kindle to kindle??

[KevinP1]

I have kindle keyboard that I enjoy (heck I love the thing) especially because it has 3G and I am very limited in data due to cost. I have wanted to upgrade and rec'd a gift card that will enable me to buy a refurbished or used pw with a light and better ppi but no 3G. Can I transfer my files from the computer (landlord's Mac) via usb w/o having to use wi-fi via Amazon? I can bring the document folder up no sweat but then what. I don't want to buy a PW if I can't do that task. I want to be able to use the keyboard model when I get books(all legit) and then use the PW for reading them. I have tried search but haven't come up with anything, although I am sure that the answer is somewhere. OM seems to do transfer through Amazon with use of wi-fi. It is a real long walk to free wi-fi spots from where I live,like 15 miles, and I am getting lazy in my old age. I try to save mooching rides for emergencies. TIA.

[AnemicOak]

If the books have DRM then no, you can't download them for one device to load on another (the DRM is encoded to the specific device). If the books don't have DRM then you can copy them over without issue.

To load DRM'd books you have two choices. 1) Download them wirelessly to the device or 2) Download them to a computer from the website by selecting the Download & Transfer via USB option from Manage Your Content & Devices or selecting Transfer via Computer from the delivery options when initially buying.

[geekmaster]

<Post removedrestored because my suggestion will not work on a Mac.>

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

If the books have DRM then no, you can't download them for one device to load on another (the DRM is encoded to the specific device). If the books don't have DRM then you can copy them over without issue.

To load DRM'd books you have two choices. 1) Download them wirelessly to the device or 2) Download them to a computer from the website by selecting the Download & Transfer via USB option from Manage Your Content & Devices or selecting Transfer via Computer from the delivery options when initially buying.

Or a third option if downloading is difficult or expensive (as seems to be the case),you can do a direct transfer as described (even with DRM, and even to a non-kindle device).

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Apprentice Alf has been invaluable to many of our members, as has his Guide to the Purplexed which can be found on his homepage. We're not allowed to give technical details on de-DRMing here, but he's under no such restrictions.

If you paid for the ebooks, you have (in many countries) the right to read them on any device you choose. But you may not distribute them to others. HTH

[Cinisajoy]

Do what Anemic Oak says.
Although DRM may not be the problem. The problem might be the format Amazon sent them in.

Just go to your Manage your content, pick transfer via computer then pick your new device.
Just make sure you have permission from your landlord to put files on his computer.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Do what Anemic Oak says.
Although DRM may not be the problem. The problem might be the format Amazon sent them in.

Just go to your Manage your content, pick transfer via computer then pick your new device.
Just make sure you have permission from your landlord to put files on his computer

Originally Posted by KevinP1

... it has 3G and I am very limited in data due to cost. ... It is a real long walk to free wi-fi spots from where I live,like 15 miles ...

His profile does not say where he lives, but outside the US he is limiited to 50MB of data (a rather small ebook library) per month. His post implies (to me) that his limited kindle 3G means he is probably outside the US (though I may be wrong). Nonetheless, he was asking if he can sideload his books from one kindle to another, and indeed he can with the required tool.

EDIT: I see, his DESTINATION kindle is wifi-only. So cellphone data plan, apparently. It took me years to learn how to read again, and it still takes multiple passes with settling time in between, to absorb all the details.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by KevinP1

. Can I transfer my files from the computer (landlord's Mac) via usb w/o having to use wi-fi via Amazon? TIA.

That was the only part I was answering.
So yes, he can transfer files via the computer.
I was suggesting he use the MYK because I am not sure all the formats are compatible between the two.
The KK and the paperwhite.

[Cinisajoy]

What cable would one need to do a direct transfer?

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

That was the only part I was answering.
So yes, he can transfer files via the computer.
I was suggesting he use the MYK because I am not sure all the formats are compatible between the two.
The KK and the paperwhite.

Thanks. I did not know that. I discovered that my suggestion was not Mac-compatible, so I removed it. It seems odd that Amazon would drop support for older formats, when new devices have more memory and other resources. But, lab126, so who knows?

From a technical point of view, I am curious how ebooks can be transferred via computer, because the DRM is tied to a specific serial number. It would require decryption/re-encryption during the transfer, and that seems highly unlikely for security reasons. In which case borrowing a windows PC and googling "apprentice alf" may be the only way to save re-downloading his entire ebook library.

Now I am curious about that MYK "transfer files via computer" option.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

What cable would one need to do a direct transfer?

Not exacly direct -- PC in the middle. With a jailbreak, an app could be written to directly connect two kindles using OTG host mode on one side, then a somewhat nonstandard F-to-F adapter could join a pair of microUSB cables routed to the other kindle.

But not for DRMed books. You would need a windows emulator on a kindle for that, running that Apprentice Alf program. Even if you had such an emulator, it would need vitual memory on flash, and it might be faster to walk that 15 miles and back than to wait for it to even boot up, let alone get any work done. Better to borrow a real Windows PC, for sure. Or perhaps borrow a bicycle for that free Wi-Fi?

Possible and practical are completely different things.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

Thanks. I did not know that. I discover my suggestion was not Mac-compatiblem so I removed it. It seems odd that Amazon would drop support for older formats, when new devices have more memory and other resources. But, lab126, so who knows?

