Amazon’s quest to lock Kindle ebooks to Kindle hardware and Kindle apps appears to have reached a new level in recent days.
Several reports are starting to crop up about a new DRM being activated on older Kindles that haven’t been updated in a long time. The weird thing is it only seems to affect Kindles running software version 5.16.2.1.1, while some newer software versions aren’t affected at all (or infected, as it would seem).
Kindles with that software version are now downloading ebooks in KFX-ZIP format instead of the regular KFX format, and the KFX-ZIP files cannot be decrypted using the DeDRM plugin in Calibre.
Usually when something like this happens it’s because of a software update, but that software version dates back to August 2023 so Amazon has apparently found a new way to change the DRM that’s being used on older Kindles without updating the software.
That software version was available on the 7th gen Kindle Paperwhite through the 11th gen Kindle. Up until now, the new hardened DRM only applied to the most recent Kindle models with software 5.18.5 and up, but now it looks like Amazon is trying to lockdown older Kindles too.
If you have an older Kindle running software version 5.16.2.1.1 you’re probably going to run into problems removing the DRM from ebooks downloaded to it, and it might start affecting other software versions soon too. It’s still possible to use Kindle for PC with these tools to liberate your purchased ebooks, with a few exceptions, but it’s getting harder all the time.
Amazon is really intent on closing off all workarounds to get ebooks out of the Kindle ecosystem. You’d be better off buying ebooks elsewhere if possible that use standard Adobe DRM, unless the Kindle version is DRM-free and has an EPUB download option, but presently there’s no way of knowing which books have a download option before buying.
There’s a time-consuming option for removing DRM from Kindle books. You can copy and paste the text from the Kindle web viewer into whatever program you use to create an ebook. Takes me about a half hour for a book averaging 300-400 pages with just copy and pasting. I imagine adding custom formatting will make the process longer.
Yes, it’s not ideal if you have a large library but it’s still an option, especially if a book you want is a Kindle exclusive.
There’s a chrome extension called dekindled that creates an epub from the clouder reader. Don’t know how well that works or if it is still working.
Little nitpick… kfx-zip is created by the KFX Input plugin just zipping up the multiple files that normally make up that format. If DeDRM works, then they become a single file DRM-free kfx. If DeDRM fails, then it remains kfx-zip.