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

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by odamizu

Does anyone have the direct download link for 1.19.2 for Mac? (I played with the numbers in the above link, but couldn't get anything to work.)

I'm still on 1.17 and don't intend to update, but I'd like to have 1.19.2 as a backup since there's a workaround for this version, just in case case Amazon stops supporting 1.17.

Thank you

The same workaround works for 1.20.x.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The same workaround works for 1.20.x.

Thanks! I've seen reports of success for Kindle for PC.

Has anyone tried it with Kindle for Mac?

[lemonflavor]

Just reporting in that Method 2 on the first page worked for me with Windows 10. I had gotten a KFX file for the first time today. Calibre directed me to this thread. I made the change using the command line (yes, the .xxx is correct). Then I had to delete the book that was already in on my hard drive as shown in Kindle and re-download it.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by odamizu

Thanks! I've seen reports of success for Kindle for PC.

Has anyone tried it with Kindle for Mac?

Just try it.

[enaid1]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Just try it.

I did just try it, on 1.20.2, and the answer I got was

chmod: Unable to change file mode on /Applications/Kindle.app/Contents/MacOS/renderer-test: Operation not permitted

Did I do something wrong?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by enaid1

I did just try it, on 1.20.2, and the answer I got was



Did I do something wrong?

Yes. You rename the file so it cannot be found by Kindle for MAC.

[enaid1]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Yes. You rename the file so it cannot be found by Kindle for MAC.

No one else on this thread mentioned renaming anything so...I should rename renderer-test? Should I remove it altogether from the package?

I did rename renderer-test in the package, restarted Kindle, and downloaded a book, which it opened. No files at all appeared in the "My Kindle Content" folder in the Library, however.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by enaid1

No one else on this thread mentioned renaming anything so...I should rename renderer-test? Should I remove it altogether from the package?

I did rename renderer-test in the package, restarted Kindle, and downloaded a book, which it opened. No files at all appeared in the "My Kindle Content" folder in the Library, however.

I did rename renderer-test in Windows and it worked. It download a KFX eBook as KF8. So I was able to remove the DRM.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Yes. You rename the file so it cannot be found by Kindle for MAC.

You rename it on a PC, but for Mac, I believe you need to block access permissions. That's why the Terminal command for Mac is: chmod -x whereas it's ren on PC.

Originally Posted by enaid1

No one else on this thread mentioned renaming anything so...I should rename renderer-test? Should I remove it altogether from the package?

I did rename renderer-test in the package, restarted Kindle, and downloaded a book, which it opened. No files at all appeared in the "My Kindle Content" folder in the Library, however.

@enaid, If you're on a Mac and your Kindle for Mac application is in the Applicaitons folder, and you opened a Terminal window and copied exactly: chmod -x /Applications/Kindle.app/Contents/MacOS/renderer-test then hit return —

If you did exactly that and it didn't work, I'd guess this workaround does not work on 1.20.2

(I haven't had time to try it. If I get a chance tomorrow, I'll give it a go tomorrow and report back.)

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by odamizu

You rename it on a PC, but for Mac, I believe you need to block access permissions. That's why the Terminal command for Mac is: chmod -x whereas it's ren on PC.

Why would renaming the file not work on OS X? It would mean Kindle would not find it and thus not use it. Plus, you then don't have to deal with permissions.

[aborel]

Originally Posted by enaid1

I did just try it, on 1.20.2, and the answer I got was



Did I do something wrong?

Perhaps you should type:

sudo chmod -x /Applications/Kindle.app/Contents/MacOS/renderer-test

(your accounts might not have the necessary rights by defaults, the sudo command will give you higher privileges)

[lkmiller]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why would renaming the file not work on OS X? It would mean Kindle would not find it and thus not use it. Plus, you then don't have to deal with permissions.

I don't know enough about Macs to know why, but it doesn't work. So a different workaround was discovered for Kindle for Mac.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

I don't know enough about Macs to know why, but it doesn't work. So a different workaround was discovered for Kindle for Mac.

Check the permissions. Maybe you don't have the permission to change the filename. If that's the case, change the permission so you can rename and rename.

[odamizu]

I updated K4Mac to 1.20.2 (47082), planning to test the chmod workaround to avoid KFX. But before I applied it, I downloaded a book to see what KFX looks like on download. Instead, I got AZW3.

I deleted all books in My Kindle Content folder, then re-downloaded a dozen books with Enhanced Typesetting. I received AZW3 every time. My K4Mac 1.20.2 seems incapable of giving me a KFX book.

I then used the chmod command and got the same result enaid1 did (unable to change file mode, operation not permitted), so Amazon seems to have altered the permissions to block this workaround. I then used sudo chmod. I didn't get an error message, but I have no way of testing whether this blocks KFX, since I was getting AZW3 for all my books even before using the chmod workaround.

[lkmiller]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Check the permissions. Maybe you don't have the permission to change the filename. If that's the case, change the permission so you can rename and rename.

I don't have a Mac. I just saw it was tried, failed, and then a different solution for Macs was arrived at.