You can now reset your Kindle password yourself
Well, are we sensing a trend here? 🙂
Yesterday, I told you that you can now “return” a Kindle store book (within seven days of purchase) directly from the Manage Your Kindle page
http://www.amazon.com/manageyourkindle
Well, I was answering a question in the Amazon Kindle community about resetting your Kindle password.
When I do that, I often check the Amazon Help pages, to see if anything has changed.
It had. 🙂
You can now reset your Kindle device’s password yourself!
We used to have to contact Kindle Support to have them reset your password:
http://www.amazon.com/kindlesupport
They would remotely reset your Kindle to factory defaults.
It’s important to understand what that means before I tell you how to do it yourself.
When you reset to factory defaults, you lose all the personalization you’ve done to your Kindle (but not Kindle software updates).
That means:
- You’ll lose any personal documents on your device
- You’ll lose your internet bookmarks
- You’ll lose memorized wi-fi networks
- You’ll have re-register your Kindle (I think that’s right)
However, if you can’t get into your Kindle, it doesn’t do you much good anyway. 🙂
How do you reset it yourself?
According to this
you enter the password
resetmykindle
and hit enter.
Now, you might be thinking right away, doesn’t that defeat the purpose of having the password? Isn’t it like locking the door to your house, and then parking a battering ram in your driveway?
Only if your house is set to self-destruct if you open the door without the key. 😉
You put a password on your Kindle to protect information on the device. You may have personal documents on there with financial data…or just not want people to know you are reading certain books.
If someone steals your Kindle and resets it, they can’t get that information…the reset wipes it all out.
Of course, it does make the Kindle easier to resell or re-register…but if you’ve reported the lost Kindle to Amazon and asked them to “blacklist” it, it can’t be registered with them anyway.
I recommend that you keep passwords somewhere secure. In the case of your Kindle password, you probably have it for protection if someone outside your house gets your Kindle, so inside your house might be okay. Some people and companies lock up their passwords in a bank self deposit box. You can pick what’s safe, but I’d put them somewhere you can get them…just a suggestion.
The trend here is to move the power into our hands, rather than making us contact Kindle Customer Support to do things for us.
One of my regular readers and commenters, tuxgirl, speculated about resetting the “furthest page read” ourselves…I suspect that’s coming (if it’s not here already and I just haven’t stumbled across it yet).
This is good for us and good for Amazon.
Why good for Amazon?
People don’t always think about the cost of customer support. That’s one of the biggest expenses for a company after a product is sold…particularly in the case of digital products, where the physical costs of a return are low.
Gee, I wonder if the New York Times will spin this as “Customers locked out of Kindles, rendering the devices so much dog doo-doo! Amazon caves to existential anguish, possibly lowering nation’s Prozac use, leading to collapse of pharmaceutical industry!” 😉
I’d sum it up this way: “Thanks, Amazon!” 🙂
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
I Love My Kindle 
December 16, 2011 at 4:13 pm |
I think this trend of improving the Manage Your Kindle portal on Amazon is encouraging. I view this “reset password” feature as similar to performing a remote wipe if I lost my iPhone. Not only does it prevent purchases, but removes my books from the device.
I hope Amazon continues to provide these features and control for video viewing (Amazon Prime) and instant purchasing.
This is the place to do it. Manage every kindles capabilities or access right from my account page.
December 16, 2011 at 4:33 pm |
I can confirm that you do have to re-register after doing a reset to factory defaults (at least as of a few weeks ago!) I did a reset to factory defaults to clean up my Kindle Keyboard before handing it down to my daughter, and I had to re-register it afterwards.
December 16, 2011 at 11:06 pm |
this password has actually been available for at least 6 months, and has been mentioned on the cs forum repeatedly… personally, i don’t think that putting this out publicly is the best option, but it has been around for a while. 🙂
interesting that amazon actually put it in the myk page, though… interesting…
December 17, 2011 at 4:43 am |
Thanks for writing, tuxgirl!
Drat! I’ve been hoping not to include the Q&A forum in my regular rounds…I’m stretched pretty thin. I was sort of leaving it to you and the rest of the BSI (Bezos Street Irregulars). I was also figuring anything significant would show up in the regular forum as well, and I do keep on top of that one.
I suspect that’s why I don’t have the “Kindle Forum Pro” badge, or whatever the precise wording is. I’m thinking you might only be able to earn that in the Q&A forum. You must have it, right?
December 17, 2011 at 5:27 am |
Really? We all assumed they had offered.it to you and you had just declined. If you search for your name in the cs forum, there’s a whole thread of us discussing that and deciding that if that isn’t what happened, then cs is crazy!
