Kindle

[Rhyd6]

We've discovered a problem with our Kindles, I read much more than watch TV and this has been a blessing during Covid. I decided to re-read the Kate Ellis Wesley Peterson series and found that after the first 6 books I couldn't access the next 15 that I had purchased although the message given was
you purchased this book on 20th January 2012. Been on to Amazon and they were helpful with one book but were somewhat shocked when OH explained that we keep a list of all books bought - 1,762 but the Kindle content books list showed that we had only purchased 1,107 books a discrepancy of 655 books missing. Apart from the fact that this is a lot of money it's a pain in the rear end to have to go throught the motions of contacting Amazon each and every time we discover books missing. Just thought I'd warn anyone else who owns a Kindle of the problem.

R6

[Urbandreamer]

Just thought I'd warn anyone else who owns a Kindle of the problem.

R6

Is the problem the Kindle? They only have so much memory.
What I do is make a copy and store that elsewhere using Calibre.
https://calibre-ebook.com/

I access the "manage content and devices" menu on Amazons website and download the book.
Calibre makes it easy to search by author, series, Genre etc.

Given that it's for personal use and to ensure that I can KEEP* books that I have bought I use to remove the DRM (dedrm apprentice).
Calibre could then convert the books to other formats capable of being read by other hardware or software. However I can't currently get that function to work.

*Amazon have in the past removed books. Either because they feel that an account holder has done something wrong like buying a kindle in the UK to use in another country, or because they didn't have the copyright authority. Copyright authority also ages and the interlectual rights revert to the author.

[bungeejumper]

Amazon have in the past removed books. Either because they feel that an account holder has done something wrong like buying a kindle in the UK to use in another country....

Golly, the only time I ever used my Kindle was when I was on holiday in France or Spain. So am I blacklisted now? Must charge it up and see.

TBH, I can't say Kindles were ever for me really - book writing has been good to me, and I'm staying professionally loyal to the old dead trees. Besides, I like to read a well-designed book in an oblong shape that doesn't keep scrolling around. (News and stuff that's updated every few hours are a different matter.) But yes, I can see how the digital experience might suit my eyesight in future years. Being able to upsize the fonts is handy.

1,762 Kindle books already bought? Wow, good for R6! I never did really get my head round the idea of buying a licence - for me, the ultimate proof of purchase is that the product is still cluttering up the house. If I'm not falling over it, I'm less likely to pick it up and read it.

BJ

[UncleEbenezer]

In principle, what you buy should be remembered by Amazon and always available to you. Or more accurately, to a kindle registered under your account. So if space is short, you can delete books and re-download them at will. And if your kindle gets broken, you can install all your books on a new one.

In practice, can't comment on what's happening to you.

[bungeejumper]

Golly, the only time I ever used my Kindle was when I was on holiday in France or Spain. So am I blacklisted now? Must charge it up and see.

Answer to self: No, it still works fine. But it's a Fourth Generation Kindle Touch (no backlight), from 2011, which is being phased out because it's too ancient to handle 4G. Not that that limitation is likely to bother me, because I've only ever conneced it via a USB cable. All the books that I loaded up a decade ago are still there. Which may be because they're all classics and out of copyright?

BJ

[Urbandreamer]

Amazon have in the past removed books. Either because they feel that an account holder has done something wrong like buying a kindle in the UK to use in another country....

Golly, the only time I ever used my Kindle was when I was on holiday in France or Spain. So am I blacklisted now? Must charge it up and see.

BJ

After I submitted it I did wonder if what I wrote was clear. I was thinking about a woman who lived in one country, who bought her Kindle in another country. The waters are very murky as to the reasons though.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/ ... es-account

This sort of thing does happen.
Here is a particularly ironic event.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... amazon-drm

[Rhyd6]

I love my kindle as well as my paper books, we have a bedroom that has been turned into a library because we're as bad as one another for hoarding books. My Kindle was new last Christmas and I store most of the books bought in the cloud which ,theoretically means that I can just down load them if I want to re-read them. As already stated Kindle tells me that I already own the books but I'm damned if I can download them. The young chap I spoke to was most helpful but admitted that he'd no idea what had happened. I'm due a call back tomorrow when, so I've been assured that a technician will have sorted out problem. OH - computer engineer will be on standbye to talk to technician because I don't speak their language.
Fingers crossed

R6

[AF62]

The invention of Kindles was a marvellous thing for me - my wife will happily read a book or two a day, so going on holiday for a fortnight - well the inevitable suitcase full of books was tricky to lift off the ground.

So as soon as Kindles were available she bought one, and over the years she has worn out several and is on her third one, although the latest are far superior being some lightweight and with the good backlight.

[Urbandreamer]

IAs already stated Kindle tells me that I already own the books but I'm damned if I can download them.

R6

As I said, you may have filled your device and have to remove some books from it.

Ok, downloading to a PC. Hopefully this link will get you to the "My content and devices" page.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/mycd/myx?re ... l/dateDsc/

If you hover over "account and lists" (top right on the main page) it's one of the options.

Find the book that you want, If it's not on the first page there is a handy search box."search your content".
Then click on the button beside the book in the "actions" column.
One of the options is "download to transfer by USB",
You will be asked which of your devices you intend reading on, after that it will download and possibly save.
If using calibre it will give you the option of "opening" it in that. This means add it to calibre's library.
When using calibre with your device plugged in you can easily copy books from your library to your kindle and the reverse. Or remove books from the device.
Obviously you can also do so with books bought from places other than Amazon.
ie I have bought a number of books from
http://www.baen.com
Who strongly oppose DRM.

Baen is committed to remaining free of Digital Rights Management (DRM).

All available Baen Ebooks are DRM-free and accessible worldwide. Once you purchase one of our Ebooks, you can download it as many times as you would like, in as many of the seven formats we provide, for as many eReaders as you'd like.

[servodude]

IAs already stated Kindle tells me that I already own the books but I'm damned if I can download them.

R6

As I said, you may have filled your device and have to remove some books from it.

You should be able to quickly check on the kindle:
Settings -> Device Settings -> Storage
- it should give you an indication of how much space is used/available

Given the size of e-books I'm not surprised that Amazon haven't invested the time to make this aspect of owning a kindle as smooth as it might

As has been mentioned Calibre is a good way of maintaining content locally; the issue of maintaining a combination of local and cloud sourced (from Amazon) is an interesting idea I've not thought about before

-sd

[UncleEbenezer]

Obviously you can also do so with books bought from places other than Amazon.
ie I have bought a number of books from
http://www.baen.com
Who strongly oppose DRM.

Baen is committed to remaining free of Digital Rights Management (DRM).

All available Baen Ebooks are DRM-free and accessible worldwide. Once you purchase one of our Ebooks, you can download it as many times as you would like, in as many of the seven formats we provide, for as many eReaders as you'd like.

Thanks for the heads-up. Must take a look.

Of course, Gutenberg also wants mentioning here. Lots of the best books free and of course entirely legal.