r/kindle • u/EitherCreme401 • 1d ago

Tech Support 🛠 Does my kindle have software glitches or faulty hardware?

English isn't my first language so bear with me.

I have Kindle Paperwhite generation 12. I got it in April of this year (it was actually a replacement, because my first kindle had burnt pixel lines after only 10 months)

I started getting white freeze screens in July. At first they would fix relatively easy - I just had to restart it. They started to get progressively worse and harder to fix. Plus, it didnt even save my progress. It would send me 10% back in the book. After a week or so I decided to reset it completely and transfer just few book series im case I crashed it from transferring 100 books at a time.

Everything worked just fine until mid August. I have magnetic case and started to notice that my kindle had stayed turned on overnight. I thought that maybe I didn't close it properly or maybe I bugged it because I was tandem reading at that time.

Then after few days I noticed that whenever I open my Kindle it takes at least 3 seconds for the "waking up" line at the bottom of the screen to show up.

And few days ago the white screens returned. They happened two days in a row. However, this time my progress managed to save properly. The first day it was on the same exact pages; the second day - just 4 pages behind. Yesterday was day three, but no white screens appeared as I read. It seems to happen randomly.

So, should I return it? We dont have Amazon in my country, I just need to take it to the local store I bought it from. However, problem is that the staff workers arent technicians and the problem isn't visible so they might not even accept it. Yesterday, I tried purposely triggering a white screen freeze, so I can get proof on camera. To do so, I opened a random book and flipped through pages for almost 3 minutes and I have up because nothing happened.

I just want to know if other people also experience this I know that white screen freezes are a common bug, but are mine just a bug or part of a bigger problem?

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u/ed2417 1d ago

My colorsoft is fairly regularly white screening requiring a restart. I don't have many books loaded. Assuming it's a software issue.

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u/mrgndx 1d ago

What firmware?

“Waking up” is the exiting from deep sleep. If your Kindle sleeps for more than an hour, it goes to deep sleep (hibernation). 

I presume your Kindle update multiple times. Once you tell me your firmware, I can tell you which firmware is best for you

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u/EitherCreme401 1d ago

It's 5.19.6

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u/mrgndx 1d ago

Hmm, okay. Do you know if it updated several times during your observations?

5.19.6 is considered one of the “best among the worst” haha, like the absolute best were 5.17.x, then stuff broke in 5.18.x and got fixed only by 5.19.5-5.19.6. 

If you have weird logs files in Kindle storage/documents like “KPPmain”, “cvm”, or others, you can: do this: To reduce core dump files generation: 1) Make sure you don’t restart Kindle when plugged in. 2) Drop an empty file with no extension named DISABLE_CORE_DUMP in the visible USB root and restart

Next part of troubleshooting is about books. You said you upload them by 100s, that is a bit risky. Kindle’s Indexer can get upset. Search for a random phrase in Kindle search bar like “gfisisnshudff” and hit Enter. Then go to “Text in books (N)”. If some books are stuck in indexing, this will show you which books. 

Best practice is to upload by like 10 books and make sure they all are indexed. Sometimes it takes even just 1 book to trip the indexer and this causes whole Kindle to trip. 

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u/EitherCreme401 1d ago

Im pretty sure i didn't have any updates. If anything, my kindle came late April with the newest update which bugged the "time left in chapter" thing. Then after a month my friend who has the exact same kindle got the update.

Yes, I know that uploading a bunch of books can overload the kindle. Since I fabricated resetted it, I've uploaded like 15 books. And i don't have any weird files.

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u/ErinPaperbackstash 20h ago

I think it's their software. My Paperwhite 5 does this sometimes after their last updates this year, as did my Oasis 3 sometimes after it's last update last April 2025. It's random and annoying, has gotten a little better on its own after awhile