B&N removed download option on all books in "My Nook" library

[darryl]

Amazon is pretty good about such things, having apparently learnt its lesson well and early. ButI simply distrust clouds. Use them by all means but never forget your data is not totally under your control. I too backup immediately to Calibre, and also keep a backup of my Calibre library. If you make it part of your routine when purchasing ebooks it is little trouble and great at times like these.

[texasnightowl]

Everything goes in Calibre and then the Calibre folder gets synced to my home server. I should go further and store on a usb key offsite but haven't done so yet.

[crane3]

I found a place k4pc has an option that allows one to use another location to have the books sent/stored. Under "tools" select "options" & then "content"; the content will have a "change folder" button. I changed the my folder to a different drive & directory; feel better now.

I only have around 240 or so books of various kinds so backups are easy now as all the books are on two tablets & backed up on the PC & the NAS.

The other day I experienced why having to depend on books stored on a cloud won't work for me. There was a power outage for around 45 min in the evening; rather than fuss, I just got my Nook & opened a book to read; no external lighting needed or access to a cloud to get a book to read.

[taustin]

Originally Posted by Blossom

There's no need to keep Kindle books on your PC unless you are reading them or use them for reference. You can download them when needed from Amazon.

Two weeks ago, that was true of Barnes & Noble, too.

Things can change. Without notice. For reasons that have nothing to do with giving a damn about the customer.

[AnemicOak]

IMO three copies are the minimum. One in Calibre, one offsite (I have two personally) and one on some type of removable storage "in house". I see the store clouds as a bonus backup.

[the.Mtn.Man]

This is precisely why I stick with free and DRM free digital books.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by taustin

Two weeks ago, that was true of Barnes & Noble, too.

Things can change. Without notice. For reasons that have nothing to do with giving a damn about the customer.

Amazon wouldn't never do that but the servers could go up in smoke and their back ups or they could be hacked so it's just best to keep a backup in Calibre but I trust Amazon never to do what B&N has done. The thing is keeping the book in Kindle 4 PC isn't really necessary as if you ever have to reformat or your K4PC get deregistered you have to redownload them all over again. K4PC won't even run with 12,000 books. Mine started crashing at 900 before I lost access whenK4PC deregistered itself years ago. I have since then use the method I use now. I keep my library in Calibre and on the Cloud.

B&N I never trusted them but I never thought they would do something so stupid.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

IMO three copies are the minimum. One in Calibre, one offsite (I have two personally) and one on some type of removable storage "in house". I see the store clouds as a bonus backup.

I totally agree which is why I have my Calibre library on my external, which then Syncs to my Dropbox folder which then syncs to the cloud.

I also every few months back it up to another external drive that is just use for backups.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Amazon wouldn't never do that but the servers could go up in smoke and their back ups or they could be hacked so it's just best to keep a backup in Calibre but I trust Amazon never to do what B&N has done. The thing is keeping the book in Kindle 4 PC isn't really necessary as if you ever have to reformat or your K4PC get deregistered you have to redownload them all over again. K4PC won't even run with 12,000 books. Mine started crashing at 900 before I lost access whenK4PC deregistered itself years ago. I have since then use the method I use now. I keep my library in Calibre and on the Cloud.

This is what I learned after my recent call to Amazon CS. Don't rely on K4PC. It's buggy. It crashes. It doesn't always sync properly. Books go missing. If it wasn't the only way I can receive my Kindle books, I would never use it. And when Amazon discontinues a previous version forcing a new install, it is a major headache. I have to manually download each title by groups of ten and re-add them to Calibre.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Fbone

This is what I learned after my recent call to Amazon CS. Don't rely on K4PC. It's buggy. It crashes. It doesn't always sync properly. Books go missing. If it wasn't the only way I can receive my Kindle books, I would never use it. And when Amazon discontinues a previous version forcing a new install, it is a major headache. I have to manually download each title by groups of ten and re-add them to Calibre.

