Okay I have about 900 Kindle books that I've paid for.
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@afewbugs Calibre + DeDRM + instructions found online worked for me^w um this person I overheard at the bus stop (with zero retaliation from Amazon: how would they know?)
@considermycat @afewbugs Seconded Calibre. I've used hive.co.uk, not to be confused with the heating people. They support local bookshops but I haven't set that bit up since I don't use any.
Like with the others mentioned you'll need to use Calibre to de-drm them. -
Okay I have about 900 Kindle books that I've paid for. I've never dared try stripping the DRM off them in case Amazon somehow finds out and blocks my account, losing me the rest of them. But since Amazon's planning on deprecating my Kindle in May now I guess I have nothing to lose. What would everyone suggest? And can anyone recommend a good e ink reader to replace the Kindle that can read files from any source?
@afewbugs Maybe you can put KOReader onto your Kindle and continue using it? https://koreader.rocks/
Getting it set up is, honestly, a bit janky. And the design is sometimes a bit rough around the edges - but! - it has _all_ the options, displays all the formats and even has PDF-reflowing, for reading A4 PDFs comfortably.
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@considermycat @afewbugs I didn't try this method, but recently bought a book and only got a .acsm file. This first method: https://ratfactor.com/b/drm-sucks was the only thing that worked for me.
And ofc, Annas-archive (long live)
@douginamug @afewbugs Yep, you need ADE to open the .acsm file, then Calibre + DeDRM to access the .epub and transfer to your Kindle. (For Linux, installing Windows ADE under Wine also works.) And if stronger .epub encryption becomes the norm (it's apparently being rolled out), I can imagine "buy a legit copy [so the author gets paid] then download off AA" may be my next recourse
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@jschwa1 I got an email from them, if you didn't you're probably okay.
"Affected devices include Kindle 1st and 2nd Generation, Kindle DX and DX Graphite, Kindle Keyboard, Kindle 4, Kindle Touch, Kindle 5, and Kindle Paperwhite 1st Generation."
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@considermycat @afewbugs Seconded Calibre. I've used hive.co.uk, not to be confused with the heating people. They support local bookshops but I haven't set that bit up since I don't use any.
Like with the others mentioned you'll need to use Calibre to de-drm them.@KaraLG84 Oh yes, I forgot about hive, I've used them as well
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Okay I have about 900 Kindle books that I've paid for. I've never dared try stripping the DRM off them in case Amazon somehow finds out and blocks my account, losing me the rest of them. But since Amazon's planning on deprecating my Kindle in May now I guess I have nothing to lose. What would everyone suggest? And can anyone recommend a good e ink reader to replace the Kindle that can read files from any source?
@afewbugs Not a recent device, but: my partner has been happy with the Kobo Libra 2 for some years.
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@sotolf that's a very good point, I interpreted "you will not be able to purchase, borrow, or download additional books on them after that date." as you will not be able to add any new files, but if it just means through wifi and I can still use USB transfer that changes things
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Okay I have about 900 Kindle books that I've paid for. I've never dared try stripping the DRM off them in case Amazon somehow finds out and blocks my account, losing me the rest of them. But since Amazon's planning on deprecating my Kindle in May now I guess I have nothing to lose. What would everyone suggest? And can anyone recommend a good e ink reader to replace the Kindle that can read files from any source?
@afewbugs the DRM stripping is done externally, by copying the files from the Kindle to a PC, so it doesn't have anything to do with any of the files on the Kindle. There's no way for Amazon to know.
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Also where do you buy ebooks from in the UK? I've had some luck with publisher websites directly but not all publishers seem to offer this
@afewbugs Bookshop.org do ebooks now, but there is also Kobo.
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@afewbugs the DRM stripping is done externally, by copying the files from the Kindle to a PC, so it doesn't have anything to do with any of the files on the Kindle. There's no way for Amazon to know.
@gcvsa I was just a bit concerned they would have something set up to compare files on the Kindle with what I've bought and know I'd done it. I do connect it to wifi to transfer books and sync with the kindle app on my phone and will stop doing that, but the app reports my "reading streak" which I find incredibly creepy and invasive so tehy're clearly tracking what i do on there
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@afewbugs I like Kobo as an e-reader. I just bought a color so I can read comics on it as well.
All the DRM stripping I've done has been through Calibre and the (DeDRM) plugin. Any books I couldn't remove the DRM from, I acquired through other means. As for "from any source" Calibre can also convert most things to epub and mobi.
Kobo has an ebook store. Ebooks.com has a UK shop. Some authors will have a way to purchase ebooks from their websites.
