Dealing with Kindle for PC/Mac 1.19 and KFX in calibre - Page 87

papaholmz · 08-15-2021, 07:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by odamizu

I'm a little surprised a moderator hasn't come around to warn that detailed help is not permitted on MobileRead and you should go to Harper's GitHub or Alf's blog, where you can post logs.

Apologies, I didn't know that level of detail wasn't allowed, next time I'll post over on Alf's blog.

Quote:

Originally Posted by odamizu

I'm not sure you'd necessarily get an error message if chmod failed, though the fact the program crashes on exit is a good sign. See above note about the .voucher file. If you see a .voucher file, you're getting KFX.

I verified the .voucher file is NOT present, so looks like the chmod command worked.

Quote:

Originally Posted by odamizu

If going back to Calibre 4.23 and Alf 6.8.1 doesn't work, and if a clean install of K4Mac doesn't work, please try Harper's GitHub or Alf's blog.

This did it, book now opens fine. I'd also like to note, I did a full uninstall of calibre using AppCleaner this time instead of just downloading and over-writing the old calibre .app file. I don't know if that helped or not, but it deleted a bunch of other stuff that could have been messing with settings.

Anyway, I'm all fixed up now, and I think I'm going to just stay with these versions of calibre and tools until they stop working in the future. I do my best to NOT buy Kindle books and instead buy them from other online stores (Rakuten Kobo, etc) , but every once in a while that's the only place I can find the book I'm looking for. And it seems like every time I buy one I have to go through this entire process over again because (like an idiot) I updated the various software to newer versions. Well, no more! I'm sticking with these versions since they work!

Thanks again for all the help.

lkmiller · 08-15-2021, 10:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by odamizu

Has anyone had any experience with "Great on Kindle" books?

There is a post on Alf's blog for this book: https://www.amazon.com/Four-Agreemen.../dp/B005BRS8Z6

It downloads to K4Mac as qa7sq_th.azw (an unusual filename!) and is identified as KF8, but doesn't work with Alf.

I have no experience with "Great on Kindle" books. Wondering if "Great on Kindle" books are a problem for Alf, or if the problem lies elsewhere.

(The same poster has another issue on Alf's blog that also poses an interesting puzzle, if anyone is intrigued by puzzles.)

Downloading a sample of that book for my Oasis gave a KF8 which worked with Alf.

Sirtel · 08-15-2021, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lkmiller

Downloading a sample of that book for my Oasis gave a KF8 which worked with Alf.

I just downloaded a free "Great on Kindle" book, using the transfer with computer option. It downloaded as AZW3 and had no Alf issues either.

odamizu · 08-15-2021, 11:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lkmiller

Downloading a sample of that book for my Oasis gave a KF8 which worked with Alf.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I just downloaded a free "Great on Kindle" book, using the transfer with computer option. It downloaded as AZW3 and had no Alf issues either.

Did you try downloading to Kindle for PC/Mac? I'm not 100% certain, but "Great on Kindle" books appear to have special features when read on Kindle for iOS/Android rather than eink Kindles. Wondering if the file format or file content is different depending on device. Also, there was that weird filename the poster got: qa7sq_th.azw when downloading to Kindle for Mac.

Sirtel · 08-16-2021, 12:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by odamizu

Did you try downloading to Kindle for PC/Mac?

Yeah, still AZW3. But then I only have an ancient version of Kindle for PC, 1.17. It's not even capable to download a KFX.

DNSB · 08-16-2021, 12:40 AM

I download the sample for The Four Agreements using K4PC 1.32.0 with KFX blocked and that got a file that worked with calibre/DEDRM.

odamizu · 08-16-2021, 01:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yeah, still AZW3. But then I only have an ancient version of Kindle for PC, 1.17. It's not even capable to download a KFX.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DNSB

I download the sample for The Four Agreements using K4PC 1.32.0 with KFX blocked and that got a file that worked with calibre/DEDRM.

Great! Thank you! Good to rule out "Great on Kindle" as the problem.

lkmiller · 08-16-2021, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by odamizu

Also, there was that weird filename the poster got: qa7sq_th.azw when downloading to Kindle for Mac.

Seems like the temp file name you see in calibre logs. Haven't seen anything like that directly from Amazon before.

odamizu · 08-17-2021, 01:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lkmiller

Seems like the temp file name you see in calibre logs. Haven't seen anything like that directly from Amazon before.

Aha! I see what's going on now. Thank you for enlightenment. Hopefully the OP will be able to get it working.

wakakaka · 08-23-2021, 09:17 AM

Hey guys,
The discussion is (rightly so) mostly about the ability to block the new formats generation and get a Calibre-compatible format out of the Kindle app.
I successfully get azw files for magazines from Amazon. However, I noticed an intriguing detail today: a magazine I generated as azw weights 58.8 MB according to Calibre. On the Amazon page, they write: "File size : 344479 KB".

This is a huge size difference which most likely explains why I when I zoom to 200% it stars to get blurry. Is there a way to generate the highest quality possible when making the Kindle4Mac app download the file?

Thank you all for your extremely helpful advice.

jhowell · 08-23-2021, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wakakaka

I successfully get azw files for magazines from Amazon. However, I noticed an intriguing detail today: a magazine I generated as azw weights 58.8 MB according to Calibre. On the Amazon page, they write: "File size : 344479 KB".

