A significant outage has prevented Amazon Kindle users from downloading new and old books on their e-readers. The problem was initially discovered on Reddit and Amazon's support forums, where a number of users vented their displeasure and sought assistance.

E-Readers Face Widespread Download Issues

Amazon officially acknowledged the problem, which stemmed from server issues. A spokesperson for Amazon devices, Jackie Burke, emailed The Verge to say that some Kindle customers had experienced an issue affecting their ability to download ebooks, which was quickly resolved. Despite this assurance, many users continued to experience difficulties.

Good e-Reader initially reported the problem on July 3, noting that Amazon support had indicated it might take at least 48 hours to resolve the server issues. This widespread issue affects Kindle e-readers, including the Paperwhite, Oasis, Signature Edition, and Kindle Basic. Customers cannot fix it themselves, even with a factory reset. Interestingly, the Amazon Kindle apps for Android and iOS function normally.

This prolonged downtime led to widespread frustration among users who found their e-readers stuck at 1% while attempting to download books. Some Kindle owners could only see their books' titles and cover art with no further progress.

Amazon's support forums were flooded with complaints, prompting a staff member to suggest a potential fix: restarting the Kindle device by holding the power button for 40 seconds. This advice helped some users, but issues persisted for others, particularly those using Overdrive to download books to their Kindle devices via the Libby app.

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'Send to Kindle' Disruptions

This outage followed another issue reported by Kindle users on Reddit. The "Send to Kindle" feature, which allows users to sideload ebooks and documents without connecting to a computer, has also experienced disruptions. Some users received error messages indicating that their files "could not be delivered due to a service error." These problems lingered for some users earlier in the week.

The Reddit user who posted the thread updated a day after that that their attempt to reboot was successful, although it took slightly longer than usual. Books are now in their library. While it is unclear if the problem is fully resolved, it is partially working now. A user reported that they successfully added a book to their library, but it was gone when they returned to continue reading a day later.

Despite these challenges, Amazon has assured customers that the main issue has been resolved. While the company has not provided detailed explanations for the server problems, the prompt response and suggested troubleshooting steps have helped mitigate some of the user frustration.

Kindle users should be able to download their books without further issues. Amazon advised consumers still having problems resetting their devices to contact customer support if the issues remain unresolved. The recent outages have brought attention to how crucial dependable service is for Kindle owners, who depend on their devices to provide easy access to their digital collections. 

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