Dealing with Kindle for PC/Mac 1.19 and KFX in calibre

[JSWolf]

Buy a cheap Kindle form Amazon and once registered, you will be able to download Kindle eBooks KFX free.

[Lyn2012]

No problem, I seem to have solved it now, although I'm not certain how, or why it has worked today but didn't yesterday. The only thing I did differently was to ignore the Amazon text!

Thank you so much for all the help you give people, it seems to get more difficult to navigate around the restrictions imposed on us by the day.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by Lyn2012

Thanks for the reply. I've just done the following:

• ...
• re did the Terminal command "chmod -x /Applications/Kindle.app/Contents/MacOS/renderer-test"
• ...

What have I missed? ...

It's hard to tell from your description what might have gone wrong, but if K4Mac forces an update on you and you don't want to or can't go back to 1.17, try adding sudo before chmod -x: sudo chmod -x /Applications/Kindle.app/Contents/MacOS/renderer-test

If that doesn't work, try deleting the My Kindle Content folder and starting with a clean install.

[whitearrow]

Hi, the methods described here were working for me on an old laptop -- then I upgraded to a new machine. Kindle 1.17.1 installed to C:\Program Files (x86)\Amazon\Kindle. When I try the rename command, it tells me the syntax is wrong, and the .bat file doesn't work because Kindle is installed in the wrong place. I tried editing the bat file to:

@echo off
set KINDLE=Program Files (x86)\Amazon\Kindle
if not exist "%KINDLE%\Kindle.exe" goto :nokindle
if exist "%KINDLE%\storage" if not exist "%KINDLE%\storage\" del /Q "%KINDLE%\storage"
if exist "%KINDLE%\updates" rmdir /S /Q "%KINDLE%\updates"
echo This file disables Kindle for PC downloads. > "%KINDLE%\updates"
echo Kindle for PC downloads are now disabled
goto :exit
:nokindle
echo Cannot disable downloads - Kindle for PC is not installed at expected location
:exit
pause

But it still can't find what it needs.

Thus far I've been going to \AppData\Local\Amazon\Kindle every time I open the app and deleting the forced update file, but I'd appreciate any suggestion that would make this work a bit more smoothly.

Thanks

[lkmiller]

What the batch file does is replace the updates folder with a text file named updates without any extension. So you can just do that.

[DNSB]

@whitearrow: You mention that the updates file is downloaded to \AppData\Local\Amazon\Kindle which would suggest that instead of placing the blocking file in Program Files (x86)\Amazon\Kindle, it should be placed in \AppData\Local\Amazon\Kindle.

@echo off
rem for standard install in AppData, use %localappdata%\Amazon\Kindle\application%
set KindleApp=Program Files (x86)\Amazon\Kindle
set KindleStorage=%localappdata%\Amazon\Kindle

if not exist "%KindleApp%\kindle.exe" goto :nokindle
if exist "%KindleStorage%\storage" if not exist "%KindleStorage%\storage\" del /Q "%KindleStorage%\storage"
if exist "%KindleStorage%\updates" rmdir /S /Q "%KindleStorage%\updates"
echo This file disables Kindle for PC downloads. > "%KindleStorage%\updates"
echo Kindle for PC downloads are now disabled
goto :exit
:nokindle
echo Cannot disable downloads - Kindle for PC is not installed at expected location
:exit
pause

[whitearrow]

I don't know what to create, is the problem.

There isn't an updates folder in either folder.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by whitearrow

I don't know what to create, is the problem.

There isn't an updates folder in either folder.

The updates file replaces the updates folder which prevents the creation of an updates folder. Even if Kindle4PC is installed for all users which places the executables in the Program Files/Program Files (x86), the data files are still kept in AppData. One old version of Kindle4PC created a Kindle For PC directory which was a bit different.

[whitearrow]

Yes, my question is -- where do I get or how do I create this updates file?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by whitearrow

Yes, my question is -- where do I get or how do I create this updates file?

When you run the batch file, the following line creates the updates file.

echo This file disables Kindle for PC downloads. > "%KindleStorage%\updates"

[whitearrow]

Ok. Thanks, I'll try.

[Inukami]

Originally Posted by DNSB

You would need to use the Preview/Beta 7.0.3 DeDRM. 6.8.0/6.8.1 are Python 2 and will not work calibre 5/Python 3.

Ok. So okay to use MacOS Mojave, K4Mac 1.17, Calibre 5, DeDRM Beta 7.0.3? No issues reported with this? I'm still on 4.23.

Also what was the workaround to stop 1.17 from updating on Mac? I thought someone had posted about it or would be on the first one, but couldn't find it.

Inukami

[lkmiller]

Originally Posted by whitearrow

Yes, my question is -- where do I get or how do I create this updates file?

Go to AppData\Local\Amazon\Kindle. If there's an updates folder, delete it.
Right click in an empty space inside the Kindle folder > New > Text Document. Name it updates without the .txt extension.

Every time you open the Kindle app, it will ask if you want to download the update. Click skip this version.

[lkmiller]

Originally Posted by Inukami

Ok. So okay to use MacOS Mojave, K4Mac 1.17, Calibre 5, DeDRM Beta 7.0.3? No issues reported with this? I'm still on 4.23.

Also what was the workaround to stop 1.17 from updating on Mac? I thought someone had posted about it or would be on the first one, but couldn't find it.

Inukami

From what I've seen, DeDRM 7.0.3/calibre 5 seems to be working fine on azw3 files. Info on stopping updates is at the bottom of odamizu's post.

[Inukami]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

From what I've seen, DeDRM 7.0.3/calibre 5 seems to be working fine on azw3 files. Info on stopping updates is at the bottom of odamizu's post.

Thanks. I must have missed that at the end of the post. If you stop updates and then use a new version of kindle, does this mess with the new version or does it reset again?

This is more of a calibre question, but any issues with moving a calibre library from old (4.23) to new version (5.0) with different Pythons if on different computers? For example, one mac is mojave with 4.23 (at the moment) and other is Catalina/Big Sur with 5.0.

Inukami