16 ms·

Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

214 points by exolymph 7y ago

ggm 7y ago
Some of the DRM failures are real: kindle DRM updates and some forms don't strip in calibre IIRC. But that aside, this is all pretty much what I do. I feel uncomfortable about the legalities but I do not like the social contact being written in this way, against any consumer interest and without discussion. Buying books is important. Authors deserve their pay. DRM is like book cancer.
macinjosh 7y ago
By coincidence I was doing this last night because I got a new eReader (non-Kindle). I found the most reliable method was to go the the "Manage Content and Devices" page on my Amazon account and manually download each book. This method downloads a single file for each book to your machine and its in a format Calibre and DeDRM can work with. It took a while even though I only had ~80 books but it was worth the effort.
- pmontra 7y ago
  I went to that page but there is no way to download the books. What's the name of the link/button to use?
  - darkpuma 7y ago
    That page should have a list of books you own. On the left side of each row for each book, there should be a light gray button that looks like: [...] It's under the "Actions" column, second to the left. Click that and there should be a popup that contains a link "Download & transfer via USB" I believe this link will only be available if your account has a real kindle (e.g. eink or fire) registered to it. It encrypts the downloaded file for whichever registered kindle you select from a list of all your registered kindles and apps, with the apps grayed out so you can only select actual kindles.
Havoc 7y ago
The ones that fail are the new encryption. To remove that you need another add on and the serial from the kindle as key Don’t have the name of it with me now sorry
- b15h0p 7y ago
  If I remember correctly the process is described in the README of the DeDRM plugin that can be downloaded from GitHub: https://github.com/apprenticeharper/DeDRM_tools/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/apprenticeharper/DeDRM_tools/blob/master/... (and I am talking about the README file inside the zip you download there).
santafe 7y ago
Or instead of messing with propertiary programs one could set up an rsync job to pull the books from the actual device. DeDRM still required, btw. But do humans really requires a guide how to backup stuff from a frickin' mass storage device? I hate this like the 1000 different "10 hammock mistakes" video on youtube, where all of them telling the same things. Ah, she is member of "Amazon Associates" program so this article is just a bs for more clicks.
- jauke 7y ago
  She didn't have a phsyical kindle device available.
tuesday20 7y ago
How legal is stripping the DRM like this? Can one get in trouble for this?
- moviuro 7y ago
  > Use of Kindle Content. [...]. Kindle Content is licensed, not sold, to you by the Content Provider. The Content Provider may include additional terms for use within its Kindle Content. Those terms will also apply, but this Agreement will govern in the event of a conflict. Some Kindle Content, such as interactive or highly formatted content, may not be available to you on all Kindle Applications. > [...] > Termination. Your rights under this Agreement will automatically terminate if you fail to comply with any term of this Agreement. [...]. https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_left_v4_sib?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201014950 https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_... So you may get in trouble if you're caught doing stupid things, yes. Will they bother though? Unlikely.
  - ptah 7y ago
    physical books are so much better for this reason and generally cheaper
    - moviuro 7y ago
      https://twitter.com/rdonoghue/status/1144011630197522432 https://twitter.com/rdonoghue/status/1144011630197522432 and discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20297331 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20297331
    - atemerev 7y ago
      They are not “generally cheaper” (ebooks are usually about 30-50% cheaper), and much less convenient if you travel a lot.
      - ptah 7y ago
        typically on amazon you can find cheaper physical books via alternative sellers like bookdepository
philtar 7y ago
Why is this article so high up? It's a blog post by an Amazon associate who fails at following basic instructions (dedrm tells you how to remove the new DRM and how to do it without a physical device) "hacker news"
- dewey 7y ago
  It's probably not high up because it's a great blog post, but it sparked a discussion and with the news from a few days ago that some big provider's ebooks will stop working because of DRM issues it's a topic on people's minds.
- djsumdog 7y ago
  Because of the recent Microsoft ebook store shutdown and people are concerned about losing other ebooks.
- exolymph 7y ago
  Consider that it's useful for y'all to hear from power users who aren't programmers. Also I wrote this last year, so it doesn't have whatever the newest advances are. The point of documenting my experience was both to share knowledge and demonstrate what a pain in the ass this is.
maskros 7y ago
Calibre is great, if you configure it properly. By default, converting books to another format will change the layout! Destroying the original formatting by default is unacceptable behaviour to be honest, so user beware. For Kindle, I suggest using the KindleUnpack plugin instead; which can extract the EPUB file embedded in the AZW/KF8 format file losslessly for use with EPUB based readers without having to worry about Calibre's conversion messing up the formatting.
- drakenot 7y ago
  Any tips for what settings to change to prevent the destructive behavior you mentioned?
  - maskros 7y ago
