Kindle is getting rid of a feature that allows e-readers to back up their books

BY BROOKLYN MCKINNEY

Multimedia Journalist

Anyone who has recently ordered e-books through the Kindle bookstore may have noticed an ominous warning once you click the “Download and Transfer via USB” option. Amazon has notified Kindle e-reader users that this feature will no longer be available by Feb. 26.

Currently, most purchased Kindle books are automatically transferred to any registered Kindle e-reader, Fire Tablet or Kindle app for Android or iOS on an account. So, people who mainly read their Kindle e-books on a Kindle or in the app may not have noticed.

Regardless, this is bad news for anyone who owns any of the first three Kindle generations because those devices don’t have access to WiFi, so books do have to be downloaded as a file to be accessed.

This has left some Kindle users very unhappy, especially given that Amazon has already recently disabled the on-board Kindle store for all pre-2013 devices that do have WiFi.

Although downloading books one at a time to a computer to then copy them manually onto a Kindle over USB seems like a tedious process, it probably gave Kindle users some peace of mind to back up their favorite e-books offline.

Caymin Rivera is a freshman at Tarleton who has been affected by this change.

“It’s really confusing because you see a lot about it on Instagram being like, ‘It’s affecting Kindle readers, and you’re not going to be able to have any of the books you have previously read,’” Rivera said.

A lot of misinformation has been spread on social media regarding the safety of former Kindle book purchases on Amazon. Here’s what readers should know about the new update:

Kindle users can still use Send to Kindle or third-party apps like Calibre to transfer their books, and they can also sideload their e-books onto a Kindle via USB cable.

However, digital content is different from buying a physical copy of a book in the aspect that purchasing it doesn’t get you the rights to that content because the license can be taken away at any time. 

In other words, if they don’t download the book to a personal device, and Amazon suddenly decided to remove that book from Kindle devices, then they could no longer access it. 

It’s like when Netflix decides to take a movie or show off of their streaming service, but the difference is instead of simply paying for a Kindle Unlimited Subscription, if they are at all, Kindle users might also have paid for access to that specific title.

Although it hasn’t happened often, Amazon has been known to completely remove books from Kindle devices in the past or push recent edits into already purchased digital copies of books.

A few notable examples would be when “1984” and “Animal Farm” by George Orwell were deleted from Kindles everywhere because the company that added them to the Kindle store didn’t have rights to them.

In 2024, Puffin Books edited many of Ronald Dahl’s books including “Matilda” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” to remove less socially conscious language like the words “ugly” or “fat.” Digital copies already purchased through the Kindle store saw these edits as well.

Freshman Emaleigh Shipman is worried about how this is going to affect future buying.

“You can’t read it anymore unless you rebuy it and buy a physical copy, which is definitely stressful because I have a lot of books I haven’t read yet,” Shipman said. “And with the new policies, I’m wondering if they’re going to take away some of those books.”

This update has already motivated several Kindle customers to make the switch to other e-reader devices such as Kobo or Pocketbook that still have the option to download and back up e-books.

Of course, purchasing a physical copy is always an option, but what if there comes a time when it’s not? 

In a world where almost everything has become digital, companies removing or altering original copies of literature from electronic devices could easily become a future of erasing and rewriting history.

Between nationwide book bans and Amazon taking away a feature allowing users of the number one e-reader on the market to download original copies of their purchased works, one should consider stocking up on their favorite book copies through digital and physical means.

For more information, go to: https://www.zdnet.com/article/download-your-kindle-books-right-now-amazon-is-killing-this-option-in-a-few-days/.