A Beginner’s Guide to Quitting Kindle
Sharing what I’m learning to give you more freedom over your purchased content.
Keep in mind that I’m in the very early stages of my research on this topic, but wanted to publish quickly in the interest of getting this info out before the deadline. I will continue to update this post as I learn more.
In case you hadn’t heard, Amazon is taking away the ability to download your Kindle book purchases and transfer via USB as of February 26, 2025. The more I learned, it pissed me all the way off. So, I’m in the process of reducing my dependence on the Kindle ecosystem. This post breaks down what’s not changing, what will be different, why I think it’s shady AF, and your options for divesting from Amazon if you so choose.
What’s Staying the Same
You will still have access to all of your book purchases through your Kindle device and the app.
You will still be able to download and save them to your devices.
Amazon reserves the right to remove any book from your Kindle library if it violates their terms and conditions, even if you purchased it. Seriously. According to their fine print, you do not own the book; you own the license to access the content. This is usually used to remove books that were licensed by accounts that have been closed or those that violate their terms of service. There are legitimate reasons for this (e.g. books that are unlawfully licensed or have copyright issues), but could pose other concerns. More on this later.
What’s Changing/Why It’s Shady
You will not be able to download backup copies of the books you purchased, which makes it much harder to leave the Amazon ecosystem should you choose to purchase another e-reader like Kobo, Nook, or Boox.
If Amazon removes a title from your library and you don’t have a backup copy, you have no way of recovering that purchase unless Amazon restores it.
From what I understand, as a private business Amazon can decide that a book violates their terms of service for any reason. So if an author decides to make their content available in other places and violates an existing exclusivity agreement, Amazon is within their rights to remove that title. Similarly, if a book is banned (which sadly isn’t far-fetched these days), Amazon can remove them from your library to comply with the law.
Because Amazon uses the language “Buy Now” or “Buy With 1-Click” on their website, the consumer is led to believe that they own their purchased content, when that is not the case at all.
Amazon made no obvious announcement about this change, of course. You would only see it if you log into your Amazon account to manage your content library on your desktop computer. They also made this change to all books ever purchased instead of just those purchased after the deadline, which makes it even more inconvenient if you have a large collection of books and haven’t been backing them up all along.
Amazon also uses proprietary digital rights management (DRM) to make it harder to transfer your Kindle ebooks to other non-Amazon devices. DRM is necessary to prevent piracy, but other companies use the same DRM standard called Adobe Digital Editions (ADE). Amazon’s proprietary DRM makes it harder for consumers who paid for digital content to have more flexibility in viewing it on different devices. There are ways around this, which I’ll get into soon.
What You Can Do
Buy physical copies of any book you don’t want to lose. I can hear the paper book purists having their last laugh now. That said, it takes up more physical space. It also isn’t desirable or financially feasible for everyone to rebuy their whole library. You can slowly buy over time or in limited quantities for only your top favorites. Buy from a local bookstore, shop used books, or buy from a place like Bookshop.org, which donates part of its proceeds to independent bookstores. You can even specify your favorite local bookstore to benefit from your purchases.
Download your books to your computer before the deadline. IMO, this is a good idea to protect your existing content even if you don’t see yourself moving away from Amazon.
Assuming you’re seeing this before February 26, 2025, you can go to your Amazon account on a web browser, then under the Account menu, select Content Library, then go to Books. This will show you a list of all your book purchases. For each option, go to More Options > Download and Transfer via USB. Select your Kindle device, then download. You can keep it in your downloads folder or move it to a dedicated folder on your computer. That’s it! Unfortunately there’s no way to select multiple books at once, so you’ll have to do this for each individual book you want to keep, but it’s still a very simple process that goes quickly once you get into a rhythm.One caveat is that you might not have this option for newer Kindle devices from 2024 or later, or if you don’t have a Kindle device and only read through the app.Edit as of 2/25: I just learned that there may be a faster way to download your books in bulk by plugging your Kindle into your computer with a USB and transferring the files that way. So if you have a large collection and don’t want to download your titles one by one, this may be an easier way. Let me know if you try it!
