Using non-Amazon mobi books on Kindle reader

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by dordale

Calibre is great for transferring files to your Kindle. That's what I use as well. Only reason I can think of that you wouldn't want to do this is if you use multiple Kindle devices--you won't be able to sync your position on books side-loaded through Calibre. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. I'd love to know if there is actually a way to sync content that's been side-loaded to Kindles through Calibre.)

Technically you can, but it would require syncing the actual position files using a filesync program. You would accept updated or new files (but not ones with an older timestamp) to a master folder on your PC, then update Kindles whenever you connect them.

I actually have a guide to backing up your Kindle using linux and rsync here: Tutorial linux backup of Kindle, annotations/pagenumbers/stuff with rsync. I believe there is a version of rsync for Windows, or any other filesync program should be able to do the same if you just figure out how. My script was just for one Kindle, so it didn't include the --update flag.

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This isn't the most practical of solutions, of course.