    The most destructive behavior is the default Look & Feel settings. If you uncheck "Remove spacing between paragraphs" and the "Insert blank line between paragraphs" settings, Calibre will leave most formatting as-is. These settings can be useful in cleaning up badly formatted files, but should not be used carte blanche on all input files, especially those that don't have problems. You'll lose niceties like the first paragraph in a chapter not having text-indent, etc. Generally it's better to use the "Edit book" feature on EPUB files and manually fix up the CSS if the styling is not to your liking. Converting with Calibre also hard-codes @page margins which overrides most e-Ink reader software's margin settings; so if I do end up using Calibre to convert to EPUB, I always have to edit it afterwards to remove these hard-coded margins in the CSS.
- AdmiralAsshat 7y ago
  I've heard people complain about Calibre's EPUB conversion utility, but I've never seen anyone do a deep-dive to explain exactly why it's bad. Is it comparable to the HTML-soup that Microsoft Word spits out when you export a Word doc to HTML? FWIW, I still heed those warnings, and so I still hold on to the de-DRM'd AZW file even after I convert it to EPUB.
  - ses1984 7y ago
jtbayly 7y ago
2018
misiti3780 7y ago
this only works with purchased books. if you sent an epub to your kindle, it will not show up in the devices section of the amazon website.
- jpindar 7y ago
  But then you must already have the file as an epub... so what are you trying to accomplish?
manojlds 7y ago
What are folks using for Audible? Open Audible? It wasn't pulling my library correctly last time I tried.
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  There are a variety of DRM Free audiobook providers: https://www.downpour.com https://www.downpour.com https://libro.fm https://libro.fm Most titles on audiobooksnow.com are free as well, but not quite all, so make sure there's no "DRM Protected" symbol. I bounce between these providers (subscribing and cancelling to their various plans as needed) based on book availability and price. I believe I pay slightly less overall than if I used Audible for everything, even if acquiring books takes more work. In a pinch, you can also remove Audible DRM with various tools (see sibling comment), but we should support proper DRM Free providers wherever possible!
- anatoly 7y ago
  1. Download your own AAX files (using the Audible download manager or search around for some ways to do it w/o the download manager). 2. Find out your 'activation keys' using ffprobe and the inAudible-NG project, see instructions here: https://github.com/inAudible-NG/tables/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/inAudible-NG/tables/blob/master/README.md. Needs to be done only once for your Audible account. 3. Use ffmpeg with --activation_bytes to convert AAX to MP3 or other formats, either directly or with a nice script like this one that'll divide into chapters: https://github.com/KrumpetPirate/AAXtoMP3 https://github.com/KrumpetPirate/AAXtoMP3 OpenAudible looks like a nice tool that'll automate all of these steps for you.
  - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
    Why is transcoding necessary even if the AAC option is used? (I was under the impression that audible used aac under the hood.) Is this avoidable?
    - anatoly 7y ago
      I'm not sure. Possibly if you try ffmpeg's -a copy and such, it'll simply extract the AAC. Let me know if it works for you. I've always wanted mp3 in the past so I didn't mind the transcoding.
superkuh 7y ago
Sometimes it's just better to pirate the books even if you've paid for them. The formatting and error correction is usually better and they stick to epub and mobi standards. As an aside: I was helping a friend out who owned a Kindle recently and shocked to learn it can't read mobi or epub. Why would anyone buy such a crap e-reader?
- arkades 7y ago
  It reads mobi, just not ePub. And I use it because it’s got the best hardware experience of the bunch, IMO.
  - superkuh 7y ago
    Do some? I was under the impression you couldn't load .mobi files on to it and they had to be converted to amazon's proprietary format.
    - arkades 7y ago
      I’m not familiar with any models not loading mobi. The only caveat is that there is a sub-format of mobi that’s fixed rather than reflowable (like, a PDF vs. a TXT), and that’s never been supported. But I’ve only come across those once in a blue moon in the wild. ePubs seem more popular than mobi though, so I think that’s where most of the “converting for kindle” happens.
    - dunnevens 7y ago
      .mobi predates Kindle, but it was the first format on the original Kindles. Amazon bought the company which made it. Amazon no longer uses the original mobi format, but keeps it for backwards compatibility. Most non-Amazon sources for Kindle books still use mobi.
- pavel_lishin 7y ago
  My kindle can read .mobi file sfine.
- kranner 7y ago
jxdxbx 7y ago
The easiest ebook format to strip DRM from is the Adobe DRM that various stores use. I only buy ebooks from the Google Play book store now, since DRM removal is so straightforward. (Same deDRM calibre plugin, but you just get a single encrypted ePub you can download, and adding it to calibre gives you a DRM-free ePub, which is a more industry-standard format. Converting to or from KFX or AZW3 can be error-prone.)
- exolymph 7y ago
  I mentioned this in the post :)
farss 7y ago
Don't forget to backup your marks and highlights also. I made that mistake once, and then lost my Kindle. Lost years worth of highlights and notes, so now I set up a bash script to automatically sync them to a Git repo when my Kindle is plugged into my laptop.
- neves 7y ago