Honestly, there’s not too much new in there. I posted you a note about the only major development, which was cs saying parental controls are in the next update..
You are always welcome to swing by and join in, but I understand stretched too thin. Its not super exciting in there, anyways. 🙂
December 17, 2011 at 5:20 pm |
Thanks for writing, tuxgirl!
Nope, no offer…I actually even wrote them an e-mail asking about that badge (and Author and Real Name). I used to have Real Name, until I changed my credit card. In my case, that one really helps. 🙂
That’s one of a very few times I haven’t had a response from Amazon…
I suspect it’s only for people who post on Q&A, although there are a lot of people who have it…
March 20, 2013 at 12:27 am |
Another way to reset your kindle password if u forget it u type the password as resetmykindle and it actually works
March 20, 2013 at 2:10 am |
Thanks for writing, Aaron!
I appreciate you pointing that out. I don’t think it was true when I published that post more than a year ago…I could be wrong, but I believe that one was added since that time.
You can see the “resetmykindle” reference and other procedures from Amazon here:
Troubleshooting Your Kindle Amazon help page
June 15, 2013 at 3:14 pm |
Please reset my kindle.
June 15, 2013 at 3:25 pm |
Thanks for writing, christine!
I can’t reset your Kindle…I’m not part of Amazon, and even then, I believe they would just talk you through how to do it yourself. If you want help with that process, you can contact Kindle Support. Go to
http://www.amazon.com/kindlesupport
and you should see a
Contact Us
button. They can help you with it. I’m assuming that you bought your Kindle from Amazon.com or in a store in the USA. If that’s not true, let me know where you got it (just Amazon site or country is fine), and I’ll look for that information.
September 4, 2013 at 8:31 pm |
I have tried contacting Kindle support as our password has changed as we have changed providers. I m getting no assistance on this problem from Kindle Support.
September 5, 2013 at 2:06 am |
Thanks for writing, Susan!
Tell me a bit more.
Where did you change your password? On your Amazon account?
When you say you changed providers, do you mean internet providers? Do you have the same e-mail address you had before?
When you are contacting Kindle Support, are you doing it through
http://www.amazon.com/kindlesupport
?
On that last one, that’s the right one if you bought the Kindle from Amazon.com or from a store in the USA.
October 5, 2013 at 12:48 pm |
how do you reset your kindle amazon cause i do not understand at all??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
October 5, 2013 at 12:51 pm |
all of your guesses advice all stinky how am i gonna do all this crap???????/
October 5, 2013 at 1:31 pm |
Thanks for writing, Olivia!
It sounds like you might do best with someone talking you through the process. Assuming you bought your Kindle from Amazon.com or a store in the USA, Amazon can do that for you live. You can contact them (I’m not part of Amazon) at
http://www.amazon.com/kindlesupport
You’ll see a
Contact Us
button. You can click or tap that. I’d recommend either calling them or having them call you (the latter is my favorite). They can talk you through the process (there is no charge for that).
I’d be happy to give you advice if you prefer. To do that, I’d need to know which model Kindle you have. You can find that out at
http://www.amazon.com/help/kindle/which
March 31, 2014 at 4:32 pm |
I have forgotten my password to connect to my WiFi? Therfore I can’t do anything but read on my Kindle Fire.
March 31, 2014 at 4:37 pm |
Thanks for writing, Nancy!
Unless you changed it, and many people don’t, the password may be on a label on your router.
April 2, 2014 at 4:06 pm |
I forgot my password. Can you help me to have it again?
April 5, 2014 at 11:58 pm |
Thanks for writing, catalino!
Sorry I missed replying to this comment earlier!
Hopefully, by now, you’ve contacted Kindle Support or otherwise solved your problem.
http://www.amazon.com/kindlesupport
Your password is not stored at Amazon, as I understand it. It’s stored on the device. If you’ve forgotten the password you set for your device, you will probably need to reset the device. Doing that will wipe everything (not the Kindle operating system or updates to that) from the device, so it’s a somewhat radical solution.
If it’s a Paperwhite, you type this in the password box:
111222777
then tap OK.
That will reset it.
Edited to add: it’s a good idea to record your passwords somewhere secure. Some people keep them in a safe deposit box or a storage unit, for example.
April 2, 2014 at 4:10 pm |
I need the password to open my Kindle Paperwhite.
