Amazon Removed Download and Transfer Option for New Kindles | Hacker News Reader

Amazon Removed Download and Transfer Option for New Kindles

blog.the-ebook-reader.com

42 pointsDavideNL15 comments

What is this "download & transfer option" ?

Is it related to the "send to kindle" stuff (https://www.amazon.com/sendtokindle) ? I'm using this to pass epub directly (enabling wifi just in time)

The "download and transfer option" is located on the Amazon.com website when you're logged in. To get there, hover over the text to the right of the search bar that says "Hello, [Your Name] Account & Lists", select "Orders" from the menu that appears, then select "Digital Orders" from the "Your Orders" page that appears after selecting. You'll see a list of Digital Orders you've placed, including books. Click "Manage Content and Devices" next to one of the items, and a "Digital Content" page will appear. After clicking "More Actions," you'll see a list of actions, including "Download & transfer via USB". At least, I do.

The title and article is confusing. It says this:

"they are finding out that the new [Kindle] models are mysteriously missing the download and transfer via USB option for purchased ebooks from the content page at Amazon."

The option to download and transfer via USB option is on Amazon.com website, and doesn't appear to be related to the new Kindles at all. So it's not clear to me what the new Kindles themselves are missing. I have a new Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition that was just released, and I have books that I "acquired" (the word Amazon uses on their website) from Amazon on September 5 and September 16. I have the option to download and transfer them via USB on the website.

Can anyone clarify what option has actually been removed?

When you select download and transfer via USB, it asks you which kindle to prepare the file for. I would presume that the new kindles aren't allowed to do this and so they're just not in the list of available targets for the action.

It was only a matter of time as caliber has made this a very popular way of stripping the DRM.

Thank you! I don't use this option, because I buy books and then pirate them elsewhere as a backup. So long as Calibre keeps updating to support new Kindle devices, I guess I'm set, though I understand why people would be concerned with this feature disappearing.

The funny thing for me is that this would force me out of the Amazon ecosystem. I've purchased hundreds of Kindle books, but I read them as EPUBs on my Boox. If I can't back up my purchases as EPUBs then I'm not going to buy from that vendor.

I hope Amazon knows what they're doing, I suspect that as always fears of piracy grossly outweigh the actual financial impact of piracy. Moreover attempts to battle piracy rarely seem to inhibit the pirates.

It’s not about piracy, it’s about keeping you inside the “flywheels” created by the interlocking hardware and services.

I didn't even it could do that to start with. But then again I don't use it because I don't trust it. It was a gift.

I still read tangible real books. They don't need backing up and you can give them to people when you're done.

Yes and they're big, heavy, annoying to keep open, have text that is too small or too large, they take up a lot of space, they're easy to damage, you can't back them up at all, you can't highlight or make notes impermanently, you can't search, and lighting them up in the night without disturbing your partner is harder. You can't sit in bed, finish one book, then decide you really liked it and want to start the sequel right now and have it purchased and ready in 2 minutes. You can't take your whole bookcase on holiday with you.

But yes, you can give them to people when you're done.

Not that I dislike physical books, but there are plenty more reasons than just being able to hand the book to someone else. In any case, my experiences with sharing have been less than ideal.

Not to mention the environmental impact.

Ugh give it a rest

The environmental impact or books is miniscule/completely insignificant compared to the output of the military industrial complex on a daily basis. What are you doing to help bring that down?

That’s a whataboutism. I’m not a fan of the military industrial complex either.

The environmental impact of delivering a book digitally is negligible vs shipping all the materials to a printer, the finished book to a store, getting the customer to the store then back home.

And I say this as someone who’s a fan of printing and its history. I mean, just look at my username.

This is going to be a huge problem for people that use Calibre to manage their library.

I think that's the point. Amazon doesn't want to share.

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