Troubleshooting Unsure what my first steps should be updating multiple Kindles

[Nsomniak6]

I hope this an appropriate request:

I haven't turned on all of my older Kindles, except maybe my Oasis, since well before Amazon made the changes to not allow downloads. I have several older Kindles which are :

Kindle Oasis (1st generation, I believe) purchase in 2019 (it might have the update that prevented the uploads)
Kindle Paperwhite – (previous generation - 2018 release)
Kindle Paperwhite E-reader (Previous generation – 2015 release)
2 Kindle Paperwhites purchased in 2014 and 2016
and a much older Kindle Touch.

I am afraid to turn them on because I'm sure they were still in wi-fi mode. I haven't used Calibre since the 8.9 update and I will have to get up to date after figuring out a couple of my Kindles. I have lost most of the knowledge I had about being able to tweak everything to be able to read nonDRM books. As I said, I am nervous to turn them on and I am bit overwhelmed by all of the new steps I will need to take to be able to read books on my Oasis. The others are really important but I thought they could be useful to learn how to jailbreak or whatever is needed to move forward.

I have tried to go to the sticky threads but I wasn't sure if the information is up to date since they start from 2010 (I believe) and I don't want to brick them if at all possible. Can someone clarify where I need to start before I turn any of them on and get the exact serial numbers and have an automatic update from Amazon? It would be greatly appreciated.

I am so sad to have such a crappy memory and have lost so much great knowledge. I wasn't expert level, but I was at least intermediate, now I am a little above a newbie.

[axu2]

If you really don't want them to connect to wifi you could just change your wifi name and password so it's impossible for them to connect.

And then change it back if you need to.

[Sirtel]

If you want to use your Kindles to deDRM your Amazon purchases, then no worries - they're too old to get the newest hardened DRM. You'll need the deDRM plugin 10.0.9 or alpha and the KFX Input plugin. And you'll need to connect your Kindles directly to Calibre to get the books from them.

Edit: if you just want to sideload non-Amazon books to your Kindles and read them, then nothing much has changed with those models. Convert your books to AZW3 or KFX and transfer them to your Kindles. With AZW3 it's best not to turn on wifi at all, because Amazon has a nasty habit of deleting USB transfers of AZW3 files.

[Nsomniak6]

Thanks so much!

I will use these responses and go from there.

[Nsomniak6]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Edit: if you just want to sideload non-Amazon books to your Kindles and read them, then nothing much has changed with those models. Convert your books to AZW3 or KFX and transfer them to your Kindles. With AZW3 it's best not to turn on wifi at all, because Amazon has a nasty habit of deleting USB transfers of AZW3 files.

Yeah, unfortunately that happened to me, but I think all of the deleted ones are still on my Calibre

just to clarify, we can't use wifi to send books at any more?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Nsomniak6

Yeah, unfortunately that happened to me, but I think all of the deleted ones are still on my Calibre

just to clarify, we can't use wifi to send books at any more?

You can use Send to Kindle to send your books in the epub format. Then they won't be deleted. Or you can use KFX and send them as personal documents. Amazon won't delete those either.

Files in the AZW3 format and sent as books, not personal docs, will get deleted.

[Frogm4n]

Originally Posted by Nsomniak6

Yeah, unfortunately that happened to me, but I think all of the deleted ones are still on my Calibre

just to clarify, we can't use wifi to send books at any more?

I think you've confused what the issue is. Amazon has not blocked the Kindle devices themselves from anything. All they've changed is to stop providing direct downloads of Kindle Store purchases from the Amazon website itself with a computer, that are then meant to be copied directly to the Kindle over USB. Nothing at all has changed about limiting your ability to load your own content onto a Kindle over USB or using Send to Kindle. There were a lot of terrible headlines and "the sky is falling" articles about the change that fundamentally misreported the situation.

[JSWolf]

There have been issues mentioned about side loading some content much as comics/manga and KF8 on the latest firmware.

[Sirtel]

And there's the issue of Amazon deleting AZW3 files sideloaded as books unless you keep wifi always on or off. AFAIK that has not been fixed.

[davedeacon]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

And there's the issue of Amazon deleting AZW3 files sideloaded as books unless you keep wifi always on or off. AFAIK that has not been fixed.

Maybe they've not been able to reproduce it. All my sideloaded books are azw3 format.

"unless you keep wifi always on or off"

?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by davedeacon

Maybe they've not been able to reproduce it. All my sideloaded books are azw3 format.

"unless you keep wifi always on or off"

?

Sideloaded azw3 files will be deleted if you keep wifi off most of the time and switch it on occasionally. They won't be deleted if you keep wifi on all the time, and of course they can't be deleted if you keep wifi off all the time.

[Graham44]

Would it not be easiest just to turn off your wifi router, turn on the Kindles, turn off their wifi, turn your router back on?

Just a thought

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Graham44

Would it not be easiest just to turn off your wifi router, turn on the Kindles, turn off their wifi, turn your router back on?

To what end?

[Nsomniak6]

Originally Posted by Frogm4n

I think you've confused what the issue is. Amazon has not blocked the Kindle devices themselves from anything. All they've changed is to stop providing direct downloads of Kindle Store purchases from the Amazon website itself with a computer, that are then meant to be copied directly to the Kindle over USB. Nothing at all has changed about limiting your ability to load your own content onto a Kindle over USB or using Send to Kindle. There were a lot of terrible headlines and "the sky is falling" articles about the change that fundamentally misreported the situation.

So, why have so many people been jailbreaking their Kindles?