What is Kindle Collection? Kindle Collections are a classification of the folders on the kindle device which help you organize kindle contents. If you have lots of eBooks in your Kindle library, you should create collections to manage your ebooks in good order. In this article, I will introduce 5 different methods to help you create and manage kindle collections.
1. Create and Manage Collections on Amazon Website
In 2017, Amazon has added a new function for creating and managing collections for Kindle books in the Cloud which is very convenient for users. Now you can create and manage your kindle books at "Content & Devices".
Step 1 Create New Collection.
Go to your Amazon account and choose "Content & Devices". Then click "All Content", and choose "Collections" at the dropdown list. Then you will see the "Create new collection" button and just click it. A new window will pop up. You just have to enter the name of this collection. Now a new collection has been created so easily.
Step 2 Add your books to the newly created collection.
Click on the button before the book title and choose " Make changes". Then a dialog box will pop up which allows you to select already existed collections or create a new collection. You can even select more than one collection to add to this book.
When all these have been done, you just need to open your kindle device and choose " Sync and Check for Items" in the menu. Then all created collections will be displayed in the Cloud library.
Note: Amazon only allows you to manage the books that you have already purchased from Amazon store.
Q: If I delete the collection, will the books added to this collection be deleted?
A: The books in collections will not be deleted from your library. You just delete the collections, not your purchased kindle books.
2. Create and Manage Collections on Kindle Manually
Step 1 Create New Collection.
For Kindle Paperwhite users, go forward to the Home screen and select "Create New Collection" on the menu. Create and name your collection by date, author name, subject and so on. Here are a few of my collections as follows: New to read, Currently reading, Samples, Non-fiction, Horror, Historical, Sci-Fi& Fantasy, Reference.
Step 2 Put your books in the collection.
Press and hold the cover of ebook. Select "Add to Collection" from the poppingd-up box. Then check the box next to the new collection where you want the book to appear. At last, press Done at the bottom of the screen.
To navigate to a collection, you can add more items or remove from the menu.
Note: If you have 500 books in your Kindle, it's a huge workload to organize these books in order one by one. And this method is also only applied to purchased books from Amazon Store.
Q: Why do my books appear in "Documents from My items" and not in "Books from My items"?
A: Docs are the ones that you send to your Kindle device by email, but not purchased directly from Amazon.
3. Using Kindle for PC/Mac app
This method will take Kindle for PC as an example. If you are using Kindle for Mac and encounter any operating problems, please leave your reply in the comment.
Compared with method 2, using the desktop kindle app is easier to set up and manage kindle collections.
Step 1 Create Collections on Kindle for PC/Mac desktop App.
Make sure that you have logged in to Kindle for PC with your Amazon account. Right-click the cover of the book and select "Add/Remove from Collection" from the drop down list. Click "New Collection" and name the title of the collection. And you can also move the book to collections which you have already created.
Step 2 Import collections to kindle paperwhite (Kindle Touch).
Login to your kindle device (only for kindle paperwhite/kindle touch) with the same Amazon account. Hit Home and then Menu and tap "Sync and Check for Items". Switch to Cloud View, open the menu and select "Import Collections". Then select "OK" on the pop-up screen. Wait for a moment, then all the books will appear in the corresponding collections in order. Congratulations!
Method 2 and 3 above can only be applied to newer kindle models. If you have a very older Kindle device, please refer to method 4 and method 5.
Q: How to transfer Kindle collections from Kindle for PC to iPad Kindle app?
A: It's easier for us to make and manage my collections on pc. According to Amazon Customer Service, it doesn't support sending collections from computer to iPad. Maybe Kindle Cloud Collections can help you manage kindle books on iPad (iOS app).
4. Kindlian Kindle Collection Manager (For Windows Only)
Kindlian is a cool add-on for Kindle device and works on Windows XP/Vista 7/8. It supports Kindle Keyboard&Kindle Black&Kindle Grey, Kindle Touch and Kindle Paperwhite. This program allows us to import and manage Kindle Books and collections.
First Download and install Kindlian for win. Plug your kindle into the computer and run this program.
Step 1 Choose your kindle version. (The following steps will take kindle paperwhite as an example)
Once you tap kindle paperwhite and press the icon, the pop-up screen prompts you to disconnect kindle.
