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

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Lief

just import the AZW into Calibre it will turn them into AZW3 (not sure if you need DeDRM).

Yes, he will need DeDRM. Most of those eBooks will have DRM.

[Rahm]

Thank you for the tips, LIEF and JSWOLF

The K4PC books are NOT readable by Calibre -- all are AZW with intact DRM

For about two weeks this change has been occurring -- no longer AZW3

[Rahm]

Sorry:

I found problem

Somehow, DeDRM was deleted the plugins

I appreciate the patience of this ListServe

[AndyH0157]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

Just did a fresh install of Kindle for PC 1.17 and was able to login without any issue. A few months ago I had to reinstall Kindle for PC 1.17 on another pc and was unable to login, the fix was to delete the registry key folder HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Amazon.

Many thanks for your reply. I thought I'd cracked it when I tried your suggestion.

Removing the Registry Key worked and I installed v.1.17 which then allowed me to sign in unhindered and displayed all books in the library. I un-checked the auto update box to retain the current version and checked in the newly created registry key for 'Amazon' that the auto-update flag was set to false.
I then closed v.1.17 down. About five minutes later I tried to open it again, but as soon as the program started to load it automatically went into auto update and installed v1.36 without waiting. When it loaded I checked and the auto update box in the software was still un-checked and the registry flag was still set to false.

I uninstalled, deleted the registry key and reinstalled v.1.17 which on first use performed perfectly...until I closed the software. On reloading the app it auto-updated to v.1.36.

The above seems to bear out what Amazon Support told me when I telephoned them when my account was locked-out previously. They said that their systems will now only accept the latest versions of their software and all other versions will be updated or or fail sign-in.

I can't see a way around this with any earlier versions which is a bit of a nuisance.

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for taking the time and effort to reply and for your suggestion.

[AndyH0157]

Originally Posted by jhowell

You can't. The latest version from Amazon is 1.36.0, which does not provide usable files.

The newest version of Kindle for PC that can be used for your purpose is 1.34.1. See method 2A in the first post in this thread. Hopefully that version can still be registered. The first post also has instructions on finding and verifying old versions of the Kindle software.

Thanks for the response and I managed to locate a copy of 1.34.1.

However, as you'll see from my reply to @lkmiller it seems that whatever older version I install is being auto-updated to v.1.36 whether I want it or not.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by AndyH0157

I uninstalled, deleted the registry key and reinstalled v.1.17 which on first use performed perfectly...until I closed the software. On reloading the app it auto-updated to v.1.36.

Yes, Amazon wants you to use newer versions of K4PC and will ignore your choice to not update. See the section “Preventing undesired updates” in the first post in this thread for instructions on how to prevent that from happening.

[lkmiller]

While you still have 1.17 open for the first time, replace the updates folder with a text file with no extension. See the bottom of the first post where jhowell has attached a batch file that will do this for you.

ETA: Afterward, it will ask about updating every time you open it. Always choose "skip this version."

[AndyH0157]

@jhowell
@lkmiller

You have have my eternal gratitude. 100% success.
Thank you both so much.

[Cootey]

For Mac owners running Catalina or higher, here's a method to prevent the app from updating.

1) Put a clean copy of Kindle 1.31.0 in a folder on your desktop. Label the folder something useful like "KindleCage"
2) Open Terminal.app and run "sudo chmod -x ~/Desktop/KindleCage/Kindle.app/Contents/MacOS/renderer-test" just for good measure (all one line!). This prevents renderer-test from executing. Adjust your path as necessary.
3) Open "Disk Utility.app". It's in /Applications/Utilities.
4) In Disk Utility's menu, select File>New Image>Image from Folder. Then select the folder that you created in step 1.
5) Choose a name and destination for your disk image. This creates a read-only disk image. "KindleCage.dmg", for example.
6) Open the disk image. Holding down option+command, drag the Kindle icon from your disk image to your preferred location. You are creating an alias, so there should be an arrow now part of the icon at the bottom left.
7) Delete any instances of Kindle.app on your Mac. Amazon will find them, update them, then try to run from the update.

From now on, double clicking on the alias will automatically open the disk image and run Kindle.app from there.

If this is repeat information, I apologize. I didn't see it mentioned in my search.

[Manolis]

HIGH SIERRA

Worth noting that High Sierra no longer offers updates to the Kindle.app as the latest version is not compatible.

[afdb]

Hi there

Thanks to the fantastic advice on this forum, I was able to use version 1.17 on a previous computer to convert my Kindle books to PDFs through Calibre.

However, as of today I can no longer use this workaround on my new laptop as all my Kindle books are downloading with DRM protection that Calibre won't convert.

I have tried all of the following steps:

1. Reinstalling version 1.17
2. Using the .bat file to prevent automatic updates
3. Unchecking the automatic update box in the Kindle App
4. Deleting the Amazon registry key
5. Deleting the My Kindle Books folder
6. Reinstalling version 1.17

However, my Kindle books are still downloaded with DRM protection.

In the Kindle PC App itself, it indicates Version 1.17 BUT that the latest update date was 20/05/2022 - is this what is causing the issue?

Any help would be really appreciated!!

Thanks again for all of your support.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by afdb

Hi there

Thanks to the fantastic advice on this forum, I was able to use version 1.17 on a previous computer to convert my Kindle books to PDFs through Calibre.

However, as of today I can no longer use this workaround on my new laptop as all my Kindle books are downloading with DRM protection that Calibre won't convert.

I have tried all of the following steps:

1. Reinstalling version 1.17
2. Using the .bat file to prevent automatic updates
3. Unchecking the automatic update box in the Kindle App
4. Deleting the Amazon registry key
5. Deleting the My Kindle Books folder
6. Reinstalling version 1.17

However, my Kindle books are still downloaded with DRM protection.

In the Kindle PC App itself, it indicates Version 1.17 BUT that the latest update date was 20/05/2022 - is this what is causing the issue?

Any help would be really appreciated!!

Thanks again for all of your support.

Make sure you download the books to your PC using version 1.17. Book files downloaded with that version will be found in your kindle books folder, not in sub folders of that folder. If that is the case then those books will be amenable to DRM removal.

If DRM removal isn’t working for those books something else is going wrong and you will need to ask for help at NoDRMs GitHub where you should have obtained the DeDRM plugin. Detailed help with DRM removal is not allowed here on MobileRead.

[lkmiller]

noDRM's GitHub...Apprentice Harper is retired.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

noDRM's GitHub...Apprentice Harper is retired.

Oops. Fixed it.

[LivresInOz]

The latest Windows update seems to enable Kindle to do forced updates.
How to use a Virtual Machine snapshot to overcome this

1. I noticed that after the recent Win10 updates below, suddenly Win was allowing Kindle (1.16) to just update by itself, against my will.

a) This happened even if in Kindle I turned OFF automatic UPDATES
b) Even changing the security permissions on the folder didn't help
c) Deleting the Kindle prefetch files in C:\windows\prefetch seemed to help temporarily, but maybe it's not a permanent fix or maybe I just missed doing it once

Cumulative update for Win 10 version 20H2 KB5013942
(and perhaps Net Framework update KB5013624)

This is bloody rude, probably on Microsoft's part too.

2. The solution I've come up with is a bit of an effort to set up, but can probably help you in other ways too. In brief:
a) Install VirtualBox 6 (Free!)
b) Take a snapshot as explained here
c) Work from the snapshot and if there's a problem, revert to the base version

3. A virtual machine can be useful in all sorts of ways

4. FWIW I've also noticed that if you make your VM hard drive a certain size, it will be unable to do Windows updates because it doesn't have enough space!