I just started reading a Kindle ebook on my phone and on a Kindle device. The process of switching from one to the other used to be that you open the one, read your location number in the book, and jump to that location in the other.
At some point Amazon introduced "real page numbers" for their ebooks. Those are supplemental numbers intended to synch up with the page numbering of physical books. You could display your "page number" instead of your location number.
Recently, the option to display your location number was removed in the Android application. So here's where things stand:
- Going from Kindle to phone, you open the book on the phone and go through an unnecessarily long sequence of button presses until you finally reach the "go to" command. This is already a significant step backwards in usability compared to the UI of the Kindle Keyboard from 2010. But once you're there, you can enter in your location number and jump to it.
- Going from phone to Kindle, you open the book on the Kindle and go through, yes, an unnecessarily long sequence of button presses. Once you finally reach the "go to" command, you are presented with the option to jump to a page number or a location number. But the page number option is grayed out, so you have to enter a location number. But the phone app won't display a location number -- it wants you to view your physical page number instead. As far as the phone is concerned, you shouldn't be allowed to view your location number even if you want to.
- The Kindle is similarly opinionated. It displays the option to view page numbers instead of location numbers. But, much like in the "go to" command, that option is grayed out. This is technically a step up from the phone app, where the option to view location numbers doesn't even exist. But it's not much of a step up.
- There is a workaround, for now, in that the phone app will display your location number in the "go to" command's popup dialogue. I assume someone is at work as we speak hunting this down so they can remove the information from the dialogue.
- Amazon's customer service people aren't familiar with their own products. They struggle to understand the concept of "I want to display location numbers in the phone app". One of them unilaterally disconnected from chat.
Err, no, the process for switching from one to the other is that they sync last page read automatically. You shouldn't be doing anything.
It works auto-magically for me all the time. I read a lot of books, and I often switch between my Kindle and my phone several times a book.
Maybe you don't have your Kindle connect to your network or whatever, but the reason you're struggling is because you're following the less trodden path.
It works for books I've uploaded to Kindle too, though I always use the upload service via email, precisely because then it's available on both devices.
I'm glad they're getting rid of the location numbering, it's super confusing. I haven't looked into it but it sounds like they're making a genuine improvement to page numbering, but with growing pains.
You're going through a bit of pain while they transition because you use it in a weird way.
> I'm glad they're getting rid of the location numbering, it's super confusing.
In that...?
Locations start at 1 and increase from there. Page numbers are a disaster. In the book I discuss above, page numbers start at 1 alongside "page 1" of the book. There is plenty of material earlier than that, which doesn't have page numbers. It only has location numbers.
The pages of a physical book are larger than a phone screen. So several pages worth of the ebook all have the same page number, which prevents you from jumping to later pages by using the page numbering.
Jumping restrictions are even added in where they aren't needed -- in some books, jumping to location numbers doesn't work. Instead, you jump to a location that is determined by the app as being "near" the location you specified. This has the effect of preventing you from getting all of a particular passage on the screen at the same time, which I want for screenshots.
So no, there's no improvement to numbering going on, just a steady removal of functionality that used to work.
I've had a kindle for years, though it was idle for about the last two... Recently brought it back to life, read a few pages then tried to continue reading on my phone (which I had never used before). First thing it did was take me to the wrong page. I suspect things aren't as perfect as you think they are, and the parent comment has faced issues just as I have. Denial of possible issues is the same as release notes which say "we fixed all the bugs".
At some point Amazon introduced "real page numbers" for their ebooks. Those are supplemental numbers intended to synch up with the page numbering of physical books. You could display your "page number" instead of your location number.
Recently, the option to display your location number was removed in the Android application. So here's where things stand:
- Going from Kindle to phone, you open the book on the phone and go through an unnecessarily long sequence of button presses until you finally reach the "go to" command. This is already a significant step backwards in usability compared to the UI of the Kindle Keyboard from 2010. But once you're there, you can enter in your location number and jump to it.
- Going from phone to Kindle, you open the book on the Kindle and go through, yes, an unnecessarily long sequence of button presses. Once you finally reach the "go to" command, you are presented with the option to jump to a page number or a location number. But the page number option is grayed out, so you have to enter a location number. But the phone app won't display a location number -- it wants you to view your physical page number instead. As far as the phone is concerned, you shouldn't be allowed to view your location number even if you want to.
- The Kindle is similarly opinionated. It displays the option to view page numbers instead of location numbers. But, much like in the "go to" command, that option is grayed out. This is technically a step up from the phone app, where the option to view location numbers doesn't even exist. But it's not much of a step up.
- There is a workaround, for now, in that the phone app will display your location number in the "go to" command's popup dialogue. I assume someone is at work as we speak hunting this down so they can remove the information from the dialogue.
- Amazon's customer service people aren't familiar with their own products. They struggle to understand the concept of "I want to display location numbers in the phone app". One of them unilaterally disconnected from chat.