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So recently Amazon has introduced this feature which shows the cover of what you are currently reading on the lock screen of your Kindle reader (at least for Kindle Paperwhite 4 as far as I know).

As I have both Amazon and third party books on my Kindle Paperwhite, I have noticed that this new feature only works for Amazon books. Meaning, when I am reading some third party book and lock the screen, I do not see it's cover (some generic Kindle screensaver pops-up instead).

Has anyone else had this experience and are you aware of any practical ways to solve this?

P.s. two additional points worth mentioning:

  • I have reviewed the metadata of these third party books via Calibre and as far as I can tell, covers are present and are clearly identified as such within the metadata code;
  • These third party books are recognised as “Personal documents” by Kindle (as opposed to Amazon books, which are properly recognised as “Books”).
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After running some experiments I have finally managed to solve this issue for my Paperwhite4.

For anyone having the same issue - follow this sequence:

  • Take a side loaded document of any format
  • Open it w Calibre
  • Right click on it and press “Edit metadata”
  • In a new window press the button “Download metadata” (it’s at the bottom of the screen)
  • Follow thru with a dialog window
  • Choose one of the book covers proposed by Calibre (do this step even in case you think your document already has a cover)
  • Finish by pressing “Ok”
  • Convert your document to mobi
  • Hook up your kindle via USB
  • Right click on the document in Calibre and choose “Send to device”
  • Choose “Send specific format to”
  • Choose “Main memory”
  • Select mobi file from the list

You are done. Your document’s cover will display on the lock-screen.

Essentially it appears that three things were key:

  • downloading/ updating the file’s metadata and the cover via Calibre
  • converting the file to mobi
  • sending the file to kindle via USB (through Calibre as opposed to simple drag and drop using windows explorer)
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  • That way the cover appears on the lock screen, but the book does not sync with other devices or with amazon.
    – Esteban
    Jul 11, 2021 at 7:31
  • It is my understanding that side loaded books would never sync w Amazon irrespective of the way you play around with them.
    – goose
    Jul 12, 2021 at 18:55
  • Yes, they sync when sent to kindle by email
    – Esteban
    Jul 13, 2021 at 16:56
  • everyone. I've had the same problem with my Kindle and it finally works out with this method, but unfortunately, in my case, the covers disappear into the grid section of the main menu. Is there another solution that will solve both issues? Thank you.
    – martina
    Aug 24, 2021 at 14:33

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