How To Understand Kindle PC Devices?

[abrogard]

I am trying to get my kindle books into an old version of kindle that i have just installed and I'm confused by amazon's listing of my 'kindle devices'.

I thought that meant hardware devices - ie computers and/or smartphones.

But i can't find any description of what it means.

I just find 10 'devices' listed. And 'edit' devices just allows changing the name is all.

I don't have 10 computers.

I need to deregister some 'devices' because I've been told from time to time I can't download a book because it's on too many devices.

But what does that mean if I do that? I lose nothing? Wherever those books are they'll remain there in some kindle directory somewhere but I'll just not be able to download any more to that directory or something?

i.e. there's no risk of any kind in deregistering a 'device' ?

And it all might be spurious anyway? I mean it's a question of what amazon thinks rather than what I've got? I mean all those previous 'devices' ( simply directories on machines) might have crashed and burned long ago, may simply not exist?

There seems to be no way to identify which directory on which machine a 'device' belongs to.

Can it be explained to me?

[theducks]

K4PC is the device. When you register it, you attach it to your account as a 'Device' (It can only be attached to a single account), and your Amazon Content is now available

The purchases belong to your Account not the device. If you deregister a device, you simply cannot read any existing book with DRM on the device.

For some reason, My TAB A always shows as 2 devices (both registered the same day). But that is the only thing I noticed about registering devices (I had deleted one and the viewer would not show existing content until I registered it again)
If you Go to Manage Mydevices and content, expanding a device will tell you when registered and also will show the content the last time connected (sync).
That may give you a clue, but I think all you lose deleting is the Reading Status (location) for books on that device..

[Deskisamess]

To see what the K4PC app is using as its name, launch K4PC, and look at the upper left. I always rename my PC Kindle app to something that tells me easily which PC it is. For example, my laptop Kindle app is named M****'s Kindle for PC laptop, the iPad Pro app is iPad Pro, and so on.

Rename them whatever works for you. Amazon has always had the problem of ghost devices showing up after updates etc. Making sure to edit the names to something meaningful helps you decide which ones can be removed.

[abrogard]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

To see what the K4PC app is using as its name, launch K4PC, and look at the upper left. I always rename my PC Kindle app to something that tells me easily which PC it is. For example, my laptop Kindle app is named M****'s Kindle for PC laptop, the iPad Pro app is iPad Pro, and so on.

Rename them whatever works for you. Amazon has always had the problem of ghost devices showing up after updates etc. Making sure to edit the names to something meaningful helps you decide which ones can be removed.

ah but that's the problem. mine are all called kindle1, kindle2 or something like that, all the way to 10. I don't know which 'device' belongs to a real device.

and I surmise that if i found that out I still wouldn't know which directory on that machine it may be using - like this machine I have here has four drives attached to it and three of them have 'my kindle' directories on them.

One on the C: drive that I just made with all this recent hassle I'm having and the other two from previous installations - I've had a number of disk crashes, OS deaths and reinstalls.

I need,would like, a list of all 'devices' that I can match to machines and directories and then I'd know where I'm at.

[Deskisamess]

Originally Posted by abrogard

ah but that's the problem. mine are all called kindle1, kindle2 or something like that, all the way to 10. I don't know 'device' belongs to a real device.

Any device, actual Kindle or Kindle app, will show the name its been given, on the device or in the app.

You look in the device info on a Kindle device or in the app itself. Make a note of the name each one shows, and deregister the ones that don't match any of your devices.

[abrogard]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

Any device, actual Kindle or Kindle app, will show the name its been given, on the device or in the app.

You look in the device info on a Kindle device or in the app itself. Make a note of the name each one shows, and deregister the ones that don't match any of your devices.

I see no such thing evident when I click my Kindle icon on the desktop and view what pops up. nor when I click on 'devices'.

[Deskisamess]

Launch the Kindle app, and look at the top left:

See where it says "M****'s Kindle for PC3"?

[Deskisamess]

On an actual Kindle device, tap Settings (the 3 dots in the upper right corner)>>Your Account>>Device Name

[abrogard]

Maybe the problem is I haven't registered this 'device' (instance?) yet, I think. But it still has two books in it. One my 'problem' book and the other one of theirs....

So what do I do about the other three 'my kindle' directories on this pc? I have one on E:, one on F: and one I:

They're just irrelevant?

I want to check my other computers I just go to them and find (hopefully) a desktop Kindle icon and click on it and I'll read the top left and see what device that is?

And if there's no icon I download a new instance of kindle, the way I did here, and either point it at an existing 'my kindle' directory or create a new one?

That's what I have to do?

[Deskisamess]

If the Kindle app isn't registered yet, it won't show up on Amazon Content & Devices page. That was important relevant info you neglected to mention. Amazon won't have that app listed, because Amazon doesn't know about it until you register it.

As to the other Kindle directories on your computer, I take it you've previously installed and removed the Kindle app on that computer? It would install to the main C: drive, unless you specifically installed it on the other drives, or you changed the director where the Kindle Content was stored.