kindle paperwhite and calibre

sovre · 03-09-2019, 03:39 PM

For many years I used a Sony eReader with calibre. So when I bought a Kindle I continued using calibre to manage my ebook library. I just load books from calibre onto my kindle paperwhite when I want to read them. Because of this most of my books are not actually in the kindle cloud.

If my kindle were to break or get lost, I would lose my place in all the books I have on there - and I suppose I would also lose things like my bookmarks.

Given these circumstances, is there is a way for me to keep my kindle backed up, preserving latest reading positions, etc?

Also, if I were to get a new kindle and wanted to transfer the contents off of this one onto the new one, how would I do that?

Thanks for your help

HarryT · 03-09-2019, 04:27 PM

Yes, just back up the "documents" folder of the Kindle. All the files that store reading position, etc, are in there. If you get a new Kindle, just copy the entire documents folder to it. Note that this only works if your books don't have DRM, but that's presumably the case if you're side-loading with Calibre.

shamanNS · 03-10-2019, 11:15 AM

IIRC, newer Kindle firmwares started adding a (random?, definitely not book's ASIN) string of characters at the end of filenames of files in ".sdr" folder?

I do remember having to manually fix the "mismatch problem" the one time I copied a book and its sdr folder from my PW1 to my PW3... once I've realised that PW3 isn't showing notes and highlights that I knew I made while I was reading that book on PW1.

I had to let it create a new file then I've copied the filename, deleted that new "for notes" file and rename the one I've copied from older Kindle. After doing that my PW3 started to show those pre-existing notes.

03-09-2019, 03:39 PM	#1
sovre Zealot Posts: 112 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: United States Device: iPad Mini; iPhone; Kindle Paperwhite (10th gen)	kindle paperwhite and calibre For many years I used a Sony eReader with calibre. So when I bought a Kindle I continued using calibre to manage my ebook library. I just load books from calibre onto my kindle paperwhite when I want to read them. Because of this most of my books are not actually in the kindle cloud. If my kindle were to break or get lost, I would lose my place in all the books I have on there - and I suppose I would also lose things like my bookmarks. Given these circumstances, is there is a way for me to keep my kindle backed up, preserving latest reading positions, etc? Also, if I were to get a new kindle and wanted to transfer the contents off of this one onto the new one, how would I do that? Thanks for your help Last edited by sovre; 03-09-2019 at 03:44 PM.

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03-09-2019, 04:27 PM	#2
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383099 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Yes, just back up the "documents" folder of the Kindle. All the files that store reading position, etc, are in there. If you get a new Kindle, just copy the entire documents folder to it. Note that this only works if your books don't have DRM, but that's presumably the case if you're side-loading with Calibre.

03-10-2019, 11:15 AM	#3
shamanNS Wizard Posts: 1,113 Karma: 12000224 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Serbia Device: Kindle PW5, Kobo Libra 2, Kindle PW1	IIRC, newer Kindle firmwares started adding a (random?, definitely not book's ASIN) string of characters at the end of filenames of files in ".sdr" folder? I do remember having to manually fix the "mismatch problem" the one time I copied a book and its sdr folder from my PW1 to my PW3... once I've realised that PW3 isn't showing notes and highlights that I knew I made while I was reading that book on PW1. I had to let it create a new file then I've copied the filename, deleted that new "for notes" file and rename the one I've copied from older Kindle. After doing that my PW3 started to show those pre-existing notes.

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