Two problems and they may be related. I used a placeholder image the first time I compiled for Kindle (.mobi). I have now added the final cover design in the appropriate Scrivener Compile dialog page however, KIndle for Mac still shows the placeholder image and nothing I do will persuade it to use the new one. I have deleted Kindle for Mac, deleted its folder in Application Support. Deleted the book from the Kindle library. Reinstalled Kindle for Mac but the original book cover persists.
Secondly, In Kindle for iPad, I have installed the .mobi file via iTunes. The cover doesn’t show there at all. Is there some cache that needs purged somewhere in Scrivener or Kindle? I can’t find it.
On the first problem, I’d really recommend using Kindle Previewer (if you can get it running) or Calibre to check your Mobi files. Kindle for Mac uses a different rendering engine than everything else, and has issues with meta-data and cover image caching.
On the second, that’s mainly a problem with manually loading .mobi files. Again, their software isn’t really designed with power users or development testing in mind. They probably just do QC testing on end-client usage, which is 100% buying things from the store and downloading them through the software. When you do that the thumbnail caches and so forth are updated in an expected manner.
So if you intend to upload this to KDP for instance, it will be fine. Your readers don’t actually get the full Mobi you upload, they get a processed version based on the hardware they are using to download it.
Thanks for your reply AmberV. I couldn’t get Kindle Viewer to run on El Capitan at all and I found out how to preview my book in Calibre, which is good to know. I also found the answer to my original post about where Kindle for Mac keeps its cache. Not where you would thinks at all but in…
~/Library/Containers/com.amazon.Kindle
I deleted this and the Kindle app built a new one. I double-clicked my .mobi file and it opened in Kindle for Mac and the correct thumbnail was in the list of books.