Amazon’s killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books
Amazon’s killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books
www.theverge.com
Amazon’s killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books
180 comments
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Reminder that piracy is a service issue.
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100%. I have always pirated, but the amount of things I pirated went way, way down when Netflix had a decent library of things to watch and was affordably priced.
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I stopped pirating altogether thanks to Spotify, Netflix and Steam.
But now I've cancelled Netflix and I have a 24 TB NAS filled with movies
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I moved from MA to NC and I miss my library every day. (I also miss other things.)
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Piracy is also a "We're underpaid and can't afford shit in this economy" issue. It's ethcal to pirate since the rich steals from us all the time.
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Absurd. Glad I have a Kobo.
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Yep. Not to gloat, but I never touched Amazon's ebook marketplace.
My current e-reader is a second-hand Kindle that has a permanent message asking if I would just please connect to a WiFi network just one time just for a moment PLEEEEEASE.
I get my books from libgen, Gutenberg, or Kobo, and keep them on my computer. They're organized in Calibre, and I transfer them over on a USB cable.
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I switched to Kobo a few years and couldn't be happier. I hated supporting Amazon.
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Wow, I just bought it last year before they discontinued it then. Interesting that only colour screens are available now. It must mean that they are at least as good though? Edit: after reading reviews, apparently not... that sucks.
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The Kobo Clara Color's screen doesn't look any different to me with non-color eBooks than their non-color version. The only thing that's really different is that the book cover you see when it's powered off is in color. Now I will admit that e-ink color is not very good, but it doesn't ruin the experience of reading just a regular book.
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Just swapped to a Libra Colour last month and I’m feeling better about the choice every day
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That's why I avoided Kindle and picked a Kobo. Sure you can remove DRMs from the books you've bought. But at some point they could block you from doing that. They can change anything at anytime and there's nothing you can do about it.
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That is no different than Kobo. Thus far, Rakuten have been pretty good about not caring more than the bare minimum. But there is nothing stopping them from doing the same bullshit with firmware updates to the kobos and drm updates to the store and apps.
I am finally migrating from kindle to kobo (tried kindle to boox last year and it was bad...) but I am under no illusions that I am just hoping one company is better than another. I mean, the other is Amazon so it is a pretty safe bet. But still.
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Well there's a key difference, Kobo allows epub. I don't think they could legally remove it from devices already on the market?
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there is nothing stopping them from doing the same bullshit with firmware updates to the kobos and drm updates to the store and apps.
I never connect the Libra to any network, how can they do anything? I did actually install some updates since there were a few annoying bugs, but I just downloaded the firmware on the pc from https://pgaskin.net/KoboStuff/kobofirmware.html and updated it offline. Now all those bugs seem fixed and poor Kobo still hasn't seen the interwebs
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Just dont update and keep it off the internet I guess
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It's pretty easy to jailbreak a Kindle and block firmware updates. But the fact that it is necessary in the first place sucks
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This is why you never connect your kindle to the internet. Calibre forever
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It's a library manager, like iTunes for music, or Plex for movies, Google Photos/Picasa for photos/images . You pick a spot for you library locally, and then your local lib is a jump off point to load in on to any reader device you want. It will understand what device you are pushing it to, and automagically convert it (like Amazon’s proprietary format to mobi or epub 😜 !) to supported file-types. If you are into that kind of stuff, you could run it as a service on your network, and have all that fancy BYO cloud ebook solution.
The big difference with just copy-pasting is that you have a full library somewhere locally, and you can pick and choose what you load up on your reader. For me and maybe you, those lists are pretty close to identical, but what if you have a very large collection? And what if i just had to RMA my Libra? One click and a couple minutes after i receive my replacement, all of my books and reading progress will be synced back. If you had put your lib on the device itself, you would have had to rebuild it from scratch.
TLDR: Collection Management/Self Host and auto-convert are the big plusses.
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It's like iTunes, but for books.
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This doesn't track.
To pull my books into calibre, I need to first download them onto the Kindle, which requires wifi.
