I can't see my books on my new-to-me Kindle

Factual Questions
1

I’ve had a Kindle for years, but after not using it for a while, I turned it on and it wouldn’t boot. I tried troubleshooting the issue, but didn’t get anywhere and decided to buy a new-to-me Kindle Fire 7 9th Generation.

When it arrived, I put in my Amazon credentials, looked in my library, and it was empty. I started the Kindle app on my laptop and could see all of my books, so I know they are still there, but I can’t see them on my Kindle. My credit card info is in there so it knows who I am, but where are my books? What do I need to change? I looked in settings, but there was nothing there to change that might help me. What am I missing?

2

I’m pretty sure downloading books to the Kindle is an option. (And it doesn’t just automatically download stuff.) I’m not sure where to look, though.

Also, i have one in the Paperwhite series, and i think they have a different interface from the fire series.

3

I didn’t expect or even want it to download the books. I can read them in the cloud, but I should be able to see them in order to read them. Of course downloading them would make it more portable.

4

Huh. I exclusively read books that I’ve downloaded.

5

Could you clarify what kind of device you have? Since 2014 (I think) there is no such thing as a “Kindle Fire”: Kindles are the e-ink ereaders, and Fires are the multipurpose tablets.

6

And, in either case, dumb question, but can I assume you have it connected to WiFi? If WiFi isn’t turned on, it can’t see your books. (Unless you’d downloaded them, but you’d have to have WiFi on to do that in the first place, unless you transferred them via USB cable.)

7

If you don’t get a workable answer here, ask at:

8

Fair enough, but to me a kindle is a kindle. It’s a Fire 7 multipurpose tablet I use to read books with.

9

It’s not a dumb question, and yes, it’s connected to my house WiFi. I can use the Silk browser just fine. It has the Kindle app loaded and I can start it, but when I go to Library it has nothing in it.

10

Thanks for the tip!

11

As long as you’re entertaining dumb questions, I don’t suppose you have more than one Amazon account or profile?

From the Amazon website, you should be able to go to “Content and Devices.” Then by selecting “Devices” (near the top of the screen) you can make sure it recognizes your new Fire as being registered to your account. I think you should also be able to check this, and change it if necessary, from the Fire’s Settings.

Within the Library, make sure you have All selected, not Downloaded—that would of course be empty if you haven’t downloaded any books yet. Since it’s a new-to-you device, I suppose it’s also possible that it’s taking a little while to sync all your books, but I don’t think that’s the issue.

12

I figured it out. I had to go into Amazon.com and tell it to download to the new device. Once I did that, they started to show up. Problem solved!

13

Yes, I vaguely recall from the early days of Kindle (Still have one of the originals) that you had to authorize a list of devices, and you were allowed only so many devices - PC’s, iPad App, Kindle, etc. (Just to make sure you were not sharing your books with a few hundred of your closest friends.)

(My original Kindle’s WiFI no longer works despite trying to install the latests available firmware for it. I have to load books with USB)