Edit as of 4/11: Unfortunately the deadline to download your books has passed, but there’s still hope! People out there are doing God’s work to help you jailbreak your Kindle and rip your books from your device using Calibre. (Those two tutorials are created by the same guy. The first is a YouTube video, and the second is a link to his Patreon. He made the Calibre conversion video free and open to all, so you can simply join his space for free without a paid subscription, unless you want to show your appreciation financially.)
If you’re able to download your books, then this frees you up to eventually migrate your library to another non-Amazon device like Kobo, Nook by Barnes & Noble, or Boox. B&N already has terms that say they can remove books from your library if it violates their content policy, and they have also made it nearly impossible to download and back up your books. Kobo is way more open with allowing people to download books that they buy and seems to prioritize making reading and accessing content easy for readers. There are options for Android-based e-ink readers like Boox or Bigme that allow you to access books from all your accounts including Libby and Hoopla, but reviews are mixed for the reading experience and durability of some of their devices, as well as the customer service experience if you buy directly. So, pick your poison. To remove the proprietary DRM and convert your books to the standard EPUB format (or KEPUB for Kobo devices), you’ll need to use a tool called Calibre with the de-DRM plug-in.
I haven’t attempted this personally, but there are tons of tutorials online that walk you through the process.Edit 4/11: I can confirm that I was successfully able to de-DRM and convert all of my books through Calibre, and it worked so incredibly well! Highly recommend. One tip: Make sure to go in the plug-in settings and customize the de-DRM plugin. This will prompt you to input your Kindle’s serial number, which is the only way this will work.
Download all books on your Kindle so they’re available to read offline, then switch the device to airplane mode. As long as your device is offline, no changes can be made to your library. However, this does limit your ability to send books to your Kindle through Libby or any other service.
Get a library card and use Libby and Hoopla. I’ve been meaning to do this forever and finally got around to it, and I’m so glad I did. Libby allows you to send borrowed ebooks to your Kindle, but you may have to wait for it. Hoopla allows for more instant access, but you can only access content through the Hoopla app on your phone, tablet, or Android e-ink device.
Buy ebooks directly either directly from the publisher or from Kobo and send the ebook to your Kindle device. I mention Kobo specifically because they are the only current ecosystem that allows you to download books you purchase and send to other devices.
Find non-DRM books out of copyright for free via Project Gutenberg or Standard Ebooks (basically the same as Project Gutenberg, but with better formatting) and email it to your Kindle device.
Final Thoughts, For Now
In my opinion, one of the upsides of capitalism is competition and consumer choice. When that is taken away without my consent in what I see as a greedy power grab, I’m going to vote with my dollars and go elsewhere. I’m sad about this, because I love my Kindle. I’ll still continue to use it because I have a sizable backlog of books, which will give me time to research other options while also not giving them any more money.
I know there are people out there who have been boycotting all things Amazon for a while. For now, I’m not one of those people. I still have a Prime account, and still shop there for certain things. I am working to be a more conscious consumer overall by buying things only when I need them, shopping directly with online businesses, and choosing more sustainable shipping options.
Idealogical purity is not required to make a difference. The ability to opt out of Amazon or other massive retailers is a privilege. So no judgement if this isn’t realistic for you, or even if you’re an Amazon superfan who just loves that free Prime shipping. I know I do. My feelings around this are complex, so if you’re there too, you’re not alone.
I hope this was helpful to arm you with the information you need to make your own informed decision. As I mentioned, this post will be a work in progress, so I’d love to hear your thoughts!
What’s your preferred book format? If you’re a Kindle person, are you thinking of making the switch? Do you have questions? Let me know in the comments.
Thanks for sharing about this! I never would have known until it was too late. I don't like the sneakiness of it either.