Amazon has removed Download & Transfer option

[Keybounce]

Originally Posted by Fraccy

I was able to automate the download of my ~2400 Kindle books using the command line utility from https://github.com/yihong0618/Kindle_download_helper

I am needing help with this. I can log in, I have verified that my cookie is correct, I can see the list of downloadable books (the website lists some as not downloadable, namely samples and loans).

But the downloads fail -- I get errors


[2025-02-24 06:10:59,485]ERROR - Index: 2, Title: The Dark Side of The Human Needs: Help Clients Answer the Question 'Why Do I Do That?' and Stop Self Sabotage (Uncommon Practitioner Series), Asin: B09735LSYQ download failed
[2025-02-24 06:11:00,099]ERROR - 403 Client Error: Forbidden for url: https://cde-ta-g7g.amazon.com/FionaC...uthPool=Amazon
[2025-02-24 06:11:00,099]ERROR - Index: 3, Title: Crossing Point, Asin: B00COX5TIY download failed
[2025-02-24 06:11:00,815]ERROR - 403 Client Error: Forbidden for url: https://cde-ta-g7g.amazon.com/FionaC...uthPool=Amazon

Any idea what to do? This is the best I have so far.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Keybounce

I am needing help with this. I can log in, I have verified that my cookie is correct, I can see the list of downloadable books (the website lists some as not downloadable, namely samples and loans).

But the downloads fail -- I get errors


[2025-02-24 06:10:59,485]ERROR - Index: 2, Title: The Dark Side of The Human Needs: Help Clients Answer the Question 'Why Do I Do That?' and Stop Self Sabotage (Uncommon Practitioner Series), Asin: B09735LSYQ download failed
[2025-02-24 06:11:00,099]ERROR - 403 Client Error: Forbidden for url: https://cde-ta-g7g.amazon.com/FionaC...uthPool=Amazon
[2025-02-24 06:11:00,099]ERROR - Index: 3, Title: Crossing Point, Asin: B00COX5TIY download failed
[2025-02-24 06:11:00,815]ERROR - 403 Client Error: Forbidden for url: https://cde-ta-g7g.amazon.com/FionaC...uthPool=Amazon

Any idea what to do? This is the best I have so far.

I've been getting 403 errors now, but it was working a few days ago. My guess is that Amazon have blocked the URL format the cript was using.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Keybounce

I do not see a "K4PC" install. Only my physical devices.

It will list all of your registered Kindle apps and devices with the name assigned to each of them. Unless you changed it the name will be something like "Keybounce's Kindle for PC". Of course you do need to have Kindle for PC already installed and registered for that to work.

And to perform DRM removal you need to have one of a very specific set of older versions of the PC app installed before sending the files. The latest won't work. See Dealing with Kindle ebooks in calibre for details.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Keybounce

which might explain why it seemed to work, as I have that browser. But then, why was it not found in PATH?

Chrome and Chromium are not the same thing. One is proprietary, the other is open-source. The chromedriver binary is part of the Chromium package.

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Chrome and Chromium are not the same thing. One is proprietary, the other is open-source. The chromedriver binary is part of the Chromium package.

The alternative is to switch browsers! Edit bookp.py and change ChromeOptions() to FirefoxOptions() and Chrome() to Firefox(), and make sure you have the geckodriver package installed (it's an independent program, https://github.com/mozilla/geckodriver).

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by NullNix

The alternative is to switch browsers! Edit bookp.py and change ChromeOptions() to FirefoxOptions() and Chrome() to Firefox(), and make sure you have the geckodriver package installed (it's an independent program, https://github.com/mozilla/geckodriver).

That's certainly a possibility too. I just got the idea that editing the script might have been beyond some people's capabilities. It might be moot now anyway. The Python script I used successfully over the weekend is no longer working today. Logging in to my Amazon account works ok. I'm able to choose a device and see how many books await download, but the individual book downloads are all failing.

[Timboli]

The JS script is still working as of an hour or so ago.
Come some time Monday, I guess the Amazon coder will be back at work, and change things again.
So you probably don't have much time left.

[haertig]

I have always downloaded my Amazon book purchases immediately after buying them. So I had no urgent need to go download everything (already done, at purchase time). But I had some time today so I thought I'd go look for updates that were available. I didn't really care about this initially, but I was bored today and thought I might as well look.

I had about 3550 books. That is 142 pages of content on the Amazon website. I manually scrolled through all of those scanning for updates with my eyeballs only. Took me about one hour. Of all those books, I only found three dozen updates that I clicked to download (the rest I could immediately rule out as being not of interest). I can tell already that the vast majority of those update downloads I just did will never make it into Calibre. I clicked to download them if they sparked the briefest flicker of interest. I think on a second pass of what I downloded that I'll probably reject most everything I just did.

I noticed a couple of trends in my book collection regarding updates. Number one is, I have collected a ton of garbage books! Most of these appear to be free "purchases" that I did based on listings on websites like "freebooksy" and others of that ilk. Never heard of the author, never heard of the series, don't even recall the book title. But there it is in my collection, for whatever reason (I know that reason was because it was free!)

