Amazon just pulled Kindle Store access from every Kindle released before 2013. The hardware still works. Your books still work. Side-loading EPUBs over USB still works.
The fix is the same one that's worked since 2007 — and here's exactly how to do it, step by step:
@getbookshelves
"You can still log into Amazon’s “Manage Your Content and Devices” page on the web, download your owned Kindle books as files, and transfer them manually via USB."
No, you can not! They disabled Browser downloads for bought ebooks last year, which was malicious.
There is no fix. If your Kindle is full, then copy files to PC. The Amazon files will only work with that Kindle, unless DRM is removed. Then you can delete via PC and select an ebook at a time on the web page to send.
@freediverx @getbookshelves
Authors need to eat and most don't even make a minimum wage, never mind a living wage.
Amazon has conned too many authors (SP) and small publishers to be "exclusive" on Amazon.
Not like only one supermarket having Heinz beans, but like only one having any baked beans or kidney beans.
@ton I just downloaded a few hundred books from my Kindle to my Chromebook, using a USB cable. Granted, it's a 2017 Paperwhite, but still, it worked.
@azteclady @ton @getbookshelves this article details how you can get your books off Kindle (I confirmed the desktop route works today).
@ton oh my apologies; in the U.S. (I forgot that geo restrictions are hell)
Mind you: there is no "download" option on the storefront; what I did was, once the books were on my device, I connected the device to the Chromebook using the USB charging cable that came with the Kindle (it doesn't work with other USB cables), and that opened a Kindle folder in the chromebook; from there, I could download to a local folder.
(does that make sense?)
@ton Yes, I'm sorry; once it's on the device, you can still download it to have your own copy. Otherwise you are correct, you can no longer download the files directly from the storefront.
https://www.theverge.com/amazon/667916/jeff-bezos-amazon-saudi-arabia-jamal-khashoggi
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/us/politics/trump-saudi-business-lunch-musk-altman.html
"Ubiquitous surveillance technology & fossil fuel friendly planned obsolescence requires unnecessary upgrades as part of their business model."
https://davidsuzuki.org/story/the-mad-rush-for-energy-mines-and-metals/
Deliberate ewaste is very beneficial to the extractive industries.
https://www.gatech.edu/news/2025/10/22/microsoft-removing-support-windows-10-could-increase-e-waste-cybersecurity-threats
https://earth.org/the-eu-circular-economy-plan/
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/11022023/warming-trends-world-without-fossil-fuels/
https://earth.org/the-hidden-environmental-cost-of-your-devices-and-actionable-steps-to-reduce-it/
I got a Boox for when my Kindle eventually dies and have switched back to buying more physical books from bookshop or local bookstores.
I will never buy another Kindle.
I would also note physical books are VERY pretty these days. Quite decorative for your shelves!
@getbookshelves Article states that Kobo lets you download... they do not, at least in the EU; what Rakuten Kobo delivers in NL is a captive portal link, not an ePub. I just ran smack into this last week, deleted my account with them, backcharged the book and went and bought it straight from the publisher (Baen, who has a rep for not DRMing their books)....
There are a TON of eReader programs for your phone; I had been thinking of getting a separate reader but realised I have my phone with me almost all the time, and being someone who doesn't always carry a bag, a booksized reader is... not convenient... _however_, for them as do, plenty of Android tablets, including eInk ones, that aren't tethered to any one potentially-enshittified company (except Google, and there are ways around that too... /e/OS runs on a number of tablets, not all of them Google or Samsung...)
Also, shameless plug for eBooks.com... they don't have *everything* but they have a *lot*, including some of the DRM'ed stuff... which *could* be a Kobo-like problem but *isn't*, as you still get the actual download *and* their reader app is quite good... and will also let you import from other sources, PDF or ePUB.
(One is bemused that Kindle is using MOBI as a format; that was the first format I ever read an eBook in, on an old Palm Pilot. That's been a minute... one notes that while PDF is older - 1993 vs. 2000 - Adobe (ptui) didn't open the standard for PDF until 2008..)
@getbookshelves @NormanDunbar Fook Amazon & Jeff Bozo.
Also fook Audible … get Audiobooks from Libro.fm
@getbookshelves
Big tech reminding us yet again why we need to build human-centred alternatives that aren't controlled by their corporate interests.
(See also: Why we're on the Fedi.)
I clicked, so you don't need to:
The Fix: Download free EPUBs (Standard Ebooks/Gutenberg), convert to MOBI via Calibre if needed, and transfer them to your Kindle's documents folder via USB.
Critical Warning: Do not factory-reset or deregister your old Kindle after May 20. You will be unable to re-register it, which effectively bricks the device. As long as you avoid this, your E-reader will remain functional.
chutten (he/him)
BookShelves eBook Reader
Ray McCarthy
FreediverX
Ton Zijlstra
azteclady
Flipper 🐬🏳️🌈
BoxOfSnoo
Author Steaphan Kay
Nicole Parsons
shihan_TRB
Axol Otleon
Miakoda 
Darwin Woodka
Doug Webb
StoneBear 
Don Hawkins - W7DAH
Tim G
Ambient Sponge
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist
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