What I in fact did was nothing, I simply bought a new one, but have since pondered what is the best thing to do when you lose your ereader.

As with all mobile devices such as mobile phones, laptop computers and of course, ereaders, it is all too easy to lose or have them stolen from you – How often have you left your laptop sitting on the table at your local Starbucks while you make a quick trip to the lavatory?  We all do this, and I am damn sure that plenty of such devices have been lost that way.

Obviously no one in his right mind would leave a Kindle sitting on that table like that, but none the less, they disappear.  In my case I left it in the pocket of the seat in an airplane.

So, what should we do when it happens to us?

Well, obviously, if it is an insurance matter, you should report the loss to the cops, which deals simply enough with that side of things. But what to do about your ebook collection and if it is an ereader like the Kindle which has an online account associated with it, what do you do to avoid the thief buying ebooks on your account, using your credit card.

Also important is that you have all your ereaders serial numbers and so on in a place that is secure, so you have the information the cops and insurance will need.

In the case of all ereaders that have either WiFi or 3G connections to any online ebook stores where you have an account supported by your credit card, you absolutely must inform the companies you have accounts with so they can cancel that account to avoid misuse being made of your credit card.  And do this as quickly as you can as all such stores will charge you for anything bought before you report the loss to them.

Having dealt with that side of things, the next thing to worry about is your collection of ebooks.  This can be complex with ebooks that have DRM protection, as that protection is registered with the ereader you lost, and isn’t always easy to transfer to your new ereader.   In the case of Kindles, Sonys, Kobos and Nooks, you will be able to redownload all the ebooks you bought from their stores and read them on your new ereader, once you have registered it, but I know from personal experience, ebooks with DRM protection from other online stores can be tricky to get onto you ereader.

Actually, I have had trouble getting some of the ebooks I had bought for my original Sony into my new one.   The old one being a 505, which had no WiFi or 3G, so all my ebooks were safely backed up on my computer, but once I had my newer Sony I found that some of the original ebooks wouldn’t work on it, no matter what I did with Adobe and Sony’s Reader Library software.  Annoying!

Personal files you have placed on your ereader

Obviously, any files you may have placed on your ereader will be lost and with the exception of the Nook range of ereaders, whoever stole your ereader will have access to all of your private files on your ereader.  In the case of the Nook ereaders, once you have got it deregistered by Barnes and Noble, your stolen ereader will be locked and thus the files on it shouldn’t be available to the person who stole it….

So, Customer Service is your first port of call..

So, whatever type of ereader you have lost, once you have informed the cops, get onto the Customer Service department of the ereader maker to report its loss and then get busy sorting out all your old ebooks.

Another reason to avoid super cheap ereaders

By the way, this is  another goods reason to buy an ereader from a reputable maker, as the cheap ones you see in supermarkets made by who knows who, wont offer any sort of support in the advent of theft or loss.

Share with us:

Do you have any advice or experiences with this problem that you think might be useful to the rest of us?  If you do, please do share them here with us.