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My kindle has been on airplane mode for years and I read new books all the time with it, but hey, whatever works for you
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Ugh, thanks for the warning. Time for me to download and de-drm all my old kindle books and never again buy anymore.
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Try this python script: https://github.com/Jedi425/BulkKindleUSBDownloader
Source: https://social.wildeboer.net/@jwildeboer/114002221924654676
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Awesome, thank you!
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Do yourself a favour, switch to Kobo or a third party ereader... Especially if you're not in the US.
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A whole new generation of the Kobo readers just came out too!
I've got one of the previous Gen and I was so happy to find they have models with the clicky buttons to turn the page.
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Yeah I got the libra colour and it's really great for the buttons. Didn't really care about the colour part but the regular one was out of stock when I got it so I just went with it and I'm finding I enjoy it a lot. Especially when I read picture books for mt kid's bedtime
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Yup, I've had my Kobo for quite a while now and I still love it. The push buttons are great, as pointed out by another poster, but also.. I've just never had any issues with it. None whatsoever. I'm hoping this one will just never brick.
About a month after I got mine, I bought the exact same one for my husband and he says his is still working like a charm as well! Now to be fair, I had never owned any other e-readers so I can't really compare it to anything, but quality-wise I'd say they're really good.
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Why "especially if you're not i the US"?
I'm not in the US, and switched to kobo a couple of years ago, but i've had to keep buying books from amazon, sine the kobo store is just realy bad (missing a lot of books, even popular once), and there are few others who offer ebooks here.
The quality of the devices seem not the greatest either.
Bought a kobo libra first and it lasted just long enough for the warranty to expire before it just fully died. Replaced it with a kobo libra colour, and had to replace it three times before I got one that didn't have pin holes on the screen where light shone through.
Meanwhile my 9 year old kindle oasis works just fine, it has just gotten slow and the battery is worse, which is why I replaced it with kobo.
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Because supporting the US economy from outside of it right now is ludicrous and Amazon is a union busting mega corporation that destroy local economies...
Now, I'm not a Kobo corporate shill, I don't care which device you get, I did say there are other ereaders you can get, pick whatever you want. You don't care about thr trade wars, you can get a Nook or Remarkable. You care but don't like Kobo? You can buy an Onyx or another Chinese brand. You can use your phone, an old tablet whatever you want.
Personally, I've never not found a book on kobo but if it happened and it wasn't at my library, I'd find alternative to buying on amazon, I'd get it physical or find other ways to get it.
You want to continue using amazon products and contribute to the success of Bezos and his billionaire friends, that's your prerogative but a lot of us are not ready to do that for the sole sake of minor convenience.
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I sure am glad I got a Kobo for myself for Xmas and ripped all my books to it. Guess I'll be recycling my Kindle for good.
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I just got a Kobo color (don't recommend the color feature; no book is ever going to use it except the red-letter Bible and House of Leaves) and gifted the old Kindle to a friend. I e-reader is an awesome gift actually because for a lot of people it's something they would never evenly in years take a chance on, but that they would love it if they tried.
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If your model accepts a custom OS, some of them make decent e-ink displays for weather, family photos, etc. Things look good in the black and white ones especially.
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Yeah I've actually thought about doing that and making it an office desk calendar or something. Thanks for reminding me!
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Its possible to buy DRM free ebooks from itch.io and it is where I get everything that I can.
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Adding on to this that Barnes and Noble sells DRMed ePUB files that are relatively easy to strip DRM from using Calibre.
So if you can't find a book anywhere else, at least they don't use a proprietary format and still allow you to download your books using their PC software.
I was a semi-early adopter in the ebook space and I have refused to get onboard with the kindle ecosystem from the start. There's no reason for their proprietary format other than complete control over things they pretend to sell you. Amazon is also the Walmart of books and uses their position to browbeat publishers and authors into taking smaller cuts of sales.
One of my friends got a book published and I waited and waited for it to be available anywhere else. Eventually just bought what was probably a print on demand copy from Amazon because that's the only place his publisher sold books. I never buy physical books anymore but I'd rather do that than buy a kindle book.
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resist.