May 5, 2014 at 4:05 am |
I recently bought my kindle nonlinear and it was reported lost or stolen how can i register it ??? Ughhhh this is frustrating …
May 5, 2014 at 1:42 pm |
Thanks for writing, Mario!
I can understand the frustration!
I always recommend that people only buy a Kindle from a store or from someone they trust, just for this reason. If the one you bought was stolen, you are likely to be out both the money and the device (in a practical sense).
If someone reports a Kindle as stolen to Amazon and asks for it to be “blacklisted”, it can only be registered by that person.
At this point, your place for recourse would with the person who sold it to you…and that might be a difficult place to get recompense.
You might also want to report it to the police. If it gets returned to the owner, I’ve heard of people giving rewards for the return, which might be something.
June 15, 2014 at 11:58 am |
i can’t access my kindle, pls tell me what to do
June 15, 2014 at 2:33 pm |
Thanks for writing, gabi!
What model of Kindle (or app) do you have?
When you say you can’t access it…
* Will it power on?
* Does it get stuck during the power up?
* Is it asking for a password you don’t know…and if so, where are you when it does that?
* Are you able to get into your Manage Your Kindle page at
http://www.amazon.com/manageyourkindle
?
December 30, 2014 at 1:11 am |
[…] You can now reset your Kindle password yourself (from 2011) […]
January 29, 2015 at 10:53 am |
I have a Kindle Paperwhite and do not know my password!
Where on earth do l find the password box you mentioned April 5′
2014? Once l spoke to a human being and that was very helpful! Do you have any telephone numbers. I am in Austria…my Kindle bought at Amazon several years ago. That resetting didn’t work as l cannot find a “pass word” box!
January 29, 2015 at 2:25 pm |
Thanks for writing, Rose-Marie!
Since you bought it at Amazon.com (I assume from what you are saying), you can use the Amazon.com resources…
http://www.amazon.com/kindlesupport
Click or tap
Contact Us
You can get some help.
Where are you being asked for the password, if you don’t see a password box?
August 26, 2015 at 12:40 am |
Nice to know, but it doesn’t help me. I installed a new router, with a new, unique password. Therefore, I have lost my internet connection to my Kindle.
BTW, I was almost scammed today, by a company purporting to be Amazon. They told me my Kindle, and all of my computers had been infected by a virus that only a “Level 11 Microsoft Technician” could remove. Sensing a scam, I called my local tech, and he told me all about it. They had actually installed some dummy files on my computer, to make it appear I had been infected. Long story. Anyway, I cannot currently use my Kindle, because I cannot change my password. I guess I will try again to call Amazon.
August 26, 2015 at 3:07 am |
Thanks for writing, josephball4230!
While it would be nice if every solution fit every problem, it just doesn’t seem to work out that way. 🙂
So, you’ve installed a new router with a new network: you should just need to connect to that network. When you scan for wi-fi networks, does it show? Do you know the password for that network?
What model Kindle do you have?
Yep, lots of scammers out there. You can also check with Amazon if you think something purporting to them is a scam…they’ll typically verify or refute pretty quickly.
My Significant Other was recently skimmed…that’s a fascinating process. They can read your credit cards while they are in a purse or a wallet. So, we now have our cards in RFID proof sleeves. 🙂
December 30, 2015 at 2:39 pm |
[…] You can now reset your Kindle password yourself (from 2011) (#3 last year) […]
January 31, 2016 at 3:44 am |
We have a kindle fire and have forgotten both password and email we created. Can anyone help?
January 31, 2016 at 6:26 pm |
Thanks for writing, Mike!
Yes, I can make some suggestions, and Amazon can help you.
Do you know which model Kindle Fire you have? This page can help you:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&linkCode=ur2&nodeId=201263780&tag=bufosweirdworld&linkId=43V2543D2HPNRHP7
Once I have that, I could tell you how to reset it…but you would need to download things from Amazon again, and you would lose personal files stored only on the device.
When you say you’ve forgotten the e-mail, it’s the same e-mail you would use for your Amazon account…are you able to log-in to Amazon?
If you’d like to go directly to Amazon, you can do that at
http://www.amazon.com/kindlesupport
May 28, 2016 at 4:28 am |
Hi is there any chance one of u could help me I have had the phone for a few months it’s the Amazon Fire phone and I have forgot my PIN number for the lock screen
May 28, 2016 at 4:37 pm |
Thanks for writing, Thomas!
The instructions are here on an Amazon Help Page:
http://amzn.to/24dq0WY
They have a way you can do it online at Amazon.