I do not understand what you are comparing here. What do you mean by "a magazine I generated"?

Quote:

Originally Posted by wakakaka

This is a huge size difference which most likely explains why I when I zoom to 200% it stars to get blurry. Is there a way to generate the highest quality possible when making the Kindle4Mac app download the file?

The size of a book downloaded from Amazon will often be less than the size as stated on their website. Amazon delivers different image size and quality based on the Kindle device or app that it is being used to read it. Here are some previous discussions of this topic:

How to download full resolution images?

Some questions regarding Oasis 2 & comics/manga

In any case the image quality will never be better than whatever the publisher provides to Amazon.

DNSB · 09-13-2021, 02:04 AM

For what it's worth, the KFX blocking batch file for Windows (link in message # 1265) works with K4PC 1.33.

LoveDicts · 09-25-2021, 09:33 AM

Hi everyone,

I cannot believe how complicated this is. First and last time I'm buying a book from Amazon

In the meantime, I really need to convert the one I got, but I'm afraid I am completely stuck. I've tried methods 1 and 4 so far:
Method 1: I installed Kindle 1.17, couldn't log in, deregistered the newer Kindle in my Amazon account, waited, tried again, it still didn't work... I reinstalled it, it still didn't work... Am I missing something?
Method 4: I installed the KFX Input plugin in my Calibre. I couldn't install the DeDRM plugin, however, as it requires at least Calibre 5.0, but the installer refuses to work because I am still using Windows 7...

Before trying to jump through more hoops, I thought I'd ask: do I have any hope of getting anywhere with method 2?

What would you recommend?

Thank you.

Quoth · 09-25-2021, 10:10 AM

I suggest buying an eink kindle, new or S/H, new enough to support KF8/azw3. But select Download to PC and then THAT Kindle. You copy & paste the serial number in to Alf from your Amazon page as it's tricky to be sure of O vs 0 on the settings on the Kindle. You can re-download all previous purchases.
Don't enable the WiFi after registering (or even temporarily change your WiFi point password to register).

LoveDicts · 09-25-2021, 12:17 PM

Thank you, Quoth.
However, I'd rather avoid buying a whole new device just for this one book.
I think I'm gonna try to find and install version 1.24 in order to attempt method 2...

09-13-2021, 02:04 AM	#1302
DNSB Bibliophagist Posts: 48,175 Karma: 174315444 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vancouver Device: Kobo Sage, Libra Colour, Lenovo M8 FHD, Paperwhite 4, Tolino epos	For what it's worth, the KFX blocking batch file for Windows (link in message # 1265) works with K4PC 1.33. Last edited by DNSB; 09-13-2021 at 02:06 AM.

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08-16-2021, 12:40 AM	#1296
DNSB Bibliophagist Posts: 48,175 Karma: 174315444 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vancouver Device: Kobo Sage, Libra Colour, Lenovo M8 FHD, Paperwhite 4, Tolino epos	I download the sample for The Four Agreements using K4PC 1.32.0 with KFX blocked and that got a file that worked with calibre/DEDRM.

08-23-2021, 09:17 AM	#1300
wakakaka Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2021 Device: Kindle	Hey guys, The discussion is (rightly so) mostly about the ability to block the new formats generation and get a Calibre-compatible format out of the Kindle app. I successfully get azw files for magazines from Amazon. However, I noticed an intriguing detail today: a magazine I generated as azw weights 58.8 MB according to Calibre. On the Amazon page, they write: "File size : 344479 KB". This is a huge size difference which most likely explains why I when I zoom to 200% it stars to get blurry. Is there a way to generate the highest quality possible when making the Kindle4Mac app download the file? Thank you all for your extremely helpful advice.

09-25-2021, 09:33 AM	#1303
LoveDicts Junior Member Posts: 8 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2021 Device: Kindle for PC	Hi everyone, I cannot believe how complicated this is. First and last time I'm buying a book from Amazon In the meantime, I really need to convert the one I got, but I'm afraid I am completely stuck. I've tried methods 1 and 4 so far: Method 1: I installed Kindle 1.17, couldn't log in, deregistered the newer Kindle in my Amazon account, waited, tried again, it still didn't work... I reinstalled it, it still didn't work... Am I missing something? Method 4: I installed the KFX Input plugin in my Calibre. I couldn't install the DeDRM plugin, however, as it requires at least Calibre 5.0, but the installer refuses to work because I am still using Windows 7... Before trying to jump through more hoops, I thought I'd ask: do I have any hope of getting anywhere with method 2? What would you recommend? Thank you.

09-25-2021, 10:10 AM	#1304
Quoth Still reading Posts: 15,004 Karma: 111111255 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper	I suggest buying an eink kindle, new or S/H, new enough to support KF8/azw3. But select Download to PC and then THAT Kindle. You copy & paste the serial number in to Alf from your Amazon page as it's tricky to be sure of O vs 0 on the settings on the Kindle. You can re-download all previous purchases. Don't enable the WiFi after registering (or even temporarily change your WiFi point password to register).

09-25-2021, 12:17 PM	#1305
LoveDicts Junior Member Posts: 8 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2021 Device: Kindle for PC	Thank you, Quoth. However, I'd rather avoid buying a whole new device just for this one book. I think I'm gonna try to find and install version 1.24 in order to attempt method 2...