Stop buying whatever it is that Amazon/Meta/Google/Etc sell. They will not stand for you. They will not respect you.
At some points, it may seem like they changed and that they are now good. They are not. They will never be. Resist them.
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I bought a Kindle so I can pirate all my books. Am I resisting?
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You could have made a better choice, I suppose. And some authors/editors do deserve the money.
Pirating is not necessarily resisting. Are you taking money from authors who really really need it? Or are you taking money from rich CEOs who are worsening the environment, ruining future generations, slaving, etc?
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At least install KoReader before they find a way to firmware-lock the device.
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That's why I don't download or purchase ebooks from Amazon, but only get them from places I can download a non-DRM'd copy. I'm not looking to break any laws, but if I pay for it, I want to be able to have it whenever I want even when the Internet is down. Recently a buddy gave me his old blu-ray juke box, and now I'm doing the same thing with my favorite movies as well. And building a home lab. It's finally time I decreased (not completely ended) my reliance on the cloud, given the shit show my nation collectively voted for.
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I think it's worth noting that the bigger issue here might not be the drm, but the access Amazon has into your device. Regardless if you can download 'another' version of the book or not (that is something you can find out for yourself relatively quickly) there is no reason it should be considered ok for the company to insist that it can connect to a device you own and modify the contents of it. Even with ownership of the books being a topic, certainly there should be little questions of whether you own the device, and along with that being able to control access to it.
Surely there is something in the user agreement that states accessing the download functionality also grants Amazon permission to go in and claw back things they've uploaded to the device, but i think that should be at least half the argument. Restrict whatever they want up front, I've downloaded it to my device and they consider that a fair exchange for my money, but to then say they screwed up on their end so they're taking it back (assumedly without giving up the money they made as part of the agreement) is where things should be breaking.
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Holy cow i just looked up a blue ray "jukebox" used the sony 400 disc one is like $900. That's fucking crazy.
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Where do you usually go to find the DRM free books? Sometimes for new books I am unable to purchase a copy without any sort of DRM
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My wife borrows a lot of ebooks from our library, which are delivered to a kindle through Amazon. I’ve used this USB download option to remove the DRM from some of those borrowed books. Guess I’ll have to figure out a new approach now…
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I pirate everything. Because fuck you that's why.
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You know I am starting to think going to the library is a better idea than buying their products. You can literally just walk in.
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You can also get ebooks from the library
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Some libraries offer large sections of the O'reilly Safari Bookshelf, a collection of educational tech books.
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My library only offers ebooks via CloudLibrary, which doesn’t support e-readers. You have to read everything in their mobile app which scrolls instead of turning pages. It’s like someone custom built an app to be horrible for reading books in bed.
I literally pay $50 per year for a library card in a neighboring city, just so I don’t have to deal with it.
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This is what the class war looks like in nuts and bolts...
Most idiots are not even aware of the original tragedy of the commons so they are doomed to be degraded into owning nothing and being happy to pay monthly fee to exist without as much as an objection.
After all, a normie got nothing to hide!
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The only surprising thing about this is that the functionality existed in the first place.
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I mean, I agree with this. I have a kindle and had no idea you could directly connect it to download books. Guess I learned my new thing for the day.
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Knew this would happen
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I'm glad I started converting all my amazon books long ago. When I finally got a Kobo last month, there were no issues since the work was done.
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If only there were some way to get books to read in a format where a billionaire's trillion dollar company can't gatekeep them.
Some sort of physical product, perhaps one made out of trees?
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If only there was a library for geniuses where I can read in a format that billionaires aren't able to gatekeep what I read on my e-ink device.
Some sort of website, perhaps one on the internet?
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While I don't disagree, I still think using a Kindle device is stupid.
No reason that they can't just go 'oh we didn't sell those books, we should clean up all that unauthorized content' at some point in the future.
Buy something that's not made by Amazon, even if it costs a bit more or has worse features, because well, they're not to be trusted.
(Or custom non-connected firmware if that's a thing for Kindles. Never really looked so no idea if that's a thing.)
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I recommend actually listening to some authors.
