Dealing with Kindle for PC/Mac 1.19 and KFX in calibre

[DawnDawn88]

I just converted over 300 ebooks some free from amazon.com and some purchased now I have over 1,000 files since I converted them. I have these files EPUB, JPG, and OPF Document. Do I need to keep all 3 to be able to read the ebooks on my tablet. I moved all the files to my tablet already. But do I keep all 3 files or just the main EPUB file.

Odd question I know but just wondering.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by DawnDawn88

I just converted over 300 ebooks some free from amazon.com and some purchased now I have over 1,000 files since I converted them. I have these files EPUB, JPG, and OPF Document. Do I need to keep all 3 to be able to read the ebooks on my tablet. I moved all the files to my tablet already. But do I keep all 3 files or just the main EPUB file.

Odd question I know but just wondering.

2 parts
The EPUB is what the device NEEDS (and is the book)
the other 2 are for Calibre.
the jpg IS the cover Calibre shows you
the OPF IS a safety net (backup) of That Books DATA that you see in Calibre

[FrozenTrout]

So I’m trying to help someone use Alf to liberate their Kindle books, but their main Mac is already on Catalina, so I can’t install an older version of Kindle for Mac to get the keyfile. However, he does have another older, Mac that is still on Mojave (and actually can’t be upgraded to Catalina at all). Is there any way to set it up on the old Mac, and then transfer the relevant files to the new Mac to use? And if so, what needs to be transferred? Thanks!

[odamizu]

Hi FrozenTrout — I just sent you a PM

[Amazondoc]

Gah.

I had this all set up and running in Catalina -- but suddenly the Kindle-for-Mac app decided it would never open again. Ever. Dunno why -- but I was also doing a lot of overloading the RAM with bazillions of Firefox tabs at the time, and getting a lot of kernel panics. I mean, like 40 or 50 crashes. The crashes have calmed down since I pared down the windows and tabs open, but the Kindle app still won't open.

I originally used the "chmod -x /Applications/Kindle.app/Contents/MacOS/renderer-test" string; if I want to remove that to see if I can get the app to open, do I use "chmod +x (etc.)"?

I know you've posted this instruction somewhere, but now that I need it I can't find it.

If you have any other suggestions, any ideas would be welcomed!

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by Amazondoc

Gah.

I had this all set up and running in Catalina -- but suddenly the Kindle-for-Mac app decided it would never open again. Ever. Dunno why -- but I was also doing a lot of overloading the RAM with bazillions of Firefox tabs at the time, and getting a lot of kernel panics. I mean, like 40 or 50 crashes. The crashes have calmed down since I pared down the windows and tabs open, but the Kindle app still won't open.

I originally used the "chmod -x /Applications/Kindle.app/Contents/MacOS/renderer-test" string; if I want to remove that to see if I can get the app to open, do I use "chmod +x (etc.)"?

I know you've posted this instruction somewhere, but now that I need it I can't find it.

If you have any other suggestions, any ideas would be welcomed!

Yes, changing chmod -x to chmod +x will undo chmod -x and re-enable renderer-test. (Note: this will give you KFX that Alf can't deal with.)

You might also try deleting the Kindle for Mac app and re-installing it. But delete only the app itself. Do not delete anything else, leave everything in your Library folder untouched.

Good luck!

[Amazondoc]

Sigh. I did both of those things -- chmod +x AND deleting/reinstalling -- but the stupid app STILL refuses to load.

I don't know what broke, but it was something stubborn!

Any other ideas?

[rbpeirce]

Originally Posted by FrozenTrout

So I’m trying to help someone use Alf to liberate their Kindle books, but their main Mac is already on Catalina, so I can’t install an older version of Kindle for Mac to get the keyfile. However, he does have another older, Mac that is still on Mojave (and actually can’t be upgraded to Catalina at all). Is there any way to set it up on the old Mac, and then transfer the relevant files to the new Mac to use? And if so, what needs to be transferred? Thanks!

Sure. Install calibre and the older kindle version on the old mac, convert the book to mobi. Then use calibre on the new mac to load the mobi file. If both computers are not on the same network use a flash drive to transfer the mobi file.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by Amazondoc

Sigh. I did both of those things -- chmod +x AND deleting/reinstalling -- but the stupid app STILL refuses to load.

I don't know what broke, but it was something stubborn!

Any other ideas?

Do you have a backup of your User > Library > Application Support > Kindle folder from when it was working? If so, try deleting Kindle for Mac app from your Applications folder, replace the current (possibly borked) Kindle folder with the backup from when it was working, then reinstall Kindle for Mac.

Don't know if it will work, but certainly worth a try as a last resort if nothing else has worked.

[lkmiller]

Originally Posted by rbpeirce

Sure. Install calibre and the older kindle version on the old mac, convert the book to mobi. Then use calibre on the new mac to load the mobi file. If both computers are not on the same network use a flash drive to transfer the mobi file.

I'd skip the convert to mobi part and just leave them as KF8/AZW3.

[Amazondoc]

Originally Posted by odamizu

Do you have a backup of your User > Library > Application Support > Kindle folder from when it was working? If so, try deleting Kindle for Mac app from your Applications folder, replace the current (possibly borked) Kindle folder with the backup from when it was working, then reinstall Kindle for Mac.

Don't know if it will work, but certainly worth a try as a last resort if nothing else has worked.

I'll try this. Won't have a chance today, but I'll report back!

I did at least find out what started crashing Firefox, I think, though I don't know whether that actually had anything to do with the Kindle problems or whether the timing was just a coincidence. Looks like something about the latest version of Adblock Plus was causing issues. I disabled that, and so far no more crashes.

[Amazondoc]

Originally Posted by Amazondoc

I'll try this. Won't have a chance today, but I'll report back!

Okay, I can now say that this didn't help.

At this point I'm thinking I may have to do a clean install of Catalina. With both the Kindle app refusing to start and the system crashes caused by something in Firefox (which started happening again today), I'm thinking there's something broken deep down in the system files.

Sigh!

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by Amazondoc

Okay, I can now say that this didn't help.

At this point I'm thinking I may have to do a clean install of Catalina. With both the Kindle app refusing to start and the system crashes caused by something in Firefox (which started happening again today), I'm thinking there's something broken deep down in the system files.

Sigh!

That's too bad. I'm going to send you PM to increase your chances of K4Mac working after clean install Catalina.

[Amazondoc]

Originally Posted by odamizu

That's too bad. I'm going to send you PM to increase your chances of K4Mac working after clean install Catalina.

Thanks for trying. I'll report back if I ever actually get the new install done!

[Amazondoc]

Ha!

I got to thinking -- always dangerous.

My Kindle Content folder is huge. Huge. More than 25,000 files. So I got to thinking that maybe the app was choking on all those files, especially since the app now tries to convert old-format files to kcr.

So I moved all the files into a "Kindle temp" folder, except for one file that I left as a test.

Et voila! Now the app starts up just fine, and I didn't have to do a clean install of Catalina or anything.

The app just updated to 1.27.0. Now I'm going to try adding the old files back into the main folder a few at a time, and see what happens. Then I'll try re-issuing the chmod command, and see what happens after that.

So much excitement!

ETA: Okay, reinstalling the chmod instructions worked fine. I can now download and convert azw files again. Hurrah!