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

[avantikatuli]

hi,im new to this forum !! i have no idea of kfx or computers as such.

i have downloaded an E-book "the devils double" and want to convert it to PDF to print ad read.I tried with CALIBRE but i recieved a mesage that it is a Amazon KFX book.

how do i convert it?
should i use some other software like EPUB CONVERTOR?

REALLY LOST,NEED HELP!!!!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by avantikatuli

hi,im new to this forum !! i have no idea of kfx or computers as such.

i have downloaded an E-book "the devils double" and want to convert it to PDF to print ad read.I tried with CALIBRE but i recieved a mesage that it is a Amazon KFX book.

how do i convert it?
should i use some other software like EPUB CONVERTOR?

REALLY LOST,NEED HELP!!!!

Follow the instructions in the first post in this thread to get the book in KF8 format rather than KFX. You'll then be able to convert it to PDF.

[Ah234]

@HarryT

I can see no instructions in the first post in this thread on how to get the book into KF8 format

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Ah234

@HarryT

I can see no instructions in the first post in this thread on how to get the book into KF8 format

The first post in the thread contains instructions on how to prevent K4PC from downloading books in KFX format. If KFX support is disabled, you'll get the book in KF8 format.

[jgt1942]

Minor glitch on my end. The instructions are GREAT!!
When I installed Kindle 1.19 on my Win10 x64 system, opened Kindle, checked the Help > About Kindle it still showed that I had v1.21 installed.

Using Revo Uninstaller I uninstalled Kindle and then reinstalled using the 1.19 version. This time when I went to Help > About Kindle it showed v1.19.

The next glitch was removing the check for the auto update. After checking the version of Kindle and confirming I had 1.19 installed I removed the check for the auto update and Save it. I had to register and I started to check what I had in the library at Amazon and found that I had 1362 books. As a test, I just selected one book and started to Deliver it but decided to again check the auto update checkbox and was surprised to see it was checked again. I removed the check and performed another Save. I found it necessary to do this at least two more times. I'm confident that I really did save the removal of the check mark and have checked it several times since then and it has remained unchecked.

I went to Amazon to download my book, I selected one that I had purchased earlier today and clicked on the Deliver option. Watching the folder in Xplorer2 (my file manager application) I saw the book appear as B003Y74H1E_EBOK.azw opened the book in Kindle and confirmed it was the book I purchased, then click-n-drag to Calibre, saw the book appear in Calibre and then confirmed I could open the book.

While managing my content I looked at my Devices and noticed I had several but not wanting to clean this up I just left it for now. In the Kindle app I noticed that it show the device as "jgt's Kindle for PC 5", in the manage devices window I made "jgt's Kindle for PC 5" my default.

Back in the Manage Content window I selected ALL and clicked the Deliver button but the books were NOT downloaded. I went back to the Kindle PC window, in the nav pane I clicked on the circle with two arrows, 200 of the 1362 books were downloaded and the two-arrow circle had stopped spinning. It seemed that I could NOT download all of the books.

It seems that in the Manage Content browser window when I selected ALL only the 200 books being displayed were selected. I had to click on the "Show More" (near the bottom of the displayed books), wait until 200 books were displayed (there is a status line stating something like "Showing 401-600 of 1362 items in Books--All"). Now if I selected ALL and clicked on the DELIVER button I could see the books being downloaded in the Kindle app window. Thus it appears that I will have to repeat this a few times until all books are downloaded.

At this point, I should have downloaded 600 of the 1362 books but the Kindle app showed that I had only downloaded 530. I discovered that if I scrolled all the way down to the bottom, right-clicked on the last book and selected DOWNLOAD it would be downloaded. I had to this one-at-a-time for all of the books not downloaded. If I did not scroll all the way to the bottom the Kindle app window would sometimes refresh and I would not see the books that had NOT been downloaded. If the book is downloaded there will be a checkmark in the bottom left corner.

As I near the end it seems that the books are automatically being delivered. I don't know what is going on.

I see numerous books in the manage content window that show "Update Available". I'm not sure what to do with these or how I can easily download all of the books that have been updated or if they have already been downloaded.

At this time all of the books have downloaded. I will add more later.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by jgt1942

The next glitch was removing the check for the auto update.

Others have reported difficulty in getting the option to stick. I don't know why.

Originally Posted by jgt1942

Back in the Manage Content window I selected ALL and clicked the Deliver button but the books were NOT downloaded.

Not long ago you could only send ten books at a time. The current situation is a big improvement over that!

