Monday, May 23, 2011

Instapaper Auto-send to Kindle not working

This is a current, unresolved problem: Instapaper does not automatically send new articles to my Kindle every day. This, despite the fact that my Instapaper account is correctly set up to auto-send new articles to my Kindle, and my Kindle account is properly set up to receive them.

Here’s the scenario:

  1. There are new unread articles in my Instapaper account that are more than a day old.
  2. My Instapaper account is configured to email new articles to my Kindle every day (see above). I have a Kindle 3 wifi-only.
  3. I never receive any emails from Instapaper unless I click the Send Now button. Then, the new Instapaper issue is sent and arrives on my Kindle exactly as expected.

The manual sends arrive just fine; ergo: the Kindle email address is properly configured, and the Kindle account is properly set up to receive the emails.

The status just above the Send Now button commonly reads “Your last compilation was sent 4 days ago” even when there are new unread articles sitting in the account.

I conclude that Instapaper simply is not sending the emails for some reason. Any guesses as to why?

Update: Apparently this is a known issue; Wired published an article which says “Unfortunately, for reasons I’m not smart enough to understand, Instapaper can’t automate delivery to your @free.kindle.com address.” This tells us nothing about what causes the problem, only that it’s a known issue and, for whatever reason, nothing has been done about it.

Second Update: — Marco seems to have been working on the problem. On May 25, @Instapaper tweeted: “Sending tomorrow morning’s Kindle auto-deliveries early, now. I think I finally found the bug that prevented so many from being delivered.” Then on May 26: “@jeremyisweary Have you changed your Instapaper username since setting it up, possibly when I moved to requiring emails-as-usernames?” The problem has not yet been solved for me personally, or for others, as seen in the comments to this blog post. Will keep you posted.

Third Update: — I’ve been receiving my unread articles from Instapaper on my Kindle, and it seems the problem has been fixed. On October 5th 2011 (the day Steve Jobs died), @Instapaper tweeted that Marco believed he had fixed the problem. The same day, he said, “By a few hours from now, all deliveries should be made. If you’re one of those who haven’t been getting them, let me know whether you do.” I’ve been getting my deliveries ever since, and so have others.

If you’re still having problems, let us know in the comments!

27 comments :

nickv said...

I'm having the same problem, but no solution. Please keep us updated if you figure anything out.

Marcel said...

Same issue here - did you get any progress?

Mike said...

Yep same problem. It never worked, even though I had daily delivery set and was regularly adding new articles - then I randomly got a delivery the other day - then nothing since...

Tiago said...

Same issue here.

James said...

Yep same here - lets all tweet @instaper and ask?

nickv said...

I hit the "reset history" button on IP's kindle settings page, and it has successfully made my delivery two days in a row.

I'm not sure why I didn't try that sooner, as it's literally the only thing on that page that sounds remotely like it might do something, but hopefully it will help the rest of you too.

James said...

Put me down as having this problem as well. I thought I was the only one. I sent email but I'm sure Marco is very busy. I've tried resetting the history many times and also created another instapaper account. Neither has worked.

Joel A. said...

There's been some work on this since late May, apparently - see the updates above. Still not workign though.

If everyone who is still having this problem could tweet this post to @Instapaper, perhaps we could make him more aware of it and help him track down the problem.

Unknown said...

I've had this problem on-and-off for months. It seemed to work well if I did the @kindle.com and set my Amazon charge maximum to $0.00, but it has never worked right with the @free.kindle.com address.

Dr Citrus said...

I've had this issue from day one. Has never worked.

Marcel said...

It looks like something has changed and my auto delivery has started to work again. I noticed this a couple of days ago, but it may have been back longer as I had my wireless switched off. Happy Days!

SoundExplorer said...

I first tried setting this up about two weeks ago, but it has never worked. Only doing the manual "send now" works. I also find the 20 article limit to be too limiting.

Dreyfusard said...

Same here. Only manual send works with free Kindle account. Trying now with non-free address...

Anonymous said...

Same here - not working

yioann said...

same here. it does not work. I will try with @kindle.com and I will let you know.

yioann said...

The problem persists. I even deleted my account and recreated it. It still does not work

yioann said...

It started working out of the blue today, but I can not trust the service anymore.

I will give http://klip.me a try. They added a functionality to save articles and send them as a periodical to kindle.

gcman105 said...

I'm having the exact same problem as described in the post too.

Unknown said...

Not working for me either. :-(

Dreyfusard said...

I increasingly turn to Readability for precisely this reason. But Readability does not appear to let one "save" an article from a mobile device...

sygyzy said...

Same here. not working for me as well. Very frustrating!

Kevin said...

September now. The problem continues...

Dreyfusard said...

Unexpectedly received a digest last night. Maybe the problem's been resolved?

Joel A. said...

It looks like it's working! I'll update the post.

sebo said...

I still have this problem; using the @kindle.com address with a Kindle 4 (non-keyboard). Anyone else?

Federico Solazzo said...

How to tell Instapaper to send to my Kindle unread posts only once? Because always I still have already sent posts! It always sends me 10 posts, including the ones it already sent me..So, if I mark one to "to read", it send me 1 unread + 9 already sent. And it's quite annoying :S

mihkelgysson said...

I have the same problem :(

Any help?