Dealing with Kindle ebooks in calibre

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I can see it, easily. The majority of their customers read in apps, those still reading on ancient Kindles only are probably a very small minority.

Disabling Download and Transfer caused a backlash too. Did Amazon care? Nope.

Indeed, they could ditch all Kindle HW or just PW1 and older.

But curiously the DXG still works to get ebooks from Amazon (though only in mobi/KF7 rather than azw3/KF8 or KFX) because I still have 2G (GSM-EDGE) here, although the 3G is gone. Worked last week.

So they also simply might not bother. It's work to cut stuff off.

[MegDreamsofBooks]

Originally Posted by Amalthia

I think this latest update to the Amazon DRM is the straw that broke this camel's back. I'm tired of trying to find a work-around to add my legally purchased ebooks to Calibre so I can convert the file to epub to read on my Pocketbook reader.

I've decided to no longer purchase ebooks from Amazon. Too bad for those that aren't selling at Kobo, or have their ebooks available at their public library.

I made the same decision this week. I had already reduced my Amazon ebook purchases to only the authors I love that weren’t available elsewhere, and I’ve been getting most of my books from Kobo, Smashwords, and Google Play except for a few exclusive authors.

But now that it’s getting even more complicated to download my legally purchased books from Amazon, I’ll finish off the 2 series from 2 authors I’m currently reading (1 or 2 books left, each) and no more Amazon purchases after that.

I probably will keep my Kindle Unlimited subscription and continue to read those in the Kindle app, because when I get in a binge reading mood KU has more volume and variety than my local library and I’m definitely getting my money’s worth there.

Luckily, a lot of KU authors are realizing this is happening, and they’re starting to find ways to offer their books for sale outside of Amazon for limited periods of time which means I can still get most of my KU authors elsewhere as long as I pay attention to their announcements (I set up an email address just for signing up for author newsletters.)

[Ma'am-I-Am]

Just a little aside here because it might help someone move on from Amazon.
I use a free browser add-on called Library Extension, which (as the name implies) tells you if the book you're looking at on, say, Amazon or Goodreads, is available at your local libraries. It got even more useful when they added Kobo Plus to the choices. libraryextention dot com

[jpetts99]

Originally Posted by Ma'am-I-Am

Just a little aside here because it might help someone move on from Amazon.
I use a free browser add-on called Library Extension, which (as the name implies) tells you if the book you're looking at on, say, Amazon or Goodreads, is available at your local libraries. It got even more useful when they added Kobo Plus to the choices. libraryextention dot com

I've also been using this for a couple of years now - probably my favourite extension. Heck, I even make a decent annual donation to thedevelopers. Highly recommended.

[Ma'am-I-Am]

Originally Posted by jpetts99

I've also been using this for a couple of years now - probably my favourite extension. Heck, I even make a decent annual donation to thedevelopers. Highly recommended.

Check their website once in a while. I had assumed all they did was libraries only to remember archive.org is on the list, so I checked and found Kobo Plus had been added.

[Amalthia]

Originally Posted by Ma'am-I-Am

Just a little aside here because it might help someone move on from Amazon.
I use a free browser add-on called Library Extension, which (as the name implies) tells you if the book you're looking at on, say, Amazon or Goodreads, is available at your local libraries. It got even more useful when they added Kobo Plus to the choices. libraryextention dot com

This sounds like a good extension! I've been trying to remind people that libraries exist for some time now. I think libraries will also purchase ebooks/books if people request them.

[gordonsj]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I can see it, easily. The majority of their customers read in apps, those still reading on ancient Kindles only are probably a very small minority.

Disabling Download and Transfer caused a backlash too. Did Amazon care? Nope.

I've posted a couple of times on various threads regarding this point, of whether Amazon will render older Kindles completely unable to download purchased books.. It's the big question regarding DRM removal. I tend to agree with JSWolf. There are a LOT of Amazon customers out there using older Kindles. My favourite reading device if there is good light is one of my old Kindle 3 Keyboard devices. I love the dual page turn buttons. I have accumulated a number of them to cannibalise for spares and new batteries and screens are available. The free worldwide 3g still works in places where there remains 3g. Many Amazon customers will be very, very, upset if Amazon makes their perfectly good hardware useless.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by gordonsj

I've posted a couple of times on various threads regarding this point, of whether Amazon will render older Kindles completely unable to download purchased books.. It's the big question regarding DRM removal. I tend to agree with JSWolf. There are a LOT of Amazon customers out there using older Kindles. My favourite reading device if there is good light is one of my old Kindle 3 Keyboard devices. I love the dual page turn buttons. I have accumulated a number of them to cannibalise for spares and new batteries and screens are available. The free worldwide 3g still works in places where there remains 3g. Many Amazon customers will be very, very, upset if Amazon makes their perfectly good hardware useless.

