Do you have problems viewing the cover art of the books you send to your Kindle? When you transferred your eBooks to Kindle and are ready to read them, but the book covers disappeared. In general, this rarely occurs on the books you purchased from Amazon. But it's a common issue with sideloaded eBooks losing their cover art. Today, let me show you how to fix this issue for the Kindle book cover not showing and share some workarounds.
The Best Way to Fix for Disappearing Kindle Book Covers
If it's a book you purchased from Kindle Store, on the whole, the book cover can always display well. But if the covers are not showing in the Library, the main reason is the bad Network. It’s very easy to solve this issue:
- Keep the wifi turned on and give it some time to download the cover.
- Then open the book and navigate to the first page (the page which shows the front cover of the book), and then return to Library, covers will show.
When you download books from the Internet, they're not often available in a Kindle-supported format, EPUB is the most common eBook format. But an eBook in EPUB cannot be read on Kindle, so you need to convert it to another Kindle-friendly format and then sideload it on your Kindle. Of course, you can also send EPUB files using the "Send to Kindle" service to send over books to your Kindle. Once you use this service to deliver an eBook in EPUB to a Kindle device, the EPUB file has been automatically converted to a Kindle-compatible format.
However, you may find the covers of these books don't display in your Kindle Library. It is really annoying, as it's very difficult to find the specific book especially when you downloaded many books to Kindle.
Amazon will assign a different ASIN to each Kindle book, ASIN is a ten-digit alphanumeric code that identifies products on Amazon, and each ASIN is a unique identifier for each product when creating a new product in Amazon's catalog. For these sideloaded books, Amazon will still cross-check them with their Kindle Store data, even though your book is loaded in, if it doesn’t have a valid ASIN that corresponds with Amazon’s server, then the cover image will be replaced by a generic thumbnail image. Don't worry, here are some methods to fix this issue.
Solution 1: Use Calibre to deliver books and edit metadata
In general, when you transfer MOBI files to your Kindle via Calibre, Calibre will create a folder on your Kindle named "amazon-cover-bug" that contains JPG cover files. This feature can solve the majority of the issue with the book cover not showing. But if the book covers are still not displaying, you can try the method of editing metadata.
Step 1 Search for your book from Amazon Kindle Store, then scroll down to the Product Details and you will find the ASIN of this book.
Step 2 Run Calibre software, then drag your book to it and click "Edit Metadata", and enter the ASIN you find on Amazon.
Step 3 Connect your Kindle device to your computer, after Calibre detects your device, then click on "Send to device", and the book will be automatically converted to MOBI format and transferred to your Kindle.
Note:1. If the covers are still not displaying, even if you have tried to edit the metadata via Calibre, please update Calibre to the latest version, then connect your Kindle to the computer, and send the book again to your Kindle device by "Send to Device" in Calibre. Because Calibre has already added a fix for the disappearing cover thumbnails issue.
2. Don't directly copy and paste the converted books by Calibre to your Kindle "documents" folder, in this way, the book covers may not show on your Kindle.
3. When you use “Send to Kindle” service to deliver the EPUB eBook to your Kindle, and the book cover is not showing, please click the book to open it, then return to Library, and the cover will show.
Solution 2: Use Fix Kindle Ebook Cover Tool
Step 1 Download and install Fix Kindle Ebook Cover Tool on your computer.
Step 2 Connect the Kindle device to your computer via USB cable, then run the software and click on "Choose" to select the root Kindle drive.
Step 3 Click on "Recover", then the eBooks' covers will be fixed automatically.
Solution 3: Use Epubor Ultimate to fix book covers and remove eBook DRM
As you know, many books you purchased or download online have DRM protection. Epubor Ultimate is a great tool that allows you to remove DRM from ebooks as well as modify the metadata in the way you like, including the book cover.
Step 1 Download and install the Epubor Ultimate on your computer. It supports both Windows and Mac.
Step 2 Add the books you downloaded to Epubor Ultimate, and the DRM will be removed automatically.
Step 3 Click on "Edit" icon on the right area, and you can edit all the important meta information, including replacing book covers.
Step 4 Upload the original book cover, and click "Save", then click the convert button to convert the book to AZW3 or Mobi format.
Step 5 Simply transfer the converted book to your Kindle, and now the book cover will show, just enjoy your reading.
Solution 4: Update or reset your Kindle to factory defaults
If all methods above are not working for you. Please try to update your Kindle to the latest version. Because of the new Kindle firmware 5.15.11 release, it seems that they have improved the cover display for sideloaded books. Or you can try to reset your Kindle to factory defaults and contact Amazon Customer Service for help.
Final Thoughts
With the solutions we provide, you'll not be annoyed by the Kindle book cover disappearing issue. If you have any better methods, please share them in the comment. Of course, the most recommended is Epubor Ultimate, it is an all-in-one software that helps you remove DRM from eBooks, and fix all metadata problems, including editing or adding the book cover as you like.
Nancy Hello, my name is Nancy! I’ve been always a book enthusiast, and I love reading very much. As an editor for Epubor, I’m glad to share all my favorite books, audiobooks, and tips to read E-books all I know.
Hello! I learned a lot from your fix, but I still have issues. I get errors from Calibre when I open the program, and have for years, regardless of using a Fire tablet or Fire Max 11 tablet. I don't know if those created an issue for updating the covers using it or not, but it still didn't work.
I tried using the Use Fix Kindle Ebook Cover Tool, but it wouldn't recognize my tablet as a drive, even though it showed up in My Computer. I downloaded Python to try to see if that would help, but I was clueless on how to connect the cover tool with Python, and never got it to work.
I know that a few of my ebooks without covers were purchased through Amazon, but all of the rest were sideloaded by downloads through independent publishers. I never had this problem until transferring those files from my Fire to my Max when I bought it a week ago. I haven't contacted Amazon yet because I've done everything they've suggested in the forums, so I don't know if they can help, either.
Can you think of anything to help me out? I'd greatly appreciate it.