The second trend I noticed was that these free books tend to be the ones that have updates. Third was that specific authors, and specific series, tend to have many updates. I found a few authors that I could almost guarantee that the next book of theirs that showed up in my search would have an update. I figure these authors either make a lot of mistakes that need updating, or maybe they're just super-meticulous about polishing what they publish (doubtful, since many are the free books I have already commented on).

So based on my manual scan of my book collection at Amazon, updates are indeed something that I don't need to worry about. I wasted a hour of my life, but not a big deal - I was bored anyway.

Oh, one other trend that I noticed. My Amazon ebook purchases have dropped way down in recent years. Almost nothing recently. So not only will it not bother me that Download and Transfer is gone, I don't think it would even bother me much if Amazon takes away the "purchase" option too. I know in a previous post that I said I would not be buying books from Amazon anymore after this D&T thing. But I found that I had stopped 99% this purchasing already, regardless of D&T's status. I'm basically only reading library loans and Amazon purchases from long ago these days.

That's my story. Other's experiences will no doubt be different.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by haertig

... I had some time today so I thought I'd go look for updates that were available ... I noticed a couple of trends ... specific authors, and specific series, tend to have many updates. I found a few authors that I could almost guarantee that the next book of theirs that showed up in my search would have an update. I figure these authors either make a lot of mistakes that need updating, or maybe they're just super-meticulous about polishing what they publish ...

Some authors who frequently update their ebooks put "coming soon" news at the end of their books, often with an excerpt or two. So when they have a new book coming out, they'll update related books with an excerpt or announcement.

[jake01756]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Even the Music publishers realised that DRM had to go.

Steve Jobs played a big role in that. He pushed the publishers to go DRM-free to create a "iTunes Plus" format that was 256kbps ACC DRM free. The users loved it. And the email and name of whoever purchased the track was stamped into the metadata of the track (this could easily be removed but not for the novice user). The record labels were scared about losing money to piracy (which never really happened). DRM only hurts the end user that paid for the content. Pirates will ALWAYS find a way.

Book publishers could easily do the same. But Amazon is not going to budge without huge pushback from the publishers.

I do, however, support DRM on Kindle Unlimited books as you are renting them and you don't own them. I have a personal rule about never removing DRM from those kinds of books.

[Aleron Ives]

KU is a special case, since authors are paid by usage tracking that only happens if you leave the DRM in place.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

KU is a special case, since authors are paid by usage tracking that only happens if you leave the DRM in place.

Obviously usage tracking requires an internet connection (therefore Airplane Mode would kill it), but why does it require DRM to be in place? I hadn't heard this before.

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by haertig

I have always downloaded my Amazon book purchases immediately after buying them.

That's my story. Other's experiences will no doubt be different.

Indeed, and my story is a little different.

I have more than double what you have at Amazon, most of them free via a BookBub recommendation, and I grabbed them because they were free, but I was also very selective about it too, they had to appeal, usually not enough to risk buying, but then I can be a bit averse that way. That said, I will probably never end up reading most of them, which was why I stopped using BookBub many many months ago.

A good portion of the ebooks I have from Amazon, are in the KFX format, grabbed immediately after purchase. I am pretty sure I got them all, but with the Download & transfer via USB option disappearing, it was my last opportunity to grab them in the AZW or AZW3 format, and some could possibly have slipped through the cracks, despite me being very diligent.

I also hadn't kept up with Updates, and while most from what I saw were for the free ebooks I'd gotten, a good number weren't, and on my slow PC, I wasn't keen to browse through those awful bloated Amazon pages to discover and get them ... would have taken me more than a day, and not a good use of my time.

Anyway, I decided I did not want to lose access to such a resource, because one never knows what the future might bring or reveal. So luckily that JS script and an assistant program of my own, made the whole process of obtaining that resource far less onerous.

Now I am prepared as much as I can be.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by haertig

Obviously usage tracking requires an internet connection (therefore Airplane Mode would kill it), but why does it require DRM to be in place? I hadn't heard this before.

Because it would be a different file. KU uses Whispernet.

[Jacques Q.]

Hello.
I've been trying to look for an answer in this thread, but it is a rather long thread, so sorry, I couldn't find it (maybe it's not there at all, or maybe somewhere else).
So my question is simple : my usual method is to buy Kindle e-books (in France), open them on my computer with the Kindle reader software (most recent version as far as I know), add them to Calibre using the "add book" tool, de-AZW3/KFX them using the appropriate plug-in (thanks a zillion times again to its maker !), and then send the EPub version to any Kindle device I want (including recent ones like ColorSoft) via "Send to Kindle" or sometimes e-mail (using the Brave browser) if I want it at hand, and of course carefully save several backups of my Calibre library. After that I usually delete the book from my Amazon account, having no more use for it.
I've had no issue, no warning message from Amazon, nothing so far when doing that (including today).
So : is that method still working (and if so, as far as can be predicted, will it still be working in the technically foreseeable future) ?
Thanks in advance