Send to Kindle as a book

[JBaby]

Originally Posted by jhowell

If your sideloaded file has metadata indicating that it is a "book" [CDETYPE=EBOK] then it will appear as a book when added via USB. However if that metadata is not set then it will appear as a doc instead. (Send via email or send-to-kindle forces the metadata to make it a "doc". [CDETYPE=PDOC])

Calibre usually sets that metadata, but it might not always be present depending on your calibre settings or if the file was produced elsewhere.

Thanks for the clarification!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by John F

Sure. But that is not an announcement.

The information on the U.S. site varies last time I looked. No mention on the new paperwhite details. On the Scribe, it says supported through conversion.

That does make it look like the PW5 supports ePub natively. yes Amazon got it wrong and yes, Amazon should have fixed it. This then gets out that Amazon are now supporting ePub natively.

In the US, the PW5 mentions nothing about ePub and the Kindle 2022 says ePub through conversion. It's the UK site that gets it wrong.

[A Lurker]

Originally Posted by John F

Where did you hear "their announcement". It seems like the mis-information started snow balling from goodereader?

I received an email from Amazon back on May 4th announcing that mobi is being discontinued and epubs are now compatible. Here's the email:

Dear Kindle Customer,

Thank you for using the Send to Kindle service to send personal documents to your Kindle library. We wanted to let you know that starting August 2022, you’ll no longer be able to send MOBI (.mobi, .azw) files to your library. Any MOBI files already in your Kindle library will not be affected by this change.

MOBI is an older file format and won’t support the newest Kindle features for documents. Any existing MOBI files you want to read with our most up-to-date features for documents will need to be re-sent in a compatible file format.

Also, compatible formats now include EPUB (.epub), which you can send to your library using your Send to Kindle email address. We’ll also be adding EPUB support to the free Kindle app for iOS and Android devices and the Send to Kindle desktop app for PC and Mac.

If you have any questions, please visit our help page or contact our Customer Service team.

Regards,
The Kindle Team

[j.p.s]

amazon is great at being misleading, but the red text is pretty clear that EPUB needs to be sent to kindles using Send to Kindle.

[A Lurker]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

amazon is great at being misleading, but the red text is pretty clear that EPUB needs to be sent to kindles using Send to Kindle.

1.) No, it does not state that clearly. It says: "compatible formats now include EPUB (.epub), which you can send to your library using your Send to Kindle email address." [emphasis mine] Parse that sentence.

The first part states that epub is a compatible format, which most people will naturally interpret to mean natively / without conversion. The second part qualifies this by saying the epub "can" be sent to your Kindle via email. The word "Can" doesn't automatically convey exclusivity. In other words, "can" doesn't necessarily mean "has to be". In fact, sometimes "can" means "one of several ways".

2.) Even if Amazon had explicitly stated the now-compatible epub format must be sent using email, that still wouldn't convey the idea that the epubs won't be natively supported and must be converted.

After all, other formats you can email to your Kindle -- such as pdf, txt and mobi -- are not automatically converted to awz3. You have to affirmatively type "convert" in the subject line if you'd like them to be converted -- otherwise, they retain their original format.

Bottom line: when Amazon says epubs are "compatible" most people will naturally interpret that to mean natively / without conversion. And whether Amazon says "you can" or "you must" email them to your device, that sentence / process does not clarify the issue because other formats emailed to your device are natively supported without conversion.