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Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

sonyaellenmann.com

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Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#91

Post by komali2 »

ben7799 wrote: post #47

I've backed up my eBooks from time to time & cracked some books over the years that I had purchased & wanted to put on another device but a lot of the time I don't worry about it. I got my first kindle in 2010 and bounced over to Barnes & Noble for a while with a Nook but then came back to the Amazon ecosystem. I've bought hundreds of books over the years. But just like paper books there are a lot of books that I rea…

Fair, but just like I've never needed my photo backups, when I do need them (if I ever do), I'll be very, very, very glad I put in the ~3 hours of work or so a month it takes to ensure my photos are all backed up.

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#92

Post by criddell »

bsharitt wrote: post #45

While I try to buy non-DRM books when I can, I'm still willing to buy DRM'd books as long as the DRM is pretty breakable(and I back them up immediately most of the time). If the books on Amazon, Google, B&N, etc were to suddenly have unbroken DRM, I'd stop buying DRM'd ebooks until that issue was "fixed". Every ebook DRM format(except maybe Apple) is already trivially removable, so I wish they'd drop the farce and go…

> Every ebook DRM format(except maybe Apple) is already trivially removable

AFAIK, Amazon's latest DRM on KFX files hasn't been broken yet. That came out in 2015. Some people get around it by getting the book in the older format, but then you lose all the advanced typography stuff that KFX supports.

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#93

Post by Tijdreiziger »

Tomte wrote: post #21
maskros wrote: post #9

Calibre is great, if you configure it properly. By default, converting books to another format will change the layout! Destroying the original formatting by default is unacceptable behaviour to be honest, so user beware. For Kindle, I suggest using the KindleUnpack plugin instead; which can extract the EPUB file embedded in the AZW/KF8 format file losslessly for use with EPUB based readers without having to worry abo…

How do I start with Calibre and Kindle? I've tried several times, but I cannot understand the UI. How do I list books on my Kindle? How do I list books in my account? It's all very byzantine.

To put EPUB (or AZW3/MOBI) files on your Kindle:

- Open Calibre

- 'Add' your EPUB file(s) (top left button)

- Connect your Kindle via USB

- Select the book(s) you want to send

- Click 'Send to device' (it's one of the buttons at the top)

- If you get asked to convert your book, choose AZW3 (it's newer than MOBI)

- Done

----------

To view the books on your Kindle:

- Connect your Kindle via USB

- Click 'Device' (at the top)

Note 1: If you want to be able to put your books on a different Kindle, you need the DeDRM plugin [1]

Note 2: If you want to be able to convert your books to EPUB to use with a non-Kindle e-reader, you need the KFX Input plugin [2]

Note 3: KFX is not a great input format, if you don't have moral reservations it's better to 'obtain' the books you paid for from the internet in EPUB format.

----------

To view the books on your Amazon account:

This is not possible using only Calibre. You need to install Kindle for PC/Mac and get the files from its storage directory. The notes above apply, i.e. it's probably better to just obtain EPUBs from the internet.

----------

In my opinion, it's not really worth it to back up books from your Kindle, you're better off obtaining the EPUBs off the internet. If you want to put those EPUBs on your Kindle, that's where Calibre shines.

This is also great if you don't want to support Amazon and their lock-in scheme. Just buy your books in EPUB from any online retailer and use Calibre to put it on your Kindle. Note that some publishers apply Adobe DRM to EPUBs (which you can break using DeDRM [1]), but there are also many EPUBs using only a watermark (aka 'social DRM'), which is not DRM.

[1] DeDRM: https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/drm-removal-t...

[2] KFX Input: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=291290

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#94

Post by Tijdreiziger »

superkuh wrote: post #22

Sometimes it's just better to pirate the books even if you've paid for them. The formatting and error correction is usually better and they stick to epub and mobi standards. As an aside: I was helping a friend out who owned a Kindle recently and shocked to learn it can't read mobi or epub. Why would anyone buy such a crap e-reader?

AZW3 is basically EPUB, you just need to run your EPUB files through Calibre. (Not that this excuses the lack of EPUB support.)

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#95

Post by rrix2 »

jhbadger wrote: post #36
jxdxbx wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had no idea that an EPUB file was embedded in the weird Amazon formats. I mostly agree that you want to avoid "transcoding" an EPUB. But the formatting on some official EPUBs is so bad that I like to use readers that can override the built-in formatting. I like to choose the font, spacing, hyphenation, and justification myself. (Full justification and hyphenation are my bugbears--I think they are never appropriate…

There isn't an EPUB "embedded" in Kindle formats. The Kindle format is based on the pre-Kindle Mobipocket format (that's why unDRMed Kindle books often have an extension of .mobi). EPUB didn't even exist when this format was created. Making an EPUB (or any other format) from a Kindle book involves converting, which is always going to introduce changes in formatting. People can argue that one program or another does a…

There's another layer to the format onion, even. The .mobi file, without DRM, is a PalmOS resource collection file https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRC_(Palm_OS) since mobipocket

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#96

Post by billfruit »

harshreality wrote: post #71
billfruit wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me the most obvious mangling the converting process is doing is inconsistent paragraphing, some times a single paragraph in original splits into two at an arbitrary place after conversion, and vice versa, seriously disrupting the readability.

What format are you starting with? That doesn't happen if you start from a modern, flowed (kf8) format with proper markup. Calibre tends to preserve all markup. It might add some trivial css fixups in some cases, but usually that's only when tags it thinks are important have no associated css already. There are two reasons I can think of for why you'd get broken paragraph separation. First, the markup in the kindle v…

It was a long time ago, possible it was converting from azw4 files.

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#97

Post by atemerev »

ptah wrote: post #53
atemerev wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are not “generally cheaper” (ebooks are usually about 30-50% cheaper), and much less convenient if you travel a lot.

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.

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#100

Post by submeta »

Tijdreiziger wrote: post #93
Tomte wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do I start with Calibre and Kindle? I've tried several times, but I cannot understand the UI. How do I list books on my Kindle? How do I list books in my account? It's all very byzantine.

To put EPUB (or AZW3/MOBI) files on your Kindle: - Open Calibre - 'Add' your EPUB file(s) (top left button) - Connect your Kindle via USB - Select the book(s) you want to send - Click 'Send to device' (it's one of the buttons at the top) - If you get asked to convert your book, choose AZW3 (it's newer than MOBI) - Done ---------- To view the books on your Kindle: - Connect your Kindle via USB - Click 'Device' (at the…

> In my opinion, it's not really worth it to back up books from your Kindle

Use-case: I have bought books from other vendors, converted them to epub format, copied them via Calibre onto my Kindle reader. - I made lots of annotations in those books on my Kindle reader. Does it not make sense to back those books up?

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