Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
A Kindle owner recently took to Reddit to lament about something many longtime users have discovered the hard way: Amazon no longer lets certain older Kindles register after a reset. The poster had dusted off a legacy e-reader, only to meet a dead end at the sign-in screen. This experience is, unfortunately, a scenario that’s becoming more common as Amazon tightens authentication requirements on aging hardware.
However, the thread didn’t stay gloomy for long. u/InfiniteAftertime jumped in with a workaround they’d spotted on MobileRead, where enthusiasts have been comparing notes on the same problem. It turns out a quirk in Amazon’s two-factor authentication system can reopen the registration pathway for older Kindles that Amazon appears to have closed.
Do you own more than one Kindle? 19 votes I only own one. 58 % I don't own one. 5 % I own more than one, but only use one. 32 % I own more than one, and use more than one. 5 %
How the workaround actually works
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
The issue is surprisingly straightforward. Older Kindles don’t surface a prompt to enter the 2FA, but they do expect your Amazon account to have 2FA configured before they’ll successfully register, which can cause the process to fail silently.
Here’s how users say it works: First, make sure 2FA is set up on your Amazon account. You don’t need to keep it enabled forever, but it must have been configured at least once. You’ll need a code that Amazon pushes to you (via text or another approved method), not one generated by an authenticator app.
On the first registration attempt, let the e-reader fail.
On the second attempt, the password field becomes the workaround: If 2FA is enabled, enter your password followed immediately by the 2FA code (no space). If 2FA is disabled, enter the 2FA code by itself as the password.
... continue reading