December 25, 2016 at 12:26 pm |
What to do when you only have a number keypad so you can’t type ‘resetmykindle’ ? I don’t want my kindle fire to reset completely, just the password, but I can’t remember the password to get in as I’ve just found it from a good few years ago
December 27, 2016 at 1:54 pm |
Thanks for writing, Aisha!
Do you know what model Kindle Fire you have?
It’s entirely possible that you won’t have the option to just reset the password, as opposed to resetting the device. The biggest issue with that would be personal documents you have stored just on that device: generally, content you have purchased from Amazon you will be able to download again (assuming you are using the same account). That’s not 100% true, but is mostly the case.
January 8, 2017 at 8:11 am |
Ive never been able to just start using my 2011 kindle,eg reset password, but now ive found a solution, Im taking it to queensland in Australia, puting it under a mound of dirt, then on full auto, reprograming it. Im told you get to fully understand it, after the last round has blown it to bits, then we,ll you tube it
January 8, 2017 at 3:10 pm |
Thanks for writing, David!
Clearly you already have a plan. 🙂 In case you’d like to consider other options: have you owned it for five years? Did you buy it directly from Amazon? If so, which Amazon? Did you ask them for help? If you aren’t sure how, let me know which Amazon and I can probably get you a way to contact them. Do you know which model (outside of it being a 2011) you have? If so, I might be able to make a suggestion. However, I could also see just switching to a more current model.
January 10, 2017 at 3:09 pm |
There is no need for a reset in order to change the Kindle password. It would be a sufficient safety for a password-change procedure to start by using the present password. That would prevent a thief from having access to one’s books/documents, because the thief does not know the present password. And his/her reset wipes out all the documents! Am I missing something here?
January 12, 2017 at 3:41 am |
Thanks for writing, David!
I think you are approaching a different issue than what I believe most people mean by “password reset”. When people use the term “password reset”, in my experience, it suggests that they do not know the current password. They need the password status to be reset to the point where a new password is entered. Otherwise they would use, as you do, the term “password change”.
In the five years since that post was written, some other things have changed. My guess is that not many people exclusively store personal documents on a Kindle device any more, although I don’t know that for sure. The “personal document” service has considerably improved, making it easier to store them centrally. Kindle store purchases have always been device independent, being stored for the user at Amazon…even resetting a device to factory defaults doesn’t affect your purchases, except in very rare cases where a book has been removed from the Kindle store for legal reasons, as I understand it.
So, to clarify: a password change can be done without doing a reset.
Does that make it clearer?
April 2, 2017 at 10:20 am |
Amazon password cancelled
April 3, 2017 at 12:37 pm |
Thanks for writing, S!
Did you have a question? My intuition here is that you should be speaking with Amazon, if you are unable to access your account…is that the situation?
August 28, 2017 at 1:31 pm |
[…] You can now reset your Kindle password yourself […]
October 7, 2017 at 5:50 am |
Sue. Williams. I have a used kindle i have it working but it is still on the same when i turn it off and on it shows reset password do i use my password or my kindles
October 8, 2017 at 2:44 am |
Thanks for writing, sue!
With a used device, you’ll be resetting the entire device to factory defaults, and then registering it to your Amazon account…so you’ll be using the same e-mail address and password you use for the Amazon account.
Ideally, the person who sold it to you should have shown you they could get to the Kindle store (which would prove it wasn’t stolen, basically), and then deregistered it, but you should be able to reset it. If it was reported lost or stolen, you would find out when you try to register it.
Do you know what model it is?
December 29, 2017 at 3:34 pm |
I have an account in amazon the password which I was entering was wrong.
When I tried resetting the password it got blocked totally
I want to create a new password with the same contact number
January 2, 2018 at 2:46 am |
Thanks for writing, AC!
I would contact Amazon for help…it may have been reported as lost or stolen. Did you get it from Amazon.com/in a store in the USA, or if not, roughly where (Amazon site/country)? I just ask so I can help point you to the Help Desk.
January 8, 2018 at 3:24 pm |
How do I find my Passcode?
January 12, 2018 at 4:00 am |
Thanks for writing, John!
Are you asking about a passcode to a device (as opposed to, say, your account)? My understanding is that it is encrypted on the device itself (I don’t know exactly where). I know in the past that Amazon did not know it and could not give it to you. If you have forgotten it and didn’t preserve it yourself somewhere, you would reset the device (as indicate in the article on which you commented), but do note that it would wipe out the content indicated in the article.
You could doublecheck with Amazon…
January 1, 2020 at 4:07 pm |
How we can make our paddword at kinddle.com