I ordered a book awhile ago and as yet it’s not showing up on the screen. Anybody have an idea as to how long it takes to download? The website is no help.
A few minutes. I’ve never had a problem, so have no suggestions – check that your order actually went through? Is this your first download – are you registered correctly?
According to Jeff Bezos in his numerous interviews: 60 seconds.
Yeah, usually it shows up in a minute or so. Try going to the Manage Your Kindle page and re-sending it, or downloading to your PC and manually transferring it.
It almost always shows up within a few minutes, assuming the wireless connection is on.
But once, I had the problem you seem to be having: A book ordered never got downloaded, no matter how long I waited. When I went to my account online, it said that transfer was “in process”, or something like that, but I never got it.
I tried resetting my Kindle, using the button on the back (inside the cover), and that fixed it.
Ed
Did you buy the book directly from the Kindle? If not, you’ll want to make sure the WiFi is actually on as well.
But I’m with everyone else. Never had it take more than a few minutes for a book bought from Amazon to show up (I have had it take more than an hour for documents I emailed to my Kindle, apparently the format conversion is done by hand using small monkeys).
Thanks, all. I went to the website and manually told it to download, so I’m now the owner of my first Kindle book (although it took awhile). It’s probably like everything else in Alaska that doesn’t work like it does elsewhere.
Congrats. PM me if you want my email - I’ll send you links to some free book sites and cue you into a way to read your RSS feeds easily on your Kindle.
Looks like Whispernet only works for the Kindle 2 in Alaska, and then only around Prudhoe Bay, Juneau, Fairbanks and Anchorage. Kindle 1 is limited to USB downloads, as is Kindle 2 in most areas.
Really? I thought both operated over Sprint’s EV-DO network… why would there be a difference?
There really isn’t - but Sprint only covers the major population centers in Alaska. Most of the state’s landmass is not served by that particular provider.
There is really no reason it shouldn’t, with ACS having the EVDO Rev A up here, but I’m having the same issue. It works but very slowly. I’ve downloaded a couple (including one I got while waiting for it to ship…it was on there when I turned it on the first time. That was pretty cool!). Looking at the Kindle website, it appears they don’t officially support AK, so I guess slow is better than nothing…
I assume you have the Kindle1, but there should be no difference. I have never waited for more than a minute for an ordered book, and have ordered almost 100 since getting my K1 15 months ago.
When you turn Whispernet on, there is often a little delay in getting the bars up to 4 or 5, depending where you are. If you don’t get the bars, you will have to go somewhere you can connect. If you do have all the bars, and it still won’t download, then you should definately call Customer Service at 1-866-321-8851. They are very helpful.
Before that, you may want to do a reset first, then try again. Just to test it out, go to the list of books on the Kindle store, change the sort to “Low to High” cost. You will see a bunch that cost $0.00. :>)
Order one or two of them, turn on Whispernet, and see if they download (providing you do have unough bars showing). If so, it may have just been a glitch. If they still don’t download, then definitely call CS
Some people have reported delays of several minutes. It is suppsed that there was such a rush of people buying the K2 that the networks may have gotten bogged down.
Oh yeah, there is a very good Kindle forum at http://www.amazon.com/tag/kindle/forum where you can post questions just about the Kindle, and get a lot of good answers.
Good luck.
Wha…? So then why would the Kindle 1 be limited to USB downloads as opposed to Whispernet?
I don’t know. Ask Amazon. They’re the ones buying chunks of airtime from Sprint and basically giving it to Kindle customers for free (or at least built into the cost of the Kindle and the ebooks. No extra charge.) So they can do what they want with it.
I personally haven’t been in whispernet dead zones too often - that doesn’t mean they aren’t there and that I haven’t seen them. When I visited Plattsburgh, NY I would hold a cookie sheet against the Kindle when turning it on - ensuring it found the American cell towers and no the Canadian ones and thus forcing it onto the Sprint network.
Perhaps they think we’re slow readers up here? 
I’m really enjoying this thing. I’m reading a book about exploration of the Amazon Basin at the moment. I found an old leather zip binder that once held a notepad. Put a piece of velcro on the back of the Kindel 2, stuck it in the binder, and it’s like holding a paperback book when I read. My wife’s Kindle should be delivered today.
Mr. Moto: Thank you for the email on the free websites. My wife in particular will make good use of those (and maybe we can downsize our paper versions of the classics).