Kindle Tablet Info

How to manually update the Kindle Fire without a PC

Amazon’s promised software update for its Kindle Fire is now live and rolling out to devices over the air. I decided not to wait for the update, but wanted a totally mobile method to get the software installed. It’s actually fairly easy and requires just three things: a Kindle Fire (surprise!), a Wi-Fi connection, and a file manager application.

The software update, version 6.2.1, is available for download directly from Amazon here. Using the Kindle Fire’s web browser to navigate there, you’ll see a Download link. Tap the link to download the 182 MB file to your Fire, which will place it in the Downloads folder. Unfortunately, the update file needs to be in the KindleUpdates folder on the device; that’s where a file explorer application comes in handy.

Using Amazon’s AppStore on the Kindle, search for “file explorer” to see what third-party apps might help in this situation. I chose AndroXplorer, which was free, and installed it. With this app, or any other comparable file explorer software, it’s simply a matter of copying the update file from the Downloads folder to the KindleUpdates folder on the Fire. Note that both of these are actually sub-folders of the sdcard folder.

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• GigaOM

Tags: apps | howto | system | update