Kindle owners have been warning others to do one thing now to safeguard their ebook library
Kindle owners have been warned to do one thing now before a change comes into effect this week. Currently, users are able to download purchased ebooks to a computer and then manually copy them to a Kindle via USB.
From February 26, this feature will no longer be available as Amazon changes the way users can download content. However, until that date, users can still make the most of the long-standing feature.
This has led to readers warning other Kindle users to carry out one task before the deadline. Posting to TikTok, Caitlin, also known as @caitlinmariedasilva, said: “This weekend I spent hours downloading, individually, 800 books from my Kindle library onto my computer because as of February 26, this feature is going away.
“Why this is so unfortunate is because when you are able to download a book onto your computer, onto your own storage device, it means that that book can’t just be taken away from you without your permission. It also means that you can eventually convert that Amazon Kindle file into another readable format so that you can read off of your Kobo, iBooks, or just your own computer.
“At this point, there’s thousands of dollars I’ve put into my Kindle/ebook library,” she continued. “I have a lot of books that I don’t ever want to see disappear and I hate the idea of not actually owning them so this was a critical task for me to do. “
While you may presume you automatically own all the books in your Kindle library, that’s not entirely the case. Even books you’ve purchased from the Kindle store can be deleted or altered by Amazon or the publisher at their discretion.
To back up your ebooks before the cut-off this week, simply log into your account on Amazon, go to ‘Accounts and Lists’, select ‘Content Library’, then ‘Books’. Then, find the ebook you wish to download, click on the three dots and choose ‘Download and transfer via USB’.
A spokesperson for Amazon told the Mirror: “From February 26, customers will no longer be able to download books onto their Kindle using the ‘Download & Transfer via USB’ feature. Customers can continue reading books previously downloaded on their Kindle device, and access new content through the Kindle app, Kindle for web, as well as directly through Kindle devices with WiFi capability.”
They added that the ability to transfer documents to Kindle devices via USB will not be impacted by this change.