Problem with Send-to-Kindle on Android 7.0

[pawnslinger]

I have Dropbox loaded onto 2 Android devices, one is using Android 6.0 and is a Samsung cell phone.  I can use it to send-to-kindle just fine.  The other device is an ASUS ZenPad 3S 10 running Android 7.0 and everytime I try to Send-to-Kindle from it, I get an error message that says my document is not compatible and cannot be sent to Kindle.  So I have to get my phone and send it from my phone.  It is the same document, just different Android versions.  So to get around this, I save the document on my tablet to the Downloads folder and use ES File explorer to move it to the Kindle folder (I cannot save directly to it), once moved to the Kindle folder, there is no problem, the document shows up and works fine in Kindle.  The document is a standard .mobi format file.

It would be nice if the Send-to-Kindle worked normally on my tablet.  It would save me time and effort.

[Jay]

Hi there, are you referring to exporting the .mobi doc directly from the Dropbox app, and then opening it in the Kindle app?

If not, is this referring to importing from the Kindle app, or another third party app to do the transfer?

Let me know so I can understand this issue better!

[pawnslinger]

Honestly I do not understand your question.

Here is what I do.  I have books from Smashwords that I convert on my computer to mobi format.  I put them into my Dropbox and then go to my phone or tablet and send-to-kindle from Dropbox.  Send-to-Kindle is an option in Dropbox when you look at the Export options menu.  Since that doesn't work on my tablet, I tried the Save to device option on the Export options menu.  That works, but it is a bit more effort, as I explained.

Also, the Send-to-Kindle export option in Dropbox works on my Samsung phone.  Also Send-to-Kindle works if I use Yahoo email on my desktop linked to Dropbox.  Also, Send-to-Kindle from Dropbox also works thru my Gmail account.  The only thing that doesn't work is using the Send-to-Kindle thru the Export menu on the tablet.  The only difference I can see is that the tablet is running a different version of Android.

[Jay]

Okay, so you’re doing a normal export from the Dropbox app.

When you do it, what exactly happens? Do you get any error messages? Does the tablet or app freeze? Does the Kindle app open at all? Is the Kindle and Dropbox app updated to the latest versions?

[Rich]

It's worth mentioning that the Send to Kindle function is not a feature of Dropbox, but of the Kindle app. I'm willing to bet that if you email the .mobi file to yourself, open the email on your tablet and use the Send to Kindle feature, thus bypassing Dropbox completely, you'll get the same error.

[pawnslinger]

Nothing freezes.  The tablet is 2 days old, so all apps are fresh from the Google Play store.  What I get is exactly what I wrote in my first message above... a dialog box pops onto the screen that says the document is not compatible and asks if I want to report it... if I try the link to report it, I get a broken link type error from Chrome.  So no way to report it.  The screen under the dialog box is darkened, so hard to see what is there, but it looks like Dropbox had opened some sort of text page, it looks like an email message, but it is so dark I cannot really read it and when I click OK in the error box, it all goes away very fast and I cannot see what it was.  So I am left pretty much in the dark.  At first I thought some sort of permissions were setup wrong, new tablet and all, so I went into Settings and gave Dropbox full permissions, no change.

As I wrote, I can then go to my phone and do the exact same steps, sending to the kindle on the tablet, and bingo, it works like a charm.  No issues there.  So in theory the process should work.  The document is okay, so the error message is meaningless to me.  The version of Kindle and Dropbox are the same on both the phone and the tablet.  When it wasn't working on the tablet, I setup the programs on my phone and tried it there.  I was flabbergasted when it worked and the books appeared on the tablet.

[pawnslinger]

No, I don't.  As I wrote above, the send-to-kindle works using Gmail on my tablet.  It works from every place and method, Gmail, Yahoo email, everything... even from Dropbox on my cell phone.  The only place it doesn't work is from my new tablet using Dropbox.  It even works on my old iPad!!  I cannot get it to fail any other way.  Something between Dropbox and Kindle is broken on my new ASUS tablet.

Mixed vendor problems are always very difficult.  And we have 3 different vendors in this case: ASUS, Amazon, and Dropbox..

I have been using Dropbox to transfer Smashwords books to Kindle for a long time.  This is the first fail I have had.  I wish that Dropbox could just save the file direct to the Kindle folder.  That would solve the problem.  But Dropbox does not have the correct path name for that folder... when I try to save it there, it seems to have the path on the emulated drive, but when I move the files from the Downloads folder to the Kindle folder using ES File explorer, they go into the main drive folder, not the emulated one.

[Jay]

I’ve just tested it on our Android and it works fine with a random .mobi file.

Does this occur for all .mobi files on your account? Are there any unusual characters in the filename itself, which could be incompatible with the Kindle app?

Could you try marking the file for offline viewing, and then try exporting it again?

To rule out other issues, could you try exporting another random file, i.e. an image to a photo application, or spreadsheet etc.

Keep me posted!

[pawnslinger]

It only fails when tried from my new ASUS tablet.  I have tried several files, the names only have letters and "-".  The same files can be sent from my Android phone without issue.  So it is not the files or the names.  It is something about the tablet... that is the only common denominator. 

[Jay]

Very peculiar behavior, from the error message it implies that it’s not receiving the file as a .mobi file, and there aren’t any invalid characters either.

Since it is a brand new tablet, have you run an update on all the software on it (even if it’s unrelated to Dropbox), and even the OS itself for any new fixes or updates?