If you own a PocketBook, the PocketBook firmware update you actually noticed in 2025 was version 6.9: released in August 2025 starting with the Verse Pro (build 6.9.850), it added a PIN code lock, sleep images pulled from your current book cover, support for LCP-protected PDFs and audiobooks, and finer front-light adjustment, per PocketBook's official news page, August 2025. The catch is rollout speed — updates reach models in waves, so your device may still be waiting.
What did firmware 6.9 actually add?
Three things change daily use. First, the PIN code: your library and sideloaded files are now behind a lock screen, which matters if the device travels in a bag or gets handed to kids. Second, LCP-protected PDFs and audiobooks are now readable, which is a bigger deal than it sounds — LCP is the open DRM used by many European public-library services, so borrowed files that previously needed stripping out now open natively, per PocketBook's news page, August 2025. Third, the front-light settings gained plus and minus buttons for small brightness steps instead of sliding a bar in the dark. Sleep-screen customization, including using your current cover, is cosmetic but genuinely pleasant.
Which devices got updated earlier in 2025?
The InkPad Eo received its own package around March 13–15, 2025, per PocketBook's news page. It carried the same PIN protection plus two quieter improvements: a strikethrough erase tool for handwritten annotations — you slash through a mistake instead of switching menus — and upgrades to the AI Recognition OCR engine that converts handwriting to text. Before that, firmware 6.5.2 rolled out to nine PocketBook models with AZW and AZW3 format support and faster opening of MOBI books and CBR/CBZ comic files, per PocketBook's firmware overview page, 2025.
What did PocketBook not ship?
The rebuilt reader application that owners have been asking about did not arrive in 6.9 — community threads on Reddit noted its absence when the build appeared in August 2025. If a new reading app is why you have been checking for updates, it is not there yet, and PocketBook has not published a dated roadmap for it. That is the honest gap in this story.
How do you check which version you have?
Open Settings, then Device Information — the firmware line shows the build number. If you are below 6.5.2, the AZW/AZW3 support and speed fixes are the reason to update; if you borrow LCP library books, 6.9 is the one that matters. Updates arrive over Wi-Fi under Settings, or as manual downloads from PocketBook's support pages. Per PocketBook's news pages, 2025, staged rollouts mean identical models can sit on different builds for weeks.
What does this change for you as a reader?
PocketBook's value proposition has always been format tolerance and openness, and 2025's updates pushed exactly that direction: more DRM types handled natively, more file formats opened faster, and a device that is finally lockable. Nothing here reinvents the hardware — but if you left a PocketBook in a drawer because LCP audiobooks would not play, August 2025's build is the one that fixes it.
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