DRM workaround: Kindle for Android

[anil4523]

Method works, Nice Instruction
Some publisher still force android app to upgrade to download & read books (like P***son)

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by anil4523

Method works, Nice Instruction
Some publisher still force android app to upgrade to download & read books (like P***son)

Print Replica or KFX only require an update. But then, you cannot remove the DRM from them anyway so don't upgrade.

[skilily]

amazing work！

[Ausbandicoot]

On 17 May I was directed to these instructions to get around the latest Amazon DRM matter. I set up the Kindle for Android Emulation using BlueStacks 5 on a Windows 10 PC. It was not an easy process for someone with my very modest IT skills, but with multiple help I got there. Previously I had used Kindle 1.17.0 for PC and Calibre, and life was good until I made an Amazon purchase I could not de-DRM and which required me to upgrade Kindle for PC.

Having installed to Kindle for Android emulation in BlueStacks, I finally got it working, and I was able to import them into my PC and then to Calibre, where the DRM was removed. All good.

Then yesterday I purchased another Amazon ebook, followed the same process and imported the *_EBOK.prc file to my PC, but now Calibre cannot remove the DRM.

Any suggestions?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Ausbandicoot

Then yesterday I purchased another Amazon ebook, followed the same process and imported the *_EBOK.prc file to my PC, but now Calibre cannot remove the DRM.

Any suggestions?

If DRM removal is failing it is best seek help by creating an issue on noDRM's GitHub. Detailed assistance with DRM removal is not allowed here on MobileRead.

[Ma'am-I-Am]

Originally Posted by jhowell

If DRM removal is failing it is best seek help by creating an issue on noDRM's GitHub. Detailed assistance with DRM removal is not allowed here on MobileRead.

This is interesting to me. Ausbandicoot gave me a link to the book. If you want it, you can ask them.

The book is 2016. The user added it to Calibre where it showed as .azw. However, when they tried to convert it, they got the DRM error noting it was KFX. They did not say whether the azw opened in Calibre. I downloaded a sample. There is no voucher included and I added it to Calibre with no difficulty.

My question is: what would cause a purchased 2016 book with no apparent voucher to be interpreted by Calibre as a kfx when trying to convert?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Ausbandicoot

Then yesterday I purchased another Amazon ebook, followed the same process and imported the *_EBOK.prc file to my PC, but now Calibre cannot remove the DRM.

Originally Posted by Ma'am-I-Am

The book is 2016. The user added it to Calibre where it showed as .azw. However, when they tried to convert it, they got the DRM error noting it was KFX. They did not say whether the azw opened in Calibre. I downloaded a sample. There is no voucher included and I added it to Calibre with no difficulty.

My question is: what would cause a purchased 2016 book with no apparent voucher to be interpreted by Calibre as a kfx when trying to convert?

I do not see Ausbandicoot indicating that the book was in KFX format. If Ausbandicoot followed the instructions in the first post of this thread then they have installed a version of Kindle for Android that is incapable of downloading in KFX format. That is backed up by the ".prc" file extension mentioned in the post quoted above. That file extension is not used for KFX.

As to the reason for DRM removal failing I think it is most likely that Ausbandicoot failed to follow all of the instructions properly and that DRM removal is not set up properly on their system. If that is the case then the books that worked previously never had DRM to begin with.

[Hellioness]

Originally Posted by darthyoda6

It took a while, but finally got it working with Bluestacks. It seems to have worked with a KU borrow, which I already read on my Kindle device first and was about to return.

Same, after a lot of trial and error I was finally able to get it to work. Does anyone know where Bluestacks saves the files locally? Using the built in Bluestacks file manager is taking forever to export the files, hoping there's a local folder so I can just drag and drop. Thanks!

[Hellioness]

Originally Posted by Ausbandicoot

On 17 May I was directed to these instructions to get around the latest Amazon DRM matter. I set up the Kindle for Android Emulation using BlueStacks 5 on a Windows 10 PC. It was not an easy process for someone with my very modest IT skills, but with multiple help I got there. Previously I had used Kindle 1.17.0 for PC and Calibre, and life was good until I made an Amazon purchase I could not de-DRM and which required me to upgrade Kindle for PC.

Having installed to Kindle for Android emulation in BlueStacks, I finally got it working, and I was able to import them into my PC and then to Calibre, where the DRM was removed. All good.

Then yesterday I purchased another Amazon ebook, followed the same process and imported the *_EBOK.prc file to my PC, but now Calibre cannot remove the DRM.

Any suggestions?

Double check that DeDRM still has your kindle key saved, I had that same issue, for some reason after a reboot DeDRM no longer had my key and I had to add the backup file again, worked fine after that.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Hellioness

Same, after a lot of trial and error I was finally able to get it to work. Does anyone know where Bluestacks saves the files locally? Using the built in Bluestacks file manager is taking forever to export the files, hoping there's a local folder so I can just drag and drop. Thanks!

