Have an older Kindle? Update software by Tuesday to avoid losing books, Internet access

Amazon is warning customers with older Amazon Kindle E-Readers that they need to update their software by Tuesday, March 22.

The company says the critical software update is needed for models made before 2012 in order to continue downloading Kindle books from the cloud, accessing the Kindle store and using Kindle services.

Amazon's support page says you'll receive this error message if you don't download the latest software by Tuesday:

Important: If you do not update your device by March 22, 2016, you will receive the following message on your device: Your Kindle is unable to connect at this time. Please make sure you are within wireless range and try again. If the problem persists, please restart your Kindle from the Menu in Settings and try again. If you see this message on your device on or after March 22, you will need to manually install the latest software update for your device. Go to Fire & Kindle Software Updates for more details.


Check this page for details on how to know if your model is affected and what to do to make sure you have the update.

To update your Kindle once connected to Wi-Fi:

  1. From the Home screen of your Kindle, select Menu or tap the Menu icon, and then choose Sync and Check for Items.

  2. Plug your Kindle in, and leave your Kindle plugged in and connected to a Wi-Fi network overnight.


While asleep, the software update will download and install automatically. Your device may restart multiple times during the update process.


The update may have already downloaded if you've connected to the Internet on the device since October 5.

If you don't update by March 22, you're not totally out of luck. It's just going to be more complicated to update the device (directions here).