Amazon removed books from my Kindle

[traktor]

I wanted to contribute to the conversation by reporting that my side-loaded MOBI ebooks were deleted after connecting to wifi despite having the PDOC tag (I claim this based on my Calibre output options having the MOBI output tag set to PDOC - I didn't check the actual files)

There seems to be an assumption in this thread that MOBI books with PDOC tag are safe. They aren't.

[Timboli]

I've noticed that many of my ebooks seem to be in limbo, while being partway through a forced conversion to KFX. That's from looking at things in the Documents folder.

[tlc]

Long thread. Is this an accurate summary of the issue?

1. Amazon is removing books sideloaded via USB as EBOKs if they have an ASIN that Amazon thinks doesn't belong on the device.
2. The deletion is triggered by (certain) WiFi usage.
3. Fake ASINs won't fix this because they won't be in the "belongs there" list.
4. Books missing ASINs in calibre get fake ASINs when sideloaded by calibre.
5. The only fixes are very careful (or no) WiFi usage or loading them as PDOCs.
6. AZW3 is always as created EBOK in calibre conversions. Only MOBI and KFX can be PDOC.

[John F]

Originally Posted by tlc

Long thread. Is this an accurate summary of the issue?

1. Amazon is removing books sideloaded via USB as EBOKs if they have an ASIN that Amazon thinks doesn't belong on the device.
2. The deletion is triggered by (certain) WiFi usage.
3. Fake ASINs won't fix this because they won't be in the "belongs there" list.
   
4. Books missing ASINs in calibre get fake ASINs when sideloaded by calibre.
5. The only fixes are very careful (or no) WiFi usage or loading them as PDOCs.
6. AZW3 is always as created EBOK in calibre conversions. Only MOBI and KFX can be PDOC.

Interesting about the bolded line, does this apply to calibre transferring ebooks to other brand ereaders (especially Kobo).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by John F

Interesting about the bolded line, does this apply to calibre transferring ebooks to other brand ereaders (especially Kobo).

The ASIN only applies to Kindle eBooks.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by tlc

1. Books missing ASINs in calibre get fake ASINs when sideloaded by calibre.

Originally Posted by John F

Interesting about the bolded line, does this apply to calibre transferring ebooks to other brand ereaders (especially Kobo).

No. ASIN is short for Amazon Standard Identification Number and is stored in Amazon ebook formats as the 504 cdetype. An ASIN can be placed in a ePub's .opf as an dc:identifier but you can stuff pretty much anything into a dc:identifier.

[zaqxsw]

Reading back through this thread I don't think my issue has to do with just upgrading to the new firmware 5.18.2 yesterday. I'm in no way an expert but thought my observations today were interesting.

I'm on my third PW and am running a Kindle Paperwhite 5 - Gen 11 2022. I normally have Wi-Fi off to save on battery power. I've used PWs since 2012 and Calibre as long as I can remember. I process almost exclusively library borrowed eBooks through Calibre and side load them. None are stored on Amazon's cloud. I've been through the book cover issues and resolved them.

Today I turned on Wi-Fi for the first time in a few weeks. All of my eBooks disappeared, but all of my personal documents were fine. Looking at my device content on Amazon there was none. Even though I side-load the eBooks I had kept Amazon's "Collection" organization synced when I add a new eBook. Long story but it was beneficial when switching to a new PW. They had wiped out everything on the Amazon website.

I had just imaged my PW yesterday luckily. I'm talking about a full drive image. So I restored the complete image to my PW. I left PW's Wi-Fi connected. Started it up but while my "Collection" labels were in place all of the eBooks were stored under Uncollected. I have quite a collection organization, so this was going to be a chore.

Again, leaving the Wi-Fi on I restarted the PW. All of my "Collections" got re-populated except for 20 eBooks for some reason.

I assigned them to "Collections", held my breath and restarted again. Everything stayed and no eBooks were removed. I turned off Wi-Fi and imaged the PW again. Don't have the nerve to turn Wi-Fi back on today...

[zaqxsw]

Update: my PW has been on Wi-Fi since my original post. All of my eBooks are still there and in their correct "Collections". I've restarted the PW numerous times.

Today, I borrowed a new book from a public digital library. Since there is no longer a "Download and Transfer" option I just had it sent to my PW. It showed up. I connected Calibre to the PW and added the new eBook to the Calibre library. I then went to the Amazon Content website and returned the eBook and also deleted it from that website.

Back in Calibre I sent the eBook to my PW which no longer had the eBook. I sent it to my PW as a AZW3 format. It appeared, but I disconnected Wi-Fi before adding it to a "Collection" so that "Collection" wouldn't sync with Amazon.

I enabled Wi-Fi and everything is fine. I have the new eBook in the "Collection" I chose. All of my other eBooks are also filed and available.

Again, no expert here but it seems that when I sync'd "Collections" with Amazon they deleted not only the "Collections", but any title shown in them. When I don't sync "Collections" with Amazon, they have at least in the last couple of days left my side-loaded eBooks alone. Of course I can't explain this...

[zaqxsw]

While connected on Wi-Fi, I created a new "Collection" and randomly added an existing eBook to it. The new "Collection" did not sync with Amazon due to the eBook being side loaded.

Neither the new "Collection" nor the assigned eBook appears on the Amazon Device Content site. That website is still empty.

All is fine on my connected PW. Maybe because all of my eBooks were public and probably older than the more recent ones. Time will tell.

[Sirtel]

Sideloaded books won't get deleted if you keep wifi always on. They'll get deleted if you have kept wifi off for a long time and then connect again.

[zaqxsw]

Wow! Good to know. Thanks for the reply!

[JSWolf]

However, keeping WiFi on will drain the battery.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

However, keeping WiFi on will drain the battery.

I keep WiFi on on my Kindles and it's not as if the batteries drain precipitously. Worth it to me for syncing reading position across devices.

[JBaby]

Originally Posted by issybird

I keep WiFi on on my Kindles and it's not as if the batteries drain precipitously. Worth it to me for syncing reading position across devices.

Same. And besides sync it’s worth it to me because of Goodreads and Wikipedia. Living perpetually in airplane mode doesn’t work for me.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by JBaby

Same. And besides sync it’s worth it to me because of Goodreads and Wikipedia. Living perpetually in airplane mode doesn’t work for me.

Exactly this. I use the Wikipedia connection to look up things in books a LOT.

Of course, I also need the wifi on so that my books sync automatically. I can literally just close the cover on the kindle in my office, walk upstairs to my bedroom and open the book on the kindle that's up there and pick up where I left off. The most I may have to do is tap "sync to furthest page read" on the second kindle. If I hadn't opened the book yet on that kindle, it will automatically open at the page I stopped at downstairs.

It's enough like magic* that it still makes me smile almost every time.

*"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" (and yes, I know that syncing is not really "advanced tech", but it definitely seems like magic to non-technical people)

Shari