kindle for Mac - where are the files?

[gudrun45]

I don't have a kindle but I have the app for my mac. I "bought" a free book from amazon, and the app opened by itself and the book was in there. But, where is it stored on my hard drive? Spotlight can't find it.
Or does amazon not download anything at all and the computer will have to be connected to the Internet to read the book?
I'm confused!

Gudrun

[jocampo]

No. The book should be locally.It is downloaded initially and then read from your hard drive every time. It would consume too many resources if every time you read, the content or book is retrieved from Internet. At least, it works like that on Kindle for Android, Kindle for PC and my iPad I think. I don't own an iMac but It should be the same for your iMac too.

[SCION]

On a Mac, the Kindle books should be in Documents/My Kindle Content.

[gudrun45]

Originally Posted by SCION

On a Mac, the Kindle books should be in Documents/My Kindle Content.

Thank you! They are there. I guess Spotlight couldn't find them because they aren't named after the books. Just some weird numbers and letters.

Gudrun

[SCION]

Originally Posted by gudrun45

Thank you! They are there. I guess Spotlight couldn't find them because they aren't named after the books. Just some weird numbers and letters.

Gudrun

Yes, the numbers and letters are the Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN). If you view the Kindle book info on Amazon you'll see that number.

[Steve62]

Hi there,
I'm struggling to find my Kindle for Mac files as I dont have a "My Kindle Content " Folder.
Anywhere else I should be looking?

TIA

Steve

[jezebel]

Hi Steve, the easiest way is this: open up any folder on your computer. There should be a column on the left. Look for the heading PLACES. Under there you should find Documents and click that. Then, look to right and see if the My Kindle Content folder is there.

If the Documents folder is not there, look for whatever you named your computer under PLACES (probably your name). There will be a little house icon next to it. If you click that, a bunch of folders will pop up on the right. Open Documents and look inside for the My Kindle Content folder

[DiapDealer]

I'm struggling to find my Kindle for Mac files as I dont have a "My Kindle Content " Folder.
Anywhere else I should be looking?

On the newest K4Mac version, you can go to Kindle->Preferences->General and view/change your content folder. That should tell you where the files are currently.

Otherwise, find the ASIN number (from Amazon's website) for one of the ebooks you've purchased, and search for a file that is named like: "<ASIN NUMBER>_EBOK.prc" or "<ASIN NUMBER>_EBOK.azw"

For example, the file name for Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy would be: B003XT60E0_EBOK.prc or B003XT60E0_EBOK.azw.

[sirlansa]

My iMac is running 10.6.7
I have installed the Kindle for Mac V1.2.3 (latest one, I think)

I CANNOT find my downloaded Kindle books.
I've tried all the good ideas above, but Spotlight can't find:
1) any files with .azw extension
2) any folder named My Kindle files, under Documents or anywhere else
3) any filenames containing EBOK or the ASINs of the books I've bought!

Is it possible they are in a hidden folder? I remember such things from my Windows days!

Any further ideas will be really appreciated!
Sirlansa

[kjk]

Originally Posted by sirlansa

My iMac is running 10.6.7
I have installed the Kindle for Mac V1.2.3 (latest one, I think)

I CANNOT find my downloaded Kindle books.
I've tried all the good ideas above, but Spotlight can't find:
1) any files with .azw extension
2) any folder named My Kindle files, under Documents or anywhere else
3) any filenames containing EBOK or the ASINs of the books I've bought!

Is it possible they are in a hidden folder? I remember such things from my Windows days!

Any further ideas will be really appreciated!
Sirlansa

Try sending the book directly to your Mac from Amazon's page-that should put the book into the My Kindle Files folder in Documents.

[DiapDealer]

I CANNOT find my downloaded Kindle books.
I've tried all the good ideas above, but Spotlight can't find:
1) any files with .azw extension
2) any folder named My Kindle files, under Documents or anywhere else
3) any filenames containing EBOK or the ASINs of the books I've bought!

Did you forget to search for *.prc files like I mentioned above? How many Amazon books have you purchased? You could just be unlucky and they're all topaz books. *.azw1

Also, where does this:

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

On the newest K4Mac version, you can go to Kindle->Preferences->General and view/change your content folder.

tell you your library is supposed to be?

And the folder name is "My Kindle Content" not "My Kindle files."

Does Spotlight only search user files? Perhaps use something that will search the entire drive for .azw, .prc .azw1.

[sirlansa]

Thanks all for the quick responses.

Yes, I did send several books directly from Amazon to the Mac (both free and purchased) and still none show up. There are probably ovr a dozen books altogether.

I have searched for .prc (there are none).
Also .azw1 (none)

I was looking for "My Kindle Content", just posted the name wrong. Sorry about that.

The idea of looking in Kindle/preferences/General seemed like a good one, but it shows ONLY registration information (registered user and date, with an opportunity to Deregister). What version of Kindle for Mac are you using? Mine's V1.2.3

Also, can anyone suggest a better search tool than Spotlight??

Sirlansa

[kjk]

If you don't even have a My Kindle Content folder in your Documents folder, something is amiss. v1.2.3 is the latest version I have from the Mac App Store, as well.

[hopkinsenglish]

I would uninstall your current K4Mac and then download the most updated version. I've been able to find my files via the suggestions already mentioned in this thread.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by sirlansa

Also, can anyone suggest a better search tool than Spotlight??

DevonTechonologies' free EasyFind, which is a front-end to some Unix utility whose name I forget. Rarely fails me, and the search parameters are more easily adjustable than Spotlight's.

Also, I think at some point some of the newer versions of K4Mac moved the books of new installs to either the home or system Library/Application Support/ folders, but I couldn't tell you for sure.

Probably the easiest way to find out is to install the newer 1.4 version, which now has dictionary lookup support and list view, alongside the option to explicitly set (and therefore see) where your K4Mac books are stored.

Hope this helps.