Dealing with Kindle ebooks in calibre

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

A Kindle Paperwhite 5th Gen (aka PW1) or earlier. But no earlier then the Kindle 3 (aka Kindle keyboard).

Then when you download eBooks, you'll get KF8 format and not KFX.

And one gets color images. KFX substitutes black and white images for all Kindles other than Colorsoft.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by tomsem

And one gets color images. KFX substitutes black and white images for all Kindles other than Colorsoft.

And one can also get reduced sized images.

[DNSB]

On the three recent occasions where I've helped someone to purchase a Kindle from eBay, we have asked the seller about the Kindle being blacklisted. A couple of not sure responses with a offer to give a full refund, a couple of caveat emptor responses and several responses that the Kindle in question is not blacklisted and can be registered. Ordering from the not blacklisted response vendors resulted in 3 Kindles that were not blacklisted and could be registered. We did not get the cheapest prices (those belonged to the caveat emptor vendors) but were more than happy to get a device that could be registered for a few dollars more.

[MegDreamsofBooks]

With due diligence, Ebay can definitely be a good source for older Kindles. I purchased 2 Kindle 4 devices a few months ago, they came from one of the Goodwill sellers with a solid return policy and I had no trouble updating then registering them. They work very nicely to transfer my ebooks into Calibre, and are old enough I still get color covers (and low risk of a firmware update that blocks the transfer.)

Another good source is Woot, they frequently do deals with piles of refurbished Kindles from recent generations. These are usually still new enough for firmware updates, but also much safer and easier to purchase and register than something from Ebay.

That said, if you continue to buy ebooks from Amazon, you always risk being locked out of transferring them eventually. So while I do have the older Kindles for the few books I can only get from Amazon, my preference these days is to buy elsewhere, and only use Amazon for Kindle Unlimited books which I don't download because they are loans.

[Kaetrin]

Thank you everyone for your feedback! Very much appreciated.

[Asura]

I miss having my books drm free and read on calibre. Is the best way at this point just to get a kindle?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Asura

I miss having my books drm free and read on calibre. Is the best way at this point just to get a kindle?

The best way is to buy from Kobo and price match Amazon if Amazon is cheaper.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The best way is to buy from Kobo and price match Amazon if Amazon is cheaper.

This time I agree with JSWolf completely.

[odamizu]

I saw discussion on GitHub of Method 3 no longer working on new books (published after Sept 14, 2025??) downloaded to eink Kindles running 5.18.5. Can anyone confirm?

(My eink Kindles are way to old to run 5.18.5.)

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by odamizu

I saw discussion on GitHub of Method 3 no longer working on new books (published after Sept 14, 2025??) downloaded to eink Kindles running 5.18.5. Can anyone confirm?

I have a Kindle running 5.18.5 and so far I have had no problem even with a book that was published yesterday.

I have seen a few reports, but only one was detailed enough so far to be definitely attributable to a DRM change by Amazon. I suspect that they are doing a slow rollout as they often do with new features introduced in Kindle firmware.

[tulanespartan]

I have a Kindle Paperwhite 11 running 5.18.5, and I can confirm that Amazon has made a change to its DRM for ebooks purchased from Amazon. Up until version 5.18.5, I had no problems downloading ebooks to my Kindle, plugging the Kindle into my Mac, copying the KFX file to Calibre, and removing the DRM using noDRM 10.0.9, and KFX input 2.26.2. I was then able to convert the KFX to ePub, and save the ePub version for backup. Since, 5.18.5 was installed on my Kindle, I discovered that it is impossible to remove the DRM from 99% of the ebooks I purchased from Amazon, regardless of publication date and/or purchase date.

[bustacap]

Originally Posted by tulanespartan

I have a Kindle Paperwhite 11 running 5.18.5, and I can confirm that Amazon has made a change to its DRM for ebooks purchased from Amazon. Up until version 5.18.5, I had no problems downloading ebooks to my Kindle, plugging the Kindle into my Mac, copying the KFX file to Calibre, and removing the DRM using noDRM 10.0.9, and KFX input 2.26.2. I was then able to convert the KFX to ePub, and save the ePub version for backup. Since, 5.18.5 was installed on my Kindle, I discovered that it is impossible to remove the DRM from 99% of the ebooks I purchased from Amazon, regardless of publication date and/or purchase date.

even those that were already on your kindle and that you had downloaded before?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I have a Kindle running 5.18.5 and so far I have had no problem even with a book that was published yesterday.

I updated a second Kindle that I own to 5.18.5 and that device immediately began using the new DRM.

This DRM is applied to any newly downloaded books regardless of purchase or publication date. However it is not applied to books where the publisher has requested the DRM not be used, as shown on its sales page with "Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited" in the product details.

This new DRM uses an account secret stored in an inaccessible location as part of the key needed to unlock the encryption of the book. The only hope of being able to remove it requires access to that storage, which is only possible if the device was jailbroken prior to being updated to the new firmware.

[tulanespartan]

Originally Posted by bustacap

even those that were already on your kindle and that you had downloaded before?

Yes, even books that were already on my Kindle and that had been downloaded before.

[odamizu]

Well, I guess it was inevitable Thanks for confirming.

My Kindles don't receive software updates anymore, so I haven't kept up with the latest. Is there a way for people with newer Kindles to block auto updates?

Originally Posted by jhowell

I updated a second Kindle that I own to 5.18.5 and that device immediately began using the new DRM.

This DRM is applied to any newly downloaded books regardless of purchase or publication date. However it is not applied to books where the publisher has requested the DRM not be used, as shown on its sales page with "Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited" in the product details.

This new DRM uses an account secret stored in an inaccessible location as part of the key needed to unlock the encryption of the book. The only hope of being able to remove it requires access to that storage, which is only possible if the device was jailbroken prior to being updated to the new firmware.