  Your bookmarks and highlights are synced to the cloud. You should be able to read them online on: http://read.amazon.com/notebook http://read.amazon.com/notebook From the kindle you can also export all the highlights of a book to your email. It's a lot better to read it on your email. The kindle device reader note reading experience is subpar.
  - farss 7y ago
    Yes, but only for the books you purchase through Amazon. If you import DRM free books (or presumably re-import DRM free versions of Amazon purchases) or personal docs, the notes on those won't be saved.
    - preek 7y ago
      And that’s a big use case. I use Kindle for most of my reading and import many other documents (papers, DRM free books I bought and such).
  - bduerst 7y ago
    Tangential, but is there a way to scrape this page or an API to access it? I'd like to be able to automatically pull my highlights and haven't found an easy way.
    - pkd 7y ago
      Look into readwise. There's no API access to highlights, do they scrape it from an open tab.
- preek 7y ago
Symmetry 7y ago
I've downloaded all my books but I'm holding off cracking the DRM until I need to.
- criddell 7y ago
  > I'm holding off cracking the DRM until I need to Last time I checked, there was no crack for Amazon's latest version of their DRM (KF8 files). A workaround exists where you get Amazon to wrap the content in the old DRM, but then you lose all the typography improvements in the KF8 file.
Yizahi 7y ago
There are other reasons for doing this. Even if Kindle market would function forever and Amazon won't delete books remotely there is still a possibility that your account could be breached, for example by social engineering means. And if malicious person can access your account he can delete everything there, forever. If someone will steal your Steam account you can restore it completely, most likely. If Amazon acc is stolen - goodbye everything. And support won't restore or refund anything. (support itself is good)
aswanson 7y ago
Anyone know of a good way to browse & put pdfs into the kindle? The Amazon PC application purports to do as much but is really bad at it.
- simcop2387 7y ago
  Easiest way I know of is to email it to the kindle, https://www.amazon.com/gp/sendtokindle/email https://www.amazon.com/gp/sendtokindle/email Haven't done it often, but it seems to work fine.
  - jxdxbx 7y ago
    You can use this app, too https://www.willus.com/k2pdfopt/ https://www.willus.com/k2pdfopt/ to pre-process them in various ways so they are actually readable on a Kindle. (Crop whitespace, flip to landscape etc)
- rypskar 7y ago
  My old kindle mounts as a disk when connecting it to my pc using usb, so I drag pdfs into the directory all the other books are in
bsharitt 7y ago
While I try to buy non-DRM books when I can, I'm still willing to buy DRM'd books as long as the DRM is pretty breakable(and I back them up immediately most of the time). If the books on Amazon, Google, B&N, etc were to suddenly have unbroken DRM, I'd stop buying DRM'd ebooks until that issue was "fixed". Every ebook DRM format(except maybe Apple) is already trivially removable, so I wish they'd drop the farce and go DRM free already.
- adrianN 7y ago
  Breakable DRM is there for legal reasons. IANAL but you can make copies of copyrighted materials for private use, but you are not allowed to circumvent copy protection mechanisms.
  - skrowl 7y ago
    I believe it is legal to break DRM for purposes of backup / personal use on unsupported devices / etc in the United States, but I'm also not a lawyer.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - extra88 7y ago
      It is not legal. Making backup copies for yourself works as a fair use defense of copyright infringement but DRM breaking is a separate matter; that's why that part of the DMCA is reviled, it prevents people from doing what copyright otherwise permits them to do. There is an exemption for breaking DRM on ebooks to enable their use with assistive technologies used by people with disabilities. There are some audiovisual exemptions for educational use that encompass "multimedia ebooks" but only for specific purposes. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/10/26/2018-23241/exemption-to-prohibition-on-circumvention-of-copyright-protection-systems-for-access-control https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/10/26/2018-23...
- criddell 7y ago
  > Every ebook DRM format(except maybe Apple) is already trivially removable AFAIK, Amazon's latest DRM on KFX files hasn't been broken yet. That came out in 2015. Some people get around it by getting the book in the older format, but then you lose all the advanced typography stuff that KFX supports.
ben7799 7y ago
I've backed up my eBooks from time to time & cracked some books over the years that I had purchased & wanted to put on another device but a lot of the time I don't worry about it. I got my first kindle in 2010 and bounced over to Barnes & Noble for a while with a Nook but then came back to the Amazon ecosystem. I've bought hundreds of books over the years. But just like paper books there are a lot of books that I read once and never look at again. They aren't priceless treasured objects for me. The thing with Amazon.. people complain a lot, but their ecosystem just works the best in the eBook space. I actually find it a lot less annoying than some of the shenanigans with other digital stores like the iTunes store over the years. I haven't tried Kobo but B&N was always a hot mess compared to Amazon. Tons of annoyances in the store & device software that Amazon had right from day 1. And you were paying more for a worse experience.
- aeturnum 7y ago
  I have a Kobo and haven't had any complaints (though they're often not as cheap as Amazon though). P.s. I wasn't sure if you were saying this, but I don't think Kobo has anything to do with B&N.
  - ben7799 7y ago
