How To Transfer Downloaded Books From Amazon Kindle To PC?

The best method for transferring PDF files to the Kindle is with a USB cable. Automated email conversion often fails to preserve PDF layout, reflowing text that was not intended to be reflowed. PDFs are best read on the Kindle Paperwhite using the zoom and contrast controls, and while it is not perfect, transferring the files via USB is the best way to go. If you are transferring ‘novels’ that are scanned PDFs of old books or even specific editions with unusual layouts, then transfer them via USB for the best fidelity.

I’m familiar with this problem and it’s not made easy by Amazon but it is possible. The first thing I tried for this problem was the Family Library feature for sharing books between other accounts in your household. This is set up in the Amazon account holder’s settings for Amazon under ‘Amazon Household’. Once you have set up your other account(s) as part of your Amazon Household you can then add books to share in ‘Manage Your Content and Devices’. No – that won't work (although that feature would be lovely for non-families too). In that case you need to remove the DRM protection. I use Calibre e-book management software with the DeDRM plugin to remove Amazon DRM protection from downloaded books, which can then be converted to whatever format is required to transfer the e-book to the other Amazon account holder by email or USB. There are plenty of online tutorials to guide you through removing Amazon DRM using Calibre.

I have found many people to misunderstand this function because Kindle books are not simple files that one can email to themselves. Kindle books are protected by Digital Rights Management and are meant to be read within Amazon’s eco-system. Therefore, to download books previously purchased, one simply registers a new device to their Amazon account and all of their prior purchases will download. I find it is like having a Netflix account. One does not transfer a movie from one TV to another. Instead, one simply logs into Netflix on the new TV. This also applies to books that have been borrowed from Prime Reading or from Kindle Unlimited. Those books will only download if one currently has an active membership.

Your archived items are also archived on your old device (even if you deleted them from your downloaded books list to make room). Now that you have a device with more storage, you might want to re-download some of these archived books. Make sure you’re viewing your library as ‘All’ or ‘Cloud’ and not just ‘Downloaded’. I discovered that I have a complete history of all my purchases over the last years, and can even re-download books I’ve purchased on sale years ago (I found three such books from 2017 that I had purchased but never read). Transferring to a new device became a fun library excavation.

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.

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.

Most of my novels get transferred to my Kindle from my Mac on a weekly basis. The most straightforward way to do this is via USB. You just connect the Kindle to your Mac, open up the Kindle’s ‘Documents’ folder, and dump your novels in there. If a novel is a non-MOBI PDF or some other format, I use Calibre to convert it to MOBI in a flash. Calibre is free and very easy to use – just add your novel, choose your output format, and export it to your Kindle. Emailing your Kindle is another great way to wirelessly send novels. All of your Kindles are listed on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Click on the email address associated with each Kindle and attach the novel you want to send to it. Type “convert” in the subject line of the email if you are sending a novel that is not already in MOBI or PDF format. There is also a “Send to Kindle” app available for Macs that allows you to drag and drop the novels you want to send to your Kindle and the app will automatically convert them for you. I use Dropbox too. When I’m reading a book on my iPad and I get a chance to sit at my Mac, I upload the file to my Dropbox account, open the book on my Mac, and share it with my Kindle from the ‘Share’ menu. This method is really cool if you have multiple devices. Make sure the book is in the correct format for your Kindle before you send it though.

There are cloud sync alternatives to cables that don’t involve trusting a corporation to your data. To sync files with your phone, you could set up a Nextcloud or Syncthing folder on your PC, and then use the Kobo’s Dropbox integration to link that to the synced folder. It’s a rather convoluted wireless pipeline, and probably most people would find it overkill. But I’m sure there are plenty of privacy-focused tech enthusiasts out there who would appreciate the option to run a completely self-owned wireless transfer system as a project.

For those of you visually-oriented folks, here’s a mental flowchart for moving your books to your new Kindle. Was the book purchased from Amazon? Yes -> it’s in the cloud. You register your new Kindle and download the books. No -> did you email it to yourself or use “Send to Kindle”? Yes -> these things are linked to your account email. Just re-send to your new Kindle email. No -> it’s a USB sideload. Copy files from your old Kindle’s “documents” folder to the corresponding folder on your new Kindle. Note that the only real variable here is your reading progress. Books from Amazon are synced via Whispersync, but non-Amazon books do not get synced in this fashion. That means you might have to find your place in these books. Not ideal, but that’s the nature of the current e-book ecosystem.

I just realized something cool about new Kindle owners with Automatic Book Download enabled in Settings > Device Options > Advanced Options > Home & Library. Any book purchased from Amazon will automatically start to download to the Kindle (while it is connected to Wi-Fi and in sleep mode). No effort on your part whatsoever. It’s so cool. I buy books randomly now. This is so cool. I actually have to put on a limit to buying books, since it’s now so easy and the smallest of frictions are removed. (I have to manually tell Amazon to send it now).