When you find your Kindle Scribe PDF links not working, the cause is usually how the file got onto the tablet, not the file itself. Send the PDF with Send to Kindle from the web or the Kindle app, keep it as a PDF (don’t convert it), and tap links with your finger. That fixes most cases. If it doesn’t, the checks below cover the rest, in the order we’d try them.
We make hyperlinked planners and notebooks for Kindle Scribe, so we hear about this a lot. Amazon’s help pages don’t describe how links inside a PDF behave on the Scribe, so some of what follows comes from owner reports and other makers’ testing, and we say so where that’s the case.
1. Check the links on a computer first
Before you blame the Scribe, open the PDF on your computer and click a link. If nothing happens there either, the file has no real links. That’s common with PDFs made by typing text that looks like a contents page, or by using “print to PDF”, which flattens links into plain text. A properly linked file jumps to the right page when you click. Every planner and notebook we sell has real links, so if one of ours doesn’t work on a computer, email us and we’ll fix it.
2. Use Send to Kindle, and keep it as a PDF
How the file arrives matters most. Amazon’s Send to Kindle works from a web page, the Kindle app on your phone, or email. Whichever you use, the file has to stay a PDF.
If you email it, leave the subject line empty. Putting the word “convert” in the subject tells Amazon to turn the PDF into a Kindle book, and the internal links don’t survive that. One owner reported on an Amazon community forum that links were lost when they emailed a PDF but kept when they shared the same file to the Kindle app instead. So if you’ve been emailing files, try the web page or the app.
Our guide to putting a PDF on your Kindle Scribe walks through each route step by step.
3. Tap with your finger, not the pen
This one catches a lot of people. On a PDF you can write on, a pen tap is often treated as writing, so tapping a link with the pen leaves a dot instead of jumping. Other planner makers report the same thing. Try tapping the link with your fingertip, or pick the pointer or hand tool before you tap with the pen.
If a tap turns the page instead of following the link, you probably landed just outside the link area. Tap right in the middle of the word or box.
4. Let it finish indexing, then restart
A new file, especially a big planner with hundreds of pages, takes a little while to settle in. Owners on the same forum have reported that some features don’t work until the Kindle finishes indexing the file. Leave the Scribe on Wi-Fi for a few minutes after the file arrives. If links still do nothing, restart the Scribe by holding the power button and choosing Restart, then try again.
5. Update your Scribe’s software
Amazon has improved PDF support in recent updates. As of November 2026, every Kindle Scribe model is on software version 5.20.1, from the original 2022 Scribe to the Colorsoft. Check yours under Settings, then Device Options, then Device Info, and update if you’re behind.
What about copying the PDF over USB?
You can now copy a PDF to the Scribe with a USB cable and write on it. That arrived with Amazon’s software updates in spring 2026, according to The eBook Reader. Before that, writing only worked on files sent through Send to Kindle.
We’d still use Send to Kindle for a planner. Nobody has published a reliable test of whether internal links work in USB-loaded PDFs, and there are a couple of known catches: notes on a USB-loaded file stay on that one device, and after one update some owners had to copy their files over again before they’d open. A file sent through Send to Kindle sits in your Amazon library, so it’s backed up.
If you’ve already written in the planner
Don’t delete a planner you’ve filled in just to test a fix, because your handwriting goes with it. Send a fresh copy of the file instead and test the links on that. If the new copy works, you can decide whether to carry on in the old one or move over.
Even when links won’t cooperate, you can still get around. Every page in our files is numbered and in order, so you can jump to a page number from the Kindle’s page menu and keep going.
Kindle Scribe PDF links not working after all that?
Our links troubleshooting page has notes for every tablet we support. If you bought from us and nothing here works, email hi@mildspring.co with your Scribe model and how you sent the file, and one of us will help. And if you’re still looking for a planner, our Kindle Scribe templates come in both the 10.2 inch and 11 inch sizes, with every page linked.
