Amazon Kindle removes download feature of purchased books: Difference between revisions

On 26 February 2025, [[Amazon]] removed the "download and transfer via USB" feature from their website. This means [[Amazon Kindle]] users are no longer able to download their purchased e-books from Amazon's website to their computers using the "download and transfer via USB" feature. A message describing this change appeared on the page for the download feature a few weeks before the feature was removed.<ref name="theverge">{{Cite web|url=https://www.theverge.com/news/612898/amazon-removing-kindle-book-download-transfer-usb|title=Amazon’s killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books|publisher=The Verge|date=14 Feb 2025|format=article|author=Andrew Liszewski|language=en}}</ref>

Amazon allows purchasing e-books on their platform. These e-books are designed to be used with Amazon Kindle devices and the Kindle app. The "download and transfer via USB" feature allowed users to download purchased e-books on their computers. The intended use for this was to allow people to transfer e-books from their computer to their Kindle, without requiring the Kindle to have an internet connection. The "download and transfer via USB" feature was available since the early days of Kindle, when many devices didn't have {{Wplink|Wi-Fi}} capabilities, such as the Kindle 1, Kindle 2, and Kindle DX.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Amazon_Kindle_1|publisher=MobileRead Wiki|title=Amazon Kindle 1|language=en|format=wiki page|date=21 Nov 2011}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Amazon_Kindle_2|title=Amazon Kindle 2|publisher=MobileRead Wiki|language=en|format=wiki page|date=21 Nov 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kindle_DX|date=15 Apr 2014|title=Kindle DX|format=wiki page|publisher=MobileRead Wiki|language=en}}</ref>  

===Reasons for feature===

*Allowed users to transfer books to Kindles without an internet connection. Older devices may no longer be able to connect.

*Let users create backup copies of their purchased e-book library.

*Provided a way to access books in the older AZW3 format, which is more amenable to format conversion than newer formats due to less restrictive DRM.

*Gave users more control over their purchased content.

*The change makes it much harder for customers to read e-books they have purchased on non-Kindle devices.

*Customers are now required to connect their Kindle e-readers to the internet if they want to download books purchased on Amazon.

*The change makes it harder for customers to move away from Amazon to another e-book platform, since customers are not able to keep the e-books they purchased through Amazon.

Other users resorted to {{Wplink|Privilege escalation#Jailbreaking|jailbreaking}} their devices to ensure continued access to previous features. This can be done using tools such as [https://kindlemodding.org/jailbreaking/WinterBreak/ WinterBreak], which allow users to run custom applications like  [https://github.com/koreader/koreader/wiki/Installation-on-Kindle-devices KOReader], a unified eBook reader that supports PDF, DjVu, EPUB, FB2, and many other formats—on Cervantes, Kindle, Kobo, PocketBook, and [[Android]] devices.

Since e-books can no longer be purchased from the Kindle Store and downloaded, there is no way to get them onto these devices.

*Users who backed up their Kindle books before the 26 February 2025 cutoff can still manually transfer them via USB.

==Technical USB restrictions==

In 2023, Amazon changed how their Kindle devices interact with computers from a raw view of a file system using UMS ([[wikipedia:USB_mass_storage_device_class|USB Mass Storage]]) to a filtered view using the MTP ({{Wplink|Media Transfer Protocol}}).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4352640|publisher=MobileRead Forums|format=forum thread|date=31 Aug 2023|language=en|title=Kindle Scribe no longer connects as USB drive}}</ref>

MTP requires support on the operating system. Amazon had to provide macOS software to communicate with Kindles,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=364580|title=Amazon releases MTP USB File Manager for macOS|format=forum thread|publisher=MobileRead Forums|date=13 Nov 2024|language=en}}</ref> and even Windows users had some issues. This change made download and transfer more complex for newer devices.  

This change means that all files transferred to the device will have to pass through a software filter running on the device before being accepted. Currently, this filtering is ineffective as demonstrated by WinterBreak which uses the exposed HTML cache. Future software revisions can and will add restrictions, especially to "improve security."

{{Reflist}}