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

[anacreon]

I bought a book today on amazon.com, but when I opened kindle for PC (1.17) it was unregistered, and multiple tries to register it failed: I enter login and password, approve the sign-in attempt by SMS, but it ends with "registration failed, please try again [401]".

I'm pretty sure Amazon would only tell me to upgrade.

Anybody has any idea how to solve that?

[lkmiller]

@anacreon
See the note on this under method 1 in the first post.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I haven't tested this in quite a while but it was a few years back and DeDRM would not remove DRM from a KU book which fits with the if you don't own it, don't remove DRM spirit of the anti-piracy notice on Apprentice Alf's blog. Now to wonder when that changed...

I had KU for a little while (with the help of a VPN) a couple of years back. The plugin worked on KU books just fine. As it was too bothersome to maintain the subscription with a VPN and without an eink Kindle registered to that account, I gave up on KU pretty soon (it's not available in my country and probably will never be). Besides, I wasn't comfortable with removing the DRM from KU books in order to read them on my eink devices. Now if I could have KU on my main Amazon account and without using any shenanigans, I might subscribe again.

[anacreon]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

@anacreon
See the note on this under method 1 in the first post.

Thank you for the information. Unfortunately, after I applied the proposed methods, the results were the same as before I had either just deregistered from the amazon.com site, or uninstalled/reinstalled Kindle for PC 1.17 as well, that is

* after I had entered email and password in Kindle for PC I got a SMS on my phone asking me to validate the sign-in attempt, and saying this was approved

* but in kindle for PC I got the same error message as in the other trials.

This is definitely a bad day for me : after spending a considerable time trying to get Kindle for PC to work, I spent two hours chatting with Kobo this morning trying to enter my new credit card parameters to buy the book I couldn't get from Kindle. This because the previous credit card (and mobile phone) had been stolen last Friday, another bad day.

EDIT: by the way, I can't get the kindle for PC from amazon - I'm always directed to the kindle for android app.

[snoozer]

Originally Posted by anacreon

Thank you for the information. Unfortunately, after I applied the proposed methods, the results were the same as before I had either just deregistered from the amazon.com site, or uninstalled/reinstalled Kindle for PC 1.17 as well, that is

* after I had entered email and password in Kindle for PC I got a SMS on my phone asking me to validate the sign-in attempt, and saying this was approved

* but in kindle for PC I got the same error message as in the other trials.

This is definitely a bad day for me : after spending a considerable time trying to get Kindle for PC to work, I spent two hours chatting with Kobo this morning trying to enter my new credit card parameters to buy the book I couldn't get from Kindle. This because the previous credit card (and mobile phone) had been stolen last Friday, another bad day.

EDIT: by the way, I can't get the kindle for PC from amazon - I'm always directed to the kindle for android app.

I don't know if this is what is causing your issues or not, but I just read this today.
https://goodereader.com/blog/kindle/...latest-version

[anacreon]

Originally Posted by snoozer

I don't know if this is what is causing your issues or not, but I just read this today.
https://goodereader.com/blog/kindle/...latest-version

Sorry, this is typical goodereader stuff, telling us what we know: Amazon doesn't want us to use their books on other ereaders. My newest problem is I can't find the newest version of kindle for PC, which isn't addressed here.

[latepaul]

Originally Posted by anacreon

Sorry, this is typical goodereader stuff, telling us what we know: Amazon doesn't want us to use their books on other ereaders. My newest problem is I can't find the newest version of kindle for PC, which isn't addressed here.

If you genuinely want the latest - Kindle Apps

[lkmiller]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I haven't tested this in quite a while but it was a few years back and DeDRM would not remove DRM from a KU book which fits with the if you don't own it, don't remove DRM spirit of the anti-piracy notice on Apprentice Alf's blog. Now to wonder when that changed...

Hasn't changed. KU and other borrowing methods are blocked for KFX format. Older formats are blocked for rentals. Presumably the older parts of DeDRM just never got updated to check for those newer types of licenses. But I agree with don't DeDRM it unless you've bought it. Amazon only pays authors for KU based on what they see you read. So if you don't leave DRM alone and read it with a connected Kindle app or device, the author gets zilch.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by anacreon

Sorry, this is typical goodereader stuff, telling us what we know: Amazon doesn't want us to use their books on other ereaders. My newest problem is I can't find the newest version of kindle for PC, which isn't addressed here.

Sometimes the Amazon page will give you a link for the Kindle app for the wrong platform based on what platform it thinks your web browser is running on.

The direct download link for the latest version of Kindle for PC is:

https://www.amazon.com/kindlepcdownload

[anacreon]

It worked: I uploaded the new kindle for pc, registered for it, then loaded 1.17, had to register for it which entailed an extra step, approving the sign-in attempt on my phone, and it worked.
All through the process, the automatic installation box remained unchecked.
Thank you latepaul and jhowell for the links.

[darryl]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

Hasn't changed. KU and other borrowing methods are blocked for KFX format. Older formats are blocked for rentals. Presumably the older parts of DeDRM just never got updated to check for those newer types of licenses. But I agree with don't DeDRM it unless you've bought it. Amazon only pays authors for KU based on what they see you read. So if you don't leave DRM alone and read it with a connected Kindle app or device, the author gets zilch.

Totally agreed. It is very important that you actually read a KU e-book on a Kindle App or Device. No matter your moral code, given you have subscribed to KU there is little if any downside in ensuring the author gets paid. And plenty of upside in encouraging authors to put their books in KU.

[Kurea]

Hey all, i read through all the posts and as a result I've installed:

Kindle 1.26.1 (55093)
Calibre 4.23.0
DeDRM 6.8.0

I'm on macOS and i've also "chmod -x renderer-test', which i've verified and it no longer has the 'x' bit.

However, when opening Calibre and trying to add the key in the DeDRM plugin settings "Kindle for mac and PC keys", i get this error when clicking the "+" button (copied from the log):

Found k4Mac kinf2018 file: /Users/kurea/Library/Application Support/Kindle/storage/.kinf2018
Couldn't decrypt file.

Any idea how to fix this?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Kurea

Found k4Mac kinf2018 file: /Users/kurea/Library/Application Support/Kindle/storage/.kinf2018
Couldn't decrypt file.

Any idea how to fix this?

For help with DRM removal you need to ask at either Apprentice Alf's Blog or Apprentice Harper's GitHub. That topic is not allowed on MobileRead.

[Kaetrin]

Hi,
My kindle for PC app just spontaneously updated to V1.30 which borked everything even though I had set it to NOT auto update. I have located a safe version of 1.17 (and saved the exe for future disasters) and installed it and it's working great. I tried to find the "updates" folders in the Kindle for PC installation but could not locate anything that looked like it. If I put the batch file in the application will that work? Or, is the "updates" file called something else in v1.17?
thx

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Kaetrin

Hi,
My kindle for PC app just spontaneously updated to V1.30 which borked everything even though I had set it to NOT auto update. I have located a safe version of 1.17 (and saved the exe for future disasters) and installed it and it's working great. I tried to find the "updates" folders in the Kindle for PC installation but could not locate anything that looked like it. If I put the batch file in the application will that work? Or, is the "updates" file called something else in v1.17?
thx

The folder that Amazon uses to download new updates is called "updates", but it is only present if Kindle for PC is installed for a single user. It appears that folder will not be present if K4PC is installed for all users of the PC.

The batch file to disable updates can be put anywhere. You need to run it once and it will display a message letting you know whether or not it was successful.