For some reason I set the parental controls on my kindle while I was fiddling with it, goodness knows why? I now wish to remove it, but cannot remember my password, even with the ‘hint’ that comes up. I am a pensioner with an awful memory, and although I’ve put in every password I can think of, I cannot remove the controls, which I do not need on my kindle. Please could anyone help me? I’m worried that if I ask kindle for a new password – if indeed that is possible – I will lose the 300-odd books I have at present on my kindle.
The good news is that there’s no reason to panic. If all 300 of those books are purchased and downloaded through the standard Amazon Kindle Store, then they all actually exist in the much-discussed “cloud” and it’s just a copy of them that’s on your device. All neatly tied to your Kindle account.
What does that mean? That if you were to buy a new Kindle or reset your current Kindle to its original factory state, everything will magically just appear and download on demand once you log in to your Amazon account. So, as they’d say Down Under, “No worries, mate!”
To demonstrate, I actually did a hard reset on my own Kindle Fire HD to see what would happen. Yes, we take helping people that seriously here at AskDaveTaylor!
To get started, I set up parental controls on the device, then went to the system menu by pulling down the menu from the top and tapping on “Parental Controls”. The Kindle, properly, then prompted me for a password:
But what if I too had forgotten my password and even after a dozen attempts, I just couldn’t get in to the device to change its settings? Simple, tap on reset your Kindle to factory defaults.
Tap on that small link and a warning will pop up:
It says: “You are about to reset your Kindle to factory defaults, which will remove all of your personal information, Amazon account information, downloaded content, and applications. Continue?”
Go for it. Trust me on this. Tap “Erase Everything”.
and…
time passes…
Finally, the device will restart and show you a choice of languages, along with a few more base level “just out of the box” configuration options. Choose wisely and you’ll eventually be asked to register the Kindle:
Once you’ve entered the credentials associated with your Amazon account tap “Register” and it’ll log you in, confirming the name associated with the account:
Looks correct? Then tap on “Continue” to proceed. Now your Kindle will display one of the interminable ads and promos that keep Amazon afloat…
If you’ve signed up for a 30 day trial before, this doesn’t give you an additional 30 days, btw. They’re smarter than that. But for a lot of people, Amazon Prime’s a pretty sweet deal…
Not interested? Okay, I tried, right? 🙂
Tap on “No thanks, continue without Prime” and you’ll be able to breath a big sigh of relief as you realize that yes, everything’s still there!
These are actually placeholders for the ebooks, so don’t be surprised if you tap on a book cover and it has to download the contents from the Internet the first time. Once you’ve done that for each book you want to read or reference, however, you’ll never have to do it again, so you’ll be back to where you were, Kindle reset, no parental controls enabled.
Which could be a problem, actually, so don’t forget to re-enable parental controls if you really want them on the device and were just resetting the password:
In any case, Amazon’s done a nice job with the usability side of the Kindle so you can definitely zap the device without losing any of your ebooks or other content. Apps might need to be downloaded again, but if you’ve paid for them once, the system should recognize that and let you download new copies without charge.
Good luck and be careful with those passwords!
I only forgot my parental controls pass word so do I still have to do all of that anyway?
I have been on many sites and tried all the things I found here and other sites. Nothing is helping. My sons kindle fire worked yesterday using my hotspot for wifi. Today he cannot get on wifi asks for a parental control password. Neither of us put one on. I cannot sync it because it needs wifi. I cannot go on wifi and I cannot deregister. It all asks for this password. It doesn’t even say if you don’t know password click here to restore settings. I even tried the restore settings tab in my account. Help. I went on y home computer and deregistered that kindle. Still nothing. I have turned it off and on three times. Someone on one sight said third time was the charm. Nope.
Try using another wifi network to get the Kindle working again, then see if it functions properly at home?
Thanks a lot I unlocked my kindle
I locked it five days and I was worried because I forgot the password of parental settings and now I am very happy
I don’t now my parent control password now what
Umm…. ask your parents to help out, Anita? 🙂
If I do a de-register of my Kindle Fire HD on Amazon, will I lose the games that are downloaded? These games are ongoing and have points built up on them for which I have paid for additional credits. And how can I tell what is on Cloud?
If you do reset your Kindle you’ll lose everything on it. Since I don’t know how they manage in-app purchases, I can’t say what will happen to them, but it’s likely they’ll go away too. I’d suggest you contact someone in Kindle tech support first, and see what they can do to help you out!
I forget my kindle fire hd password
I bought a used kindle from someone. Unfortunately they had the parental control set to where I can’t even get into the settings to do a reset. What can I do? Please help it was bought for my disabled son.