    I was just mentioning that I haven't really given Kobo a shot... so I could be in the dark and Kobo is better. But I hear enough through the woodwork that I have been under the impression using Kobo would be trading off annoyances with some things better & some worse. Mostly what I hear is Kobo often has some hardware advantages but has some different software annoyances. What format the book uses is a very minor concern to most of us who just read the books. Epub vs Mobi vs KF8 or whatever has no impact on me 99% of the time. The only time it'd really matter is hopping around between platforms and having to convert stuff. If Kobo started having a huge advantage I'd be more likely to buy a Kobo and keep my Amazon library with Amazon and start buying Kobo books there. I wouldn't go on a big project to convert all my Amazon bought books to a Kobo compatible format. Cause once done I wouldn't actually need/want to re-read all those books on the Kobo.
    - 7y ago
mobilio 7y ago
This doesn't work anymore. You need to download old Kindle app where it's possible.
- jpindar 7y ago
  Or download the files from your "Manage Your Content and Devices" page using the "download and transfer using USB" link which gives you the older AZW3 format.
umvi 7y ago
I have this great idea for a business: "ewhiteout" for ebooks. Basically you can selectively "patch" ebooks to censor profanity, sex scenes, violence, (and more) depending on your tastes and on what you like (and don't like) to consume. However, this is extremely unpopular with authors/publishers for the same reason that censoring movies is extremely unpopular with Hollywood (hence why companies like VidAngel are constantly mired in legal issues despite widespread popularity with consumers). Honestly, I don't understand why since at the end of the day everyone gets paid, and indeed get paid more than they normally would have (I guess it's more of a "you are altering my art so people can consume it in ways I didn't intend" attitude). But in my mind it's no different from using whiteout on a physical book or picking out the mushrooms (or whatever you don't like) in some chef's dish. Basically, I've already built the tech to do this for myself privately (and have patch files for ASoIaF and a dozen other epubs), but I will never share it (I've even considered FOSS) except with close family and friends even though I know it would be wildly popular in places like Utah because I fear legal pursuit from authors/publishers (and since you must break DRM in order for the tech to work, I don't see a way out).
- superhuzza 7y ago
  Interesting, I'm so far outside the target market for this I was very skeptical initially. But as you point out, I'm sure there are many communities that would make heavy use of this.
- Kevin_S 7y ago
  I knew someone that used the vidangel service, but I don't really get it. If you remove the cursing/sex/violence from much of the works that use them, does it not remove context that is necessary? You mention ASoIaF, which is littered with all three right? How can you consume a "patched" version and still retain the themes and messages of these works? If you don't want to be exposed to these things, why not just only consume content that does not have them in the first place?
  - umvi 7y ago
    > How can you consume a "patched" version and still retain the themes and messages of these works? From context! You don't need to explicitly see two characters having sex or read an erotic paragraph about them having sex to figure out they have an incestuous relationship. And most, if not all religious folks just want the sex and violence to be less explicit (left to the imagination) not completely whitewashed from the story. Otherwise you wouldn't even be able to read the Bible/Quran/Book of Mormon/etc. without encountering sex and violence.
carlosgg 7y ago
In April, Microsoft announced customers who bought books through its ebook store would lose access starting in July. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47810367 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47810367
Causality1 7y ago
It's a neat exercise but one I gave up on years ago. Now I avoid the hassle by buying a book and then pirating a copy for my archive.
m463 7y ago
I find that a number of Kindle books I've purchased at the beginning say: "The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied so that you can enjoy reading it on your personal devices"... So I assume either they don't have kindle DRM, or it is ethical (possibly legally allowed) to remove the kindle DRM.
- chipotle_coyote 7y ago
  Publishers (including self-publishers) can choose whether to apply DRM to books on Amazon as part of the uploading process, and not all publishers do so. Tor and Baen, for instance, don't use DRM on any of their titles.
dwighttk 7y ago
anyone know how to do this for audible books?
pnathan 7y ago
I periodically go through and back up my Kindle to Calibre. I have a fairly enormous ebook library, and I don't care to have it exploded due to, e.g., some error in the kindle software api.
jamescampbell 7y ago
I figured out how to finally get this to work. For Mac OS, you have to install an old version of the Kindle App. Version 1.23.1 appears to be the last version that downloads AZW3 formatted ebooks that can then be converted to EPUB easily with the DeDRM plugin. All later versions appear to be broken. Also, the Kindle app will silently update to the latest version unless you turn off the auto-update option. I converted all of my paid books to epub and not buying any more through Amazon. This post inspired me to do this before it is too late and the old version is no longer compatible to future OS versions.
BuckRogers 7y ago
I did a review of the varying e-readers 9 or 10 years ago and decided on the Nook based on standards support. I still use a Nook and never had any problems like this.

