Beginning on February twenty sixth, 2025, Amazon is eradicating a characteristic from its web site permitting you to obtain bought books to a pc after which copy them manually to a Kindle over USB. It’s a characteristic that loads of Kindle customers are in all probability not conscious of, given books may be extra simply despatched to gadgets over Wi-Fi, however it’s particularly helpful for backing up purchases or changing them to different codecs appropriate with non-Kindle e-readers.
There are a number of explanation why some Kindle customers may miss this characteristic. It’s helpful in case you don’t have entry to a Wi-Fi community, and though it’s a tedious course of since bought books can solely be downloaded one after the other, there’s some peace of thoughts in realizing you’ve got offline copies of all of your books.
It doesn’t occur ceaselessly, however as Good e-Reader factors out, Amazon has often eliminated books from its on-line retailer and remotely deleted them from Kindles or edited titles and re-uploaded new copies to its e-readers. In 2009, the corporate eliminated copies of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, explaining the books had been mistakenly revealed. Extra not too long ago, many of Roald Dahl’s books, together with Charlie and the Chocolate Manufacturing facility, had been changed with up to date copies that includes modified language on varied e book platforms. It’s a reminder that you simply don’t really personal a lot of the digital content material you eat, and with out the power to again up copies of ebooks, you could possibly lose them totally in the event that they’re banned and eliminated.
The characteristic can be the simplest solution to convert books bought from Amazon to different codecs like EPUB that can be utilized on various gadgets corresponding to a Kobo. Books downloaded via Amazon’s web site are delivered within the older AZW3 format which permits DRM to be simply eliminated utilizing varied software program instruments.
Older Kindle fashions additionally retailer books within the AZW3 format, and they are often extracted by connecting the system to a pc with a USB cable. However fashionable Kindles use the newer KFX format (first rolled out in 2015) which launched improved font rendering, higher format capabilities, and DRM that’s almost unimaginable to avoid.
The obtain characteristic is a carryover from the times when Kindles didn’t include Wi-Fi, permitting customers who additionally weren’t in a position to reap the benefits of Amazon’s mobile Whispernet service to get bought books onto their e-readers. It’s nonetheless accessible via Amazon’s web site by accessing your “Content material Library” whereas logged into your account. For bought books you choose the “Extra actions” menu, select “Obtain & switch by way of USB,” choose a Kindle system you’ve got registered, and a duplicate of the e book can be downloaded to your pc.
However the pop-up that seems when deciding on the obtain choice now consists of an extra warning. “Beginning February 26, 2025, the ‘Obtain & Switch by way of USB’ choice will now not be accessible. You may nonetheless ship Kindle books to your Wi-Fi enabled gadgets by deciding on the ‘Ship or Take away from Machine’ choice.“
Amazon confirmed the elimination of the e book obtain characteristic in an announcement to The Verge. “Prospects can proceed studying books beforehand downloaded on their Kindle system, and entry new content material via the Kindle app, Kindle for net, in addition to instantly via Kindle gadgets with WiFi functionality,” stated Amazon spokesperson Jackie Burke.
As soon as this characteristic goes away, you’ll nonetheless be capable of manually copy e book information and different paperwork to Kindles over USB utilizing Amazon’s apps or third-party options like Calibre. You simply gained’t be capable of obtain copies of your bought books to a pc.
Replace, February 14th: Added remark from an Amazon spokesperson.