How To Delete Books From Kindle Unlimited Borrowing History?

I've learned the hard way that deleting books from your "Content and Devices" page after you've returned them does not immediately delete them. The book gets deleted from your library, but it still shows up in your library's "Archived Items." Returning books as soon as you're done reading them is the best way to keep a minimalist history of your reading. Some users have said that contacting Amazon support to delete archived items works for them, but I haven't tried that yet.

I managed to work out how to delete books from your Kindle Unlimited history. I had assumed this was not possible but it is – in a somewhat hidden way. Go to Amazon.com, log in, go to your Amazon account settings and click on “Content and Devices”. Click on “Books” to show a list of them and then find the one you want to delete. Click on the three dots next to the book’s title and click on “Return and Delete”. The book will disappear from your current list of books but it might still appear in your total history of Kindle Unlimited books. I have heard reports of customers being able to get Amazon customer services to delete books from their total history too but this is not something I have managed to get them to do myself. Instead, it seems that Amazon have deliberately designed the system so that you can always re-download a book you’ve previously downloaded, which is great for people who want to re-read books but less great for people who want to be able to organize their Kindle Unlimited books. One thing I have noticed is that returning books as soon as you’ve finished reading them means that you get to use up more of your monthly allowance of slots to download new books.

As someone who has been a Kindle Unlimited subscriber for a number of years, I have experienced first hand the frustration of wanting to clear borrowings from your history but finding it is not as easy as it should be. Logging into your Amazon account via your browser of choice (as opposed to the Kindle Unlimited app on your mobile) and going to Your Account > Content and Devices > Books shows you a list of all the titles you have borrowed. Clicking on the three dots to the right of each book and selecting Return and Delete from the drop-down menu will remove the title from your current list of borrowed items, but it does not remove it from your borrowing history. You have to contact Amazon customer service and ask them to delete it for you.

I wish the Kindle Unlimited interface was as up to date as most other digital libraries. Although you can return a book, it still shows up in your “history” which can become cluttered. It would be wonderful to have a button to clear your history like you have with Netflix or Spotify. Until that day, this workaround will have to do. If you are a reader concerned about privacy, deleting your borrowed books on a regular basis will ensure that you are getting the best book recommendations and that they are not being affected by your past borrowing history.