214 points by exolymph 7y ago

ggm 7y ago

Some of the DRM failures are real: kindle DRM updates and some forms don't strip in calibre IIRC. But that aside, this is all pretty much what I do. I feel uncomfortable about the legalities but I do not like the social contact being written in this way, against any consumer interest and without discussion. Buying books is important. Authors deserve their pay. DRM is like book cancer.

macinjosh 7y ago

By coincidence I was doing this last night because I got a new eReader (non-Kindle). I found the most reliable method was to go the the "Manage Content and Devices" page on my Amazon account and manually download each book. This method downloads a single file for each book to your machine and its in a format Calibre and DeDRM can work with. It took a while even though I only had ~80 books but it was worth the effort.

pmontra 7y ago
I went to that page but there is no way to download the books. What's the name of the link/button to use?
- darkpuma 7y ago
  That page should have a list of books you own. On the left side of each row for each book, there should be a light gray button that looks like: [...] It's under the "Actions" column, second to the left. Click that and there should be a popup that contains a link "Download & transfer via USB" I believe this link will only be available if your account has a real kindle (e.g. eink or fire) registered to it. It encrypts the downloaded file for whichever registered kindle you select from a list of all your registered kindles and apps, with the apps grayed out so you can only select actual kindles.

Havoc 7y ago

The ones that fail are the new encryption. To remove that you need another add on and the serial from the kindle as key Don’t have the name of it with me now sorry

b15h0p 7y ago
If I remember correctly the process is described in the README of the DeDRM plugin that can be downloaded from GitHub: https://github.com/apprenticeharper/DeDRM_tools/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/apprenticeharper/DeDRM_tools/blob/master/... (and I am talking about the README file inside the zip you download there).

santafe 7y ago

Or instead of messing with propertiary programs one could set up an rsync job to pull the books from the actual device. DeDRM still required, btw. But do humans really requires a guide how to backup stuff from a frickin' mass storage device? I hate this like the 1000 different "10 hammock mistakes" video on youtube, where all of them telling the same things. Ah, she is member of "Amazon Associates" program so this article is just a bs for more clicks.

jauke 7y ago
She didn't have a phsyical kindle device available.

tuesday20 7y ago

How legal is stripping the DRM like this? Can one get in trouble for this?

moviuro 7y ago
> Use of Kindle Content. [...]. Kindle Content is licensed, not sold, to you by the Content Provider. The Content Provider may include additional terms for use within its Kindle Content. Those terms will also apply, but this Agreement will govern in the event of a conflict. Some Kindle Content, such as interactive or highly formatted content, may not be available to you on all Kindle Applications. > [...] > Termination. Your rights under this Agreement will automatically terminate if you fail to comply with any term of this Agreement. [...]. https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_left_v4_sib?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201014950 https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_... So you may get in trouble if you're caught doing stupid things, yes. Will they bother though? Unlikely.
- ptah 7y ago
  physical books are so much better for this reason and generally cheaper
  - moviuro 7y ago
    https://twitter.com/rdonoghue/status/1144011630197522432 https://twitter.com/rdonoghue/status/1144011630197522432 and discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20297331 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20297331
  - atemerev 7y ago
    They are not “generally cheaper” (ebooks are usually about 30-50% cheaper), and much less convenient if you travel a lot.
    - ptah 7y ago
      typically on amazon you can find cheaper physical books via alternative sellers like bookdepository

philtar 7y ago

Why is this article so high up? It's a blog post by an Amazon associate who fails at following basic instructions (dedrm tells you how to remove the new DRM and how to do it without a physical device) "hacker news"

dewey 7y ago
It's probably not high up because it's a great blog post, but it sparked a discussion and with the news from a few days ago that some big provider's ebooks will stop working because of DRM issues it's a topic on people's minds.
djsumdog 7y ago
Because of the recent Microsoft ebook store shutdown and people are concerned about losing other ebooks.
exolymph 7y ago
Consider that it's useful for y'all to hear from power users who aren't programmers. Also I wrote this last year, so it doesn't have whatever the newest advances are. The point of documenting my experience was both to share knowledge and demonstrate what a pain in the ass this is.

maskros 7y ago

Calibre is great, if you configure it properly. By default, converting books to another format will change the layout! Destroying the original formatting by default is unacceptable behaviour to be honest, so user beware. For Kindle, I suggest using the KindleUnpack plugin instead; which can extract the EPUB file embedded in the AZW/KF8 format file losslessly for use with EPUB based readers without having to worry about Calibre's conversion messing up the formatting.

