Giveaway of the Day Forums

1. 

   Dragonlair
   Member

   Amazon.com had a major problem this morning (corrected by 11 AM EDT) and it got me to wonder a few things.

   I have 4 kindle "devices" -- Kindle for PC, Kindle for Android, Kindle, and Kindle Fire HDX 7. I also have over 2100 books in 150 "collections" with 345 books being from other than Amazon.com.

   Amazon.com has a policy there you can keep your books in the cloud and just download the books you want when you want to read them. Even the non-Amazon books can be put into the cloud for this kind of download on demand.

   I have always kept both my Fire and my Kindle for PC "full" with every book downloaded. The kindle is old (over 3 years) with a non-stable battery so it's only got about 200 books on it and only one category is downloaded onto the Android (for my husband).

   My question is -- how many of you who use Amazon or Barnes & Noble (Nook) or any other ereader do as I do -- download ALL your books and how many just download as needed.

   The reason for the question is the kind of problem that Amazon had this morning. For a while, you could not access any of your digital orders from the past. You could not purchase any kindle book at all! None of the kindle books had the button to purchase (with one click) or even to add to your wish list! You could not contact Amazon.com -- chat was unavailable, emails would not send, phone support had no "call-me feature" and when you used the full toll-free number, you were told to call back later! You couldn't even see the posts in the kindle support forum. You could make posts but nobody could see them!

   Also, during that time, based on the posts I could see, nobody could download books! If you wanted to read a new book that you had purchased in the past -- you could not do it unless you already had it downloaded!

   See why I'm asking?

   I'm not asking anybody to change. I'm just wondering who acts as I do (beside the author of a book that was free today -- I was communicating with him on the problem).

   So, what do you think -- all or as-needed?

   Posted 8 years ago #
2. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   My wife hasn't had her Kindle a year, so not nearly that many books, but they're all downloaded to the device. The reason is that it **might** provide a very slight hedge if they remove a book from their listing, though if they want they can easily take back any books on one of their Kindle devices. I would *guess* that your husband is probably better protected, since he could turn off the Amazon sign-in for the Kindle app, & if it can't sign in Amazon can't tell the app to delete all his books.

   Posted 8 years ago #
3. 

   Dragonlair
   Member

   There were rumors a few years ago about a few books that were removed because of copyright issues. In those cases, they removed from the devices as well. As for removing the books from their "for sale" list, that's not a problem.

   I've got several books in my "library" (now called "Manage your Content and Devices") that if you click to see the purchase page, you get a 404 error! It's still your book and you can still download it. It remains in your cloud!

   One advantage of Amazon books over getting them from elsewhere is auto-updates. I had to turn that option on because I wasn't getting the emails of an update and even now, I sometimes find out a book has updated and I didn't get the update. I just email them and it's sent to my devices. How many print books can you get updated like that?

   Posted 8 years ago #
4. 

   cmdrshepard
   Member

   I've always been very protective of my books. I don't lend and I would be appalled if someone stole one.

   As a consequence of that I use Calibre on my PC to manage my ebooks. They are all downloaded to my PC as soon as purchased and with the help of Apprentice Alf DRM is removed. This way I always have access to them even if I not able to access the internet (which is very common where I live) and am able to easily move across devices.

   No one messes with my books.

   Posted 8 years ago #
5. 

   goodgotd
   Member

   No one messes with my books.

   ditto. and since they started not letting Baen email books direct to my Kindle 3's [keyboard] and then the ones I sent via my email never arrived at my wife's kindle, I've gone to all-USB transfers. very, very few of my eBooks are from B&N or Amazon, etc. I got many of my books when I had earlier readers, like the old Ebookman.

   [I standardized on the K3 as it has 4gb of memory, while later E-Ink Kindles have 2gb.]

   For what it's worth, the more items on the book list, the slower it will boot and run slightly slower after it re-indexes them all. The latter is not that easy to spot until you hit about 1000 books, in my experience.

   Calibre I use often, though the new features I can't get since it's gone no-XP, alas.

   I never let Amazon cache my emailed books to any device. I have 4 I manage [and replace screens as needed] and a set of 4 spares that just need batteries.

   I usually run 1800-2000 books on mine and my wife's K3's. And about 600 on my LG L41C Tracfone- not counting the comic strips. so far.

   Posted 8 years ago #

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