The "gatekeeping" back in the days before ebooks was infinitely worse than it is now. These days? Basically anyone who can fill out a webform can publish a kindle book. And other stores aren't much harder. And those ebooks can be sold indefinitely.
Contrast that with needing to find a publisher who is willing to allocate some of their limited production time to you. And then hope that Borders et al are willing to put you on the shelf. And then realize that you are never getting another penny for that book because the first MMPB run ran out and you aren't getting a second because you didn't sell enough to justify it.
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Amazon will come into your house to take your digital copies of books you paid for (e.g. when they did that with 1984). No reason to think they wouldn't take physical books after they've violated your digital sovereignty - it is only a question of if that were to ever become a viable option for them.
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I rarely use my Paperwhite Signature since I like my Boox Nova 2 more. The Kindle is mostly just for the serial now to strip DRM via Calibre.
My wife recently joked that it’s my “Kindle Paperweight.” With this announcement it’s no longer a joke. I doubt I’ll buy anymore books from Amazon.
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Hi, what do you like about boox nova? I have the Paperwhite (2022) and wondering if there's a better alternative that isn't Amazon. I do enjoy the page turn animation, does boox have it too?
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No book turn animations in Neo Reader, but other apps might, like Moon+ Reader. I prefer the Boox interface and warm light, and it’s much more customizable. Also, being android based means access to alternative reading apps, and even manga.
Not sure if you can still buy the Nova line, I’ve had it since 2020. I bought the Paperwhite Signature as an “upgrade” but the Boox screen is larger, the warm light is nicer (warm orange/tan, the Kindle warm light is pee yellow).
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Good news is that there are alternative ways to download these books from Amazon for backup purposes. It’s not as straightforward but it’s doable.
That said I will be refusing to buy from any storefront that doesn’t offer a way to download my books. Even adobe digital editions is a viable alternative.
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Just pirate them at this point instead of giving your money to predatory companies lol
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Previously, you could just download the books on the Kindle for PC, use a random decoder software or install a plugin for Calibre, and boop, decoded books, readable in Calibre, can be converted to EPUB.
For ssssssome reasonnns I've been looking at how to do the same thing again, but apparently you need an old version of KfPC because the new one uses new encryption/file format that hasn't been sussed out yet. Weirdly enough, even with the newer app, I've still been able to download a bunch of books that didn't have DRM to begin with, but of course Amazon doesn't exactly advertise if a book is DRM-free anywhere on the store page.
Also weirdly enough this quest of mine actually started last year when one Finnish ebook store was closed down, but that was less of a problem. I just downloaded all of my purchases as unencrypted EPUBs. Guess the local publishers are less dickish, worst thing they asked for was watermarking.
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Definitely switch to alternatives from Amazon. They treat their authors abhorrently too. I've personally been super happy with libro.fm for Audiobooks (essentially Audible, but you can download the audiobooks DRM-free)
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Makes it harder to pirate or share, so more profit with the benefit of censorship. They could make updates to material on the fly if they wanted. Assuming you need an Internet connection, no privacy and limits where you can read. It's hard because you can't avoid things like AWS but you can stop paying them directly. Sadly, even now, it's hard to convince people to give up on Amazon and similar corps.
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I'm quite glad that I never bought fully into Kindle/Nook/Kobo and instead went with an eInk Android tablet.
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Which model did you end up with? Do you like it?
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I went with a Box Note Air 3C, and it's great. I hear the new model is basically the same but faster.
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Kobo and Nook ebooks are still ePUB and easy enough to free from their DRM.
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Technically, official Kobo books are KEPUB, which is their own proprietary version of EPUB they use for their store, but they can read EPUB and other formats just fine. And if they don't, Calibre solves that problem.
(Converting books to KEPUB is sometimes worth it, especially if they have illustrations mixed in with the text, because then you are able to do things more easily like zoom in to the image on the reader.)
