MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Converting epub to mobi is frustrating! I need an UPGRADE

Richwood · 12-09-2017, 02:41 PM

Originally posted to Amazon's Kindle Device Forum.

Sorry if this is old news. I did a search of the old posts and did not turn up anything.

I suspect that this is not officially Amazon supported but it works as I just tried it. Take a unprotected .EPUB file and rename it to .PNG. Email it to a Kindle E-reader with "convert" in the email title. Amazon will convert it to a readable Kindle AZW3 format. I just tried it with two book files, sent to my Kindle Voyage running firmware version 5.8.11. Total size about 3 MB as sent and they arrived in the Voyage in about a minute or less. Total size of the converted files only about 1/3 the original EPUB files. There seem to be limitations such as the original cover not being shown in Grid view and one of the books had the title page shown in very oversized font, spread over multiple pages, but the choices of font type, size and bolding for the book text are supported per a quick check. Once the book is opened the original cover is in the file and can be seen by paging back from the opening page. Hooking up USB to the Kindle and checking, each converted file shows up as two items, a .AZW3 file and a folder with a small .SDR file in it. Both are in the Documents folder on the Kindle e-reader.

There is a whole thread from earlier this year on Mobile Read Forums discussing it. Looks to me like a quick and dirty method of converting .EPUB files for the Kindle and simultaneously getting them into Amazon cloud storage. Hope that Amazon continues to support this. Probably get the same basic effect by using Calibre to convert EPUB to MOBI and then sending to Kindle with "convert" in the subject line.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=288964

I am not sure what software that Amazon uses for their automatic file conversions but apparently it is quite versatile and the decision to not support EPUB conversions to a Kindle compatible format is a marketing one rather than a technical limitation of the software.

12-09-2017, 02:41 PM	#28
Richwood Astronomy Nut Posts: 519 Karma: 3700000 Join Date: Oct 2017 Location: Reno, NV Device: Kindle (All), Kobo (Multiple), Sony (most) and Nook Glowlight Plus	Originally posted to Amazon's Kindle Device Forum. Sorry if this is old news. I did a search of the old posts and did not turn up anything. I suspect that this is not officially Amazon supported but it works as I just tried it. Take a unprotected .EPUB file and rename it to .PNG. Email it to a Kindle E-reader with "convert" in the email title. Amazon will convert it to a readable Kindle AZW3 format. I just tried it with two book files, sent to my Kindle Voyage running firmware version 5.8.11. Total size about 3 MB as sent and they arrived in the Voyage in about a minute or less. Total size of the converted files only about 1/3 the original EPUB files. There seem to be limitations such as the original cover not being shown in Grid view and one of the books had the title page shown in very oversized font, spread over multiple pages, but the choices of font type, size and bolding for the book text are supported per a quick check. Once the book is opened the original cover is in the file and can be seen by paging back from the opening page. Hooking up USB to the Kindle and checking, each converted file shows up as two items, a .AZW3 file and a folder with a small .SDR file in it. Both are in the Documents folder on the Kindle e-reader. There is a whole thread from earlier this year on Mobile Read Forums discussing it. Looks to me like a quick and dirty method of converting .EPUB files for the Kindle and simultaneously getting them into Amazon cloud storage. Hope that Amazon continues to support this. Probably get the same basic effect by using Calibre to convert EPUB to MOBI and then sending to Kindle with "convert" in the subject line. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=288964 I am not sure what software that Amazon uses for their automatic file conversions but apparently it is quite versatile and the decision to not support EPUB conversions to a Kindle compatible format is a marketing one rather than a technical limitation of the software. Last edited by Richwood; 12-09-2017 at 02:50 PM.