What do these characters mean?

[solitarywolf]

I recently went to search for a book I purchased in my Amazon Kindle collection on their website. I could not find the book when I searched for it. However it shows up on the list when I sort by author.

There are three strange characters in front of the title. I suspect this means Amazon will no longer allow me to download the book? It is in my Kindle but why does it look like this?

[Sarmat89]

It means "wow". Are you sure the book is not counterfeit?

[solitarywolf]

Originally Posted by Sarmat89

It means "wow". Are you sure the book is not counterfeit?

I bought this 9 years ago and it only recently did this. The book is no longer listed for sale on Amazon and I’m suspecting this is no longer available for download. I worry if I upgrade to a new kindle, I will loose this book. It’s sad as it is a great translation.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by solitarywolf

There are three strange characters in front of the title. I suspect this means Amazon will no longer allow me to download the book? It is in my Kindle but why does it look like this?

Apparently, it's a Simplified Chinese character: 阿
Most likely the book was a bootleg copy uploaded by someone in mainland China.
Which would explain why it's no longer available for download.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by solitarywolf

I bought this 9 years ago and it only recently did this. The book is no longer listed for sale on Amazon and I’m suspecting this is no longer available for download. I worry if I upgrade to a new kindle, I will loose this book. It’s sad as it is a great translation.

That's why you should always back up your purchases and not trust any bookseller to do it for you.

You can probably still back it up and remove the DRM, if it has any.

[CathyA]

Why do you suspect it's no longer available for download? What happens if you click on the link that says "Download and transfer via USB"? I would expect that if it's not downloadable, the link would be grayed out or not shown.

I have a book that I purchased in 2009 where something similar has happened. It now has the title "ZZZ", but it can still be downloaded and transferred to a Kindle. (I imported it into Calibre first so that I could put the correct title on it.) In my case it's just because the original publisher stopped publishing that genre. The author has reclaimed the rights and self-published the book under a different ASIN, but the original file that I paid for is still on Amazon's servers and still accessible. It's just been renamed.

[JSWolf]

IMHO, the lack of proper capitalization in the title and author name s a giveaway that it's not a legit copy.

[solitarywolf]

Originally Posted by CathyA

Why do you suspect it's no longer available for download? What happens if you click on the link that says "Download and transfer via USB"? I would expect that if it's not downloadable, the link would be grayed out or not shown.
.

I clicked on the link to download and transfer via USB however it is grayed out and not an option. I spoke with Amazon support they will not give an answer. Even when I asked the question give me an answer. They were baffled.

Through the discussion with Amazon I discovered that the book is no longer available from the publisher. Therefore it is probably been deleted off of the Amazon servers those strange Chinese looking characters mean the book has been deleted from their servers. I know that when you delete a file off your computer it does the same thing it puts a weird character in front of the word and thus ignores the file.

I still have a copy on my kindles. But if I go to sell them I won’t be able to transfer to the new one.

[solitarywolf]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

IMHO, the lack of proper capitalization in the title and author name s a giveaway that it's not a legit copy.

The book is a legitimate copy. I own the hard cover as well and purchased it directly from the publisher. I suspect the book is no longer available on the Amazon servers as the publisher pulled the book from sale completely both the hard cover, paperback and Kindle editions. I suspect this is why the file has the strange character names next to it.

[solitarywolf]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

Apparently, it's a Simplified Chinese character: 阿
Most likely the book was a bootleg copy uploaded by someone in mainland China.
Which would explain why it's no longer available for download.

Definitely not a bootleg. I bought this from the publisher. Along with the hard cover book. My suspicions are they decided to no longer carry the book. Even on their website the books are selling out what remains of the copies.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by solitarywolf

I still have a copy on my kindles. But if I go to sell them I won’t be able to transfer to the new one.

Well, back it up then and remove the DRM, if it has any.

[Gardenman]

Originally Posted by solitarywolf View Post
I still have a copy on my kindles. But if I go to sell them I won’t be able to transfer to the new one.

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Well, back it up then and remove the DRM, if it has any.

Also do that as fast a you can. No telling when a kindle might go bad.

[solitarywolf]

Originally Posted by Gardenman

Originally Posted by solitarywolf View Post
I still have a copy on my kindles. But if I go to sell them I won’t be able to transfer to the new one.




Also do that as fast a you can. No telling when a kindle might go bad.

It did not occur to me to back it up from the Kindle. Thank you very much! I’ll go do that now.

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by solitarywolf

Through the discussion with Amazon I discovered that the book is no longer available from the publisher.

That's true...

Originally Posted by solitarywolf

Therefore it is probably been deleted off of the Amazon servers those strange Chinese looking characters mean the book has been deleted from their servers. I know that when you delete a file off your computer it does the same thing it puts a weird character in front of the word and thus ignores the file.

... but the 'weird character' approach to deleting files hasn't been true since the days of DOS. I can guarantee that Amazon's servers are not using DOS filesystems! They're probably using ferociously complex alien-hypertechnology cloud filesystems that nobody of smaller scale than Amazon has any reason to use. None of these delete files by changing single characters: file deletion, and for that matter creation and changing, is a complex quorum negotiation between multiple systems. It's quite possible that a bug somewhere in there could mess up the filename, but there's no way this is intentional.

(Also, if publishers withdraw books, unless the book is actually a mass of copyright violations or something, Amazon don't as a rule withdraw it: existing purchasers need to be able to get the copies they purchased when they replace their Kindles, after all. Those copies aren't suddenly not purchased any more simply because the publisher isn't selling new copies of the book! They withdrew a book like that just once. It was a huge PR disaster and they swore never to do it again.)

[janrey]

Originally Posted by solitarywolf

I clicked on the link to download and transfer via USB however it is grayed out and not an option. I spoke with Amazon support they will not give an answer. Even when I asked the question give me an answer. They were baffled.

Through the discussion with Amazon I discovered that the book is no longer available from the publisher. Therefore it is probably been deleted off of the Amazon servers those strange Chinese looking characters mean the book has been deleted from their servers. I know that when you delete a file off your computer it does the same thing it puts a weird character in front of the word and thus ignores the file.

I still have a copy on my kindles. But if I go to sell them I won’t be able to transfer to the new one.

Connect your kindle to a computer then copy to the drive or to a usb stick. This way you can then transfer it back to any kindle you own.