The Weird World of Kindle Cloud

I've written about the challenges of uploading a (straightforward) book to Kindle and  being able to view it correctly.  As it turns out, there is a problem, which one reviewer noted with a sour review.  I have gone back and forth with the Kindle team, all of whom have assured me that they are unable to "replicate the problem."  

But in years of Usability Testing, I have learned one lesson:  there is no such thing as one problem.  One problem is the sign of other problems.  One problem causes other problems.  That's the way technology works.

As it happened, a friend of mine had experienced the display problem -- in Kindle Cloud.  She wrote the team, and explained that she was able to view the book on Kindle, but in Kindle Cloud, chunks of text went missing.  This is the reply that she received, printed here in its entirety.  I doubt that any customer would follow these instructions merely for the sake of one title. I still am in the cloud about what went wrong in the upload.  

Subject: Your Amazon.com Kindle Inquiry
Reply-To: "cs-reply+A8V5OP2Q8X3GN@amazon.com" <cs-reply+A8V5OP2Q8X3GN@amazon.com>

Hello,

I understand the "Nine Romantic Stories" is unreadable on your Kindle device. Let me assist you with this.

Please try deleting the item and reinstall the cloud reader. You can then redownload the book or other Kindle content via the Archived Items folder on your cloud reader, or on the Manage Your Kindle page ( www.amazon.com/manageyourkindle). This should fix the problem.

To remove a book saved to your Downloaded tab in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Safari for Windows, right click the cover then select “Remove Book.” In Safari for Macintosh or iPad, press and hold any cover in your library then select “Remove Downloaded.” The book will remain available in your Cloud tab.

Before you re download the book to your cloud reader, please reinstall the cloud reader. To remove Kindle Cloud Reader from your computer, follow these instructions:

For Safari Browser:

1. Sign out of Kindle Cloud Reader by selecting the Manage icon (the cog icon) and choose Sign Out.

For Mozilla Firefox:

1. Sign out of Kindle Cloud Reader by selecting the Manage icon (the cog icon) and choose Sign Out.

For Google Chrome:

1. Visit Kindle Cloud Reader (https://read.amazon.com). From the Library screen, select the Manage icon (cog icon) and choose Sign Out.
2. Open a new tab and select Apps at the bottom of the browser. On Windows, Linux, or Macs with a two-button mouse, right-click the Kindle Cloud Reader icon, then select "Remove from Chrome." On a Mac with a single-button mouse, hold down the control key on your keyboard, click the Kindle Cloud Reader icon with your mouse, and select "Remove from Chrome."
3. To reinstall Kindle Cloud Reader, visit:

https://read.amazon.com

Once this is down, please sync the cloud reader. To manually sync your Kindle content, tap or click the Sync icon in the navigation bar at the top of the screen. You have the option to sync to your furthest page read, or make the page you are on in the current app the furthest page read (even if it is before the furthest page read on another device or app.

I hope this helps. If you need any other assistance please feel free to contact us and we will be more than happy to help you. You can reach us by email, chat or phone directly and toll-free from many countries by clicking the Contact Us option in the right-hand column of our Kindle Support pages at:

http://www.amazon.com/kindlesupport

When you visit our website and select Contact Us, click on the "Phone" tab, enter your number, and we'll call you right back. If your country isn't listed or you're unable to take advantage of the Contact Us feature, you can call us directly at 1-866-321-8851 or 1-206-266-0927 (if you're calling from outside the U.S.).

Thanks for using Kindle.

Thank you for your inquiry. Did I solve your problem?