mikiem2
Moderator
zdnet[.]com/article/download-your-kindle-books-asap-before-amazon-kills-this-feature-next-week/
Unless you downloaded a book very recently you'd never know that Amazon is killing Kindle book downloads starting February 26, 2025 -- "The only time you see this warning is if you select "Download" from the three-dot menu next to a book."
That is not true! What is being removed is the "Download and Transfer via USB" option. It has already been disabled for kindles made in 2024 but works for all earlier versions. That option is ONLY available for fires and kindles. It has never worked with Android, iOS, or the PC/Mac versions of the Kindle app.
It is causing massive amounts of confusion on the Amazon Digital forums but the effect is minimal. The worse situation is probably the REASON for the change. There are still a few of the early kindles that used 2G and 3G connections rather than wi-fi. This will make them unable to do any downloads.
Downloading directly from the device (like pressing on the book cover) as well as the deliver to option from your Amazon digital library will still work fine.
mikiem2
Moderator
zdnet[.]com/article/need-to-download-lots-of-kindle-books-fast-the-secret-but-risky-trick-that-worked-for-me/
I don't know if this article would interest you or not -- maybe just out of intellectual curiosity? Basically what he's doing is adding an extension to the Chrome browser that lets him run his own JavaScript code, downloading a script from GitHub, modifying a few lines, and then running that script in the browser.
I don't know but since that only works and has ever only worked for true kindles and fires. It has never worked for Kindle for PC, Kindle for Mac, Kindle for Android of Kindle for iOS.
The only devices that are affected truly are the very very very old kindles that used 2G and 3G instead of Wi-Fi. They will not be able to download at all.
Most of the complaints I see about this change are from those who don't understand and think Amazon is blocking all kinds of downloads to machines. This doesn't even make sense! Why would Amazon be selling ebooks if there was no way to get them to the many many devices they sell for that purpose?
ChrisS
Administrator
I think the real issue is that the change points out that you don't actually own anything. You just have a license to access your books via "Terms and Conditions" that may change at any time. I noticed after the first of the year that the text under the "Buy" button now explicitly states that you're buying a license; before it allowed you to believe that you were actually buying the book.
You mentioned that they killed off the "very very very old kindles". What's next - killing off the very, very old, then the very old, then simply the old kindles? Or maybe discontinuing the iOS, Android and PC versions of the Kindle app and forcing everybody to read their books on a Kindle?
None of those changes would bother me overly much because I'm locked into the Amazon/Kindle ecosystem. Sure, I'd complain about them forcing me to buy a new Kindle (same as I complain about Microsoft forcing me to buy new PCs from time to time) but I'd still buy the new Kindle. However, I would never replace the thousands of physical books that I have with e-book versions. Sure, it would save space and might be convenient but I actually own the physical books.
The issue is that people are realizing that they don't own the digital media that they bought.
mikiem2
Moderator
windowscentral[.]com/hardware/amazon-kindle-download-pc-ban
While this article is a couple of days old, I didn't notice it until today [it might have been promoted on their site because today is the day]. Anyway, thought it might interest since it echos some of your points Chris.
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