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im glad i didnt even try eink, i just went to best buy tried the cheapest tablets and the s9 fe works perfectly for me, wanted to like the p12 lenovo but the brightness was terrible on it, couldn't see shit. I think id be dissapointed in my reading experience if eink is so much nicer, i like having options to watch media and do other stuff
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I read somwhere how to solve this
1 - factory reset
2 - deactivate wifi for life
3 - upload books with calibre
This will wipe out any content you have, as i understand
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I upload books with Calibre and never had to reset anything. It’s great.
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I have a kindle, but I never buy my books at Amazon. I just but them elsewhere, de-DRM them on calibre and copy them to the kindle. Not as comfortable, but okay for me.
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You mixed up step 2, it's supposed to be "Install KoReader".
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I'm planing on doing this but i fear 2 things out of pure ignorance: killing my kindle and battery usage
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I’m guessing audible will follow soon after.
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Can I root my 10 year old Kindle Paperwhite?
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My 4th gen doesnt need it. I've got two D01100 models. I can literally plug them into my phone and copy paste books onto them. I google the book i want, download to my phone and just paste it into my kindke.
Just don't attach an account to it and keep it on airplane mode. They can't stop anything. I've even got manga on it but that took a converter program on my laptop to make the manga into an epub file.
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Check the firmware version.
https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Prefix_Index
Above is a fair amount of documentation.https://www.epubor.com/how-to-jailbreak-kindle-paperwhite.html
Jailbreak instructions for Paperwhites. -
Probably no, as its firmware auto-updates and they closed the jailbreak a year or two ago. But who knows, put it in airplane mode and check it.
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https://kindlemodding.org/jailbreaking/WinterBreak/
Jailbreak now available for all kindles
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That's what I'm looking into, too. I'm finding info about a Branch Delay, a WinterBreak, and a LanguageBreak. I don't know which one to try.
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Crap, I've had a Kindle for years, I'm still pissed at them over Dash buttons - instead of just stopping support they changed their setup site so it would bricked them. I still have half a dozen uninitialized ones I can never use now. Fuck you, Bezos, and the giant stick up your ass you rode in on.
Have to check if this means I can only read while online now, or if I can just turn off networking and keep the books I already have.
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I'm actually suprised Google never went and made an reader they already have the store and software. Kobo does the job for me anyway though.
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The article literally says you will still be able to push books via Calibre etc, but won't be able to download books into Kindle from PC.
Example: If you don't have a WiFi at home, there is an option to connect Kindle via USB to your ethernet connected PC and download books from Amazon that way.
And this option is going away, as most people have WiFi.
Anywho, fuck Amazon (for other things, but not this one).
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Yeah it seems more like they decided that maintaining that specific feature isn’t worth it because not enough users are using it. It sucks, but that’s just how it goes with closed hardware and software ecosystems.
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I send epubs via email. I didn't see any reference to that. Is that still going to be possible?
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I have access to the same information as you, so unfortunately, I don't know.
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Thanks for the heads-up. I'm downloading all of mine and finally making a Calibre library.
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I have no need for my Kindle services anymore. I bought books there for how easy it was to put on my electronic devices, and to easily make back up copies for later. If I can't downloaf and reformat the e-book to easily make a physical copy I don't want it.
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This is why I almost never get any Digital Book. The only digital books I have are books that were free either originally or through a giveaway, or that were severely discounted and I already owned physically. That's also why I don't buy movies or TV series digitally. You're just renting these things, and you're only renting them when you have an internet connection.
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You can download and keep countless ebooks from https://annas-archive.org/
🏴☠️
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https://github.com/Jedi425/BulkKindleUSBDownloader
Quick script to download all your Kindle ebooks.
If you know any other tools, please reply.
Reposting as a top level comment for visibility. Thanks gitamar.
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I am getting prompts from the script for “Your Amazon Oath”
Any idea where I can actually find/download this ?
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I noticed this feature wasn’t available for my Colorsoft and asked support about it. They assured me it would be added later. This is exactly what I expected to happen.
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you returned it as soon as that was the answer right? I know that would be my answer.
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I’m waiting for them to get rid of the send-to-kindle email thing to receive books from calibre. I’m surprised it has survived for this long. I’ve wanted to try out a kobo but can’t justify it cause my 10+ year old kindle still works perfectly fine for reading. But once they remove that feature or drop support for my device, it’s kobo time.
