Kindle Fire / Android Tips & Tricks: Where’s My App? Revisited, Where’s My Music? And Where’s My Audiobook?

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In my last Kindle Fire Tips & Tricks post I included information on how to force a newly-purchased app to show up on your Fire when you don’t want to wait for it. I’ll just reprint that tip here, then go on to elaborate a bit more on how to force other types of content to show up. Note that some of these same methods will work on ANY Android device, so if your thingie is something other than a Kindle Fire, it still may be worth giving these tips a try.

Where’s My App?

If you are in the habit of downloading a new app and then immediately wanting to try it out, you’ve discovered that purchased apps don’t immediately, automatically show up on your Fire’s carousel. And you may have resigned yourself to waiting a few hours, or until the next day, for that app to show up. Well, you don’t have to.

While the app won’t be “pushed” to your Fire automatically until the next time it syncs with the Amazon server where a record of your purchase is stored (even doing a manual sync by tapping the ‘sync’ icon on your Fire’s main menu won’t usually bring a newly-purchased app in right after you’ve bought it), you can “pull” it to your Fire instead of waiting.
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Go to the Apps tab, tap on the Store link and look up the app. Where people who haven’t already bought it will see a “Buy” button on its product page, you’ll see a “Download” button.

If you’re still seeing the “Buy” button, that means your purchase hasn’t been passed through to update the product page yet, but it should take a minute or less. Tap the Apps link to close the Store page, wait a minute, then tap the Store link again and go back to the app’s product page.

Where’s My Music?

I am not too proud to admit that even I, the Digital Media Mom, struggled with this problem initially. I’d buy new music in Amazon’s MP3 store, rush right over to my Fire or Galaxy Player, fire up the Amazon MP3 app on the Galaxy or hit the Music tab on the Fire, and…no new music.

So I’d try to do a manual ‘Sync’ from the Settings menu on the Galaxy, or a manual ‘Sync Amazon Content’ from the Settings > More > Applications menu on the Fire. No dice. I tried powering the devices all the way down, to force them to boot up again, thinking that would force them to check for new purchases. Nope. It was only after a LOT more tapping around that I happened to find the solution.

Forcing A Music Refresh On A Kindle Fire

With your Fire connected to the internet via wifi or 4G, open the Settings menu with a downward swipe from the home (carousel) screen. Then go to:
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More > Applications > Music (it’s listed on the Applications menu under Amazon Apps) and tap on “Clear Cache”. This will force your Fire to re-connect with Amazon’s servers and update your music library on the Fire.

Forcing A Music Refresh On A Different Device That’s Using The Amazon MP3 Player App

With your device connected to the internet via wifi or a cell connection (in the case of a smartphone or certain tablets), open the Amazon MP3 app. With the app open, tap your device’s ‘menu’ button to open the Amazon MP3 app menu, then tap the “Settings” icon (it will usually have a picture of gears on it). Scroll down until you find an item called “Refresh cloud library” and tap on it. That’s all there is to it!

Where’s My Audiobook?

Your Audible audiobook content can seem like it got lost between the internet and your device, too.

Forcing An Audible Audiobook Refresh On A Kindle Fire

More > Applications > Installed Applications > Audible and tap the Clear Data button. You’ll get a scary-sounding warning popup that tells you this will delete all application data, but don’t worry about it, just go ahead and confirm.
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Even though I was expecting to have to re-enter my Audible member account info when I started the Audible app up again, that didn’t happen. Also, “app data” does not mean “your audiobooks”. Tapping on the Clear Data button will not delete any of your audiobooks from your account, though it may delete your account information (e.g., username and password). Theoretically it could also cause you to lose any progress you’d made in Audible audiobooks that are already loaded on the Fire, since it could theoretically force you to re-download them, but I’ve tapped the Clear Data button on my own Fire several times and it didn’t delete my account information or any of my partially-listened-to audiobooks.

Note that book cover images may not immediately update, but every book will at least be listed and those cover pictures will trickle in eventually.

Forcing An Audible Audiobook Refresh On A Different Device That’s Using The Audible App

This one’s easy-peasy. Just open the Audible app, tap the ‘Library’ link, then tap the refresh button (it’s the one that looks like an arrow drawn in the shape of a circle, and it’s right up at the top right).

Note that just like forcing a refresh on the Kindle Fire, book cover images may not immediately update, but every book will at least be listed and those cover pictures will trickle in eventually.