Amazon has removed Download & Transfer option

[tomsem]

I'm seeing February 25 message as well.

[Ma'am-I-Am]

PW 2 here in US. No message this morning, got the message a few minutes ago. All my books (over 5000) were downloaded when purchased, so no worries. Just hoping I can xfr from PW 2 into Calibre after Feb 26.

[Byrdie]

Message is now showing up for me and I have 4533 books in my account, 2560 of which are backed up in my Calibre Kindle Library. That leaves 1953, after eliminating the KU borrows. Don't see how I'll ever get all those downloaded before the deadline. Kindle for PC still works with Calibre and certain Tools which I have so I can do it that way, yes? At least using that I can tell via the checkmark which ones I haven't downloaded yet, would get too bogged down & confuzzled trying to grab them from the 182 pages in Manage Your Content's Books section. This really sucks!

[slm]

An alternative to downloading now is to send them all you books to your kindle device. This should be quicker and-if they fit--you can transfer from the kindle device to Calibre later.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Byrdie

Message is now showing up for me and I have 4533 books in my account, 2560 of which are backed up in my Calibre Kindle Library. That leaves 1953, after eliminating the KU borrows. Don't see how I'll ever get all those downloaded before the deadline. Kindle for PC still works with Calibre and certain Tools which I have so I can do it that way, yes? At least using that I can tell via the checkmark which ones I haven't downloaded yet, would get too bogged down & confuzzled trying to grab them from the 182 pages in Manage Your Content's Books section. This really sucks!

Kindle for PC 2.40 works at the moment. Not the latest version.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by slm

An alternative to downloading now is to send them all you books to your kindle device. This should be quicker and-if they fit--you can transfer from the kindle device to Calibre later.

But don't wait too long or Amazon might update your Kindle for hardened DRM. That is, if you have one of the relatively new Kindles still receiving updates.

[Ma'am-I-Am]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I certainly have enough books in my calibre library to last for several hundred years (I'm not a particularly fast reader). That doesn't mean I'm going to stop buying more ebooks. Not until there's still a way to remove DRM.

Sympatico. You get me, man.

[Byrdie]

My Kindle For PC version is 2.3.5 which I have blocked from updating and it worked with Calibre & plug-ins fine as of a couple months ago. Have not updated my Paperwhite from 5.16.8 because I did not want to catch the bug or feature or whatever it is that was messing with sideloaded books and/or making batteries drain faster than they should. Has that been fixed now? My reader's been in airplane mode for months and I'm nervous about letting it connect since I'd rather not bork it. Which I think trying to download a couple thousand books in the next few days might do.

[mtg]

This is the email I received this morning.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Byrdie

My Kindle For PC version is 2.3.5 which I have blocked from updating and it worked with Calibre & plug-ins fine as of a couple months ago. Have not updated my Paperwhite from 5.16.8 because I did not want to catch the bug or feature or whatever it is that was messing with sideloaded books and/or making batteries drain faster than they should. Has that been fixed now? My reader's been in airplane mode for months and I'm nervous about letting it connect since I'd rather not bork it. Which I think trying to download a couple thousand books in the next few days might do.

The sideloaded books disappearing bug has not been fixed (and probably will never be).

[jhowell]

From Amazon’s email announcement, emphasis mine:

You can, of course, continue to read Kindle content using Kindle for Web, or the free Kindle apps for Android, iOS, Mac, and PC as well as supported Kindle devices with WiFi capability.

Adding that word seems unnecessary to me. Putting on my conspiracy theory hat, I wonder whether this is a hint that they may be dropping delivery of books to Kindles that are outside of the 5-year support window at some point. Unlikely, but that added word bothers me.

[Byrdie]

I sideload using Send To PC, have never connected my Kindle to the computer. I take it this "bug" still only applies to those using Calibre for transferring their non-Amazon books?

The more I consider it, the more certain I am that buying from Amazon, especially another Kindle, is not such a great idea. Probably gonna stick with Kobo ereaders and shop elsewhere for any books that aren't Amazon exclusives or else free -- for as long as I can still convert them.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Byrdie

I sideload using Send To PC, have never connected my Kindle to the computer. I take it this "bug" still only applies to those using Calibre for transferring their non-Amazon books?

Yes. If you used Send to Kindle, those books won't get deleted.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

Thank you!

Now, to just figure out how to have it grab a specific entry in the list, since it is hard coded to the first item, and I need it to get the second one (the first is my wife's fire tablet, and I am wanting for my Kindle)

I seem to remember mentions of Fire tablets not being eligible for Download & Transfer so would not show in the list of devices.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by jhowell

From Amazon’s email announcement, emphasis mine:


Adding that word seems unnecessary to me. Putting on my conspiracy theory hat, I wonder whether this is a hint that they may be dropping delivery of books to Kindles that are outside of the 5-year support window at some point. Unlikely, but that added word bothers me.

That would cut off a substantial part of their customer base, I think. There are lots of folks still using their Paperwhite 3 and 4, their Oasis 3, or even the Voyage.