Amazon to remove download/transfer via USB option for ebooks?

[Ted Nolan <tednolan>]

I'm a little skeptical as this seems like the kind of thing that would
require an announcement, and I haven't gotten one, but this UK pundit

says that the ability to download a Kindle ebook to your hard drive
is going away in a week or so.

Very worrying if true (possibly a UK only thing?)

Since I routinely put everything I buy into Calibre, this would be
an unwelcome development, though I think I could get around it (so far)
with an extra step of uploading the file from the Kindle in mass storage
mode.

Does anyone have more details?

[WolfFan]

Post by Ted Nolan <tednolan>
I'm a little skeptical as this seems like the kind of thing that would
require an announcement, and I haven't gotten one, but this UK pundit
http://youtu.be/KMoCzeGnIss
says that the ability to download a Kindle ebook to your hard drive
is going away in a week or so.
Very worrying if true (possibly a UK only thing?)
Since I routinely put everything I buy into Calibre, this would be
an unwelcome development, though I think I could get around it (so far)
with an extra step of uploading the file from the Kindle in mass storage
mode.
Does anyone have more details?

First I’ve heard of it.

If it’s true, then I suspect that I won’t be buying any more ebooks from
Amazon.

[Scott Lurndal]

Post by Ted Nolan <tednolan>
I'm a little skeptical as this seems like the kind of thing that would
require an announcement, and I haven't gotten one, but this UK pundit
http://youtu.be/KMoCzeGnIss
says that the ability to download a Kindle ebook to your hard drive
is going away in a week or so.
Very worrying if true (possibly a UK only thing?)
Since I routinely put everything I buy into Calibre, this would be
an unwelcome development, though I think I could get around it (so far)
with an extra step of uploading the file from the Kindle in mass storage
mode.
Does anyone have more details?

I read something about it last week.

https://www.androidpolice.com/amazon-closing-kindle-loophole-remove-drm/

[D]

Post by Ted Nolan <tednolan>
I'm a little skeptical as this seems like the kind of thing that would
require an announcement, and I haven't gotten one, but this UK pundit
http://youtu.be/KMoCzeGnIss
says that the ability to download a Kindle ebook to your hard drive
is going away in a week or so.
Very worrying if true (possibly a UK only thing?)
Since I routinely put everything I buy into Calibre, this would be
an unwelcome development, though I think I could get around it (so far)
with an extra step of uploading the file from the Kindle in mass storage
mode.
Does anyone have more details?

I would assume the worst, since we are talking about Amazon.

But I also think they are increasingly irrelevant. Just buy a Kobo, or one
of the other 3-4 brands out there, and enjoy a DRM-free reading
experienced based on pdf or epub. =)

My father has a 10 year old kindle, that will soon retire, since the
battery only lasts for 2-3 days or so, and I have a bad kindle copy that
will also soon go to meet its maker (?).

I will buy a kobo or a https://onyxboox.com/ I think.

I am struggling with if I should stick with my 6" form factor which is
convenient when moving about, but not convenient for my newspaper (which I
read on my laptop). Or if I should go for a 10" ebook.

What do you think?

[Paul S Person]

Post by Ted Nolan <tednolan>
I'm a little skeptical as this seems like the kind of thing that would
require an announcement, and I haven't gotten one, but this UK pundit
http://youtu.be/KMoCzeGnIss
says that the ability to download a Kindle ebook to your hard drive
is going away in a week or so.
Very worrying if true (possibly a UK only thing?)
Since I routinely put everything I buy into Calibre, this would be
an unwelcome development, though I think I could get around it (so far)
with an extra step of uploading the file from the Kindle in mass storage
mode.
Does anyone have more details?

The last book I read took a lot longer than usual to show up on the
online content management screen. But it downloaded just fine.

And, yes, copying the book locally is an option.

