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

[Mims]

Thank you MobileRead, jhowell, bettered, anybody who has ever contributed to this thread. Thank all you Magic Masters of old and the disciples who carry on the work. Thank you Kovid and all who have contributed to the development and functionality of Calibre.

Yes, I sound a little crazy and I was shouting in the title of this post. I updated my computer from Windows 7 to win10 this week. It took hours to back up everything and more hours to install and update win10. The installation wiped my disc. It is going to take some time to get everything working. But I know my priorities. Thanks to all the aforementioned people, Calibre is up and running(with custom columns and everything intact), kindle 1.7 installed, registered, and playing nicely with Calibre and all the plugins. Could’t Have done with out you all.

[delta888]

Originally Posted by odamizu

That's really interesting. What macOS are you on? I am on 10.13 High Sierra.

I downloaded K4Mac 1.25.2 and downloaded a few ebooks. As expected, I got what I think was KFX — an azw file along with a voucher file, azw.res, azw.md, etc. Alf didn't like any of this.

<snip>

I am back to 1.23.1, getting azw3/KF8 as desired. But curious how you were able to get an azw3/KF8 file with 1.25.2 that worked with Alf.

I couldn't run Kindle 1.17 for Mac on High Sierra (10.13, to which I just updated) -- got the "need to update file type" message (assume that means 64-bit files), and the app won't even launch. Downloaded 1.23.1 from the link given at the pinned post at the top of this thread. I'm getting the same behaviour.


Is there something I need to do in order to successfully run 1.23.1 (or 1.17!) on this Mac?


Gah. Thanks to everyone who's working on this thread.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by delta888

I couldn't run Kindle 1.17 for Mac on High Sierra (10.13, to which I just updated) -- got the "need to update file type" message (assume that means 64-bit files), and the app won't even launch. Downloaded 1.23.1 from the link given at the pinned post at the top of this thread. I'm getting the same behaviour.


Is there something I need to do in order to successfully run 1.23.1 (or 1.17!) on this Mac? ...

What's the exact error message you're getting?

Kindle for Mac 1.23.1 should run on High Sierra without having to do anything extra or special.

The 64-bit requirement is only an issue if you're running Catalina (10.15), which hasn't been released yet except in beta. High Sierra (10.13) and Mojave (10.14) can still run 32-bit apps.

That said, if you're trying to avoid KFX, then you need to run chmod -x per Method 2 in the first post. If you already tried that and now 1.23.1 won't launch, something may have gone wrong with the chmod command. Or something may have gotten corrupted when you upgraded to High Sierra.

You might try deleting the Kindle folder in Users > Home > Library > Application > Kindle. Also look for Users > Home > Library > Containers > com.amazon.Kindle and delete that folder if it's there. Then re-install 1.23.1.

[rbpeirce]

I am running 1.26.1, renderer-test is not executable and it doesn't work.

1.23.1 still works as expected, but I am told 1.23.1 will no longer run if we upgrade 10 MacOS 10.15.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by rbpeirce

I am running 1.26.1, renderer-test is not executable and it doesn't work.

1.23.1 still works as expected, but I am told 1.23.1 will no longer run if we upgrade 10 MacOS 10.15.

As things stand there may not be a simple workable solution for anyone with a new installation of Kindle for Mac on the upcoming release of MacOS.

See this post for a possible work-around if you upgraded from a prior version of Kindle for Mac. If that doesn't solve the problem you can ask for further help at Apprentice Alf's Blog or Apprentice Harper's GitHub.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by rbpeirce

I am running 1.26.1, renderer-test is not executable and it doesn't work.

1.23.1 still works as expected, but I am told 1.23.1 will no longer run if we upgrade 10 MacOS 10.15.

1.26.1 works on my Mac.

If you have 1.23.1 working, try upgrading to 1.26.1 from within 1.23.1, or install 1.26.1 on top of 1.23.1. If that doesn't work, ask for more detailed help on Apprentice Harper's GitHub.

As for the next macOS (10.15 Catalina), it is reported that it will only run 64-bit apps, and since 1.23.1 is 32-bit, it's not expected to work on Catalina. Anyone planning to upgrade to Catalina should get 1.26.1 working before going to Catalina. Hopefully it will survive the upgrade, but who knows.

Originally Posted by jhowell

As things stand there may not be a simple workable solution for anyone with a new installation of Kindle for Mac on the upcoming release of MacOS.

Indeed. Getting Alf-friendly ebooks using K4Mac on Catalina will likely be increasingly problematic unless the Apprentices figure out the new key Even then, depending on how far Apple takes its new notarization requirement, Catalina may pose problems for Calibre.