Tap "Settings" from kindle menu-->"Update your kindle". Then reconnect kindle to your computer. At last press "OK". Then it will enter the scan mode and then the new interface appears.
Step 2 Create a new collection.
Click "+" and name your collections by eBook author name, date and etc. Drag the books into the collection folder you create. And you can add epub books from your computer to kindle device by clicking "Add files to Kindle" icon.
Once added books to your target collection, click "disconnect" icon and a window will ask you to disconnect your kindle from computer.
When you disconnect your kindle with computer, tap "Settings"-->"Update Your Kindle". At last, tap "Settings"-->"Restart". Just for a while, the "kindle collection test'' which I just create appears in my kindle paperwhite. Wonderful, I succeed in managing my kindle books!
The Kindlian just offers a Windows version. But its good point is that it also works with non Amazon books.
Method 5. Kindle Collections Plugins with Calibre
I will demonstrate a proper way to manage your kindle books and group books together into unique collections.
What do you need?
1. A Jailbroken Kindle Touch or Kindle Paperwhite or Kindle Keyboard
2. Calibre+Kindle Collections Manager Plugin
3. Kindle Collections Manager
The following steps will take Kindle Paperwhite as an example.
Step 1 jailbreak Kindle Paperwhite.
Here is a full guide that tells you how to jailbreak Kindle Paperwhite step by step.
Step 2 Install Kindle Collections Manager
Download Kindle Collections Manager here. Plug your kindle paperwhite into your computer. Unzip the CollectionsManager_2.8.1.zip. Copy CollectionsManager.azw2 from this zip file to the document directory of the Paperwhite. (For my computer, it should be placed in H:\documents\).
Disconnect your kindle paperwhite and go forward to click the Kindle collections manager to launch it. If you fail to open the CollectionsManager.azw2, make sure you have followed our Paperwhite Jailbreak guide. If you get any problems, please leave your comment.
Once you run the Collections Manager successfully, a pop up screen will show like this:
Step 3 Install Calibre Plugin.
In fact, if you just want to manage your kindle books on Paperwhite, there is no need to follow step 3.
By installing Calibre plugin, we can manage kindle books via Calibre. There are two plugin versions for Calibre.
Install Collections for Kindle/Kindle Keyboard
Just go forward to "Preference"-->"Plugins"-->"Get new plugins". Locate "Kindle Collections" plugins and click "Install" button. Refer to this guide about how to add plugin to calibre step by step.
Install Collections for Kindle Touch/Kindle Paperwhite
Download the plugin called "Kindle Collections.zip ". Navigate to "Preference"-->"Plugins"-->"Load plugin from file". Browser the location of "Kindle Collections.zip". And select it and add this zip file to calibre. Refer to this guide about how to load plugin into Calibre step by step.
Step 4 Using Calibre to manage Kindle books.
Download Books from Kindle Paperwhite to you calibre library. Then plug your kindle into the host computer. Navigate to "device"-->"Show books in the main memory of the device". At last, add all books to library by right clicking.
Now you can import Kindle collections to Calibre. Navigate to "Preferences"-->"Change Calibre Behavior"-->"Add your own columns"-->"Add custom column".
Once you have created the custom column successfully, navigate to Kindle Collections from the main menu and choose "Import Kindle collections to Calibre..." from the drop down list.
Go forward to the Kindle Collections icon-->"Edit Kindle collections manually...". You will see a list of Collections and you can delete/add a collection to the list. And you can rename the collection. Once you have kept your collections in order, click "Save" button and save collections to your kindle paperwhite. Then it will prompt to restart the Kindle. Eject the Kindle from your computer and navigate to "Home" menu-->"Setting"-->"menu"-->"Restart". Finally, it will save the new collections to Kindle paperwhite.
Tips and Tricks More
If you feel overwhelmed when you look at your Kindle or kindle library, there's a good chance that you need to manage your kindle library by:
- Remove or delete the book you don't want.
- Filter your Kindle library bysStatus, type, and programs.
- Utilize reading lists.
- Transfer books from Kindle to computer with Epubor Ultimate and then take the most advantage of Kindle collections.
Kepp your Kindle books organized!
Ada Wang works for Epubor and writes articles for a collection of blogs such as ebookconverter.blogspot.com.
Here is what happens.
1) I see a collection on my kindle with 65 books. This what I indend.