From a technical point of view, I am curious how ebooks can be transferred via computer, because the DRM is tied to a specific serial number. It would require decryption/re-encryption during the transfer, and that seems highly unlikely for security reasons. In which case borrowing a windows PC and googling "apprentice alf" may be the only way to save re-downloading his entire ebook library.

Now I am curious about that MYK "transfer files via computer" option.

I have an answer for you.
When you pick transfer via computer, you must pick what device you will be transferring to. Oh and not to be nit picky but not all books on Amazon have DRM. Matter of fact, it is mostly just books from the Big 5 that do.
PS: Check your email and thanks.

[lambert]

I know there is a program called "Kindle Transfer", you just need to connect the two Kindle devices into computer with USB cable, then the books can be transferred between each device, and the computer, but I don't know if it compatible with your mac, you can have a try.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by lambert

I know there is a program called "Kindle Transfer", you just need to connect the two Kindle devices into computer with USB cable, then the books can be transferred between each device, and the computer, but I don't know if it compatible with your mac, you can have a try.

It may be possible to load windows in an emulator on a mac, or even to boot it directly into windows, so it can run PC software. I do not have a Mac, so I cannot try it myself.

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

But not for DRMed books. You would need a windows emulator on a kindle for that, running that Apprentice Alf program.

The Apprentice Alf stuff is a Calibre extension written in Python, thus cross-platform. So "all" you'd need would be Calibre on the Kindle. The latest Calibre is Qt5-based. Just the shared libraries for Qt 5.6.x weigh in at 1.5GiB on x86-64... so it's not going to happen unless someone writes a no-Calibre version, which would mean reimplemting all the ebook-understanding stuff that Calibre does so Alf doesn't have do. (Even the parts of Qt 5 that Calibre actually uses weigh in at hundreds of megabytes, and Calibre has other dependencies too.)

[KevinP1]

Well, thanks to all even though a lot is way over my knowledge base. I do have a bicycle and take it for short rides regularly, fwiw, but the amount of miles is unfortunately not within my physical capabilities now due to my own laziness in keeping fit enough to do so. My cell phone is pay as you go and I spend way less than 7/month. Use landline for free as part of rent. Never have been able to grasp why people suddenly feel the need to talk/communicate all the time on/with a phone. To use this mac is a privilege and I really try to use as little of the monthly data as possible so I don't cause an issue, but I have my own desktop w/o admin privileges. Until a few yrs ago it was landline connection only here. Now it is wireless broadband. I could connect my own device but on my dime. I have mostly been reading free stuff (nonfiction) but splurge on NYT basic reading on the mac. The license DRM thing makes sense even though I don't like it. The good news is that the landlord works were there is free wi-fi. Now I plan to just load my stuff into my account with the wifi off and let her take my reader to work and turn it on and it should dl it for me. Real nice landlord drives by a library to and from work and will stop and pu and return books for me which has worked well for some time. More than is necessary here but perhaps this will answer some questions raised and help other noobs and with that I will look for a new PW(new to me, lol) and continue looking into this stuff. I am not worried at all about screen color gradients! Thanks again. k

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by NullNix

The Apprentice Alf stuff is a Calibre extension written in Python, thus cross-platform. So "all" you'd need would be Calibre on the Kindle. The latest Calibre is Qt5-based. Just the shared libraries for Qt 5.6.x weigh in at 1.5GiB on x86-64... so it's not going to happen unless someone writes a no-Calibre version, which would mean reimplemting all the ebook-understanding stuff that Calibre does so Alf doesn't have do. (Even the parts of Qt 5 that Calibre actually uses weigh in at hundreds of megabytes, and Calibre has other dependencies too.)

Thanks for the information. I was not aware that AA and Calibre were cross-platform. I restored my previously-deleted post: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...75#post3338675

I got clarification from moderator WT Sharpe that there has been a policy change and we are apparently allowed to link to the Apprentice Alf website now (but we still cannot discuss specific details about DRM removal). However, it seems safer to me to quote a moderator post that contains this link, as I did in the post linked above.

The only reason Apprentice Alf is brought up here at all is that it allows a book owner to move his books between his kindles without requiring the internet bandwidth to do this via amazon downloads to the new device. DRM removal is only a required side-effect of that procedure, unless you go through amazon and burn the required bandwidth to do so.

And regarding Calibre being too big to run in a kindle, it seems a bit bigger than it needs to be, considering that after upgrading my first laptop computer from 1MB to 2MB (by soldering in a RAM chip), I was able to boot it into Windows 3, then run Microsoft Word on top of that (with the help of a memory compression driver). If an entire GUI Operating System *and* word processor can run usefully in 2MB, why can't a book converter fit in a kindle with many hundreds of times as much memory (plus flash disk storage that can be used as virtual memory)? Especially considering that there are useful programs that are less than 1KB in size.

Anyway, back to topic, the practical choices are use the Mac and Apprentice Alf (which also needs bandwidth to download and install all the tools and dependencies it requires), or to travel to a location that has affordable (or free) WiFi. There is also a fourth way (letting the new kindle download the books using the old 3G kindle via 3G), but that way is not allowed to be discussed in detail here (corkscrew tethering).