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Check out boox for a properly open(-ish) platform, it's android based.
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Apparently Boox has been a stomping all over the GPL licensing terms. You can find a lot of info on it, but here is a non-reddit link: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=277431
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Get an old Kindle. The new ones make it hard for you to connect to your computer. They require you to download a "convenient" piece of software meant to allow you to transfer files. But conveniently it also makes it so you can't transfer files easily without it.
Even just a couple of years back you could plug in your Kindle to your computer through a USB and just drag and drop files. It only reads the proprietary .mobi format but Calibre, an excellent piece of software, will automatically convert .epub files to .mobi for you and it has a great algorithm.
Then all you gotta do is look up whatever you want on libgen and for the price of one kindle you can have a virtually infinite library of books.
I've actually had my first generation Kindle for about ~14 years now and my newer one for about ~3 years. I won't ever buy a new one, but the ones from ~3 years ago are excellent pieces of hardware.
You just have to disconnect it from the internet and never turn on the wifi. If you do, Amazon will fuck with your settings and make your life difficult.
Basically, if you're on a budget a used Kindle from ~3 years ago is a great choice in my opinion. If you want something new, stay far away from Amazon.
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Surprised Pikachu face
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I get my books for my used Kindle off Libby because I have no expectation of ownership and I don't want to give Amazon the satisfaction of my money.
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This won’t stop users from removing DRM. There will always be a way to own your e-books.
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Well fuck... Guess i'll need too look at what is available for ebook downloads i my arr stack to get books for my kobo.
The kobo store is mostly useless, and there are limited options available for buying ebooks here, so amazon has been the best option for likely finding what i was looking for.
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Yeah I looked into the Kobo store and a LOT of the books I have - which are not exactly small titles - aren't available there.
In some cases they've got the first couple books or audiobooks out of a series that currently has 10
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That's terrible...
Just fyi there is some good publishers like baen that still support and don't plan on removing ebook format downloads.
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Iquit on Kindle a few years ago. The publicationsI read, like Asimov’s Sci Fi, no longer publish via Kindle. I use Book Funnel, Kobo, Pocket Book and store books on my desktop’s drive.
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did that a couple of days ago thankfully. goodbye amazon, you were never loved.
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I literally just installed caliber recently. Are they following my every move or something? Trying desperately to prevent other "near techky" people from leaving the market place?
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Calibre is open-source: https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibre
So if it had telemetry, we would have heard about it.
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I felt the same about my Voyage, but I've resolved to move to kobo once it bites the dust.
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Totally did not see this coming. Like, fifteen years ago or whenever.
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Another tool for bulk downloading, with 811 stars for the record:
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I found this super helpful... https://github.com/WeLackDiscipline/BulkKindleUSBDownloader/blob/manual-login/end-all-guide.md
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I wonder how long before this US administration makes "copyright infringement" a felony...
🤔
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And then copyrights all pending legislation...
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I told people years ago. You don't own those books.
I own my books.... They are made out of this thing called paper and line the wall of my office. All the volumes I value I have of copy of for myself and future generations of my family
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And mine are digital, DRM stripped, stored locally, backed up to my NAS, and cloud.
Don’t be a Luddite.
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180 comments
The optimist in me says they're doing this to avoid piracy.
The pessimist in me says they're doing this so they can purge books because of the Trump administration.
Either way, I can't say I'm a fan.
Por que no Los dos?
You will own nothing and like it!
Won’t pirates just buy their source copies on a different platform, so now Amazon loses the original sale as well?
The "original sale" in that case is not even pennies. So... not sure why amazon would care?
Also: Many smaller authors basically depend on kindle because of the ease of use of the web portal and incentives to do larger discounts for their audiences. One of my favorite guilty pleasures has talked about exactly this (although he IS investigating alternatives).
And, much like with video games: The Sandersons of the world will be pirated. MAYBE a Dalglish will be too. But nobody cares enough to go after a Samphire or Shel.