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Amazon will remove the option to download/transfer Kindle e-books via USB by February 2025
(alternativeto.net)
this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2025
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Some hypothetical advice needed…
I bought books through Amazon and used the Kindle app on my phone and Mac. Is there still a method to get these books into an alternative like Calibre or am I screwed if I’ve updated the Kindle app on my Mac?
I want to delete my Amazon account, but I’d love to keep the books I “bought” and “own”.
https://www.cloudwards.net/remove-drm-from-kindle-books/
This currently works, but I don't know if it will continue working forever - probably not too much longer after this announcement.
The "old Kindle PC app" might keep working in the future, but my guess is that it's going to be done soon as well.
edit: One thing I ran into was after installing the kindle app and turning off the auto-update, it still updates. So keep the installer handy and just reinstall it as needed.
Nothing is certain, but it looks like you will still be able to download books into local memory so you can read them. As long as the apps still work that way, it will be possible to access the book files.
You do need a tool that can remove the DRM from the books files the Kindle uses. DeDRM used to do this nicely, but it has not been updated to handle the most recent version of Kindle DRM. It will not works on any books published since early 2024.
There are commercial options that can remove even the latest DRM from Kindle books. I use Epubor Ultimate. It was the first to handle the most recent Kindle DRM, but I'm sure there are others by now.
It is probably worth noting that I am removing the DRM so I can read them on devices that do not have Kindle apps.
Yeah, it's been hit and miss with downloading from the Kindle. I mostly get books from the library and strip the DRM from there. I figure it's a win-win, because the library gets a record of the checkout, but then I get to read it at my leisure while the next person gets to read it.