WinterBreak

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After all, all devices have their dangers. The discovery of speech introduced communication – and lies.
- Isaac Asimov

WinterBreak is a jailbreak which was released on New Year’s Day 2025 by HackerDude

It is based on Mesquito

Special thanks to Marek, NiLuJe, Katadelos and all the beta-testers during the development of this jailbreak.

RIP bricked Kindles during beta-testing
RIP the original deadlines

Prerequisites

  • You will need a PC
  • Your Kindle must be registered
  • Your Kindle must have a valid, internet-connected WiFi network saved to it that it can connect to during steps 8 to 10 (inclusive)

If you face any issues, please check the troubleshooting section

Installation Guide

  1. Download the latest WinterBreak release:
    Download WinterBreak
  2. Turn on airplane mode on your Kindle
  3. Plug the Kindle into your computer

  4. Extract the contents of the WinterBreak.tar.gz file to your Kindle

    For Linux/MacOS users, ENSURE the hidden folder .active_content_sandbox has been copied to your Kindle

  5. Eject your Kindle from your computer
  6. Reboot your Kindle
  7. Open the Kindle Store on your Kindle

  8. When prompted, click yes to turn off airplane mode store_aeroplane.png

  9. Click on the WinterBreak icon when it loads: winterbreak_launcher

  10. Wait around 30 seconds, and your Kindle will say something along the lines of “Now you are ready to install the hotfix” winterbreak_run

Older version of WinterBreak would reboot after installing, this is no longer necessary and you can install the hotfix without a reboot.

You are now ready to check the Post Jailbreak section for what to do now.

Post Jailbreak

Troubleshooting

Kindle store encountered an unexpected error

Faced this error and found a solution DiabloSat & Rexathion1

If an “Unexpected error” occurs when you try to log in to the Kindle Store or only the Kindle Store home page is displayed, try the following solution:

  1. Factory Reset Kindle
  2. Before registering your Kindle/logging into your account - plug your Kindle into your PC, move the WinterBreak files to the root of your storage space
  3. Log in account and enter airplane mode as soon as possible
  4. Connect Kindle to PC and delete the cache directory at the path .active_content_sandbox/store/resource/LocalStorage (Skip this step if the LocalStorage directory does not exist)
  5. Reboot Kindle
  6. Open the Kindle Store on your Kindle
  7. When prompted, click yes to turn off airplane mode

Special Thanks To Our Courageous Beta Testers

  • Crystals (Bricked their PW4 testing)
  • mergen3107 (Came up with the “WinterBreak” name)
  • Bomberfish
  • BionicGecko
  • Juliet
  • Rie
  • Robotic
  • scrad
  • shamanNS
  • akane
  • BlackNinja
  • Gimzie
  • Human
  • Lux
  • Marek
  • terra