There has been a steady decline in this:
-- at one time, you could specify for each book which device you
wanted it downloaded automatically to
-- then you could at least specify the one Default Device that would
get each an every one, whether you wanted it there or not.
-- for some time now it seems to be making up it's own mind, perhaps
on the "Oldest Kindle First" principal

[Default User]

Post by Ted Nolan <tednolan>
I'm a little skeptical as this seems like the kind of thing that would
require an announcement, and I haven't gotten one, but this UK pundit
says that the ability to download a Kindle ebook to your hard drive
is going away in a week or so.

It doesn't really affect me, as I don't have any of the devices that
allow download in the first place. Back in the day, I used the Calibre
plugins on the old azw files that you used to get, but that went away
some time ago.

For the most part, I've moved away from Amazon to Kobo, which gives you
epub files that you can download. You can use Calibre to convert epubs
to mobi or azw3 to use on a kindle device if you want.


Brian

[Ted Nolan <tednolan>]

Post by Default User

Post by Ted Nolan <tednolan>
I'm a little skeptical as this seems like the kind of thing that would
require an announcement, and I haven't gotten one, but this UK pundit
says that the ability to download a Kindle ebook to your hard drive
is going away in a week or so.

It doesn't really affect me, as I don't have any of the devices that
allow download in the first place. Back in the day, I used the Calibre
plugins on the old azw files that you used to get, but that went away
some time ago.
For the most part, I've moved away from Amazon to Kobo, which gives you
epub files that you can download. You can use Calibre to convert epubs
to mobi or azw3 to use on a kindle device if you want.
Brian

I still get azw/azw3 files as I still use the 2011 "Kindle Keyboard"
device. The new ones don't have an aux jack, plus Calibre decrypt
still works.

Still no email from Amazon about this.

[Default User]

Post by Ted Nolan <tednolan>

Post by Default User
For the most part, I've moved away from Amazon to Kobo, which gives
you epub files that you can download. You can use Calibre to
convert epubs to mobi or azw3 to use on a kindle device if you want.

I still get azw/azw3 files as I still use the 2011 "Kindle Keyboard"
device. The new ones don't have an aux jack, plus Calibre decrypt
still works.

I don't have any actual Kindle devices, just apps for Windows and iOs.
The ability to get a workable file for those ended some time back.


Brian

[Jaimie Vandenbergh]

On 22 Feb 2025 at 06:45:15 GMT, ""Default User""

Post by Default User

Post by Ted Nolan <tednolan>

Post by Default User
For the most part, I've moved away from Amazon to Kobo, which gives
you epub files that you can download. You can use Calibre to
convert epubs to mobi or azw3 to use on a kindle device if you want.

I still get azw/azw3 files as I still use the 2011 "Kindle Keyboard"
device. The new ones don't have an aux jack, plus Calibre decrypt
still works.

I don't have any actual Kindle devices, just apps for Windows and iOs.
The ability to get a workable file for those ended some time back.

Kindles download the same encrypted files, so you couldn't decrypt them
by USB copy either.

Buy your ebooks to pay the authors and get their sales rank up on your
preferred ebook platform, then if you can't decrypt them go grab the raw
epub from Anna's Archive or whatever.

Cheers - Jaimie

[Paul S Person]

On Sat, 22 Feb 2025 06:45:15 -0000 (UTC), "Default User"

Post by Default User

Post by Ted Nolan <tednolan>

Post by Default User
For the most part, I've moved away from Amazon to Kobo, which gives
you epub files that you can download. You can use Calibre to
convert epubs to mobi or azw3 to use on a kindle device if you want.

I still get azw/azw3 files as I still use the 2011 "Kindle Keyboard"
device. The new ones don't have an aux jack, plus Calibre decrypt
still works.

I don't have any actual Kindle devices, just apps for Windows and iOs.
The ability to get a workable file for those ended some time back.

There is (was) said to be a Kindle application for Windows.

And the Amazon Website has a reader for Kindle books. I use it to get
the ISBN and publisher info for my database. I have to copy these by
hand as the reader knows nothing of copy-and-paste.