If you missed the deadline to download your purchased Kindle ebooks from Amazon’s website before they took the download and transfer feature away, there’s no need to worry because there are still three other ways to get your ebooks away from Amazon’s clutches.
There’s no guarantee these workarounds will continue to work, however, so it’s always a good idea to download and backup your ebooks as you purchase them.
Note that the information in this article comes from various threads at MobileRead. Reference these posts specifically for more details:
- Dealing with Kindle for PC/Mac 1.19 and KFX in calibre
- Dealing with Kindle ebooks in calibre
- DRM workaround: Kindle for Android
Get eBooks Off Kindle eReaders
If you have a Kindle ereader you can download your ebooks to it and then transfer them to your computer using a USB cable.
By default, the ebooks will be DRM protected and won’t open outside of your Kindle, but you can install the DeDRM plugin in Calibre and then import them into Calibre to create backups of your books and convert them to other formats (EPUB, for example) that are compatible with other ereaders and apps.
1. Install Calibre on your computer.
2. Install the DeDRM plugin in Calibre (get the DeDRM tools zip file listed under “Assets”; install directions are included in the download).
3. Install KFX Input plugin in Calibre (if you have an older Kindle that stills gets ebooks delivered in Amazon’s older non-KFX formats, such as AZW3, then you can skip this step).
4. Import your Kindle ebooks into Calibre, then from there you can do whatever you want with them.
Kindle for PC 2.4
You can use an older version of Kindle for PC to download your Kindle ebooks and then import them into Calibre.
1. Download and install Kindle for PC 2.4.
2. Follow steps 1-3 above, including installing the KFX Input plugin.
3. Import your ebooks downloaded from Kindle for PC (the default location is Documents > My Kindle Content) into Calibre.
*Note that you will need to disable auto updates on the Kindle for PC app. There are some reports that it will update anyway so keep the Kindle for PC download file in case you need reinstall it again at a later date. There’s also this bat file that can disable auto updates.
Android Emulator
This looks like the most complicated and time-consuming option, but some folks have had success downloading backup copies of their Kindle ebooks by setting up an Android emulator on their PC.
Don’t forget that for books from an E-ink Kindle, you need to add that Kindle’s serial number into DeDRM’s customization.
I have done the first option for some time with the Kindle download and transfer feature without any hiccups. I have Calibre, DeDRM plugin, KFX input and added Kindle Serial number.
However, now that that feature is no longer available I grabbed the KFX file from my Kindle e-book reader and upload it to Calibre, but I’m unable to convert any longer. It says that it has a DRM. This was never an issue before. Any thoughts?