How to Jailbreak Kindle Paperwhite 4 (the 2018 release)
For Kindle Paperwhite 4, please read this guide.
For Kindle Kindle Oasis, Kindle Voyage, Kindle Paperwhite 3, Kindle Touch 2/3, please read this guide
For Kindle Touch, Kindle Paperwhite 1/2, please read this guide.
This guide is originally posted in the famous MobileRead forum, before starting jailbreaking your KPW4, please the following paragraph carefully:
- Your Kindle Paperwhite 4 must be running firmware 5.10.0.1 and 5.10.0.2
- The serial number must start with G000T1, G000T2, G000T6 and G000PP
If your Kindle Paperwhite 4 doesn’t meet any demand of those, please don’t try this method. Or you may take the risk for bricking your Kindle.
If you just get your Kindle Paperwhite 4, I highly recommend you skip the Wi-Fi connection step to avoid the auto system update. After jailbreaking the device, it will keep jailbroken even if you update the firmware to a higher version.
If your KPW4 is already connected to Wi-Fi, but doesn’t upgrade the firmware yet, I also recommend you disconnect the Wi-Fi at first.
To jailbreak a Kindle Paperwhite 4 is similar to the previous generations, at first you should install a specific firmware, then run the jailbreak script, finally install a patch to keep your Kindle jailbroken. After that, you can install a bunch of plugins to enhance your Kindle’s capability.
Step 1. Download the specific firmware files
- If your Kindle is running firmware 5.10.0.1, please download the “update_kindle_all_new_paperwhite_v2_5.10.0.1_factory.bin” file
- If your Kindle is running firmware 5.10.0.2, please download the “update_kindle_all_new_paperwhite_v2_5.10.0.2_factory.bin” file
Step 2. Install the downloaded firmware
- Connect Kindle to computer with USB
- Copy the specific firmware to Kindle’s root path (where you can see the documents folder)
- Safely eject Kindle, and make sure your Kindle’s battery is higher than 50%
- Now back to Kindle’s screen, press “Menu → Settings → Menu → Update Your Kindle”
- Be patient, wait for the specific firmware to install, don’t press any button, just leave it alone. This step may take longer than 30 minutes.
- When the firmware is finished installation, the Kindle will restart automatically.
Step 3. Install jailbreak script
- Download the file: kindle-jb-factory-1.2-r15011.tar.xz (WinZip and 7-zip are all able to extract the .xz extension file)
- Unzip the file, you can get a new file called main-htmlviewer.tar.gz
- Connect Kindle to computer with USB, copy the main-htmlviewer.tar.gz file to Kindle’s root path
- Safely eject Kindle from computer
- Back to Kindle screen, activate the search box, input “;installHtml” (notice, there is a semicolon, and all of them are characters, not numbers), then press Enter
- Kindle’s screen will flash and restart, if so, you can go on. If not, please repeat the previous steps.
Step 4. Install the hotfix patch
- Download the file: JailBreak-1.15.N-FW-5.x-hotfix.zip
- Unzip it, you’ll get a new file called “Update_jailbreak_hotfix_1.15.N_install.bin”
- Connect Kindle to computer with USB
- Copy the “Update_jailbreak_hotfix_1.15.N_install.bin” file to Kindle’s root path
- Safely eject Kindle from computer
- Now back to Kindle’s screen, press “Menu → Settings → Menu → Update Your Kindle”
- Wait for the Kindle to restart
After the restart, your Kindle will be jailbroken. Your Kindle Paperwhite 4 will keep jailbroken if it updates to newer system version. All installed plugins will be gone if Kindle’s system is updated.
Step 5 (Optional). Suspend auto system update
In theory, system update doesn’t make a jailbroken KPW4 to un-jailbreak.
However, if you are worried about someday Amazon finds a way to block jailbreak by a new firmware version. You can suspend Kindle’s auto system update feature by a small trick.
You can create a folder called “update.bin.tmp.partial” and place it to KPW4’s root path. Just leave the folder empty.
This magic folder can stop KPW4 from auto-updating.
The recommended procedure
Therefore, if you want to jailbreak your Kindle and keep all plugins, here is the recommended procedure:
- Jailbreak your Kindle (step 1-4 in this article)
- Update Kindle to the latest firmware
- Suspend auto system update (step 5, which I will introduce below)
- Install plugins, you can refer to this article to check must-have plugins for jailbroken Kindle