Amazon ending Download & Transfer by USB

[tozka]

FYI mainly for US folks:

Starting February 26, 2025, the “Download & Transfer via USB” option will no longer be available. You can still send Kindle books to your Wi-Fi enabled devices by selecting the “Deliver or Remove from Device” option.

This is very annoying for a variety of reasons but technically you can still download your books to your Kindle, and then move that file to your computer (and/or into Calibre if you use that program). It's more likely to be in KFX format than AZW3, however, and I'm not sure if DRM can be removed from KFX format...

Discussion here on Mobileread with more info.

Comments

[claudeb]

I saw people say they'll stop buying books on Amazon, which sucks because our books are only on Amazon. Then again I was warning years ago about the danger of doing that, but it's up to whoever manages publication. Can't complain when someone else is doing the work.

Still, if you can, spread your books around. Gumroad still moves copies, and it's a good place to buy from, too.

[tozka]

I've been seeing a lot of discussion about that, particularly in the romance genre communities. Many romance authors are in Kindle Unlimited and that's the only place you can get their books, so it seems that readers are willing to compromise and subscribe to KU to keep supporting those authors but go purchase the books (for keeps) on other platforms when they're available. Gumroad is good, or else Kobo and Smashwords.