I saw a post on MobileRead about how Amazon is sending out emails in regards to using older versions of the Kindle for Android app to download purchased Kindle ebooks.
Basically, Amazon is going to stop allowing downloads using older versions of their Kindle for Android app starting on May 26th, 2025, so people who use that method to get backups of their Kindle ebooks will no longer be able to do so.
Here’s a quote from the email:
“We are reaching out to ask you to update the Kindle app on your Android device to the latest available version (Android OS v9.0+). Starting May 26, 2025 Kindle for Android app versions released prior to March 2022 (v8.51 or earlier) will no longer support Kindle content downloads. This update will ensure you get the most out of the Kindle experience and that the app operates as intended.”
Back in February, Amazon removed the option to download purchased Kindle ebooks from their website. That left three ways to download Kindle ebooks for backup and DRM removal, and Amazon has now stymied two of those options.
Last week Amazon made it so newly-published ebooks cannot be downloaded when using an older version of Kindle for PC, and now that they’re disabling all downloads when using older versions of their Android app, the only workable option moving forward will be to get Kindle ebooks off of Kindle ereaders. Some think it’s just a matter of time before Amazon shuts that down as well, making it all but impossible to backup Kindle purchases, forever locking Kindle ebooks into Amazon’s walled garden.
For now, using an older version of Kindle for PC still works for downloading and backing up your purchased Kindle ebooks that were published before April 22nd, 2025, so that should still be a viable option for most ebooks moving forward, but who knows how long that will last.
Amazon appears to be on a quest to go the full Apple route and fully lock all ebook purchases into their ecosystem so people can’t get copies of their purchased ebooks outside of Amazon’s apps and devices. Some people are oddly okay with this, while others have stopped buying Kindle ebooks from Amazon entirely as a form of protest.
They really put in the effort to make people’s lives worse who just want to read. What is the goal here? To take down piracy? Well, good luck with that. What’s the next step? You have to be always online to read a book?
The goal is to lock people into Amazon ecosystem. Otherwise the user can download & de-drm all of their purchases, transfer them to their shiny new Kobo and never buy from Amazon again.
All the “piracy” talk is just bullshit.
Shhhhh. They might hear you. Don’t give them ideas. All kidding aside I still remember the fiasco of the Xbox One press release of needing to be always online. The pushback was enough for Microsoft to abandon that idea thankfully but I don’t think Amazon would cave. Microsoft had to compete with Sony. Amazon has no one like that against them.
My boox 6go already does that
Piracy always wins, even if you can’t make clean copies. Take screenshots of the text and turn it into a CBR or PDF file. Time consuming and not ideal, but it’s something.
Indeed. I once went through a complete cycle of capturing every page, then running it through OCR, to get a Microsoft Reader copy of a book into Calibre. From there I was able to put it on the ereader I had at the time, an REB1100. Very time consuming, very frustrating having to change OCR misses like “dear”, “daws”, “diff” to “clear” “claws” and “cliff”. But I wanted it, and it was clear that the REB1100 format would never be forthcoming from a publisher anymore, so I went through the hassle.
I once remember walking into my school library and seeing a kid making copies of a textbook he had borrowed. He didn’t want to pay for a copy or a digital license so he hogged the copier for like an hour. The prints werent great but they were good enough.
I am someone that mostly reads Kindle Unlimited, I read a book return it and read the next one. I have no desire to have a bunch of books laying around or taking up storage space. Once I read a book I never reread them so why keep them around.
Obviously if you never reread and mostly borrow, you wouldn’t be interested in DRM removal or ebook management. Plenty of people are, though – they reread, they like to purchase as well as (or more than) borrow and so on.
It’s not just about rereading them. Just in case the content of the books gets changed in the future, or even censored because of current political winds, I’d rather save them in advance.