Updates to the Manage Your Kindle page
The Manage Your Kindle page is your Kindle Command Center. It’s where you make your global level choices. It’s where you can get to your archives for all of your devices.
I wrote a full post on it coming up on two years ago.
A lot of things have changed since then, and we’ve had a cascade of changes recently.
My guess is that, even if you have been a regular MYK user, there may be some features you haven’t noticed.
I’m going to go back through it. I think there is a lot of value here that people may be missing…and I like you to get the most out of your Kindle.
As I wrote back in 2009, it’s worth noting that Amazon says you don’t need a computer to use a Kindle. That’s true, but if you use your computer to work with your Kindle, it’s a biiiiiig plus.
You get to the Manage Your Kindle page here:
http://www.amazon.com/manageyourkindle
That’s the address I usually give people in the forums, because it’s a logical one, making it easier to remember. The Manage Your Kindle page is at ManageYourKindle (tacked on to the Amazon.com address people already know).
There’s also a shorter version (but not as easy to remember, in my opinion):
http://www.amazon.com/myk
That’s the one I usually type, if I have to type one (Google Chrome remembers the sites I had open when I close it, and MYK is usually one of those…I look at it that often).
When you first get to the page, you may see a yellow banner communication at the top, in case there is something Amazon wants you to do.
This next thing is a change from how it used to be. The page takes quite some time to load. I have 2433 items in my archives, and it took about a minute and thirty seconds to complete loading.
That’s been confusing for some people, and I’ve seen questions about it on the Amazon Kindle community forum. People are in a panic searching for a book they’ve purchased. It’s because they are searching before that particular book has loaded on the page.
If I was designing the page, I would put up a warning to wait for best results…and more importantly, let the user know when it’s done loading. At this point, you can watch the
Showing 1 -15 of x items count
until it counts up to all of your items…if you know what that number is.
It’s probably going to vary somewhat based on your connection. In my set-up, it takes about two seconds to load one hundred titles. Generally, I think if that number hasn’t changed in ten seconds, you are likely good to go.
I’m going to start working through the navbar (navigation bar) on the left side…it’s like a table of contents.
Before I do, though, I should point out that the MYK page defaults to the second item in the navbar…your books, rather than all your items.
I’m going to move up to the top item first, though:
Your Kindle Library
That’s just a header.
All Items
This is a listing of all of the items in your Kindle archives. That used to be just things you got from the Kindle store, but that’s changed (I’ll get to that).
There’s a dropdown for what you can view, and a searchbox. The dropdown is close to the items in the navbar (it’s slightly different), but I’m going to deal with those there.
The search box lets you type something into it…it will search for titles and authors, and for words within those (if you type “Dickens”, it doesn’t matter if the publisher listed Dickens as the first or last name). It will show you its findings…and you can click on one of them to select that one. Alternatively, you can click Go to find everything that matches your search term.
It does not search within the books or other items…it won’t find a word inside a book.
Capitalization doesn’t matter.
Below the dropdown and the searchbox, you’ll see a list of your titles. By default, it sorts them by most recent first. However, you can click Author or Title to sort by those…expect it to take a little while. If you click one of the field names again, it will reverse the sort…but it again, it may take a minute. It will indicate on the screen how it is sorted by putting a pyramid next to the field name. A rightside up pyramid is “ascending” sort (A-Z, 1-10, oldest first). An upsidedown pyramid is “descending” sort (Z-A, 10-1, newest first).
To your left of the title is a small plus box, if you click that, you’ll be able to see the cover of the book, the price, the date you bought it, as well as two links.
One is the order details. Click that one to see an invoice style listing of the purchase, which can be printed. It will tell you when you ordered it, how you paid for it, the sales tax (if any)…that sort of thing. It does not tell you to which Kindle/app on your account you originally had it sent…more on that later.
The other one is to “View Product Page”. That takes you to the book’s Amazon product page, where you can see reviews, print length (if any), and so on.
You can get back to the MYK by using the Back button in your browser…but it will have to load again.
When you click a plus box, it becomes a minus box. The plus is to tell you, “There is what you are seeing now, plus there is more.” Click the minus box will “collapse” the listing, showing you less. That’s true in many computer systems, by the way. You’ll sometimes see options to “collapse” or “expand” sections.
On your right side of the book, you’ll see an
Actions…
button. Hover over it (put your mouse over but don’t click) and you’ll see what you can do with that book. It’s possible not every item will have the same choices, by the way. You may not be able to do the same thing with a magazine that you can do with a book, for example. For that reason, I’ll address the Actions under each of the sections.