drakenot 7y ago
Any tips for what settings to change to prevent the destructive behavior you mentioned?
- maskros 7y ago
  The most destructive behavior is the default Look & Feel settings. If you uncheck "Remove spacing between paragraphs" and the "Insert blank line between paragraphs" settings, Calibre will leave most formatting as-is. These settings can be useful in cleaning up badly formatted files, but should not be used carte blanche on all input files, especially those that don't have problems. You'll lose niceties like the first paragraph in a chapter not having text-indent, etc. Generally it's better to use the "Edit book" feature on EPUB files and manually fix up the CSS if the styling is not to your liking. Converting with Calibre also hard-codes @page margins which overrides most e-Ink reader software's margin settings; so if I do end up using Calibre to convert to EPUB, I always have to edit it afterwards to remove these hard-coded margins in the CSS.
AdmiralAsshat 7y ago
I've heard people complain about Calibre's EPUB conversion utility, but I've never seen anyone do a deep-dive to explain exactly why it's bad. Is it comparable to the HTML-soup that Microsoft Word spits out when you export a Word doc to HTML? FWIW, I still heed those warnings, and so I still hold on to the de-DRM'd AZW file even after I convert it to EPUB.
- ses1984 7y ago

jtbayly 7y ago

2018

misiti3780 7y ago

this only works with purchased books. if you sent an epub to your kindle, it will not show up in the devices section of the amazon website.

jpindar 7y ago
But then you must already have the file as an epub... so what are you trying to accomplish?

manojlds 7y ago

What are folks using for Audible? Open Audible? It wasn't pulling my library correctly last time I tried.

Wowfunhappy 7y ago
There are a variety of DRM Free audiobook providers: https://www.downpour.com https://www.downpour.com https://libro.fm https://libro.fm Most titles on audiobooksnow.com are free as well, but not quite all, so make sure there's no "DRM Protected" symbol. I bounce between these providers (subscribing and cancelling to their various plans as needed) based on book availability and price. I believe I pay slightly less overall than if I used Audible for everything, even if acquiring books takes more work. In a pinch, you can also remove Audible DRM with various tools (see sibling comment), but we should support proper DRM Free providers wherever possible!
anatoly 7y ago
1. Download your own AAX files (using the Audible download manager or search around for some ways to do it w/o the download manager). 2. Find out your 'activation keys' using ffprobe and the inAudible-NG project, see instructions here: https://github.com/inAudible-NG/tables/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/inAudible-NG/tables/blob/master/README.md. Needs to be done only once for your Audible account. 3. Use ffmpeg with --activation_bytes to convert AAX to MP3 or other formats, either directly or with a nice script like this one that'll divide into chapters: https://github.com/KrumpetPirate/AAXtoMP3 https://github.com/KrumpetPirate/AAXtoMP3 OpenAudible looks like a nice tool that'll automate all of these steps for you.
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  Why is transcoding necessary even if the AAC option is used? (I was under the impression that audible used aac under the hood.) Is this avoidable?
  - anatoly 7y ago
    I'm not sure. Possibly if you try ffmpeg's -a copy and such, it'll simply extract the AAC. Let me know if it works for you. I've always wanted mp3 in the past so I didn't mind the transcoding.

superkuh 7y ago

Sometimes it's just better to pirate the books even if you've paid for them. The formatting and error correction is usually better and they stick to epub and mobi standards. As an aside: I was helping a friend out who owned a Kindle recently and shocked to learn it can't read mobi or epub. Why would anyone buy such a crap e-reader?

arkades 7y ago
It reads mobi, just not ePub. And I use it because it’s got the best hardware experience of the bunch, IMO.
- superkuh 7y ago
  Do some? I was under the impression you couldn't load .mobi files on to it and they had to be converted to amazon's proprietary format.
  - arkades 7y ago
    I’m not familiar with any models not loading mobi. The only caveat is that there is a sub-format of mobi that’s fixed rather than reflowable (like, a PDF vs. a TXT), and that’s never been supported. But I’ve only come across those once in a blue moon in the wild. ePubs seem more popular than mobi though, so I think that’s where most of the “converting for kindle” happens.
  - dunnevens 7y ago
    .mobi predates Kindle, but it was the first format on the original Kindles. Amazon bought the company which made it. Amazon no longer uses the original mobi format, but keeps it for backwards compatibility. Most non-Amazon sources for Kindle books still use mobi.
pavel_lishin 7y ago
My kindle can read .mobi file sfine.
kranner 7y ago

jxdxbx 7y ago

The easiest ebook format to strip DRM from is the Adobe DRM that various stores use. I only buy ebooks from the Google Play book store now, since DRM removal is so straightforward. (Same deDRM calibre plugin, but you just get a single encrypted ePub you can download, and adding it to calibre gives you a DRM-free ePub, which is a more industry-standard format. Converting to or from KFX or AZW3 can be error-prone.)

exolymph 7y ago
I mentioned this in the post :)

farss 7y ago

Don't forget to backup your marks and highlights also. I made that mistake once, and then lost my Kindle. Lost years worth of highlights and notes, so now I set up a bash script to automatically sync them to a Git repo when my Kindle is plugged into my laptop.