Originally Posted by jgt1942

I discovered that if I scrolled all the way down to the bottom, right-clicked on the last book and selected DOWNLOAD it would be downloaded. I had to this one-at-a-time for all of the books not downloaded.

The delivery process sometimes fails, especially if you queue a large number of books at once. When that happens you have to manually retry the unchecked books, as you found.

Originally Posted by jgt1942

I see numerous books in the manage content window that show "Update Available". I'm not sure what to do with these or how I can easily download all of the books that have been updated or if they have already been downloaded.

Those are books that have been updated by the publisher, with an update deemed important enough to push to prior purchasers. (Minor updates are not usually made available to those who previously purchased a book.)

You can press the "Update Available" button for each book to update them one-by-one or you can turn on "Automatic Book Updates" in the settings tab. That will make less work for you, but you will not know when updates have occurred. (You may want to be aware of future updates if you backup your purchases, for example.)

[jgt1942]

You can press the "Update Available" button for each book to update them one-by-one or you can turn on "Automatic Book Updates" in the settings tab. That will make less work for you, but you will not know when updates have occurred. (You may want to be aware of future updates if you backup your purchases, for example.)

Ah now I see the setting, by default it is turned on. For now this is OK but I'd like to know when a book is updated.

Much thanks for the quick feedback.

[Mousebumples]

Just wanted to give a hearty THANK YOU to everyone for the help and walk-throughs and plug-ins posted and linked to in this thread. I decided to consolidate my reading libraries wholly in Calibre (rather than running both Calibre and Kindle), and I was frustrated until finding this thread.

Thanks again!

[Inukami]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Others have reported difficulty in getting the option to stick. I don't know why.

I had the same problem. When I downloaded the Japanese manga and closed Kindle for Mac, it updated even though I had checked it not to update. Thought I had done something wrong. Luckily I have another copy of the older version.

Any way to stop it doing that? Or do you need to check it a few times before you shut down and then it eventually stabilises? Or would I be better to use the terminal window command option instead to disable the renderer-test program? Out of the two options - using an old version of Kindle for PC/Mac or the terminal window command - which is better and what are the key differences between the two? Sorry lots of questions...



Inukami

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Inukami

Any way to stop it doing that? Or do you need to check it a few times before you shut down and then it eventually stabilises?

I don't know why that option doesn't stick on some systems. If it is being reset for you then I recommend checking it each time you launch the program.

Originally Posted by Inukami

Or would I be better to use the terminal window command option instead to disable the renderer-test program? Out of the two options - using an old version of Kindle for PC/Mac or the terminal window command - which is better and what are the key differences between the two?

There are differences in the files delivered from Amazon if you update to the latest version and block KFX by disabling renderer-test.

First, each book will have its own sub-folder. You will have to navigate to locate book files.

Second, books that contain high quality images will have only the standard quality ones in the main (.azw) file. They will be the same quality that Kindle owners receive if they use Method 3 described in the first post.

I will also mention that some progress has been made on improving Method 4. A patch to the common used DRM Tools is available for testing.

The choice of which option to use is up to you.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I will also mention that some progress has been made on improving Method 4. A patch to the common used DRM Tools is available for testing.

Oh, splendid!

[Inukami]

Originally Posted by jhowell

There are differences in the files delivered from Amazon if you update to the latest version and block KFX by disabling renderer-test.

First, each book will have its own sub-folder. You will have to navigate to locate book files.

Second, books that contain high quality images will have only the standard quality ones in the main (.azw) file. They will be the same quality that Kindle owners receive if they use Method 3 described in the first post.

Thanks @jhowell for that information. It looks like it is better if I use Method 1 - the older version of Kindle for Mac - for the two reasons you mentioned above.

1. Some of my files are manga/comics which contain high quality images which I would like to use/keep.
2. I use Automator to auto add the files into Calibre so not sure if it will find the files if they are in different folders. I would need to experiment with that.

Thanks,

Inukami

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I will also mention that some progress has been made on improving Method 4. A patch to the common used DRM Tools is available for testing.

Question, is the patch publicly available? I checked github and WordPress, and there doesn’t appear to be any changes as far as KFX. Thanks!

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Question, is the patch publicly available?

Yes. See the second comment from voltagex on the KFX pull request in Apprentice Harper's GitHub.

You will also need to install the KFX Input plugin for it to work.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Yes. See the second comment from voltagex on the KFX pull request in Apprentice Harper's GitHub.

You will also need to install the KFX Input plugin for it to work.

Already have KFX Input installed. Cool. Thanks!