Amazon has removed Download & Transfer option

[Lavender]

Originally Posted by Byrdie

Now as we all know goodereader is, shall we say, a less than sterling source but on occasion they do get some things right. Sometimes. At any rate, worth keeping an eye on.

Can you elaborate on that? I’m new to to ereader space. Is that a bad source for info?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Lavender

Can you elaborate on that? I’m new to to ereader space. Is that a bad source for info?

Some people call it badereader and it sometimes copies from here without attribution.

Also they sell stuff, so might not be impartial.

[Timboli]

My enthusiasm to buy Kindle has continued to decline over a few years, and is now at an all-time low. A few issues have contributed to that, not just this latest idiocy by Amazon.

Many years ago, I created a program, that was essentially a Wishlist one for Kindle ebooks at Amazon, and certainly worked far better than their own dopey Wishlist facility. And my version included price history, which became a huge help. It also allowed for multiple users, and saving purchased Kindle ebooks to a separate list for each user. Several other aspects were catered for as well, like Exchange Rate and links and setting favorites (Primary & Secondary) plus Pre-Orders. So at virtually a click of a button and a few minutes later, the prices of the ebooks I was checking on would be updated to the latest, and line colored with Orange (increase) and Green (decrease) and Yellow (minor increase or decrease) and Red for failure.

All of that meant I could keep a good close watch on prices etc on a daily basis, often twice a day (early & late). I could study patterns of price changes, and buy with confidence because I was well enough informed.

Over the years I have gotten a lot of incredible bargains due to my program. NOTE - It doesn't have to be a bargain for me to buy what I am interested in, just a fair ebook price. So any bargain is an un-looked for bonus.

But as always, website changes mean bug fixes, and I continued to do those. However, Amazon don't like you scraping their web pages, so keep making it harder, and now I have had to settle with a much slower process ... so slow, that most of the time I no longer bother doing it regularly.

The fact that I have been buying most of my ebooks from Kobo for a few years now, has also contributed. So in the end, Amazon loses, and the author still usually gets their money via Kobo. I mostly don't lose, except where I have missed out on a good discount at Amazon ... though Kobo usually matches price much of the time. Really I only lose out, when their isn't a discount at Kobo, and I aren't aware of a discount at Amazon for a Kindle ebook.

In any case, what can I do. I keep tabs on a lot of ebooks, and using the Amazon wishlist system, is just not a sensible use of my time especially regularly or even just on occasion.

Rather than scraping, I have looked into using some kind of Amazon API, but they've made that too hard, and reports I've read say price isn't included anyway, so no point to using it.

At this point in time, I am mostly relying on emails from authors I follow, that only provide their ebooks via Amazon. That's for their new releases.

From my perspective, Amazon keep shooting themselves in the foot. They certainly make me feel they are anti-consumer, with a number of things they have done.

I can currently get around the loss of the DOWNLOAD & TRANSFER VIA USB option, but it's only a matter of time before I stop buying Kindle ebooks altogether ... the writing is on the wall. I will of course be encouraging those few authors I follow, to also provide at Kobo etc or direct from their own website. One author already does that last one, giving his followers a week or two before his latest book is then provided to Kindle Unlimited and the exclusivity that entails.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Lavender

Can you elaborate on that? I’m new to to ereader space. Is that a bad source for info?

Have a look at these threads and decide for yourself:
(TL;DR they plagiarize and make stuff up and have used multiple sleazy business practices.)

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=266702
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=285702
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=272106
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=321104
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=321887
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=292243
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=332161
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=326706

[Lavender]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Have a look at these threads and decide for yourself:
(TL;DR they plagiarize and make stuff up and have used multiple sleazy business practices.)

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=266702
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=285702
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=272106
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=321104
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=321887
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=292243
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=332161
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=326706

Thank you for sharing. I saw their YouTube videos when researching device options. I didn't put much stock in their opinions because they presented their content as a third party reviewer would even though they were selling ereaders themselves.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by DNSB

So a service that wants to send books through Send to Kindle will now have to use a full email address (e.g. noreply@bookfunnel.com) rather than a domain (e.g. @bookfunnel.com)? Not much of a change for the average end user since the third party senders I've already whitelisted already used a full email address. Though I admit delivery, support, do_not_reply, etc. are unlikely to be real people, they work as email names.

OTOH, the other sites I checked, Android Police, Pocket-Lint and eReaderForum attributed the story to BadeReader while there were a couple of items on Reddit from 5 days ago. It seems odd that Amazon has not emailed more people though that April 1 date always leaves a bit of suspiciousness about the accuracy of a story.

It may be that people are only getting the email sent to them if they have a wildcard set up in their allowed send from addresses. This is the text of the email I received from Amazon on 3/17:

Dear customer,

Thank you for using Send to Kindle.

To enhance security, Send to Kindle will only support complete email addresses (e.g., "kindlecustomer@xyz.com") and will no longer support partial email addresses or domain-only addresses (e.g., "@xyz.com") after April 1, 2025. This change helps ensure that only senders from emails you specifically approve can deliver documents to your Kindle.

You currently have at least 1 partial email address in your Approved Personal Document Email List. To continue receiving personal documents via Send to Kindle, update your approved email list with complete sender email addresses. To edit your approved email list, go to Manage Your Content & Devices > Preferences > Personal Document Settings.

After April 1, documents from incomplete or unapproved sender email addresses won’t be delivered and you’ll receive a send failure email. This change only affects sending files through Send to Kindle for Email.

