Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018) • Hacker News Board

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#151

Post by pkd » Wed, Jul 03, 2019, 2:27 AM UTC

bduerst wrote: post #106

neves wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your bookmarks and highlights are synced to the cloud. You should be able to read them online on: http://read.amazon.com/notebook From the kindle you can also export all the highlights of a book to your email. It's a lot better to read it on your email. The kindle device reader note reading experience is subpar.

Tangential, but is there a way to scrape this page or an API to access it? I'd like to be able to automatically pull my highlights and haven't found an easy way.

Look into readwise. There's no API access to highlights, do they scrape it from an open tab.

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#152

Post by ptah » Wed, Jul 03, 2019, 7:42 AM UTC

atemerev wrote: post #97

ptah wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

typically on amazon you can find cheaper physical books via alternative sellers like bookdepository

Not if you are not living in the US. For a European who wants to read English books, Kindle Store is a blessing.

I'm in UK and prefer buying a book for 1p and pay £2 shipping than £11 pound for an ebook that i wont' even own, merely licence

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#153

Post by lightbulbjim » Wed, Jul 03, 2019, 8:24 AM UTC

ryantgtg wrote: post #132

ben7799 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just mentioning that I haven't really given Kobo a shot... so I could be in the dark and Kobo is better. But I hear enough through the woodwork that I have been under the impression using Kobo would be trading off annoyances with some things better & some worse. Mostly what I hear is Kobo often has some hardware advantages but has some different software annoyances. What format the book uses is a very minor con…

To me, Kobo has a major advantage with the “warm toned” backlight on the Clara HD. I switched from kindle just for that. On kobo, the dedrm process involves installing the kobo desktop software (windows/Mac only), which syncs the books to your desktop. From there you can snatch the ebook from the file manager and put it in calibre. There’s an “obok” dedrm plug-in. If you switch from kindle to anything else, you will…

Obok can grab the books straight from your Kobo using the Calibre plugin. No need for the desktop software.

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#154

Post by rypskar » Wed, Jul 03, 2019, 9:29 AM UTC

aswanson wrote: post #39

Anyone know of a good way to browse & put pdfs into the kindle? The Amazon PC application purports to do as much but is really bad at it.

My old kindle mounts as a disk when connecting it to my pc using usb, so I drag pdfs into the directory all the other books are in

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#155

Post by calcifer » Wed, Jul 03, 2019, 7:35 PM UTC

bduerst wrote: post #150

calcifer wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming Amazon doesn't just decide to delete it [1], sure. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18am...

Seems that those books were added to the store by a company that didn't have the rights. I'm not sure that's a widespread problem.

I'm not sure the distinction is relevant. The fact is, Amazon can and will remove your books at any time and there is nothing you can do about it.

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#156

Post by jamescampbell » Wed, Jul 03, 2019, 9:03 PM UTC

I figured out how to finally get this to work. For Mac OS, you have to install an old version of the Kindle App. Version 1.23.1 appears to be the last version that downloads AZW3 formatted ebooks that can then be converted to EPUB easily with the DeDRM plugin. All later versions appear to be broken. Also, the Kindle app will silently update to the latest version unless you turn off the auto-update option. I converted all of my paid books to epub and not buying any more through Amazon. This post inspired me to do this before it is too late and the old version is no longer compatible to future OS versions.

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#157

Post by BuckRogers » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 1:16 AM UTC

I did a review of the varying e-readers 9 or 10 years ago and decided on the Nook based on standards support. I still use a Nook and never had any problems like this.

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#158

Post by preek » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 8:07 AM UTC

farss wrote: post #84

preek wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds like something that many could benefit from! Would you mind sharing your script?

Sure! I barely know what I'm doing, but this worked for me: https://github.com/wneuheisel/Kindle-Notes-Backup Suggestions welcome!

Thank you so much for sharing! You’re even using notify-send for notifications^^

I’ll test it as soon as I can and will get back to you with feedback if I make changes. From quickly glancing over the code, I do like it!

This closes my last Kindle lock-in. I’m very grateful _/\_

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#159

Post by preek » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 8:08 AM UTC

farss wrote: post #42

neves wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your bookmarks and highlights are synced to the cloud. You should be able to read them online on: http://read.amazon.com/notebook From the kindle you can also export all the highlights of a book to your email. It's a lot better to read it on your email. The kindle device reader note reading experience is subpar.

Yes, but only for the books you purchase through Amazon. If you import DRM free books (or presumably re-import DRM free versions of Amazon purchases) or personal docs, the notes on those won't be saved.

And that’s a big use case. I use Kindle for most of my reading and import many other documents (papers, DRM free books I bought and such).

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#160

Post by bduerst » Mon, Jul 08, 2019, 5:14 PM UTC

calcifer wrote: post #155

bduerst wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems that those books were added to the store by a company that didn't have the rights. I'm not sure that's a widespread problem.

I'm not sure the distinction is relevant. The fact is, Amazon can and will remove your books at any time and there is nothing you can do about it.

Right, but in setting a pattern of behavior that they will remove books whenever they want, Amazon only seems to do it when there are bad actors involved.