[rbpeirce]

Originally Posted by odamizu

If you have 1.23.1 working, try upgrading to 1.26.1 from within 1.23.1, or install 1.26.1 on top of 1.23.1.

I had 1.23 and 1.26 with renderer-test not executable. I copied 1.23 to Kindle.app, dropped the 1.26 download on it, chmod -x renderer-test, downloaded a book and read it into calibre. It seems to have worked! I have no idea why upgrading works and just downloading doesn't. Anyhow, this may alleviate the 10.15 problem.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by rbpeirce

I had 1.23 and 1.26 with renderer-test not executable. I copied 1.23 to Kindle.app, dropped the 1.26 download on it, chmod -x renderer-test, downloaded a book and read it into calibre. It seems to have worked! I have no idea why upgrading works and just downloading doesn't. Anyhow, this may alleviate the 10.15 problem.

Glad you got it working. However, it's because upgrading is more likely to succeed that K4Mac is likely to become increasingly problematic going forward. I.e., once you've installed 10.15, it will no longer be possible to run 1.23 and then upgrade to 1.26.

But now that you've got 1.26 working, hopefully everything will survive the upgrade to 10.15

[tomsem]

This is a long thread so apologies if it has been mentioned previously:

Apple allows previous versions of macOS to be virtualized, for precisely the reason that some apps may not be compatible with the latest version.

So why not set up a VM with a working de-DRM environment so you don’t have to adapt to changes that the world throws at us? Also makes it much easier to set up on a new computer.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by tomsem

This is a long thread so apologies if it has been mentioned previously:

Apple allows previous versions of macOS to be virtualized, for precisely the reason that some apps may not be compatible with the latest version.

So why not set up a VM with a working de-DRM environment so you don’t have to adapt to changes that the world throws at us? Also makes it much easier to set up on a new computer.

This topic interests me greatly, but I suspect this may stray too far off-topic to pursue in detail in this thread.

I have started a new thread in the Apple forum accordingly and hope Mac users will follow me there to continue this discussion: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh....php?p=3869090

[ereader25]

What is the official file hash for the Kindle for PC 1.24 that is linked in the OP?
What generation kindle do you need to go back to in order to find one that doesn't get upgraded to firmware 5.6.5 and onward?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by ereader25

What is the official file hash for the Kindle for PC 1.24 that is linked in the OP?

KindleForPC-installer-1.24.51068.exe
SHA-256: C7A1A93763D102BCA0FED9C16799789AE18C3322B1B3BDFBE8 C00422C32F83D7
SHA-1: 3C03B42828F4080F63E12297A8FC3B42D5C9BB60
MD5: E3F98B2FAF18BDFB31F43D263C4E6406

The link goes directly to Amazon's server so I would not worry too much.

Originally Posted by ereader25

What generation kindle do you need to go back to in order to find one that doesn't get upgraded to firmware 5.6.5 and onward?

The PW2 aka Kindle Paperwhite (6th Generation) released in November 2013 is still receiving the latest updates. Anything older than that will have firmware 5.6.1.1 or lower.

[jacob42]

Is there anyway to bypass the new KFX DRM (1.25+)? The book I'm trying to download only supports KFX and it will only let me download it on the latest version of Kindle for PC (1.27). Or perhaps another way to do it?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by jacob42

Is there anyway to bypass the new KFX DRM (1.25+)?

The first post in this thread has ways to bypass this for most books by using older software. The main exception is books that are available only in KFX format, such as newer textbooks. There is currently no way to remove DRM from those books and no sign of a solution any time soon.

Originally Posted by jacob42

The book I'm trying to download only supports KFX and it will only let me download it on the latest version of Kindle for PC (1.27).

The most recent version of Kindle for PC that I have seen is 1.26. If you really have 1.27 I would like to know the build number of the release. That is the number in parenthesis you will see in the Hellp/About Kindle dialog.

[jacob42]

Originally Posted by jhowell

The first post in this thread has ways to bypass this for most books by using older software. The main exception is books that are available only in KFX format, such as newer textbooks. There is currently no way to remove DRM from those books and no sign of a solution any time soon.



The most recent version of Kindle for PC that I have seen is 1.26. If you really have 1.27 I would like to know the build number of the release. That is the number in parenthesis you will see in the Hellp/About Kindle dialog.

Woops. I was mistaken. I meant 1.26. Bummer about the newer textbook thing though, since one of my textbooks is super expensive, not on libgen, and is brand new.