How To Transfer Kindle Books To Another Device?

I am a bit of a book worm, so it is not unusual for me to be moving my Kindle books around from device to device. Most people don’t realize that all Kindle books are stored in the cloud. That means that all of your Kindle books are stored online under your Amazon account. When you add a new Kindle, Kindle app, etc. to your Amazon account, you instantly have access to all of your Kindle books. Archived Items are saved Kindle books that you have purchased in the past. Sometimes older purchases do not appear in your library right away, so you may want to look for them in Archived Items. If you cannot find a book that you have purchased in the past, you can always search for it. The book will appear as a search result and you can instantly add it to your library.

Secondly, many people purchase books that they can load directly onto their Kindle(s), known as sideloaded books (most typically PDFs and MOBI files which have been emailed to their free Kindle email address). These types of books can also be transferred to additional devices provided that all devices are added to the same email address of the Kindle owner. For sideloaded books, the books can be resent via email to the new Kindle or they can be sent via Amazon’s “Send to Kindle” feature via the Amazon website. For those who transfer between operating systems such as from an iOS device to an Android device, it’s worth noting that while DRM-protected Kindle Store eBooks can be transferred via USB to and from a computer, they can only be synced via the cloud to and from additional Kindle(s). Files that are not DRM-protected can generally be transferred via USB by simply dragging and dropping them into the appropriate Kindle folder on the new device, but these files are typically not in a format that can be read by the Kindle and must first be configured via a free ebook management tool called Calibre in order to convert the file to the correct format.

Many people also do not realize that with Amazon Household, each member of your household can access your Kindle Library on their own devices, and you can gift books, etc. Note though that lent books, as well as Prime Reading selections, have borrowing limits, and do not necessarily remain synced to all your devices indefinitely. It’s also good to know that with services such as Calibre, you can create a backup of your Kindle Library at any time. In the worst case scenario, where Amazon’s servers are having problems, having an offline backup of your books will allow you to read them. Account syncing, file management, and DRM — it all starts to make sense!

The easiest way I have found to transfer Kindle books to a new tablet is to set up the new tablet from my existing Kindle. For the first book I read on the new tablet, I had to wait a couple of hours for the book to download, but after that Whispersync, Amazon’s technology for synchronizing reading across devices, automatically updated my library and continued to read books with me. For new Kindle e-readers, you can transfer books by going through the setup wizard for the new e-reader and signing in with your Amazon account to transfer all of your Kindle books. For phones and tablets that do not have a Kindle app already installed, you can download the Kindle app and sign in with your Amazon account to transfer all of your Kindle books to your new tablet.

Occasionally, I have found that books seem to have ‘disappeared’ from my Kindle device. The only reason for this that I have managed to come up with is if the Amazon account that you are logged into on your device has been switched to a different Amazon marketplace (such as from Amazon.com to Amazon.co.uk). Each region has its own library of books, so it is easy to get ‘lost’ between stores. I have also had issues with Kindle Unlimited and Prime Reading ‘borrows’ disappearing from my Kindle when my subscription to the service expires. This can be prevented by putting your Kindle device into airplane mode on the due return date of a borrows to prevent Amazon from removing them from your device. Amazon also has a ‘Manage Your Content and Devices’ page which allows you to remotely add books to other registered Amazon Kindles and to delete books from your device to free up space. It is also possible to transfer books that you have ‘purchased’ to another Amazon account, but this has to be done through Amazon customer services.

Interestingly enough, while I’m unable to tell you how to load up your Audiobooks for your Kindle, I can tell you that if you own the Audible audiobook for a Kindle book, you can switch between reading and listening to your book and Whispersync will keep your place for you. I use this all the time on my phone during my daily commute. I switch back and forth between my Kindle and my phone. As for collecting books on one of your devices, the books that are in a collection on one of your devices will sync to your other devices as well. They will also be in the same collection on your other devices. Organizations of your books are synced as well. How to collect books on one of your devices is explained below.

Oh Kindle Unlimited subscribers! We have another little tidbit of information for you when it comes to switching devices. Just like any book in the Amazon cloud, your KU borrowed books will automatically appear on your new device. Of course, as you know, you can only have up to 20 books borrowed at any time. So if you are already at maximum capacity for your KU borrowed books (e.g. 20), you won’t be able to borrow any more books until you have returned some from your other device(s) or from your Kindle library on Amazon.com. A seamless transfer of your KU books, but remember that the limit of 20 is account-wide, NOT device-wide. What this means is that on your new Kindle, you will see what is currently held in the KU ‘borrowed’ slot for you. Note that there is nothing you need to do here to transfer your KU books to your new device.