see the progress bar, or if the update fails, then you will need to contact Amazon and ask for technical help.
image by bfishadow
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