neves 7y ago
Your bookmarks and highlights are synced to the cloud. You should be able to read them online on: http://read.amazon.com/notebook http://read.amazon.com/notebook From the kindle you can also export all the highlights of a book to your email. It's a lot better to read it on your email. The kindle device reader note reading experience is subpar.
- farss 7y ago
  Yes, but only for the books you purchase through Amazon. If you import DRM free books (or presumably re-import DRM free versions of Amazon purchases) or personal docs, the notes on those won't be saved.
  - preek 7y ago
    And that’s a big use case. I use Kindle for most of my reading and import many other documents (papers, DRM free books I bought and such).
- bduerst 7y ago
  Tangential, but is there a way to scrape this page or an API to access it? I'd like to be able to automatically pull my highlights and haven't found an easy way.
  - pkd 7y ago
    Look into readwise. There's no API access to highlights, do they scrape it from an open tab.
preek 7y ago

Symmetry 7y ago

I've downloaded all my books but I'm holding off cracking the DRM until I need to.

criddell 7y ago
> I'm holding off cracking the DRM until I need to Last time I checked, there was no crack for Amazon's latest version of their DRM (KF8 files). A workaround exists where you get Amazon to wrap the content in the old DRM, but then you lose all the typography improvements in the KF8 file.

Yizahi 7y ago

There are other reasons for doing this. Even if Kindle market would function forever and Amazon won't delete books remotely there is still a possibility that your account could be breached, for example by social engineering means. And if malicious person can access your account he can delete everything there, forever. If someone will steal your Steam account you can restore it completely, most likely. If Amazon acc is stolen - goodbye everything. And support won't restore or refund anything. (support itself is good)

aswanson 7y ago

Anyone know of a good way to browse & put pdfs into the kindle? The Amazon PC application purports to do as much but is really bad at it.

simcop2387 7y ago
Easiest way I know of is to email it to the kindle, https://www.amazon.com/gp/sendtokindle/email https://www.amazon.com/gp/sendtokindle/email Haven't done it often, but it seems to work fine.
- jxdxbx 7y ago
  You can use this app, too https://www.willus.com/k2pdfopt/ https://www.willus.com/k2pdfopt/ to pre-process them in various ways so they are actually readable on a Kindle. (Crop whitespace, flip to landscape etc)
rypskar 7y ago
My old kindle mounts as a disk when connecting it to my pc using usb, so I drag pdfs into the directory all the other books are in

bsharitt 7y ago

While I try to buy non-DRM books when I can, I'm still willing to buy DRM'd books as long as the DRM is pretty breakable(and I back them up immediately most of the time). If the books on Amazon, Google, B&N, etc were to suddenly have unbroken DRM, I'd stop buying DRM'd ebooks until that issue was "fixed". Every ebook DRM format(except maybe Apple) is already trivially removable, so I wish they'd drop the farce and go DRM free already.

adrianN 7y ago
Breakable DRM is there for legal reasons. IANAL but you can make copies of copyrighted materials for private use, but you are not allowed to circumvent copy protection mechanisms.
- skrowl 7y ago
  I believe it is legal to break DRM for purposes of backup / personal use on unsupported devices / etc in the United States, but I'm also not a lawyer.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - extra88 7y ago
    It is not legal. Making backup copies for yourself works as a fair use defense of copyright infringement but DRM breaking is a separate matter; that's why that part of the DMCA is reviled, it prevents people from doing what copyright otherwise permits them to do. There is an exemption for breaking DRM on ebooks to enable their use with assistive technologies used by people with disabilities. There are some audiovisual exemptions for educational use that encompass "multimedia ebooks" but only for specific purposes. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/10/26/2018-23241/exemption-to-prohibition-on-circumvention-of-copyright-protection-systems-for-access-control https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/10/26/2018-23...
criddell 7y ago
> Every ebook DRM format(except maybe Apple) is already trivially removable AFAIK, Amazon's latest DRM on KFX files hasn't been broken yet. That came out in 2015. Some people get around it by getting the book in the older format, but then you lose all the advanced typography stuff that KFX supports.

ben7799 7y ago

I've backed up my eBooks from time to time & cracked some books over the years that I had purchased & wanted to put on another device but a lot of the time I don't worry about it. I got my first kindle in 2010 and bounced over to Barnes & Noble for a while with a Nook but then came back to the Amazon ecosystem. I've bought hundreds of books over the years. But just like paper books there are a lot of books that I read once and never look at again. They aren't priceless treasured objects for me. The thing with Amazon.. people complain a lot, but their ecosystem just works the best in the eBook space. I actually find it a lot less annoying than some of the shenanigans with other digital stores like the iTunes store over the years. I haven't tried Kobo but B&N was always a hot mess compared to Amazon. Tons of annoyances in the store & device software that Amazon had right from day 1. And you were paying more for a worse experience.