Thalia.de sells English language ebooks as well.
I've started self-hosting my ebooks and audiobooks (because there got to be so many) so feel free to ping me!
@otherryn thank you!
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@gcvsa I was just a bit concerned they would have something set up to compare files on the Kindle with what I've bought and know I'd done it. I do connect it to wifi to transfer books and sync with the kindle app on my phone and will stop doing that, but the app reports my "reading streak" which I find incredibly creepy and invasive so tehy're clearly tracking what i do on there
@afewbugs But when you strip the DRM from the files, it doesn't remove the DRM from the files on the Kindle. Nothing changes on the Kindle. You just make a copy of the files on you computer, and strip the DRM from the copies.
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@afewbugs Bookshop.org do ebooks now, but there is also Kobo.
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@afewbugs But when you strip the DRM from the files, it doesn't remove the DRM from the files on the Kindle. Nothing changes on the Kindle. You just make a copy of the files on you computer, and strip the DRM from the copies.
@gcvsa I was just worried Amazon would see the files on my Kindle when I put them back on my Kindle and compare them to ones I'd bought with DRM
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@afewbugs Maybe you can put KOReader onto your Kindle and continue using it? https://koreader.rocks/
Getting it set up is, honestly, a bit janky. And the design is sometimes a bit rough around the edges - but! - it has _all_ the options, displays all the formats and even has PDF-reflowing, for reading A4 PDFs comfortably.
@afewbugs ... it looks like KOReader supports all Kindles
Installation on Kindle devices
An ebook reader application supporting PDF, DjVu, EPUB, FB2 and many more formats, running on Cervantes, Kindle, Kobo, PocketBook and Android devices - Installation on Kindle devices · koreader/koreader Wiki
GitHub (github.com)
Gosh, it is only a half-recommendation though. It really does seem a bit nerds-for-nerds with the instructions for setting up.
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@gcvsa I was just worried Amazon would see the files on my Kindle when I put them back on my Kindle and compare them to ones I'd bought with DRM
@afewbugs But you won't be putting the files back on your Kindle, because the files are already on the Kindle and don't get removed when you copy them, and the Kindle will continue to work with the copies of the files on it that have the DRM intact.
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@otherryn thank you!
@afewbugs It's so frustrating when the terms suddenly change, which is why I've stripped DRM and we now self-host all our media (movies, TV shows, music, ebooks, audiobooks, etc.).
The only problem is with the rise of AI datacenters, the price of hard drives has increased drastically so we're keeping an eye on prices because we're starting to run out of space. (And we need to move things into a new case with available space. When we remove the oil boiler and the fuel tank to put in the heat pump, we might set up a wall mounted server in the basement.)
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Okay I have about 900 Kindle books that I've paid for. I've never dared try stripping the DRM off them in case Amazon somehow finds out and blocks my account, losing me the rest of them. But since Amazon's planning on deprecating my Kindle in May now I guess I have nothing to lose. What would everyone suggest? And can anyone recommend a good e ink reader to replace the Kindle that can read files from any source?
@afewbugs There are Android ereaders that allow you to use apps for almost any source of books. Something like the Boox Go 6 might be a good device for you. I've had a Boox Leaf for 4 years and have been very happy with it, but I'd recommend doing a bit of reading about the devices so you know what the limitations are.
https://euroshop.boox.com/products/boox-go-6 -
@afewbugs But you won't be putting the files back on your Kindle, because the files are already on the Kindle and don't get removed when you copy them, and the Kindle will continue to work with the copies of the files on it that have the DRM intact.
@gcvsa gotcha, sorry. You're talking about the de-drm'd versions as a backup but nothing with drm actually comes off my kindle. My problem is my kindle doesn't actually have enough storage to hold all my books, so I was planning on having all drm free files and just rotating them in and out, but you're right it would make more sense to just keep the drm free ones as a backup
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Okay I have about 900 Kindle books that I've paid for. I've never dared try stripping the DRM off them in case Amazon somehow finds out and blocks my account, losing me the rest of them. But since Amazon's planning on deprecating my Kindle in May now I guess I have nothing to lose. What would everyone suggest? And can anyone recommend a good e ink reader to replace the Kindle that can read files from any source?
@afewbugs I’ve recently got a Boox Go 7. I was very unsure about what to get, haunting review sites and so on. It’s good, the screen is amazing. I’ve got all my kindle and kobo books on there as well as loads of Gutenberg (standard ebooks versions) on there. I won’t ever get a restricted one like kobo or kindle ever again.