Books
This is where you are going to see the books you get from the Kindle store. It won’t include books you got from other places, even if you have archived them with Amazon.
The actions here are:
- Read Now
- Deliver to my…
- Download and transfer via USB
- Delete from library
- Loan this title*
Read now will open the book in the Kindle Cloud Reader, which lets you read a book online without downloading (although you can also download it there). If you don’t have the Cloud Reader yet, it will ask you if you want to install it…at least, that’s what it did before. I don’t have a computer without the Cloud Reader now. This will also open a different window. The Cloud Reader only works in a couple of browsers at this point, but will increase.
Deliver to my…will let you send the title wirelessly to one of the devices on your account. There’s also a link here to transfer via USB, which I’ll discuss next.
Download and transfer via USB will let you download the book to this computer. When you do that, you’ll have to choose a Kindle for which to download it…the file you get will be keyed to that device. You’ll use your Kindle’s included USB cable to transfer it to your Kindle’s Documents folder. This is a way for you to get Kindle books when you don’t have wireless. Your apps will appear in the dropdown list of possible devices, but will be “disabled” (you won’t be able to select them). Currently, only Kindles can use this method.
For more information on this, see the Amazon Kindle lending help page.
http://www.amazon.com/kindletransfer
Delete from library is something we didn’t used to have, but people requested. It allows you to totally delete something you have bought from the Kindle store from your account…you can’t do that from your Kindle. However, I’ve never done this…it would be like finishing a book and throwing it in the trash or burning it. I just can’t do it. Even if I didn’t like it…it’s that whole thing about books being special. I also don’t know who is now or may be on my account in the future who might want to read it. Yes, I’ll also admit it…I’m wanting to get to at least ten thousand books on the account. 🙂
If you do choose to delete a book and anybody else on your account ever wants to read it again, you’d have to buy it again…if it was available. I have a book in my archives that was removed from the Kindle store by the author (not because it was infringing on somebody). In that case, it stays in the archives. If it’s removed from the store because it infringes a copyright, Amazon can’t let you download it again…and it gets removed from your archives by them.
You’ll be warned when you go to delete it. I think people wanted the ability to do this because they have the ability to do it with paperbooks, mostly. I also think people don’t like the Archived Items list on their Kindles to be cluttered…that list is just a list of the things that are available for download to that device. The books that are in it aren’t taking up room on your Kindle. However, if you want to delete something, this is the place to do it.
Loan this title lets you lend the book to someone who is not on your account. You will only see this option if the publisher has allowed this type of lending, and the large publishers generally don’t. When you make this choice, you’ll be asked to enter the recipient’s e-mail address and name, and you’ll be given an opportunity to add a message. Loans are limited: you can lend a given title only once, and for fourteen days. For more information, see
Newspapers
I have to surmise some of this based on the magazines section. I don’t have any current newspaper subscriptions…what I do have is single issues of newspapers which I have bought from time to time. These have the same options as books…except for Read Now. You can’t currently read newspapers in the Cloud Reader. If the subscriptions work the same was as magazines, they’ll be labeled as subscription.When you click the plus box, it will have a link for
View your Kindle active subscription
instead of Order Details. If you click on that, you’ll be taken to Subscription Settings, which we’ll deal with below. It’s where you can change payment methods, among other things.
Actions:
- Deliver past issue to my…
- Download and transfer past issue via USB
- Cancel subscription
These are sort of equivalent to the book choices. The first one lets you send it wirelessly to another device on the account. Currently, those Kindles and Android devices…including the Kindle Fire! I just noticed that, because I have a Kindle Fire on order. I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise, since my Android SmartPhone can get them, but that’s still nice.
This ability to download to other devices on the account has only been around since December of 2010.
Interestingly, it appears that you can only download the immediately preceding issue. Again, I’m actually looking at that on a magazine, but I presume it’s the same for newspapers.
Magazines
See Newspapers immediately above.
Blogs
See Newspapers above. this ability to share blogs with other devices on your account is new…I’m not quite sure how new. Unlike magazines, blogs can not be delivered to Android devices…that also means they can’t be delivered to the Kindle Fire.
Personal Documents
I wrote a long post on this recently, and I’m going to refer you to that for the details.
Essentially, these are personal documents (including books you get places other than Amazon) that you have sent to one of your devices after activating the personal document archiving service.
