DRM workaround: Kindle for Android

[aekalaivan12]

Originally Posted by riverz

If you give the Amazon ASIN number for the book, I'm sure someone here can easily tell you if it can be done.

B08C7YMRRX
B07Z4Y4V1W
own these books in kindle. It also listed in kindle unlimited

[riverz]

Originally Posted by aekalaivan12

B08C7YMRRX
B07Z4Y4V1W
own these books in kindle. It also listed in kindle unlimited

Unfortunately, I couldn't even get to trying the decrypt.

I bought the 2nd book to test (it was the cheapest !)but my kindle for android (4.16.0.75) won't even download the bought copy. I think it's the tamil language of the book ? I get a message saying I need an update to view the content. Of course updating the apk isn't an option.

[lkmiller]

Since they are kfx only I was going to try with Kindle for PC and the beta DeDRM, but I see neither is available to Kindle for PC according to their product pages.

[aekalaivan12]

Originally Posted by riverz

Unfortunately, I couldn't even get to trying the decrypt.

I bought the 2nd book to test (it was the cheapest !)but my kindle for android (4.16.0.75) won't even download the bought copy. I think it's the tamil language of the book ? I get a message saying I need an update to view the content. Of course updating the apk isn't an option.

Thank you for trying.All the tamil language books are mostly in kfx I think. And a few of them are not available for K4PC. The only option to get these book is through kindle device i reckon.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

Since they are kfx only I was going to try with Kindle for PC and the beta DeDRM, but I see neither is available to Kindle for PC according to their product pages.

Interesting. I would try with download directly to Kindle and beta DeDRM. But my setup works with old non KFX versions, so I won't mess with it and potentially break something.

[lkmiller]

Doh! I forgot about trying the download direct to my Kindle. I'll give that a go tomorrow maybe. I don't have much hope though.

[SirBC]

Originally Posted by shamanNS

@jhowell Alternative to doing ADB backup and importing that resulting .ab file into DeDRM plugin config window would be having a rooted Android OS emulator (easily done when using BlueStacks (via https://bstweaker.tk ), but IIRC there are also custom Windows Subsystem for Android installer images that are pre-rooted and usually also come with Play Store and other Google apps included) and copy the /data/data/com.amazon.kindle/databases/map_data_storage.db (or whatever exactly was used at the time for that particular version of Kindle for Android app, I don't recall the details only that there used to be something before map_data_storage.db) and import that into DeDRM plugin config.

As I've done when I've had this particular idea (= using old Android app to get deDRM-able book files):

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...12#post4287212

Only my testing wasn't done with as old Android app as @ownedbycats, I've tested with v7.6.0.39 (that downloads KFX files.

Thank you for this, I spent hours trying to do a backup with both Bluestacks and LDPlayer and I kept getting a 0 KB file. Your tip made it super easy and it isn't necessary to do the backup at all. In case anyone else is having the same problem here is how I did it in LDPlayer:

1. Go to settings (top icon on the right side) and then 'Other settings' and make sure "Root permission' is checked.
2. Click on the "Shared folder" icon on the right (3rd from bottom), then "Android shared folder".
3. That will take you to /mnt/shared/Pictures. You need to navigate to /data/data/com.amazon.kindle/databases/map_data_storage.db. So, at the top left where the path is shown ( /mnt/shared/Pictures), click on the "/" slash and then navigate to the map_data_storage.db in the location shown above.
4. Click on the square to the left of the database file to select it.
5. Click on the "Shared folder" icon again on the right and select, "Android shared folder".
6. That will take you to /mnt/shared/Pictures. From there select the three vertical dots at the top right and select, "Copy selection here".
7. Click on the "Shared folder" icon again on the right and this time select, "PC shared folder". This will open the folder on your hard drive that now contains the database file. This file can be directly imported into the DeDRM plugin in Calibre.
8. In Calibre select "Preferences", then "Plugins", and search for DeDRM (this of course assumes you have already installed the plugin).
9. Select the plugin and then "Customize plugin"
10. Select "Kindle for Android ebooks"
11. Click on the green plus sign on the right, then "Choose Backup file", then navigate to the database file in the location shown in step 7 and fill in the "Unique Key Name" field with whatever you want.

That should do it.

[Adravus]

I'm very thankful to have found this thread. I have been following every Kindle for PC guide I could for several hours on end now with no luck. Following some advice from this thread and one other I was finally able to complete my mission.