Looks like you need to “restore to factory reset”, as I explain in the article, Tabby. If my article doesn’t make sense, try this discussion thread on Amazon.com from Kindle owners: https://www.amazon.com/forum/kindle?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1D7SY3BVSESG&cdThread=TxKB7D5FMDC03Q
Ya I tried that and it sends me to their Amazon account and I don’t know that password I have not been able to register it to my Amazon account because I don’t know the parental password! I have the screen lock password and I have tried to set it to factory, but I need their Amazon account password so what do I do now? I can’t get in touch with them so how can I get the parental code off and register this kindle to my Amazon account??????
It is a kindle fire hdx 8.9 I have not been able to download anything because of this problem please help me!!!!!!!!
Hi Moore did you get a solution to this problem. Please share as i have been search all day and you situation is exactly what im going through.
i have same problem. my son in law have me old fire when he got a new one for his daughter. when i try to hard reset because he can’t remember pass word. it ask for password to reset factory default. i just need to wipe it clean so i can add it to my amazon account
Absolutely ridiculous that it is impossible to turn off parental controls, especially if you have no knowledge of turning them on..so where is the password!?! Things can be difficult at times, but this is insane. Few unhappy people wouldn’t you say?
Help, I am computer illiterate. Its ridiculous that I can’t reset parental control that I don’t remember putting one, without clearing entire history. There has to be a better way. Please tell me step by step. Can’t update my Facebook.
If i reset the factory data, wouldn’t all of my pics and music and stuff be erased?
If you reset it to “just out of the box” then, yes, everything goes away. But much of it should be in the cloud so when you do sign back in to your Kindle account, you’ll certainly at least get your ebooks back and any other content you’ve purchased, games you’ve downloaded, etc. Anything you’ve added locally will probably have to be copied over again however.
Hi Dave,
My kindle fire is asking for the parental control password before I can do a factory reset. How do I solve this problem? Thanks.
I thought I remembered my Parental Control password but it is giving me a “sorry” error. When I try to reset to factory defaults as I am reading to do, it asks me to to enter the parental control password! I am stuck in a weird loop! Any advice?
Lisa, give Kindle support a call, they can walk you through fixing the problem on your device. 🙂
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200127470
Not sure how a parental lock was put on my kindle, as I have no children, and am 62 years Please advise on how to get it off, as it is not allowing me to add an New apps. I never did put a password on, so therefore can not enter one. Please advice.
Deb, you have a bit of a challenge ahead of you. Honestly, it sounds like someone messed with your Kindle more than anything. Hmm… I think I’d try doing a factory reset on the device, then when you log back in to your Kindle account you’ll need to re-download the books you’re reading, reconnect to your wifi network, etc. Shouldn’t be too tricky. Here’s an article on how to do just this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201540770
“Honestly”, Dave my sympathies are with Deb. I’m sure its possible that someone “messed with” my Kindle as well – but they would have had to break in to my house between 11pm last night (when there were no parental controls set ) and 8 am this morning, found my Kindle (which was on charge a couple of feet from my head), set up parental controls and left again without me noticing. On balance, I think a random system glitch is more likely.
Mike, I agree it’s unlikely that someone broke into your house just to mess with your Kindle. And glitches definitely happen. Have you tried a hard restart to see if that fixes the problem? Here’s how to do that on a Kindle Fire: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201176460
I have this same issue!
Does the same procedure work on an android tablet? I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2.
Android tablets don’t use Fire OS (which as far as I know is just heavily modified Android anyways). But it’s still pretty much the same – if you forget your password you have do a factory reset.
Why the password is remembered by the device only and not in your account ? Is a huge waste of time resetting and re-download again your stuff , why Amazon staff would add a terrible idea to the device’s system ?
how do i exit it so i can reset it
I can’t believe you don’t warn me that this ‘free trial’ can cause me to lose all my data. Not my stuid apps, books, etc, but my data!. I can’t follow your advice since I can’t get out of the child’s section. I’m furiouse. Feel like I’ve had a nasty virus attack by Kindle.
I will never trust your ‘upgrades’ again.
What will happen when my 30 day ‘free’ trial ends? No such thing as a free lunch. How did I forget that.
I don’t understand what the situation is, Kay. What free trial? And how are you stuck in the children’s section on your Kindle?
I did what I was asked and reset my kindle and have lost all my books and now I can not get the back please help
Log out completely and log back in again, Margaret.
Im stuck in the kindle free time. Dont remember my password and I dont want to factory set it. What happens to all of my apps that I have on my kindle? Would I have to reinstall them?
Wat if u do tap reset factory default an it dnt turn off