On your right side, before the list of documents, you’ll see how much of your 5GB cloud personal document storage you’ve used.
When you click a plus box, you’ll see how much memory that individual file takes.
I have three documents in there at this point, but they are small…not even 2K each. My cloud drive meter hasn’t registered them yet. 🙂
Actions
- Deliver to my…
- Delete from library
Deliver to my... will let you send it to eligible devices. Basically, those are devices with wi-fi that you have either registered or reregistered since September 28, 2011.
Delete from library is like deleting a book…it should become unavailable for download to other devices, but local copies will stay on those devices.
Audible Audiobooks
These are audiobooks you got from Audible.com (which is also owned by Amazon).
Actions
Deliver to my…
At this point, I can deliver it to my Kindle Keyboards (formerly known as K3s), but not my Fire. I assume that’s because I’ll have to link my Kindle Fire to my Audible account after I get it. I’m not positive about that, though.
You can’t delete the Audible book from here…if you click the plus box, click Order Details, log into Audible, and then go to My Library…hmm, I don’t see how you can delete it there, either. I looked in Help, and it looks like you need to download the Audible Manager, which I haven’t done. I don’t know if that will also delete it from the Audible account.
I did find this interesting thing in Help while looking, though:
“… the Kindle Touch , Kindle Touch 3G< and Kindle Fire will be able to playback Audible files. The Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G will be able to wirelessly download and play Audible files. The Kindle Fire will also be able to wirelessly download and play Audible files.”
There’s the definitive that the Kindle Fire will be able to be linked to your Audible account.
Active Content
These are your Kindle games and apps. Again, you’ll see the Order Details link and the View Product Page link.
Actions
- Deliver to my…
- Download & transfer via USB
- Delete from library
It’s interesting…I can’t download the games or apps to my soon-to-be-delivered Mindle (the new $79 Kindle 4). I guess I knew that, but it’s a confirmation. I also checked for my Kindle Fire: nope.
Pending deliveries
These are items that you’ve ordered that are waiting to connect wirelessly to your Kindle so the item can be delivered. Honestly, I wish there was a way to cancel these. I have some Kindles that are registered, but that aren’t connected very often. I’ve also chosen the wrong Kindle once in a while…it would be nice to cancel it before it got there. 🙂
More interesting, I think, is what is below there…and this is something many people have wanted and probably don’t realize is here (you have to scroll down to see it).
View Recent Successful Deliveries
Click this link to see what has been delivered to which device on your account when. That’s great! This wil,l let a “Manager” of a Kindle club tell who ordered that $5,000 Kindle book (they exist), and deal with it.
Mine goes back to July 13, 2011…feel free to let me know if yours is older or more recent (or the same…I’m not picky).
That finishes the first section. 🙂
Your Kindle Account
That’s just a section title.
Register a Kindle
Click this one, and an entry box up so you can put in the serial number.
There’s a link to buy a Kindle.
There’s a link to the terms…hey, there are special section for people who have ordered a Kindle Fire:
If you place an order for or register a Kindle Fire, you also agree to the following additional terms:
- Amazon MP3 Music Service: Terms of Use
- Amazon Cloud Player: Terms of Use
- Amazon Cloud Drive: Terms of Use
- Instant Video Terms of Use
- Amazon Appstore for Android Terms of Use
- Amazon Silk Terms & Conditions
- Amazon Mobile for Kindle Application License Agreement and Terms of Use
- Amazon Prime Terms and Conditions
Well, that goes on my TBR (To Be Read) list. 😉
Manage Your Devices
This section has changed recently. You’ll see each of your Kindles, including a picture of the model and the name of the model. You can edit the username of the Kindle here. You can deregister a Kindle.
You’ll see an indicator as to whether or not the device is subscribed to special offers. With the Mindle, you can now change that from subscribed to unsubscribed…but you’ll currently pay $30 for doing that (the same difference you would have paid initially for a non-ad-supported Mindle).
You’ll see your serial number…we didn’t used to see that here, and that could be important if it is lost or stolen.
There is a link for registering a Kindle at the top…that’s nice, in case you want to deregister a Kindle and then reregister the same one. There are some reasons you would do that…one of them has to do with the “Send All” Kindle e-mail address (see above).
Registered Reading Apps
You can deregister them or change the username here.
By the way, there was a thread in the Amazon Kindle community recently where people reported the number of reading apps they had mysteriously multiplying…mine haven’t done that…let me know if yours have, if you like.
