K4 Mac or PC Transferring Kindle for PC books

[judahis]

I just copied my Kindle for PC book to my USB drive. How can this be read by another computer? Must this other computer, say my laptop, be hooked up to the internet to get it registered or what? Ideally, i would like to use the USB drive Kindle for PC book to be read on an Ebook reader that may not be connected to the internet and may not even have internet connectibility. Is this possible? I have scoured the Amazon site for answers to these questions to no avail.

[wallcraft]

Some Kindle ebooks are DRM-free, but most have DRM (encryption). So in order to read on a non-Kindle device you first have to strip the DRM. The best program to do this is unswindle.pyw. This requires that you install Python, but it is then point and click.

Note that most Kindle ebooks are in the AZW format, which is what unswindle.pyw works on (a DRM-free AZW is the same as MOBI), but some are in the TOPAZ format (unswindle will tell you is an ebook, or a sample, is in TOPAZ). It is possible to strip the DRM and format shift TOPAZ ebooks, but it is significantly more work than for AZW. If you need ePub (say), then use Calibre to format shift from AZW/MOBI to ePub.

[rjack]

Folks,

I just tried this today on a book and it bombed for me. I was trying to convert from Mobi to Epub on using the latest Calbre Version - 0.6.46

ERROR: Conversion Error: <b>Failed</b>: Convert book 1 of 1 (Definitive XML Schema)

Convert book 1 of 1 (Definitive XML Schema)
Resolved conversion options
{'asciiize': False,
'author_sort': None,
'authors': None,
'base_font_size': 0.0,
'book_producer': None,
'chapter': u"//*[((name()='h1' or name()='h2') and re:test(., 'chapter|book|section|part\\s+', 'i')) or @class = 'chapter']",
'chapter_mark': u'pagebreak',
'comments': None,
'cover': 'c:\\docume~1\\admini~1\\locals~1\\temp\\calibre_0 .6.46_bpqnzw.jpeg',
'debug_pipeline': None,
'disable_font_rescaling': False,
'dont_justify': False,
'dont_split_on_page_breaks': False,
'extra_css': None,
'extract_to': None,
'flow_size': 260,
'font_size_mapping': None,
'footer_regex': u'(?i)(?<=<hr>)((\\s*<a name=\\d+></a>((<img.+?>)*<br>\\s*)?\\d+<br>\\s*.*?\\s*)|(\\s* <a name=\\d+></a>((<img.+?>)*<br>\\s*)?.*?<br>\\s*\\d+))(?=<br>)' ,
'header_regex': u'(?i)(?<=<hr>)((\\s*<a name=\\d+></a>((<img.+?>)*<br>\\s*)?\\d+<br>\\s*.*?\\s*)|(\\s* <a name=\\d+></a>((<img.+?>)*<br>\\s*)?.*?<br>\\s*\\d+))(?=<br>)' ,
'input_encoding': None,
'input_profile': <calibre.customize.profiles.InputProfile object at 0x02C8C3D0>,
'insert_blank_line': False,
'insert_metadata': False,
'isbn': None,
'language': None,
'level1_toc': None,
'level2_toc': None,
'level3_toc': None,
'line_height': 0.0,
'linearize_tables': False,
'margin_bottom': 5.0,
'margin_left': 5.0,
'margin_right': 5.0,
'margin_top': 5.0,
'max_toc_links': 50,
'no_chapters_in_toc': False,
'no_default_epub_cover': False,
'no_inline_navbars': False,
'output_profile': <calibre.customize.profiles.OutputProfile object at 0x02C8C5B0>,
'page_breaks_before': u'/',
'prefer_metadata_cover': False,
'preprocess_html': False,
'pretty_print': True,
'pubdate': None,
'publisher': None,
'rating': None,
'read_metadata_from_opf': 'c:\\docume~1\\admini~1\\locals~1\\temp\\calibre_0 .6.46_eicgij.opf',
'remove_first_image': False,
'remove_footer': False,
'remove_header': False,
'remove_paragraph_spacing': False,
'remove_paragraph_spacing_indent_size': 1.5,
'series': None,
'series_index': None,
'tags': None,
'timestamp': None,
'title': None,
'title_sort': None,
'toc_filter': None,
'toc_threshold': 6,
'use_auto_toc': False,
'verbose': 2}
InputFormatPlugin: MOBI Input running
on C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\My Kindle Content\Walmsley_ Priscilla\Definitive XML Schema (311)\Definitive XML Schema - Walmsley_ Priscilla.mobi
Extracting text...
Adding anchors...
Extracting images...
Cleaning up HTML...
Parsing HTML...
Malformed markup, parsing using BeautifulSoup
MOBI markup appears to contain random bytes. Stripping.
Extracting text...
Adding anchors...
Extracting images...
Cleaning up HTML...
Parsing HTML...
Malformed markup, parsing using BeautifulSoup
MOBI markup appears to contain random bytes. Stripping.
Python function terminated unexpectedly
(Error Code: 1)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site.py", line 103, in main
File "site.py", line 85, in run_entry_point
File "site-packages\calibre\utils\ipc\worker.py", line 99, in main
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\convert\gui_conversion.py", line 24, in gui_convert
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\conversion\plumber.py", line 787, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\customize\conversion.py", line 211, in __call__
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\mobi\input.py", line 27, in convert
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\mobi\reader.py", line 328, in extract_content
File "site-packages\lxml-2.2.2-py2.6-win32.egg\lxml\html\soupparser.py", line 23, in fromstring
File "site-packages\lxml-2.2.2-py2.6-win32.egg\lxml\html\soupparser.py", line 66, in _parse
File "site-packages\beautifulsoup-3.1.0.1-py2.6.egg\BeautifulSoup.py", line 1499, in __init__
File "site-packages\beautifulsoup-3.1.0.1-py2.6.egg\BeautifulSoup.py", line 1230, in __init__
File "site-packages\beautifulsoup-3.1.0.1-py2.6.egg\BeautifulSoup.py", line 1263, in _feed
File "HTMLParser.py", line 108, in feed
File "HTMLParser.py", line 148, in goahead
File "HTMLParser.py", line 226, in parse_starttag
File "HTMLParser.py", line 301, in check_for_whole_start_tag
File "HTMLParser.py", line 115, in error
HTMLParser.HTMLParseError: malformed start tag, at line 38, column 14