I don't understand why you had to re-download all of your books and re-add them to Calibre? Calibre stores your books in a completely different location from where K4PC stores them. Did you lose your hard drive and have no backups?

Shari

[crane3]

Originally Posted by taustin

Two weeks ago, that was true of Barnes & Noble, too.

Things can change. Without notice. For reasons that have nothing to do with giving a damn about the customer.

Isn't that what the "active investors" are doing? Tell companies what to do in order to increase value to the shareholders by reducing the value to the users & customers!

[crane3]

Originally Posted by Fbone

This is what I learned after my recent call to Amazon CS. Don't rely on K4PC. It's buggy. It crashes. It doesn't always sync properly. Books go missing. If it wasn't the only way I can receive my Kindle books, I would never use it. And when Amazon discontinues a previous version forcing a new install, it is a major headache. I have to manually download each title by groups of ten and re-add them to Calibre.

Hopefully, Amazon won't do what Apple's cloud did for an iPhone6 user. In a segment of last night's news, locally, there was an interview with a new iphone6 user having someone else's personal data downloaded onto her iphone from the cloud. Was told by the wireless isp that she had to have Apple reload & give her her personal data back; Apple was contacted by the news station & haven't receive a reply back from Apple........

Wonder how that was done by the cloud........hopefully an isolated incident.....

[taustin]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Amazon wouldn't never

I assume that double negative wasn't intended to mean they might do that.

Originally Posted by Blossom

do that but the servers could go up in smoke and their back ups or they could be hacked so it's just best to keep a backup in Calibre

It's always best to keep backups of everything on your computer. It would be inconvenient to lose my ebook library, but there's other stuff on the computer it would be a lot more damaging to lose.

Originally Posted by Blossom

but I trust Amazon never to do what B&N has done.

I don't. Until B&N did this, they have always been far friendlier to the consumer who wants to stroll outside the walled garden than Amazon. Far, far friendlier. Amazon wants to be the only source of everything for everyone, and they want that to be because there is no other place to buy anything. They're smarter than B&N, though, so they don't do stuff that produces the exact opposite result of what they want.

Originally Posted by Blossom

The thing is keeping the book in Kindle 4 PC isn't really necessary as if you ever have to reformat or your K4PC get deregistered you have to redownload them all over again. K4PC won't even run with 12,000 books. Mine started crashing at 900 before I lost access whenK4PC deregistered itself years ago. I have since then use the method I use now. I keep my library in Calibre and on the Cloud.

B&N I never trusted them but I never thought they would do something so stupid.

And that is the only real difference, all of a sudden, between Amazon and B&N: Amazon is a lot smarter. But both have their own financial interests at heart, far more than yours or mine. And the moment that Amazon feels they can make more money by turning off downloads, they'll turn off downloads. And their ecosystem is set up to make that easier for them to do, where B&N's was designed from the start to be more friendly to hacking.

[taustin]

Originally Posted by crane3

Isn't that what the "active investors" are doing? Tell companies what to do in order to increase value to the shareholders

Yes.

Originally Posted by crane3

by reducing the value to the users & customers!

No. By whatever means are available. Which some are stupid enough to believe that reducing value to customers will do, though they are usually wrong.

(And users aren't customers, something that Google users forget. If you're not paying for the service, you're not the customer, you're the product.)

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by shalym

I don't understand why you had to re-download all of your books and re-add them to Calibre? Calibre stores your books in a completely different location from where K4PC stores them. Did you lose your hard drive and have no backups?

Shari

When you install a new version of K4PC it creates a new "key" of some sort as if you exchanged your Kindle device. Calibre could no longer open any DRM'd books in my Kindle library. I didn't fully understand at the time how the tools worked with K4PC.

This only happens if one doesn't own a Kindle or Kindle app. That's why it was suggested I buy an old broken Kindle or cheap tablet.