aeturnum 7y ago
I have a Kobo and haven't had any complaints (though they're often not as cheap as Amazon though). P.s. I wasn't sure if you were saying this, but I don't think Kobo has anything to do with B&N.
- ben7799 7y ago
  I was just mentioning that I haven't really given Kobo a shot... so I could be in the dark and Kobo is better. But I hear enough through the woodwork that I have been under the impression using Kobo would be trading off annoyances with some things better & some worse. Mostly what I hear is Kobo often has some hardware advantages but has some different software annoyances. What format the book uses is a very minor concern to most of us who just read the books. Epub vs Mobi vs KF8 or whatever has no impact on me 99% of the time. The only time it'd really matter is hopping around between platforms and having to convert stuff. If Kobo started having a huge advantage I'd be more likely to buy a Kobo and keep my Amazon library with Amazon and start buying Kobo books there. I wouldn't go on a big project to convert all my Amazon bought books to a Kobo compatible format. Cause once done I wouldn't actually need/want to re-read all those books on the Kobo.
  - 7y ago

mobilio 7y ago

This doesn't work anymore. You need to download old Kindle app where it's possible.

jpindar 7y ago
Or download the files from your "Manage Your Content and Devices" page using the "download and transfer using USB" link which gives you the older AZW3 format.

umvi 7y ago

I have this great idea for a business: "ewhiteout" for ebooks. Basically you can selectively "patch" ebooks to censor profanity, sex scenes, violence, (and more) depending on your tastes and on what you like (and don't like) to consume. However, this is extremely unpopular with authors/publishers for the same reason that censoring movies is extremely unpopular with Hollywood (hence why companies like VidAngel are constantly mired in legal issues despite widespread popularity with consumers). Honestly, I don't understand why since at the end of the day everyone gets paid, and indeed get paid more than they normally would have (I guess it's more of a "you are altering my art so people can consume it in ways I didn't intend" attitude). But in my mind it's no different from using whiteout on a physical book or picking out the mushrooms (or whatever you don't like) in some chef's dish. Basically, I've already built the tech to do this for myself privately (and have patch files for ASoIaF and a dozen other epubs), but I will never share it (I've even considered FOSS) except with close family and friends even though I know it would be wildly popular in places like Utah because I fear legal pursuit from authors/publishers (and since you must break DRM in order for the tech to work, I don't see a way out).

superhuzza 7y ago
Interesting, I'm so far outside the target market for this I was very skeptical initially. But as you point out, I'm sure there are many communities that would make heavy use of this.
Kevin_S 7y ago
I knew someone that used the vidangel service, but I don't really get it. If you remove the cursing/sex/violence from much of the works that use them, does it not remove context that is necessary? You mention ASoIaF, which is littered with all three right? How can you consume a "patched" version and still retain the themes and messages of these works? If you don't want to be exposed to these things, why not just only consume content that does not have them in the first place?
- umvi 7y ago
  > How can you consume a "patched" version and still retain the themes and messages of these works? From context! You don't need to explicitly see two characters having sex or read an erotic paragraph about them having sex to figure out they have an incestuous relationship. And most, if not all religious folks just want the sex and violence to be less explicit (left to the imagination) not completely whitewashed from the story. Otherwise you wouldn't even be able to read the Bible/Quran/Book of Mormon/etc. without encountering sex and violence.

carlosgg 7y ago

In April, Microsoft announced customers who bought books through its ebook store would lose access starting in July. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47810367 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47810367

Causality1 7y ago

It's a neat exercise but one I gave up on years ago. Now I avoid the hassle by buying a book and then pirating a copy for my archive.

m463 7y ago

I find that a number of Kindle books I've purchased at the beginning say: "The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied so that you can enjoy reading it on your personal devices"... So I assume either they don't have kindle DRM, or it is ethical (possibly legally allowed) to remove the kindle DRM.

chipotle_coyote 7y ago
Publishers (including self-publishers) can choose whether to apply DRM to books on Amazon as part of the uploading process, and not all publishers do so. Tor and Baen, for instance, don't use DRM on any of their titles.

dwighttk 7y ago

anyone know how to do this for audible books?

pnathan 7y ago

I periodically go through and back up my Kindle to Calibre. I have a fairly enormous ebook library, and I don't care to have it exploded due to, e.g., some error in the kindle software api.

jamescampbell 7y ago

I figured out how to finally get this to work. For Mac OS, you have to install an old version of the Kindle App. Version 1.23.1 appears to be the last version that downloads AZW3 formatted ebooks that can then be converted to EPUB easily with the DeDRM plugin. All later versions appear to be broken. Also, the Kindle app will silently update to the latest version unless you turn off the auto-update option. I converted all of my paid books to epub and not buying any more through Amazon. This post inspired me to do this before it is too late and the old version is no longer compatible to future OS versions.

BuckRogers 7y ago

I did a review of the varying e-readers 9 or 10 years ago and decided on the Nook based on standards support. I still use a Nook and never had any problems like this.