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I discovered recently that if you sideload a book onto the Kindle via Calibre, Amazon can delete them silently at some later stage if they decide you didn't pur

by pnw 1y ago

I discovered recently that if you sideload a book onto the Kindle via Calibre, Amazon can delete them silently at some later stage if they decide you didn't purchase it from Amazon. This includes public domain works. It's allegedly a result of how Calibre manages tags in order to display covers but still feels deeply wrong. Long thread here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=340936 https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=340936

seam_carver 1y ago
I believe this is a more detailed explanation: There are two main tag values for Kindle books: EBOK and PDOC. EBOK is intended for store content. (ebooks) PDOC is intended for user content. (personal documents) In the past, only EBOK got cover thumbnails. So Calibre tagged books as ebok to get cover thumbnails. This changed in a relatively recent firmware update for 7th gen and later Kindles, so now PDOC tagged books get cover thumbnails too. (Sept 2022) I assume that Amazon just looks at the EBOK tag, assumes its an expired loan or something, and deletes it. Since that thread says only EBOKs get deleted. Calibre still tags as EBOK by default. A possible solution is to tag as PDOC instead. That thread mentions the problem started in 7/2021
- pnw 1y ago
  Perhaps, but try explaining to my wife why all her public domain Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte novels that I carefully loaded for her vanished from her Kindle just because she turned the wifi on.
- m463 1y ago
  > I assume that Amazon... I think you should reconsider "the benefit of the doubt". I remember thinking similar things in the 90's with respect to microsoft. I was talking to an ex-microsoft coworker about how windows would break compatibility with some 3rd party software. I said "engineers are under pressure to get some feature out, and they don't know how it affects every bit of software out there" or something", giving the benefit of the doubt to microsoft. But he told me not to be naive, "microsoft would have meetings... How can we control this, how can we own this"
  - neilv 1y ago
    Hence the old joke mantra, "DOS isn't done, till Lotus doesn't run!" At the time that was a joke, we didn't care what MS Excel was, and then, for years, we didn't know anything other than Excel.
likpok 1y ago
That’s super annoying, but it is still straightforward to sideload books in a way that works with Amazon sync, via either the email address or uploading through Amazon.
- theothertimcook 1y ago
  https://send.djazz.se/ https://send.djazz.se/
thaumasiotes 1y ago
In the Kindle app for Android, Amazon is constantly deleting stuff that you downloaded from it. Why do you think "if they decide you didn't purchase it from Amazon" is relevant?
- seam_carver 1y ago
  That sounds like a separate issue than what's he's describing.

by pnw 1y ago

seam_carver 1y ago

I believe this is a more detailed explanation: There are two main tag values for Kindle books: EBOK and PDOC. EBOK is intended for store content. (ebooks) PDOC is intended for user content. (personal documents) In the past, only EBOK got cover thumbnails. So Calibre tagged books as ebok to get cover thumbnails. This changed in a relatively recent firmware update for 7th gen and later Kindles, so now PDOC tagged books get cover thumbnails too. (Sept 2022) I assume that Amazon just looks at the EBOK tag, assumes its an expired loan or something, and deletes it. Since that thread says only EBOKs get deleted. Calibre still tags as EBOK by default. A possible solution is to tag as PDOC instead. That thread mentions the problem started in 7/2021

pnw 1y ago
Perhaps, but try explaining to my wife why all her public domain Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte novels that I carefully loaded for her vanished from her Kindle just because she turned the wifi on.
m463 1y ago
> I assume that Amazon... I think you should reconsider "the benefit of the doubt". I remember thinking similar things in the 90's with respect to microsoft. I was talking to an ex-microsoft coworker about how windows would break compatibility with some 3rd party software. I said "engineers are under pressure to get some feature out, and they don't know how it affects every bit of software out there" or something", giving the benefit of the doubt to microsoft. But he told me not to be naive, "microsoft would have meetings... How can we control this, how can we own this"
- neilv 1y ago
  Hence the old joke mantra, "DOS isn't done, till Lotus doesn't run!" At the time that was a joke, we didn't care what MS Excel was, and then, for years, we didn't know anything other than Excel.

likpok 1y ago

That’s super annoying, but it is still straightforward to sideload books in a way that works with Amazon sync, via either the email address or uploading through Amazon.

theothertimcook 1y ago
https://send.djazz.se/ https://send.djazz.se/

thaumasiotes 1y ago

In the Kindle app for Android, Amazon is constantly deleting stuff that you downloaded from it. Why do you think "if they decide you didn't purchase it from Amazon" is relevant?

seam_carver 1y ago
That sounds like a separate issue than what's he's describing.