There isn't a local folder. But you can easily make one yourself. Check the first post again, then go down to my step by step high resolution workaround. You don't need to do all that, but you can do step #7:

for each book extract the .prc and .ast file (the quick and dirty way is to use "adb pull /sdcard/Android/data/com.amazon.kindle/files" - then traverse the files folder and drag and drop the .prc files into calibre)

Make sure you leave the ADB mode open on Bluestacks, then you can script pulling the files out. Normally you have to do some shenanigans, because if you leave the ADB connection and close Bluestacks, it will not remember the connection. Unless you disconnect first and reconnect. I created a batch file (for windows) to automate that. It will work even if you have multiple Bluestacks which may be connected to ADB. After you pulled all that, you can search the files folder for *.prc to get all the books in there, sort by date, drag and drop into calibre the newest batch you downloaded. Afterwards remove them from the Kindle app in Bluestacks. It assumes that you are not connected, and if you are and it fails, just run it again. You will need to edit the port number, which will be different on your computer.

My get.bat file:

%echo off
adb connect localhost:5605
adb -s localhost:5605 -a pull /sdcard/Android/data/com.amazon.kindle/files
adb disconnect localhost:5605
%pause

Make sure to put it in the location you want the files copied to.

UPDATE:the above get.bat only works with a static port assigned. If the port is dynamic (e.g. when Hyper-V is enabled), it needs to get extracted first. A slightly more complicated batch file can be found in post#362.

[Ma'am-I-Am]

Originally Posted by Hellioness

Same, after a lot of trial and error I was finally able to get it to work. Does anyone know where Bluestacks saves the files locally? Using the built in Bluestacks file manager is taking forever to export the files, hoping there's a local folder so I can just drag and drop. Thanks!

Not sure what you're doing, but the basic way is to use the BS Media Manager and navigate to sdcard/android/data/com.amazon.kindle/files.
Search for .prc
Click and hold one result. New options will appear at the top. Click Select All, then Export to Windows (which is what I'm using). Pick your destination and it's done. No slower than any other file copying.
You could also use BlueStacks Tweaker. It has a file manager that works much like Windows. It allows a 2nd pane if you want it and you can save the path to sdcard etc. as a favorite so you don't have to navigate manually every time.

[DNSB]

I've just been exporting the entire file set for an ebook. Every now and then, I am pleasantly surprised when the higher resolution covers and images show up.

[Hellioness]

Originally Posted by Ma'am-I-Am

Not sure what you're doing, but the basic way is to use the BS Media Manager and navigate to sdcard/android/data/com.amazon.kindle/files.
Search for .prc
Click and hold one result. New options will appear at the top. Click Select All, then Export to Windows (which is what I'm using). Pick your destination and it's done. No slower than any other file copying.
You could also use BlueStacks Tweaker. It has a file manager that works much like Windows. It allows a 2nd pane if you want it and you can save the path to sdcard etc. as a favorite so you don't have to navigate manually every time.

My brain has checked out apparently, I was using the bluestacks media manager but I never thought to try the search option. Thanks!

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

There isn't a local folder. But you can easily make one yourself. Check the first post again, then go down to my step by step high resolution workaround. You don't need to do all that, but you can do step #7:

Make sure you leave the ADB mode open on Bluestacks, then you can script pulling the files out. Normally you have to do some shenanigans, because if you leave the ADB connection and close Bluestacks, it will not remember the connection. Unless you disconnect first and reconnect. I created a batch file (for windows) to automate that. It will work even if you have multiple Bluestacks which may be connected to ADB. After you pulled all that, you can search the files folder for *.prc to get all the books in there, sort by date, drag and drop into calibre the newest batch you downloaded. Afterwards remove them from the Kindle app in Bluestacks. It assumes that you are not connected, and if you are and it fails, just run it again. You will need to edit the port number, which will be different on your computer.

My get.bat file:

%echo off
adb connect localhost:5605
adb -s localhost:5605 -a pull /sdcard/Android/data/com.amazon.kindle/files
adb disconnect localhost:5605
%pause

Make sure to put it in the location you want the files copied to.

This fantastically helpful thanks so much!

[Ausbandicoot]

Originally Posted by Hellioness

Double check that DeDRM still has your kindle key saved, I had that same issue, for some reason after a reboot DeDRM no longer had my key and I had to add the backup file again, worked fine after that.

I was having trouble creating backup.ab at "Command prompt", as every attempt came up with a file size of 0 kb. I also redownloaded the problem ebook into Bluestacks 5 Kindle for Android. Finally I got a backup.ab file with a sensible amount of data in it, but could not add it to the plugin in Calibre.

I then decided to uninstall Calibre 6.17 and reinstall it. I then added the DeDRM 7.2.1 plugin for Calibre again. I had a bit of trouble working out where to add the backup.ab file in Calibre, but finally worked out I needed to only show the list of user-added plugins. The "file type" plugin was the one that contained DeDRM 7.2.1, so I was then able to add the newly created backup.ab file, and Calibre is now working as expected to deDRM an Amzon .prc format ebook (as azw3 in Calibre), and convert to ePUB and other formats as expected.

Thank you for the advice.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Ausbandicoot

I then decided to uninstall Calibre 6.17 and reinstall it. I then added the DeDRM 7.2.1 plugin for Calibre again. I had a bit of trouble working out where to add the backup.ab file in Calibre, but finally worked out I needed to only show the list of user-added plugins. The "file type" plugin was the one that contained DeDRM 7.2.1, so I was then able to add the newly created backup.ab file, and Calibre is now working as expected to deDRM an Amzon .prc format ebook (as azw3 in Calibre), and convert to ePUB and other formats as expected.

I would recommend updating to DeDRM 10.0.3. It fixes several issues with 7.2.1.