Designed for Kindle Fire Books

[johnelle]

I have this cookbook that will not load in the Kindle PC app so I can't store it in my Calibre library. It does get loaded on the Android apps and is readable there. I went back looked at it is marked (not well marked) as designed for Fire tablets only. We have an old Fire tablet laying around and still functioning although my wife tired of it quickly.

Any way to get this format into Calibre? Its setting on my Galaxy Tab(s) somewhere but no idea how I would find it in the heap of machine readable filenames.

[Deskisamess]

You can use Manage Your Content and Devices to deliver Kindle content to your computer. Go to Manage Your Content and Devices and locate your Kindle content. From the Actions drop-down menu, the [...] to the left of the book, select Download & Transfer via USB. From the drop-down, select your Kindle Fire, and then click Download to download the content to a folder on your computer. Not all Kindle content is available for transfer from Manage Your Content and Devices.

Once it is downloaded, if you want the book on the Fire, connect the Fire to the computer and copy that file to the BOOKS folder on the Fire tablet.

This assumes the Fire tablet is registered to the account that holds the book. Once the book is downloaded to your computer, copy the file to Calibre.

[johnelle]

In the computer app it will not sync/download this book--it apears in the library but only as a cover. The book does transfer to android kindle app. The manage function is not involved.

[Deskisamess]

You don't use the Kindle app at all for the process I posted. You go to Manage Your Content on the Amazon site, and select Download and Transfer via USB, selecting the Fire tablet as the destination.

That will download the book to your computer, not the Kindle app on the computer. The resulting file is what you drag into Calibre.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

You don't use the Kindle app at all for the process I posted. You go to Manage Your Content on the Amazon site, and select Download and Transfer via USB, selecting the Fire tablet as the destination.

That will download the book to your computer, not the Kindle app on the computer. The resulting file is what you drag into Calibre.

that is such an obvious loophole, it will almost certainly be blocked

amazon will ONLY allow these (fire tablet only) books to go direct to their named devices where they stay DRM protected, not via any hackable intermediary. and once its on the tablet, the DRM is not hackable

[Deskisamess]

Originally Posted by stumped

that is such an obvious loophole, it will almost certainly be blocked

amazon will ONLY allow these (fire tablet only) books to go direct to their named devices where they stay DRM protected, not via any hackable intermediary. and once its on the tablet, the DRM is not hackable

It would depend on the plugins installed on Calibre. I've no personal experience with books that would only work on a Fire tablet. I've had several Fires over the years, but never read on them much.

The op having a Fire tablet is what made it possible to choose the Download and Transfer method, even though they did not want the book on that Fire. You only get that option at Content and Devices IF you have a device that can accept the resulting downloaded file. Once the file is on the computer, it's easy, with the right knowledge, to free it from the drm.

[stumped]

IF there's one of those books still in my amazon library, I will test, but from memory those books are offered ONLY in KFX and there is no way to get them onto a PC. even though current versions of K for PC can handle KFX. its another enforced limitation, on top of the single format only restriction. probably because a fire tablet can handle a "hardened "form of their DRM ?

they applied this limitation first to some graphic novels, then to some expensive academic tomes, and now , apparently, to some cookbooks also. there was a thread here somewhere about the academic books.

a similar system applies to prime lending - no matter how many fire tablets and serial numbers I have, I cannot get a prime lending book sent to a PC - not to K for PC, not to USb transfer...
NB that was only with prime lending, not Kindle Unlimited, and they may have renamed it again now its been a while since I used it

[Deskisamess]

IF there's one of those books still in my amazon library, I will test, but from memory those books are offered ONLY in KFX and there is no way to get them onto a PC.

So do I understand you to say the Download and Transfer via USB is not an option for those books? I'm not talking about using Kindle for PC. But there are users who don't want to connect to WiFi, and use the USB transfer method.

As long as you have a device that can use that method, an actual Kindle device or a Fire tablet, that option is available in Content & Devices. Selecting that option does send the book to the download folder on your computer, and has nothing to do with the Kindle PC app.