The next two, I think, only apply if you have a Kindle with Special Offers, but it may show anyway.
Your AmazonLocal Deals
You can click a link here to see your current deals. I found that a little confusing…it takes you to Your Deals, but I think those are ones you have redeemed. You need to click Today’s Deal to see what’s available…that’s how I think it works, anyway. If you know differently, feel free to let me know.
Your Kindle Screensaver Preferences
Again, I think this is only for people with Special Offers Kindles.
I find this a bit strange for that reason. This one lets you state preferences for what categories of things you would like to see as a sleep mode picture (“screensaver”)…but we only see ads as sleep mode pictures. I don’t get that at this point.
These are the categories:
- Architecture
- Country
- Family/Kids
- Humor
- Illustrations
- Landscapes/Scenery
- Literary references
- Modern
- Nature
- People
- Photography
- Travel
I don’t know when or if that will ever have an impact. We can “vote” for ones we’d like to see more, and vote against ones we’d like to see less.
There’s also a link here that takes you to AdMash, so you can vote on the “sponsored screensavers” (AKA ads).
Device Synchronization (Whispersync Settings)
This is where you can Amazon whether or not to synchronize the last page read between different devices. Some day, we may be able to specify devices which sync, but at this point, it’s all or nothing. We usually keep this off, because it isn’t unusual that different people on our account are reading the same book at the same time…having the pages sync would be confusing. If you have one person reading the same book on different devices, you want this on.
Subscription Settings
These are your subscription items: magazines, newspapers, and blogs. You can change which Kindle (or device…my Android phone works for magazines, so does my Kindle Fire) should first get issues in the future. You can click View Billing Details to see what you’ve been billed and on which credit card.
This is important: you can edit which credit card is billed. I’ve seen this confuse people: when you change your 1-click method, it does not change the billing method for your Kindle subscriptions.
You also have the same Actions you had above:
- Deliver past issue to my…
- Download & transfer past issue via USB
- Cancel subscription
Kindle Payment Settings
Oh, this is nice! You can change your 1-click setting here…and you can change the payment method for each of your subscriptions. It’s good to be able to see them all in one place, so you can see the odd duck out, if there is one.
When you change a payment method on a subscription, you need to pick a card and then pick a billing address. After you do that, it will bring you back to the MYK page.
Personal Document Settings
There’s a lot happening here. You may want to look at the post I mentioned earlier about Personal Documents.
Send-to-Kindle E-mail Address
You can choose an e-mail address here for your Kindles that share an address (they’ll have Auto Deliver enabled).
You can choose e-mail addresses for each of your devices…but if they are set for Auto Deliver, those all use the same one.
If it’s an eligible device, you can turn Auto Deliver on and off.
Personal Document Archiving
You can choose here whether to have Personal Document Archiving on or for the account, and see how much space you’ve used. This isn’t exactly the same as Auto Deliver: you can archive a personal document whether or not you have Auto Deliver set.
Whispernet Deliver Options
You can choose whether or not Amazon should ever send you personal documents via 3G (they seem to now be calling 3G Whispernet and wi-fi not…that’s new, I think). If they do that, you’ll incur a charge…and you can set the maximum charge you can have on a single document. If it’s more than what you’ve chosen, the document doesn’t get delivered.
Approved Personal Document E-mail List
Why don’t you get spammed on your Kindle? It’s because personal documents can only be sent from e-mail addresses you approve. This is where you can edit that list.
Country Setting
This is where you can change the country that Amazon has for you for your account. You are only supposed to that, as I understand it, if you’ve moved…not, for example, if you are on vacation…or just want to get that book that is unavailable in your actual country of residence. Changing this to get a book which is not for sale in your territory may be fraud, as I understand fraud.
Other Digital Content
This is new here, and seems clearly connected to the Kindle Fire.
- Manage Your MP3s
- Manage Your Videos
- Manage Your Apps
Finally, there are links to Help:
Kindle Support
Kindle Help Home
Getting Started Guide
There you go! Knowing Amazon, they may change this tomorrow. 🙂
If you have any comments or questions, let me know. In particular, I’d be curious as to what was the biggest surprise here, if any.
* Thanks to my reader Liz for pointing out that I had omitted the “Loan this title” information. I was going through the page methodically, and it happened to be that the book I was using didn’t have lending available, so the option didn’t appear.
This post by Bufo Calvin first appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
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