The Fire tablet is a fantastic little device that’s a great value for the money, but like ALL tech devices it does have its peculiarities and occasional glitches.
A KF on KND reader writes in with this query about a missing app on her Fire HD6:
“I recently bought an app from the Amazon App Store and it installed without any problem on my smartphone, but when I went to install it on my Fire HD6 it didn’t show up on the Cloud tab so I couldn’t install it. Why isn’t it there?”
This is most likely a case of an app that’s compatible with your smartphone, but not with your Fire HD6.
To minimize problems for Fire tablet users, Amazon will not allow those users to install incompatible apps on their tablets. It goes a step or two further though: Amazon won’t even show incompatible apps for a given Fire device when you’re browsing the Amazon App Store on that device, and if you already own some App Store apps that aren’t compatible with the device you’re using, those apps will be hidden from view. Example:
Let’s say you have an Android smartphone. One day you’re browsing the Amazon App Store on the phone, find an app you like, buy it, download it and install it on your phone. The app is great, so the next day you crack open your Fire tablet to install it there, too.
Only, the app doesn’t show up in the Cloud tab of your Apps screens. So you try browsing the App Store on the Fire tablet, but you can’t even find the app now. Yet when you go back to your smartphone, it’s right there: it’s installed, it shows up in your apps library, and you can go back to the App Store on your phone and find the app’s store listing, too. It must be an app that’s incompatible with your Fire tablet.
Another KF on KND reader has a problem with his Collections:
“I put a lot of time and effort into setting up collections for my Kindle books on my Fire tablet, but sometimes when I try to add a new book to an existing collection all I get is an option to add it to a new collection, and when I check my collections screen there’s nothing there.”
This is a software glitch, and it happens to me from time to time, too. Don’t worry, your Collections aren’t gone. They’re just temporarily not showing up on your tablet. Here are the possible fixes, in order of effort required:
1. Just try again later. It’s an intermittent problem, and sometimes it only persists for a single “session”, or period of using your tablet.
2. If the battery level is low, recharge it or plug it into an outlet, then try again.
3. Completely shut down the Fire, power it back on, and then try again.
4. Check your Fire’s available memory (Settings > Device Options > Storage). If your Fire’s memory is nearly full, it may not have enough available memory to display your Collections. Try deleting items you aren’t currently using from the tablet. Remember, so long as you only delete items from the device they will still be there in your Cloud library, and can be downloaded again at any time in the future.
However, note that deleting apps will often cause you to lose all game progress (this depends on the app – some, like The Simpsons Tapped Out, store your progress on the game developers’ own servers, but many do not) so don’t delete any game apps where you want to keep your progress files.
Have a burning question of your own about the Fire? Ask away in the comment area below, or on our Facebook page.
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