I prefer not to buy DRM-ed books, because I like the flexibility of being able to back my purchased books up myself and view them on whatever device I’d like (I have no interest in breaking DRM and do not want any discussion of that in this thread).
Up until recently when I bought a non-DRMed book on Amazon, I could use the Kindle for PC app to download the book and had no trouble loading them into Calibre for backup and conversion, but now, when I download a book I get files that open fine in Kindle, but apparently can’t be usefully loaded into Calibre. Any suggestions? If it’s flatly impossible, I’ll just buy the books on Smashwords, Kobo or GooglePlay from now on and forgo using Amazon, but if there’s a technique I’m missing, I’d like to know it.
I found the following article which talks about how “newly-published Kindle ebooks can no longer be downloaded using older versions of Kindle for PC/Mac.”
The article is about removing DRM, which I know you said you didn’t want to talk about, but I can’t help wondering if it’s relevant to the difficulties you’ve been having with non-DRM books.
I’m not familiar with Smashwords, but Kobo, GooglePlay, and Barnes & Noble have their own versions of DRM. I think the best you can hope for is to download your library onto your device and then disable wifi so that the Kindle app won’t be able to communicate with Amazon’s servers.
Moving forward, you can still get the older format for Kindle ebooks when using the download option from the Manage Your Content page at Amazon, but that requires having an E Ink Kindle registered to your account. Some people choose to buy an old cheap Kindle just to get the option to download Kindle books that way.
Did that even work? I was under the impression that Amazon simply did not care to provide DRM-free books. I have not purchased any books from Amazon for a long time: I cannot condone that policy.
I have one of the oldest Kindles, and the Wifi no longer works. I’ve tried the latest firmware update for that version, but it doesn’t seem to work. I load my (no DRM) books via USB. Books I email to Kindle for download, I receive a notice that MOBI files will not be accepted soon, send EPUB (which I gather will be converted to AZW?) I asssume file type is not the OP’s problem?
I have noticed that the latest version of Paperwhite Kindle seems to make it as difficult as possible to manage a larger library. What would I do without Calibre…
I had this problem some time ago. The Kindle app was downloading the books to my PC in different formats that were not compatible with Calibre. I downloaded an older version of the app Kindle for Windows 1.17.0 Build 44170 and turned off automatic updates. It gets the files in the original Calibre friendly format. However I recently purchased a book that KIndle wouldn’t even download in the app, trying to force me to get the latest version, so this may not last for ever.
It really ought to be the publisher’s/author’s choice, and not the vendor’s. I’ve been enjoying library books on my kindle (I don’t mind DRM on library books, they are going away soon anyway) but I appreciate this thread as I haven’t bought an ebook in a while, not liking to buy DRM products, and having had similar issues with Kindle books.