If your e-reader stays awake when you close its cover, there's nothing wrong with it. Usually the cover simply has no magnet for the reader to detect, or the magnet isn't where the sensor expects to find it. It happens with Kobo, Tolino and Kindle alike, and it's easy to avoid next time you buy.
A magnet in the flap, a sensor in the reader
Current Kobo, Tolino and Kindle readers have a magnetic sensor built into the housing. Close a cover that has a magnet in the right place in its front flap and the reader goes to sleep. Open it again and the reader wakes up, no button needed. Kobo made the idea familiar with its own SleepCover, and Tolino and Kindle readers work the same way.
So a snug fit on its own isn't enough. If the magnet is missing, or sits a few millimetres out, the sensor won't pick it up. Your reader won't come to any harm; it just won't nod off by itself. Gluing in a magnet yourself isn't something the manufacturers support, and if it ends up in the wrong spot it either does nothing or sets the sensor off where it shouldn't.
Finding the right cover for your model
On our covers, the feature is in the product name: look for "with Auto Sleep". Every range also includes covers without it, so if a cover doesn't say it, don't count on it. These are the covers for current models:
- Kobo Clara BW and Clara Colour, which also fit the Tolino Shine (5) and Shine Color
- Kobo Libra Colour, which also fit the Tolino Vision Color
- Tolino Shine 3
- Tolino Vision 6
- Kindle Paperwhite (12th generation, 2024), many of which also fit the Kindle Colorsoft
Take care with new generations
Go by the exact model and generation, not the screen size. Two readers with the same size screen can have quite different housings, which puts the sensor somewhere else. The Tolino Vision 1 to 4 HD share one housing, for example, but the Vision 6 is built differently, so a cover for the older models won't necessarily fit it. The Kindle Paperwhite is similar: a cover made for the 2021 model may go on the 2024 one, but the magnet can end up in the wrong place.
Auto-sleep isn't new, either. Older readers such as the Kobo Aura H2O and the Tolino Vision 1 to 4 HD support it too, and the same rule applies: the cover has to be made for that exact model line.
When you can do without it
If what you mainly want is protection in a rucksack or handbag, a simple folio cover without auto-sleep will do the job. You just put the reader to sleep with the power button, as you always have. You give up a little convenience, not any safety.
What about the battery? E Ink screens use hardly any power while the page isn't changing. The benefit of auto-sleep is more indirect: the reader won't turn pages by accident in your bag, and Wi-Fi won't stay on for no reason. Neither Kobo nor Tolino publishes an official figure for how much battery life that saves. For real numbers, check your device's manual rather than a figure from a forum.
