MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Kindle Fire Tips & Tricks & How-To's

Merischino · 11-20-2011, 02:35 PM

Still waiting for my separately purchased micro-USB cord to arrive, I have now tried (and failed with) the following attempted methods to add books from non-Amazon sources. If anyone has a tip for how to make this happen, please please let me know. In the meanwhile, hopefully I can help some of you apply your valuable time to other things and just know that basically the USB tether method seems to be the only Kindle Fire option for books that are not purchased from or managed by Amazon.

1. Calibre content server: I can navigate to and access the content server with the Kindle Fire, but all attempts to "get" a book fail. The Kindle Fire's Device setting "Allow installation of applications from unknown sources" is a permission limited to Apps. There does not appear to be an option for unknown content.

2. Free ebook web pages, e.g., Project Gutenberg: downloading a kindle .mobi version of Grimm's Fairytales is one example, downloads tab shows the dl as complete, but it is unable to open the file. Navigating to a file-launching program and attempting to open it that way (es file manager, downloads folder, open as text with quickoffice pro) only achieves gobbledygook. opening as an image, video, or audio file likewise does not work.

3. Emailed titles sent to your account "kindle"@kindle.com where the part in quotes is whatever you named your kindle. 2 out of 10 titles I emailed to my kindle showed up in my personal documents, and those only when I went into the amazon web account management page and found them pending and, in addition to having set up the accepted sender email id, also approved them for whispersyncing down to the kindle. This is essentially a 3 stage process after you do it the first time (which is a 5 stage process because you have to pre-identify the email address you will be sending books from, as well as identify the kindle email address you will be sending books to). All in all, this process is less than desirable to me, and that is even not counting the fact that Amazon charges $0.10 per title you email to yourself using this method.

What happened to the other 8 titles I emailed using this method I don't know.

4. Wifi network browsing: Connecting using a file manager (es file manager here) to my mac with the calibre library on it, I can navigate to various ebook file formats but not a single one will open on the kindle, which gives an error no app for that.

If anyone knows a tip or trick to get (DRM free) books onto the kindle Fire without having the not supplied micro usb cord, please let me know!

11-20-2011, 02:35 PM	#106
Merischino Groupie Posts: 199 Karma: 436584 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: the beautiful Pacific Northwest Device: Kindle Oasis, Pixel 2, Kindle Fire HD 8	In search of an untethered method of ebook acquisition Still waiting for my separately purchased micro-USB cord to arrive, I have now tried (and failed with) the following attempted methods to add books from non-Amazon sources. If anyone has a tip for how to make this happen, please please let me know. In the meanwhile, hopefully I can help some of you apply your valuable time to other things and just know that basically the USB tether method seems to be the only Kindle Fire option for books that are not purchased from or managed by Amazon. 1. Calibre content server: I can navigate to and access the content server with the Kindle Fire, but all attempts to "get" a book fail. The Kindle Fire's Device setting "Allow installation of applications from unknown sources" is a permission limited to Apps. There does not appear to be an option for unknown content. 2. Free ebook web pages, e.g., Project Gutenberg: downloading a kindle .mobi version of Grimm's Fairytales is one example, downloads tab shows the dl as complete, but it is unable to open the file. Navigating to a file-launching program and attempting to open it that way (es file manager, downloads folder, open as text with quickoffice pro) only achieves gobbledygook. opening as an image, video, or audio file likewise does not work. 3. Emailed titles sent to your account "kindle"@kindle.com where the part in quotes is whatever you named your kindle. 2 out of 10 titles I emailed to my kindle showed up in my personal documents, and those only when I went into the amazon web account management page and found them pending and, in addition to having set up the accepted sender email id, also approved them for whispersyncing down to the kindle. This is essentially a 3 stage process after you do it the first time (which is a 5 stage process because you have to pre-identify the email address you will be sending books from, as well as identify the kindle email address you will be sending books to). All in all, this process is less than desirable to me, and that is even not counting the fact that Amazon charges $0.10 per title you email to yourself using this method. What happened to the other 8 titles I emailed using this method I don't know. 4. Wifi network browsing: Connecting using a file manager (es file manager here) to my mac with the calibre library on it, I can navigate to various ebook file formats but not a single one will open on the kindle, which gives an error no app for that. If anyone knows a tip or trick to get (DRM free) books onto the kindle Fire without having the not supplied micro usb cord, please let me know!