How long will old Kindle E-Ink devices remain viable?

[Timboli]

Something I ponder now and then, is how long old Kindle E-Ink devices will remain viable?

That is, as far as connecting to Amazon via Wifi and downloading purchased content.

Will Amazon ever decide to start canceling registrations of older devices, or will they just wait for them to die naturally?

As we know, some folk are buying older secondhand Kindle devices to get around the DRM issue.

Will Amazon continue to allow those devices to be registered? Especially via a different owner.

What do you think?

I've got an old Kindle Keyboard E-Ink device, which I still download to. But I couldn't tell you the last time I actually used it to read an ebook.

These days I vary from reading with my Paperwhite and my Kobo device ... and occasionally my 10" Samsung tablet.

I tend to follow a reading list, and read with whatever device the ebook is on.

I've long thought of my Kindle Keyboard as purely a backup device, though I admit I like using buttons for page changing rather than swiping. My favorite E-Ink device these days is my Kobo device, which offers swiping or buttons.

My other backup device, aside from tablet, is my Motorola phone, with its decent size screen, and of course it goes everywhere with me, so I can potentially read almost anywhere.

I'd probably still use my Kindle Keyboard, if it was front lit or even back lit, but alas I only have the excellent cover with the pull out light, that doesn't do a great job of lighting the page.

[Sirtel]

No idea.

I still have two ancient nontouch Kindles from 2011 and 2012. I charge them regularly, but I haven't read on them since 2016. For the last 3 years I've been reading ebooks on my two Kobos only. I've sold all my Kindles except the two oldest (the newest was the 2019 Oasis).

[Timboli]

I got my non touch Kindle Keyboard E-Ink device for Xmas 2011, along with the cover with the built-in light.

So I've had it a good while now. I used it for free ebooks from the likes of Project Gutenberg initially, until early 2012, where I bought my first fairly priced ebook from Amazon.

I still regularly charge the battery. But how long that will last, I don't know. It never did hold its charge for very long.

[Timboli]

I wonder how many folk still have their old devices registered with Amazon, let alone use them?

[Timboli]

While I've of course backed up my Kobo and Kindle ebooks, I've never seen the point so far, of supplanting the original DRM versions on my devices. So I still just read those.

If my Kindle devices died, I'd have to use the Kindle backups on my Kobo device. But until that happens, the only other way, would be if I bought an independent E-Ink device, and wanted to read previous purchases on that. I seriously pondered doing that with one of the independent color devices, just before Kobo released theirs.

I could potentially use my backups on an independent reading app on my tablet. But thus far haven't seen the need to do that, or even desired to do so. The Kindle and Kobo apps are good enough.

While I have side-loaded ebooks from other sources onto my Kindles, I haven't bothered in recent times, just doing it with my Kobo device now instead.

I have in a couple of instances read a PDF file that displayed badly on my Kobo and Kindle apps, on an independent app on my 10" tablet. I tried a few until I found one that was suitable.

[Sirtel]

I haven't read even a single direct download for well over a decade. Everything is and has been sideloaded for most of the time I've used ereaders - including my Kobo purchases now and my Kindle purchases when I used Kindles. That's because I edit both the metadata and formatting. I don't want to read an unedited ebook.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Timboli

I wonder how many folk still have their old devices registered with Amazon, let alone use them?

Now that Download and Transfer is gone Amazon is going to have a better idea of how many older registered Kindles are actually functional. If the number is small enough they may become comfortable with dropping support for them. So if you have an older Kindle that you are not using, charging it up and letting it connect to Amazon may help to keep all of those other older Kindles from becoming e-waste.

[haertig]

Amazon may let the old Kindles continue to receive support - for a price. Like Microsoft does for older versions of Windows. You can pay to continue getting updates past a Windows end-of-support date. For a while...

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Now that Download and Transfer is gone Amazon is going to have a better idea of how many older registered Kindles are actually functional. If the number is small enough they may become comfortable with dropping support for them. So if you have an older Kindle that you are not using, charging it up and letting it connect to Amazon may help to keep all of those other older Kindles from becoming e-waste.

Good advice.

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Now that Download and Transfer is gone Amazon is going to have a better idea of how many older registered Kindles are actually functional. If the number is small enough they may become comfortable with dropping support for them. So if you have an older Kindle that you are not using, charging it up and letting it connect to Amazon may help to keep all of those other older Kindles from becoming e-waste.

Yeah, I agree that could be the case, hence one of the reasons for this thread.

I still sync both my Kindles now and then. Already had to do it once so far, since Download and Transfer stopped working.

The issue for me now going forward, is that I have severely reduced buying from Amazon. In fact, it was probably only due to a Pre-Order, that I had to do that last sync, that and a bunch of freebies. There is nothing on the immediate horizon now for me at Amazon.

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

That's because I edit both the metadata and formatting. I don't want to read an unedited ebook.

I can't say I understand the necessity of that.

I'm reading the DRM versions, and except in rare cases, the formatting seems perfectly fine to me. Sometimes I have to change the font size, but that's easy enough to do on-the-fly.

As for the metadata, I do that for my backup copies, via calibre and my own helper program, and that seems more relevant to me for cataloging. I have other lists anyway, that govern what I read, so I just go with whatever the default is on my ereaders.

For me to download, via Wifi, then copy off my device, remove the DRM and then copy back on replacing the original file, just seems like extra unnecessary work.

Of course, until recently, I was using the Download and Transfer option, and rarely needed to connect my Kindles to my PC, and before that I was doing the KFX thing with older Kindle4PC.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

No idea.

I still have two ancient nontouch Kindles from 2011 and 2012. I charge them regularly, but I haven't read on them since 2016. For the last 3 years I've been reading ebooks on my two Kobos only. I've sold all my Kindles except the two oldest (the newest was the 2019 Oasis).

I have a Kindle Touch that I used the other day to download my Kindle First Reads eBooks. So as long as there's an easy way to get my First Reads eBooks, I'm OK.

[JSWolf]

The K1, K2, KDX, & KDXG are all unable to connect via WiFi. They could be dead if Amazon has turned off the cell service or 3G becomes dead.

I did try the Kindle Store with my Touch and it doesn't work.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Timboli

I can't say I understand the necessity of that.

I'm reading the DRM versions, and except in rare cases, the formatting seems perfectly fine to me. Sometimes I have to change the font size, but that's easy enough to do on-the-fly.

That's because you're not fussy.

I am. I have a specific set of preferences about formatting and want all my ebooks to follow it. The same font size, line height, margins, text indents, no spaces between paragraphs, no huge white space around chapter headings and so on. I also hate fiddling with the settings on my ereaders every time I open a new ebook and so my ebooks all have uniform font size/margins/line height.

I know the majority of ebook readers don't care about such things and probably don't even notice them. Some of us do, though (I'm not the only MR member who edits the css and formatting of their ebooks). To each their own.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

That's because you're not fussy.

I am. I have a specific set of preferences about formatting and want all my ebooks to follow it. The same font size, line height, margins, text indents, no spaces between paragraphs, no huge white space around chapter headings and so on. I also hate fiddling with the settings on my ereaders every time I open a new ebook and so my ebooks all have uniform font size/margins/line height.

I know the majority of ebook readers don't care about such things and probably don't even notice them. Some of us do, though (I'm not the only MR member who edits the css and formatting of their ebooks). To each their own.

I also edit my eBooks. I like them to be well formatted. What Sirtel listed are things I also do.