First off, I want to say I did not use Bluestacks, I have a OnePlus8T with Android 13 that I used instead
- On my OnePlus, I uninstalled Kindle, which was the most current version from the Play Store
- Downloaded and installed the Kindle 4.16.0.75 apk from oldversion.com
- Signed in to my Amazon account and downloaded the books I wanted to convert
- Followed the Managing Kindle for Android Keys help page from DeDRM (v 10.0.3) to create backup.ab via adb with wifi and data turned off on my OnePlus
- While my phone was still connected to my PC, I navigated to Android>data>com.amazon.kindle>files and from there went to each book's folder, and inside each was a ".prc" file. I copied these files to a folder on my PC
- Inside Calibre (v 7.5.1), I tried adding the backup.ab file to the DeDRM plugin, but kept getting a permissions error (this is where the other thread came in handy)

Originally Posted by Adravus

I navigated to "C:\Users\My Name\AppData\Local\Temp", found the file name matching the one to the error code thrown by Calibre, copied the temp file to my Desktop, renamed it "map_data_storage.db" and Calibre accepted it instantly.

- Once that debacle was taken care of, I added the previously mentioned .prc files to Calibre, and voilà!
I was FINALLY able to convert the books to PDF.

Something to note in my troubleshooting journey:
I'm not sure if this made a difference with the file itself, but turning off wifi and data on my phone when making the backup.ab file made the process way quicker. 10+ minutes when those were left on versus <1 minute when turned off, despite the resulting file being the same size in either instance (19.6MB). Plus I was getting a different error when trying to add the backup.ab file to DeDRM when the file was created with wifi and data on; hence why I deleted and recreated the file with those off in the first place. Unfortunately, I did not make note of what the other error was, otherwise I'd include it here for others to find.

I hope this info can help someone else. This phone will probably become my dedicated Kindle-to-PDF device once I upgrade to a new phone in the future. And hopefully this workaround stays working for a while.

[tpmcoss]

This doesn't work at all. I followed all the steps to the letter and after adding a .prc book to calibre I don't get any option to remove the DRM. Trying to convert it or open it just warns me about the DRM. Is there something missing in the instructions or this just doesn't work properly?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by tpmcoss

This doesn't work at all. I followed all the steps to the letter and after adding a .prc book to calibre I don't get any option to remove the DRM. Trying to convert it or open it just warns me about the DRM. Is there something missing in the instructions or this just doesn't work properly?

It works. Apparently something has gone wrong with your setup. Did you obtain the adb file?

[Frogm4n]

Originally Posted by tpmcoss

Is there something missing in the instructions or this just doesn't work properly?

Did you remove the previously failed to be stripped ebook from the library before trying again? The plugin only runs on import when adding a book, so stuff already in your library doesn't get touched. If you change something in the plugin and try to open the already imported book it'll still be exactly as it was.

[Jacques Q.]

Hello. This time I really have to use this method and gosh, what a hard time I have...
Having had no luck the Bluestacks way, I am trying the solution given by Riverz on page 29.
Everything runs smoothly up to the point where his instructions say : "To extract the backup file for the calibre key I went to the nox/bin install directory and ran adb backup com.amazon.kindle from there."
The problem is I have absolutely no idea where to locate the "nox/bin install directory". What I downloaded is a thing called "nox_setup_v7.0.5.9_full_intl", clicked it, installation was successful (and I guess version 7.0.5.9 instead of 7.0.5.8 Riverz used doesn't make any difference), but nowhere is anything called "nox/bin install directory" or remotely reminding thereof to be found.
Am I doing something wrong ? Shouldn't I have used this (simple and efficient) installation method for Nox ? What would be the way out of this (or rather toward that "nox/bin" stuff) ?
Sorry for appearing ridiculously untechnical, but many thanks in advance for any help you can bring. (I think - or hope - that if I can fix this, the rest of the procedure with the command lines ought to be feasible.)

[lkmiller]

Are you sure you have to use this method? Latest beta DeDRM 10.0.9 and KFX Input plugins work on most books from Kindle for PC/Mac. If it doesn't, other workarounds may not work either.

[Jacques Q.]

OK, thanks a lot, I'll give it a try.
Just in case though (I try to anticipate what may go wrong) : when I'm in Calibre and want to load a book from the Kindle for Android that must already be somewhere on my PC (since I use the Nox emulator), where do I locate the file ?... I already checked and it's not in the "Documents" folder.
I'd be willing to send it straight from the phone, alternately, but I'm afraid it could be even more complicated.

[DNSB]

Locating a file in an Android emulator on a PC is a bit of a pain. For my uses, I finally wrote a batch file that uses adb to pull the files to a directory on my PC when Bluestacks was running. It needs to know where the configuration file lives for that instance to find the current port in use.