You don't get the option for iDevices or the Kindle for PC/Mac.

Here is a screen grab showing the option for a cookbook on my account. It's interesting that my Paperwhite, the newest version, isn't compatible, but the older Paperwhite, my husbands is a 2nd gen, is, as well as the older HDX Fire my DIL uses.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by johnelle

I have this cookbook that will not load in the Kindle PC app so I can't store it in my Calibre library. It does get loaded on the Android apps and is readable there. I went back looked at it is marked (not well marked) as designed for Fire tablets only. We have an old Fire tablet laying around and still functioning although my wife tired of it quickly.

Would you mind sharing the title and author of the book? I would like to investigate this further.

[stumped]

someone needs to test and report back, as to whether a "designed for fire tablet" book, can be obtained via a download and transfer via USb option.

I think not but I have nothing handy to test with. The OP could check and update us

[Deskisamess]

To test it, you'd need a Fire and one of the books in question. I've got 2,000 Kindle books on my account, and have never run into a book with this limitation.

[stumped]

I am between fire tablets at present ( except for a very old hdx which grandson uses). Planning to get the 2019 one on black Friday. And the tablet only book I thought I owned did not show up in my content, it was probably on an older Amazon account, now inactive.
So someone else will have to test and report back.
I would also be curious to know: Is it really fire tablets only.i.e. is a pure android tablet running kindle for Android also excluded? - post 1 which says the book is readable in android apps, but unclear if that applies to non Amazon devices

[johnelle]

The book is: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0789KCXRG..._WrPZDbXE32RQB

Even though it clear states that it won't work on Android apps it works just fine on my Galaxy Tab apps (several versions) and so there is indeed a file on those tablets. I do hook them up to the USB on my Windows 10 PC and can browse the Kindle files.

The issues are:

The Windows Kindle App (my normal Calibre load app) shows the
cover but when you try to get it to download it puts up a dialog that
says the format it "not compatible with this device"

I know there is a file on my Tab(s) that has this book I just have no
idea how to decode the file names to find it. I have lots of books.

I am too lazy to spend lots of time on this, so for example I am not
willing to clean a tablet of all books and then push the one book as a
test. I rarely (never?) hook he Tablet into Calibre even though I use
Calibre several hours/day so I don't know much about Calibre talking
to Galaxy (or the old Fire)

[stumped]

it will not be a single file, the book will be broken into scattered humpty dumpty pieces which only amazon know how to reassemble

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by johnelle

The book is: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0789KCXRG..._WrPZDbXE32RQB

Thanks for the info.

That book is odd in not being supported on the PC/Mac apps. Other books from the same publisher are allowed there: Keto For Carb Lovers, Delish Insane Sweets

Originally Posted by johnelle

Even though it clear states that it won't work on Android apps it works just fine on my Galaxy Tab apps (several versions) and so there is indeed a file on those tablets.

Actually the "Available on these devices" list for that book does include Android devices: Kindle Fire HDX 8.9'', Kindle Fire HDX, Kindle Fire HD (3rd Generation), Fire HDX 8.9 Tablet, Fire HD 7 Tablet, Kindle Fire HD 8.9", Fire, Kindle for Android Phones, Kindle for Android Tablets, Kindle for iPhone, Kindle for iPod Touch, Kindle for iPad.

Originally Posted by johnelle

I do hook them up to the USB on my Windows 10 PC and can browse the Kindle files.

Hooking the Android or Fire tablets to your computer is not going to yield anything useful. That book will download to those devices in a format (KFX) that uses newer DRM that currently cannot be removed.

Instead you need to do what Deskisamess proposed here. On amazon.com go to the "Manage Your Content and Devices" page under your account, select that book, and choose the option to "Download & transfer via USB". That will download the book directly to your PC in a format (AZW4) that calibre will be able to work with.

For most books there would be a problem in doing that because DRM cannot be removed from downloaded files intended for Fire tablets, but this book appears to not have any DRM applied when downloaded that way.