how to

How To Add New Screensaver Images To Your Kindle 1

03.04.08 | 7 Comments

Sample screenNotes: These instructions are for the Kindle 1. Amazon hid the necessary folder for this on the Kindle 2. If you have a Kindle 2, this is the only option I know of.

For Kindle 1 owners, this process is completely reversible–however, as long as you have custom screens on your Kindle, the default screen images won’t appear. You can follow these instructions to revert back to the default screens.

Remember, DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK. This works for me and for others, but I make no guarantees, obviously.


Truncated instructions for the tech savvy

  1. Create a new directory on the top level of your Kindle and name it pictures, and within that directory create another directory name anything you want (e.g., “pictures/My Pictures”)
  2. Add images to that directory, then unmount the Kindle.
  3. Go to Home Screen and press ALT+Z to create a new book out of “My Pictures.” Note that it will appear at the END of your list of books, for some reason.
  4. Open book, then press F to go into full-screen mode.
  5. For each image you want to turn into a screensaver, press ALT+SHIFT+0 (zero).
  6. You can delete the “My Pictures” book and directory when finished–it won’t affect the screensaver images.

Longer instructions for beginners or the extremely cautious

Part 1: Putting new images in your Kindle’s memory

  1. Connect your Kindle to your computer via the included USB cable.
  2. On your computer, navigate to your Kindle (it should appear as a USB-mounted drive on your desktop in OS X, and it should appear as a mounted drive in your “My Computer” window on Windows XP).
  3. Double-click on the Kindle drive listing (or icon) to open it.
  4. Now that you’re in the top level directory of Kindle, create a new folder and name it “pictures” (without the quotation marks).
  5. Go into that folder by double clicking on it.
  6. Now that you’re in “pictures,” create a new folder named “My Pictures” (again, no quotation marks).
  7. This folder is where you’ll add all the screensaver images you want to appear on your Kindle. Just copy them directly into the “My Pictures” folder.
  8. Now that you’re done with surgery, you can close up the patient–unmount or eject your Kindle from your computer, then disconnect it from the USB cable when it’s safe to do so.

Part 2: Telling the Kindle to use the new images for screensavers

  1. On the Kindle, press the Home button to return to the main menu.
  2. Press ALT+Z — this will force the Kindle to scan the “pictures” folder you added and create a new “book” out of the “My Pictures” folder you added. The book will be named “My Pictures.” Note that it will appear at the END of your list of books, for some reason.
  3. Open the book. The first image in your “My Pictures” folder will appear as the first “page” of the book.
  4. Press F on the keyboard–this will make the image full screen.  (Make sure “Search” isn’t turned on–if it is, hit the Search button to turn it off and then press F.)
  5. Take a look–do you like the image? Want it for a screen saver? Press ALT+SHIFT+0 (the number zero)–after  few seconds, the Kindle will alert you that it has made a screensaver out of the image.
  6. Turn the page to see the next image in your folder and repeat.

Note: When you’re done adding images to the screensaver collection, you can go into “Manage my Content” on your Kindle and remove the “My Pictures” book if you like. It won’t affect the screensaver images. (It also won’t actually delete the “My Pictures” folder, so if you want it back you can repeat Step 2 in Part 2 above.)

Note 2: Did you get to step 5 and nothing is happening? Make sure you’re pressing the real Shift key!

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