However, I also see those same books outside of that collection, so the point of the collection is lost !!
Any help?
Hi DimaR,
What method you used? I want to do it for my Kindle keyboard.
wasted time on kindlian ... you should add a note to the info above about it not supporting newer versions
kdeasy is not allowing collection management on paperwhite despite the firmware being 5.4.3.2 ...any idea why?
It seems you are using method 2. Please create the New collections on Kindle paperwhite, not from the kindle for mac app.
If you want to create collections on Kindle for pc/mac, please try method 3.
Have a nice day.
Maybe involving the cloud yes but I HATE the cloud. I download books from the library or torrents. I turn off the cloud permanently and arrange my books into collections as I go. So to add another 1 to 3 books is no biggie.
Hello there,
many thanks for this very clear and smart paper about sharing Kindle collections
Sadly on my side my new Kindle Oasis does not show up in the dialog window for importing collection to Kindle for PC. I do use last version 1.17.1 on Windows 10.
Is there an issue on my side? I just would like to import my Kindle Oasis collection on my laptop.
Thanks
In your (and the kindlian program) instructions, how are you supposed to select "update your Kindle"???? And while I'm at it, since you are instructed to disconnect your kindle, even if you managed to select "update your kindle", what in the world would pressing "ok" do? ( Maybe it then tells you to reconnect it or something??? )
So, did you actually perform the Kindlian installation? Does it not work on Paperwhite 3's ??? Was a step left out of your instructions? Please clarify.
Yes, I'm having the same problem.
Kindlian tech support said that the latest (?) firmware - I have 5.8.9.2 (May 2017) - has closed off 3rd-party access to the Kindle.
I really don’t understand why Amazon is making it so difficult to manage the content we buy from them. The Kindle interface is really kludgy, despite several years of incremental developments. Managing content on their website or via the Kindle Reader app is completely useless.
They’re too lazy (or incompetent) to develop easy-to-use interfaces, so why do they care if someone else does a better job???
I'm waiting for a response from Kindlean, but I would suspect that we would have to downgrade the Kindle firmware for it to work.
I think they might also be developing a different product that can manage collections on the desktop directly, a bit like iTunes (not that iTunes has an intuitive interface either for that matter....)
:o
Now we have e-readers, most particularly Kindles. Again, able to easily contain thousands of books but after being on the market for years still offering no real method of organizing and accessing your library. In this case, they continue to be bought and used because they are sooooo convenient for reading.
I have several hundred books but I never load more than 10 to 20 at any time on my Paperwhite because I am not about to manually page through 500 books eight at time when trying to find something. That would be something on the order of 62+ pages with no organization.
I continue to be amazed that Amazon neither offers any CONVENIENT method to organize your library NOR will open the firmware to third-party developers.
This is so frustrating....... and so unnecessary. Can you possibly explain why this situation exists? Since you specialize in e-readers I thought that if anyone could explain this absurdity you could. I would REALLY appreciate a response, and I think others would as well.
Thank you.
I'm with you on this, Jim.
I looked jailbreaking my Kindle, but it is so complicated (what with having to downgrade to a relatively old firmware version) and then installing several different bits of software in just the right order) that I can't be bothered. (I want a no-bother way of managing my content/collections, so why go to all that bother to reconfigure the software in order to do so????)
I'd be happy to ditch my Kindle device completely and buy another device from a different manufacturer if they made it simpler and more intuitive. It's not that difficult to rip all the content onto my local disk and then upload it to a different device if necessary.
I spend $1000s on books, so an extra $100-odd for a new device ain't going to make much difference! :)
Any ideas of non-Amazon readers that would be suitable?
BTW, I could download "Kindle Collections.zip"plgin.
The problem arises in trying to place books into my collections because the category (collections) list is in the order in which I created each category (collection)instead of Alphabetical order but I can find no way of reordering that list short of deleting the collcetions and re-creating them in alphabetical order. then I'd probably have to manually re-enter every book.
A really good addition to this 'tool' would be to be able to tag a number of books and then add them to a collection with juar one 'enter / add' command.
Re: managing kindle from Amazon web site:
When I add a Test Collection in website and then Synch my iPad, it works fine and shows up in iPad collection.
However this is not true when I Synch my Kindle for PC. Nothing changes...WHY? Am I doing something wrong on my PC app.
BTW: all software is current.