To learn more about using email to send documents to your Kindle library, visit our help page. By downloading or using Send to Kindle, you agree to the Kindle Store Terms of Use.

Regards,
Amazon Kindle Support

This e-mail was sent from a notification-only address that cannot accept incoming e-mail. Please do not reply to this e-mail.
©2025 Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Amazon and all related marks are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates, Amazon.com, Inc. 410 Terry Avenue N., Seattle, WA 98109.

Shari

[DNSB]

Great to hear from someone other than 1 poster on Reddit and 1 poster on a Hebrew language forum that that email actually existed and was sent by Amazon and is not an early April Fools Day joke.

[pdurrant]

I got the "send to Kindle" email today.

Amazon used to allow you to specify a domain name that was allowed to send emails to your Kindles. e.g. @baen.com

Now you can only specify complete email addresses.

Dear customer,

Thank you for using Send to Kindle.

To enhance security, Send to Kindle will only support complete email addresses (e.g., "kindlecustomer@xyz.com") and will no longer support partial email addresses or domain-only addresses (e.g., "@xyz.com") after 1 April 2025. This change helps ensure that only senders from emails you specifically approve can deliver documents to your Kindle.

You currently have at least 1 partial email address in your Approved Personal Document Email List. To continue receiving personal documents via Send to Kindle, update your approved email list with complete sender email addresses. To edit your approved email list, go to Manage Your Content & Devices > Preferences > Personal Document Settings.

After 1 April 2025, documents from incomplete or unapproved sender email addresses won’t be delivered and you’ll receive a send failure email. This change only affects sending files through Send to Kindle for Email.

To learn more about using email to send documents to your Kindle library, visit our help page. By downloading or using Send to Kindle, you agree to the Kindle Store Terms of Use.

Regards,
Amazon Kindle Support

[Quoth]

It's not about security as it's a user choice entering (allow listing). It's about Amazon IT systems, tracking etc. Why shouldn't I add just a domain, especially my own ones.

I have tested it, but think it's suspicious it accepts epub etc and not KFX or azw3 etc.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Quoth

It's not about security as it's a user choice entering (allow listing). It's about Amazon IT systems, tracking etc. Why shouldn't I add just a domain, especially my own ones.

I believe that the requirement for full email addresses is just a way to make things more difficult for those book suppliers who send out books in bulk to Kindle users. Previously their customers could configure a single domain to receive emailed books from and be done. Now each customer will need to set up a specific address that could change over time if Amazon decides to block them for exceeding anti-spam limits on the number of books sent. An easy way for Amazon to discourage getting books from outside sources.

Originally Posted by Quoth

I have tested it, but think it's suspicious it accepts epub etc and not KFX or azw3 etc.

Send-to-kindle is mainly intended to allow new Kindle owners those with books purchased previously elsewhere to move them into the Kindle ecosystem. That makes it easy to come to Amazon and hard to leave. Books purchased elsewhere are likely to be in standard formats like EPUB and PDF.

[Quoth]

Amazon could trivially add epub to Kindle.
Purchased epubs & PDFs with DRM won't work.

The reason for Send to Kindle and the fact it doesn't accept Kindle formats is either stupidity or nefarious.

[Quoth]

Battery (really a cell) came for my K3. The tendency to refuse to turn on sometimes was the battery. Now working and gets azw3 rather than the old mobi my DXG or annoying KFX of the Paperwhite 3. The last new but shortlived cell was Amazon branded, so maybe old stock. This one came from China and is Chinese text.
Perhaps I'll get 5 to 10 years?

It's on a separate account, which I will use in future for purchases unavailable elsewhere while the K3 works.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Amazon could trivially add epub to Kindle.
Purchased epubs & PDFs with DRM won't work.

The reason for Send to Kindle and the fact it doesn't accept Kindle formats is either stupidity or nefarious.

It makes perfect sense. KFX is Amazon proprietary format. In their mind the only source you should be getting them is Amazon so there's no point having Send to Kindle support it. Books in those formats should already be in your account and synced that way. KFX found in the wild are probably in their view, pirated. They probably consider AZW3 and Mobi obsolete and only for older devices that can't support KFX. Nefarious? Maybe.

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

It makes perfect sense. KFX is Amazon proprietary format. In their mind the only source you should be getting them is Amazon so there's no point having Send to Kindle support it. Books in those formats should already be in your account and synced that way. KFX found in the wild are probably in their view, pirated. They probably consider AZW3 and Mobi obsolete and only for older devices that can't support KFX. Nefarious? Maybe.

Isn't AZW3 a proprietary format too?

I deal with a few other sources (Smashwords, BookFunnel, etc) and last I recall they used to provide a MOBI download, but in more recent times have provided a Kindle variant of EPUB3, if they provide anything Kindle at all. Sometimes they also provide PDF.

The MOBI aspect is surely nefarious.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by Timboli

Isn't AZW3 a proprietary format too?

I deal with a few other sources (Smashwords, BookFunnel, etc) and last I recall they used to provide a MOBI download, but in more recent times have provided a Kindle variant of EPUB3, if they provide anything Kindle at all. Sometimes they also provide PDF.

The MOBI aspect is surely nefarious.

It is, but AZW3 has been somewhat spread outside Amazon and arguably obsolete like Mobi. For example Standard Ebooks provides AZW3 downloads. You could use an Amazon provided tool like Kindlegen to make AZW3 too. I don't think Amazon provides anything like that for KFX besides Send to Kindle.