8 Answers2025-06-03
One area Amazon doesn’t fully serve yet is in offline access to manage between devices. While a book that one downloads to their Kindle will automatically appear on their iPad or Touch, for example, a book one downloads to their Kindle does not automatically appear on their phone. This would use too much storage space on mobile devices, but Amazon could add an option to download to other devices as well, and have it apply offline as well. For now, users can manually download the same book on each of their devices (with or without wi-fi) as needed. For most people who are systematic in their reading and load up the next few titles on one device before switching to another, this works fine. But for spontaneous readers who switch between devices frequently and often lack reliable data access, there’s a need here for some way to enable downloading of titles to read offline on additional devices with a bit of up-front thought or planning.
11 Answers2026-07-27
Indirect indeed. To access your online reading history go to Amazon.com, log in to your account and go to account settings (top right of the page). From there click on Manage Your Content and Devices. From there click on the ‘Content’ tab on the right hand side of the page and select Books from the drop-down list at the top of the page. Most books are listed in chronological order. You can search for specific books in the list but it can sometimes be helpful to scan through the list of books you’ve downloaded in case you remember reading part of a book but didn’t finish it. Occasionally it’s helpful to ‘tidy up’ your list and remove samples of books as well as those that you know you’ll never read.
11 Answers2025-07-04
Much confusion surrounds the term “Kindle” in relation to books but believe me it’s just a tag given to books in e-format. When checking out a book you will see the option to ‘Deliver to:’ and here you can select from any of your Kindle apps that you have registered on your amazon account i.e. ‘John’s iPhone’ or simply select the default Kindle app and the book will be sent to the ‘cloud’ to be downloaded at a later date by opening the relevant Kindle app on the chosen device. Very easy to do once you have done it.
8 Answers2025-06-10
Is there a difference between closing a book and putting a Kindle to 'sleep'? I assume Kindle tracks 'time spent reading' based on how long a book is 'open' and how long a device has been 'on'. So, someone who falls asleep with a book open for an hour would have 'reading time' logged for an hour as well. The history isn't entirely accurate it is an estimate based on 'time that a book is open'.
So beware that ‘minutes read’ is probably going to include idle time as well, so it’s best to look at it as a rough proxy rather than the “truth” – it’s a way to get an estimate of how long it took to read a book rather than actual focused time. The “book” count is probably more reliable as a historical record of the books you spent a lot of time reading.
3 Answers2025-07-10
I wanted to be able to read on my phone, but I didn’t want to be tied to my Kindle hardware. The Kindle app for your iOS or Android phone or tablet works really well. You need to have an Amazon account to log in to the app and download books that you have previously purchased. For new books, you can download them to read on your phone as well. I have even added borrowed books (from friends and from the library) to my phone. I use Calibre to convert the book to a MOBI file and then I email it to my Kindle address.
One minor obstacle I faced was with books that had DRM. To get around this I occasionally use the ‘Unlock Ebook’ functionality within Epubor Ultimate (I’m very aware this is usually classed as copyright infringement, and thus use it sparingly). Otherwise it’s very easy to organize your books with tags. The ‘Send to Kindle’ functionality from desktop applications works very well for me with my academic PDFs, just check the supported file types on Amazon first.
8 Answers2025-07-27
This is super simple to do. Just Google ‘DeDRM tools Calibre’ and the first result should be a GitHub page for the plugin. Click to install and follow the instructions. Make sure your Kindle for PC app is authorized with your Amazon account. Download books to this app and then add the books from your Kindle’s data folder to Calibre (or connect your Kindle to your computer). The plugin will then strip the DRM from your books during the import process. From there you can right click on any book and change it to an EPUB file. You can then save this new EPUB file to anywhere on your computer. This whole process of transferring and converting your books is really quite simple, especially with a plugin doing all the hard work for you in the background.
12 Answers2026-07-27
I totally get the frustration when book covers don't show up properly. The first thing I'd check is whether the book file has an embedded cover. Some sideloaded books might not include cover images, so you might need to use tools like Calibre to fix this. Just open the book in Calibre, edit the metadata, and ensure the cover is properly attached.
Another common issue is the Kindle's cache. Sometimes, the device just needs a reset to refresh the display. Go to 'Settings,' then 'Device Options,' and hit 'Restart.' If that doesn't work, try removing the book from your device and redownloading it. Amazon's servers occasionally glitch, and a fresh download can fix the issue. For sideloaded books, converting the file to AZW3 or KFX format often helps, as these formats support better cover display than MOBI.
Lastly, if you're using Amazon's personal documents service, make sure the email you're sending from is whitelisted in your Kindle settings. Sometimes, covers get stripped during email transfers. If all else fails, contacting Amazon support might be your best bet—they can sometimes force a cover refresh on their end.
12 Answers2025-08-13
As someone who always looks at things from an accessibility perspective, my concern is that someone who is vision impaired and reads Amazon-exclusive titles on their Kindle with the specific fonts they prefer could be prohibited from having access to that content because it is tied to a family member’s email account. While the Household feature is a good first step, the process of adding others to a Household is unclear and can be confusing for non-tech-savvy individuals. Amazon should develop an easier, more disability-friendly way to grant access to content to caregivers and dependents in those situations. As it stands now, the all-or-nothing Household model does not appear to have been designed with these types of scenarios in mind. It is designed for and works best for the typical, tech-savvy, two-adult Household. Real life is messier than that.
10 Answers2025-08-16
This is why subscription services like Kindle Unlimited are a better fit for me than buying individual eBooks. I’m renting access to a rotating catalog of work, no misperception of ownership here. If the book in question ever leaves KU I lose it from my library – that was always the explicit agreement on my end for signing up for the service. Contrast with books that I wish to own in physical form. KU for discovery of new works, physical copies for my keepsakes – the two models of distribution serve different purposes for me and I’m extremely content with how things are currently setup.
6 Answers2025-09-04
After I read this thread I tested it with my Kindle Voyage. As already described, you press the top corner of the screen to bring up the black ribbon. Interestingly enough, when you have set your Kindle to ‘every page’ (instead of ‘less often’), the black screen even flashes for a brief moment when setting a bookmark. However, if you have set your Kindle to ‘less often’, the black ribbon just appears – no full screen refresh involved. This seems to be a very minor detail but it could be important for people who are sensitive to screen flicker.Bookmarking a PDF now feels even more seamless when I have set my Kindle to ‘less often’ for page refreshes.