[Mike L]

Judahis,

Yes, you need an Internet connection to register Kindle for PC, but once you've registered it, you can use it to read Kindle books without an Internet connection.

The same is true of the Kindle itself. You can either register it directly from the device, or you can go to the Manage My Kindle page to register it from your PC. Either way, you don't need any kind of connection to actually read the books.

In your case, you can transfer your existing books to your Kindle via USB. Assuming the Kindle and your copy of Kindle for PC are both registered to you, you can then start reading - with or without an Internet or Whispernet connection. Similarly, if your second copy of Kindle for PC is registered to you (or, to be precise, the same user as the first copy), you can transfer your books via USB and read them on both computers.

The only thing you can't do without a wireless or Internet connection is to sync the last page read.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by rjack

I just tried this today on a book and it bombed for me. I was trying to convert from Mobi to Epub on using the latest Calbre Version - 0.6.46

Did you run the Kindle ebook through unswindle.pyw first? Even if you did, perhaps you are picking up the original version by mistake. I'm not sure if Calibre will detect K4PC DRM or not.

This appears to be is running in \My Kindle Content\. It is probably better to extract DRM-free ebooks to a different folder and then run Calibre in its own folder. To see what folder Calibre is using to store its copies of ebooks, see the top line of Preferences -> General.

[rjack]

Folks,

I ran unswindle.pyw first. I'm running the same book on Pocket Reader and FBreaderJ on my Android Phone. I've run several books through the same process.

Regards,

Robert

[Ravensknight]

the newest K4PC is not recognized by Unswindle 6.0. Just tried running it...

[SirBC]

I figured that might happen so I was waiting to update. Thanks for the info.

I can still use the MobeDeDRM Calibre plugin though