Sideloading and synching

[jgsmith]

I mostly read sideloaded books on my KPW2, and I'm looking for the best way to read the same book on my laptop and iPhone as well. After reading through the forums here, it looks like Amazon will only synch content purchased from them, so my question is, what are people doing to read sideloaded content on other devices? I saw some discussions about manipulating metadata, but I'm not sure that I read on other devices enough to make that worthwhile. Do I just need to remember my page or is there a better way?

[Vroo]

If you send the book to the cloud (via email or Send To Kindle app) it will be synchronized between KPW and Kindle for iPhone. There's no way to synchronize it with Kindle for PC though.

[susan_cassidy]

You can just remember the location you are on, and "go to" that place on the pc.

[ssholloway]

Originally Posted by Vroo

If you send the book to the cloud (via email or Send To Kindle app) it will be synchronized between KPW and Kindle for iPhone. There's no way to synchronize it with Kindle for PC though.

As @Vroo said, with the limitation that the book has to be in either regular (old) mobi or hybrid (old + KF8) mobi format to use email or Send to Kindle. I assume your books are, but you can convert from other formats using Calibre if necessary. Even if your books are in mobi format already, you might want to search the Calibre forum for threads on kindle syncing; there's a lot of information there. BTW, you won't need to sideload onto your Kindle if you upload to Amazon since you can use "deliver to" on your "manage my kindle" webpage to download to the Kindle.

EDIT: Actually, you can't sideload and get the sync. The book has to be delivered from the Amazon servers. Also, both email and Send to Kindle will automatically deliver the book to your kindle by using the kindle email address for your device or specifying the device in STK.

[jgsmith]

Originally Posted by ssholloway

As @Vroo said, with the limitation that the book has to be in either regular (old) mobi or hybrid (old + KF8) mobi format to use email or Send to Kindle. I assume your books are, but you can convert from other formats using Calibre if necessary. Even if your books are in mobi format already, you might want to search the Calibre forum for threads on kindle syncing; there's a lot of information there. BTW, you won't need to sideload onto your Kindle if you upload to Amazon since you can use "deliver to" on your "manage my kindle" webpage to download to the Kindle.

EDIT: Actually, you can't sideload and get the sync. The book has to be delivered from the Amazon servers. Also, both email and Send to Kindle will automatically deliver the book to your kindle by using the kindle email address for your device or specifying the device in STK.

Thanks for the responses.

If I understand this correctly, I can purchase a book from Kobo in Kepub. De-DRM it, convert it to AZW3, email it to my KPW2 email address, and then read it on both my KPW2 and Kindle for iPhone app, fully synchronized. Is this correct?

[shalym]

Originally Posted by jgsmith

Thanks for the responses.

If I understand this correctly, I can purchase a book from Kobo in Kepub. De-DRM it, convert it to AZW3, email it to my KPW2 email address, and then read it on both my KPW2 and Kindle for iPhone app, fully synchronized. Is this correct?

Correct.

Shari

[Readirect]

Originally Posted by shalym

Correct.

Shari

Don't think so. At least my KPW1 keeps telling me it can't synch side-loaded books. I don't care about this feature, though, and I haven't tried to work-around it. I just keep hitting the OK button in that annoying dialogue box that keeps popping up. Part of Amazon's terror campaign against side loaded books, I guess.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by jgsmith

Thanks for the responses.

If I understand this correctly, I can purchase a book from Kobo in Kepub. De-DRM it, convert it to AZW3, email it to my KPW2 email address, and then read it on both my KPW2 and Kindle for iPhone app, fully synchronized. Is this correct?

Incorrect.

You must convert it to .mobi (dual MOBI works too, and it also has the .mobi extension).

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by ssholloway

EDIT: Actually, you can't sideload and get the sync. The book has to be delivered from the Amazon servers. Also, both email and Send to Kindle will automatically deliver the book to your kindle by using the kindle email address for your device or specifying the device in STK.

The reason [you cannot sideload and get the sync] is because you need to use the copy that Amazon has modified, inserting things such as an ASIN identifier in order to uniquely mark the book -- this allows Amazon to know what to sync.

You can, of course, sideload and get the sync using the copy downloadable from http://amzn.com/manageyourkindle, as well as store that copy in calibre to deploy to multiple devices.

[ssholloway]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

The reason is because you need to use the copy that Amazon has modified, inserting things such as an ASIN identifier in order to uniquely mark the book.\

You can, of course, sideload the copy downloadable from http://amzn.com/manageyourkindle

And store that copy in calibre to deploy to multiple devices.

Did you mean this as a response to Redirect, who can't get the sync to work? I can sync fine because I upload to Amazon and let it do it's modifications.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by ssholloway

Did you mean this as a response to Redirect, who can't get the sync to work? I can sync fine because I upload to Amazon and let it do it's modifications.

Yes, Readirect had that problem. But I opted to respond to you, since you brought up the issue of sideloading first. My response was regarding the idea of sideloading and syncing.

EDIT: Previous post edited for clarity.

[GoSharks]

@eschwartz-
Does inserting a viable ASIN via the Quality Check plugin for Calibre allow for sideloaded books to synch (mobi or azw3)?

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by GoSharks

@eschwartz-
Does inserting a viable ASIN via the Quality Check plugin for Calibre allow for sideloaded books to synch (mobi or azw3)?

I have never tried it.

Possibly only if you used an ASIN Amazon knows about. It also depends on whether Amazon uses anything other than the ASIN. They may, for instance, only associate it with your MYK record, which would fail if you try an ASIN that isn't in your Kindle library. Or there may be additional database fields in the wrapper format.

I would test it, except I only use a single Kindle device.

[ssholloway]

Originally Posted by GoSharks

@eschwartz-
Does inserting a viable ASIN via the Quality Check plugin for Calibre allow for sideloaded books to synch (mobi or azw3)?

I believe the book has to be present in your MYK cloud for the sync to work. If I have time this weekend, I'll try sideloading on both my PW2 and my iPad.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by ssholloway

I believe the book has to be present in your MYK cloud for the sync to work. If I have time this weekend, I'll try sideloading on both my PW2 and my iPad.

Yeah, I was wondering if they associated it with a MYK record. If you figure it out, I would love to hear the result.

(See above under "I don't have a second device to test it". )