One of the things Amazon gained by doing away with the Download & Transfer feature is increased information about how older Kindles are actually being used. While Kindles are connected to Amazon's servers in order to download books they are also uploading usage statistics. That includes the number of pages read in each book.

With that they can tell whether a device is actually being used for reading or if it is only being used as a downloader for DRM removal. If their data shows that the latter is being done by a significant portion of older Kindle owners it will make it much more likely that those devices will lose the ability to download books, ruining it for those who actually read on them.

[KevinH]

Which is exactly what a user might do if their primary reading tool is an epub reader (once sans DRM) and the never actually read it on the Kindle device or App.

I gave up buying books through Kindle when they moved beyond the kf8 format and made DRM removal harder and then almost impossible. Other book vendors have huge numbers of books to choose from, and the Kindle exclusive self-published stuff is mainly drivel.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by jhowell

With that they can tell whether a device is actually being used for reading or if it is only being used as a downloader for DRM removal. If their data shows that the latter is being done by a significant portion of older Kindle owners it will make it much more likely that those devices will lose the ability to download books, ruining it for those who actually read on them.

Technically, other than for Borrows/Library titles, such monitoring of your ereader may be illegal. Certainly in UK, Norway, Switzerland & EU.

I would also ruin it for people to buy from Amazon and read on a different device. It goes beyond what any sane publisher wants.

People (small publishers or authors) using KDP Select for KU and thus forced to be exclusive on Amazon are making a mistake. Big publishers on KU don't have to be exclusive. Amazon already has over 90% of world wide English Language ebook sales.
It's about enforcing an Amazon walled garden, not copyright.

[Geese1]

Curious to see if anyone has any advice here.

I haven't used a Kindle in a couple of years, having moved on to a Kobo Clara BW, and then just last week a Nook GlowLight 4 Plus. Luckily, before I got my Kobo I had gone ahead and imported my entire Kindle library into Calibre and converted all the books to epub. I still kept buying ebooks from Amazon though, and downloading them to my PC and converting them, until Amazon disabled the download option, and I haven't touched them since then.

I was just reading that the latest Amazon firmware updates had disabled the removal of DRM from books, but that those with older devices could still go ahead and use the feature. Since my Kindle is an Oasis 9th generation, and still on firmware 5.16.2.1.1, I decided to test it out. I made sure I had the latest DeDRM and KFX plugins installed in Calibre, and then went ahead and purchased a new book.

However, while I can import the book into Calibre directly from my Oasis, it still transfers in as a KFX-ZIP file, and I can't convert it to epub due to the DRM.

By all accounts, I should be able to do this, so I'm just wondering if Amazon has changed something else or there's something obvious I'm missing.

Any help would be appreciated, as while I've been primarily buying books from Kobo and Google, and then adding them to my Calibre library, there are still some books and authors that are exclusive to Amazon that I'd like to have copies of.

[Sirtel]

Did you enter the serial number of your Oasis in the deDRM plugin settings?

[Geese1]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Did you enter the serial number of your Oasis in the deDRM plugin settings?

Yes, I double checked to make sure it was still there. I had to enter it when I first downloaded my Amazon library a year or two back and it was still saved.

[lkmiller]

I can confirm that an Oasis 9th gen on that firmware still works. Are you using DeDRM 10.0.9?

[Geese1]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

I can confirm that an Oasis 9th gen on that firmware still works. Are you using DeDRM 10.0.9?

Awesome, that was the issue! I was using the latest stable version, which was 10.0.3. I went ahead and downloaded and installed the beta version (10.0.9) and that did the trick.

As I said, this will be a big help getting books that are only available on Amazon. Even after getting my Kobo Clara BW, I still bought all my ebooks from Amazon since I could download them to my computer and use Calibre to manage them. Once they stopped allowing that, I didn't even bother to look for other alternative ways to do it. Hopefully Amazon doesn't try to find a way to block this current method.

Thanks again!