Oasis / Paperwhite firmware question

[WillW]

My much used Oasis is getting long in the tooth and I’ve been looking to replace it. I was hoping to get away entirely from the Amazon ecosystem, but the fact is, the Oasis is, for me, both aesthetically and ergonomically perfect. Ironically, the only thing really wrong with it as an ereader is Amazon...
I’m thinking to just buy another one to future proof my e-reading habit. I’ve tried others - Kobo & Pocketbook - but don’t like them.
What I’m wondering is, have Amazon done anything sinister since I last updated the firmware, which would prevent me using a new Oasis the same way I use the old one, ie keeping it entirely offline and independent of Amazon (apart from initial compulsory registration of course) and buying my books from Kobo store & elsewhere and converting and loading via Calibre.
My 10th gen Oasis has firmware version 5.15.1, which works fine and minds its own business.
Does anyone here have an Oasis (or Paperwhite I suppose) with up to date firmware (5.16.21) and use it the way I do?
I’d try updating and testing, but if things do go amiss, there’s no way to reverse it of course.

[Sirtel]

Amazon has a habit of deleting sideloaded books if you have been offline for a while and then connect to wifi. If you never connect, then I guess it probably won't matter.

[cvkemp]

I side load books all the time from calibre and my Kindle is always on wifi I haven't had any of my side loaded books deleted that I didn't delete myself.
I keep reading that Amazon deleted sideloaded books and haven't ever seen it for myself.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by cvkemp

I side load books all the time from calibre and my Kindle is always on wifi I haven't had any of my side loaded books deleted that I didn't delete myself.
I keep reading that Amazon deleted sideloaded books and haven't ever seen it for myself.

If you have wifi always on, they won't be deleted. They will be deleted if your Kindle has been offline and then you connect it to wifi.

[Frogm4n]

Originally Posted by cvkemp

my Kindle is always on wifi

The issue only happens when connecting to wifi after a significant time offline (weeks+), and only to books that were sideloaded with the EBOK metadata set (so it pretends to be an actual Store book) instead of being empty or set to PDOC. If none of that applies to your situation then you won't see any deletions.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

If you have wifi always on, they won't be deleted. They will be deleted if your Kindle has been offline and then you connect it to wifi.

I've never been able to reproduce this, even after leaving wifi off for weeks. All we have is speculation about what's going on and not much evidence.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by tomsem

I've never been able to reproduce this, even after leaving wifi off for weeks. All we have is speculation about what's going on and not much evidence.

Of course, but there have been lots of posts here from people to whom it happened, so it's just not a rare, random occurrence.

[WillW]

I’m not remotely worried about Amazon deleting books. I didn’t even mention it. As I said, my Oasis is permanently offline.
I was asking whether new firmware may prevent the opening/functioning of non Amazon books converted to AZW3 and sideloaded via Calibre. It never has, but I’m still on older firmware.
That really is all I want to know.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by WillW

I’m not remotely worried about Amazon deleting books. I didn’t even mention it. As I said, my Oasis is permanently offline.
I was asking whether new firmware may prevent the opening/functioning of non Amazon books converted to AZW3 and sideloaded via Calibre. It never has, but I’m still on older firmware.
That really is all I want to know.

There haven't been any reports of such a thing happening.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Of course, but there have been lots of posts here from people to whom it happened, so it's just not a rare, random occurrence.

I am not claiming it's random, or that it never happens. But it can be effectively random if it involves long run times between restarts and more than a handful of steps to get the Kindle into the problem state. It's called 'complexity'. I assume that is the case here.

It's very challenging to fix bugs which cannot be reproduced. You cannot just make guesses and change things willy nilly, as it's easy to introduce new and more serious bugs that affect everyone. The 'lost data' is side-loaded (presumably user still has the content somewhere and can restore), something a small percentage of Kindle users do, add irreproducible tag, and any PM is going to defer the issue in favor of doing some other bug fix or feature.

People come here to report problems. It is a very skewed sample of Kindle users, of which there are many more than for Kobo or PB or whatever. So my 'prior' is that is is in fact rare. 'Lots of posts' is maybe a couple of dozen? This site is not that busy and is entirely self-selected, so it is not possible to conclude much.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by tomsem

People come here to report problems. It is a very skewed sample of Kindle users, of which there are many more than for Kobo or PB or whatever. So my 'prior' is that is is in fact rare. 'Lots of posts' is maybe a couple of dozen? This site is not that busy.

It's rare among Kindle users as a whole, because the majority of them probably never sideload, or if they do, they use Send to Kindle/email. I don't think it's rare among those who do sideload via USB.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I don't think it's rare among those who do sideload via USB.

You may be right, but we do not have data, even assuming we agree on what 'rare' means.

As a 'rare side-loader', my prior is that content-removal is rarer than your prior that it is not rare, whatever rare means (I assume you side load a lot more than I do).

But in any case, Amazon will probably never succeed in fixing this issue, since it is probably below their radar.

[j.p.s]

There is also no data that they are aware of it, condsider it a bug, have started on fixing it, or have any intention of fixing it.