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I have just started organizing collections on my bottom-of-the-line Kindle (the Kindle 4?). Despite selecting "annotations sync and backup" I'm not seeing these collections appear on my iPad and iPhone. I've spent 20 minutes reading through Amazon documentation and forum posts and I still can't figure out how to get my Kindle's collections in sync with my iPad.

Is it possible to keep Kindle collections in sync across all devices that can access Kindle content?

If yes, how?

If only in limited ways or among some types of devices, what are the limitations and which devices?

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  • Not sure if this helps at all (don't have a kindle myself): smallbusiness.chron.com/sync-kindle-ipad-49681.html
    – Jason Down
    Dec 28, 2013 at 22:47
  • It sounds like the "Import Collections" option is just what I need, but I cannot find it on my Kindle Paperwhite even when "Cloud items" is selected. (2nd version of Paperwhite). I'm trying to make and sync my collections via my Kindle-for-Mac. It's far easier than doing it on the Kindle itself which I have done once before. The Kindle help files online only teach me how to manage collections from my Kindle device, which is harder. Did I miss something in your description (of Import Collections) that I should have done differently, or are you sure you didn't unintentionally leave something out
    – user5431
    Oct 15, 2015 at 12:56
  • Regarding the above: I DO have the "Import Collections" command on my Kindle-for-Mac, but not on my Kindle Paperwhite device.
    – user5431
    Oct 15, 2015 at 13:29
  • I am assuming from the above comments that since I have a various devices (android, PC, Kindle) and source books from various places and formats that there is no way to sync them all in say the Kindle Cloud. I was trying to get everything in one place and it appeared that Kindle would keep my place in an ebook across the different devices but apparently that is incorrect. I have Calibre with over 1000 books in it but wanted to get them all sync'd but it appears that can't be done on the Kindle Cloud. Appears that Amazon is trying to make it more difficult unless you purchase the content from t
    – JimR
    Dec 10, 2015 at 22:18
  • Not sure if the same for you, but after spending days looking for ways to make it work I eventually realised that i just needed to select the display option for collections for my collections to appear (either I did something at some point and they appeared or they may have always been there)... Jun 24, 2020 at 6:52

3 Answers 3

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I am guessing you have already found Amazon's Organizing Your Kindle Content. If every book on your devices is from Amazon, then you can do some organizing at 'Your Account' > 'Manage Your Device' > 'Your Kindle Library' or by using the cloud. If you have works from anyplace else, then the prospects get worse.

I personally have some OCD issues that require my books be in some kind of order that is not primary based on who I bought it from and when. I was trying to keep track organized with an Excel book. I searched for solutions and read many articles & blogs, I strongly desired an Amazon/Kindle solution, the majority pointed to a single solution which I eventually adopted. Calibre is that solution.

The only disadvantage the Calibre has it is a bit more difficult to connect wirelessly to your collection. I won't go into all it's advantages but, essentially it is your own personal library, that you can organize and store you books on, regardless of where it comes from. My 1263 (current count) works are stored on Calibre, I download from Amazon, Smashword, Baen, Project Gutenberg, etc. directly to Calibre (on my pc). Once a week or so, I sit down at the PC, remove some books from my Kindles, mark them as read on Calibre (tag 'read'), add some new books to the appropriate kindle ('paperwhite' for reading in bed, 'keyboard' for text to speech while commuting) and tag the books I am currently reading in Calibre by the device they are on.

I believe there is at least one wireless solution for connecting your Kindle to your Calibre, but in the end I stuck with using the USB connection, as by the time I need to move some books around, I need a recharge, so i get a two for one deal (load and charge).

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My own experience with this is that with Amazon you have a couple sets of collections. My iOS and android devices seem to share a set of collections that are automatically sync'ed across them.

In contrast my kindle device and my (mac) desktop software don't share the same. However, from my kindle device if I look at my "Cloud" items, then in the overall menu there is a "Import collections" which lets me import collections from my desktop software. The desktop software has an "import collections" command available from the "add collection" menu in the ui, but I'm not sure where it imports from.

I assume that at some point Amazon will merge all these.

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Your calibre ebook imports go into a folder that you can pick. I have mine dump into a Dropbox folder and that keeps my computers synced. Still can't figure out how to get my kindle synced like that so I have to manually toss my files to it.

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