Amazon: Older Kindles can no longer download e-books
2mon 9d ago by lemmy.zip/u/schizoidman in technology from www.heise.de
They were cut off from the store some time ago, and now they can no longer download e-books either: Amazon is rolling back support for older Kindles.
lol i already jailbroke my 2012 paperwhite and intstalled Koreader on it so I can sync it with my calibre epub library over wifi
It's a pity Calibre to date refuses to be refactored into a self-hosted service.
The core logic should be portable, with the app just being an interface to it, but no, the entire project is so much spaghetti it would feed the entire boot for over a year... such a shame.
Agree, though calibre-web exists and runs in a single Docker container. I've been using it for a few years, and it's great.
Sure its a whole Linux server under the hood just to run Calibre and the services required to give it a web interface and API for reading apps - making it way bigger than it needs to be - but it does the job.
Calibre-web isn’t Calibre. It uses the same database, but that’s about it, unless you use the optional conversion mod on the linuxserver container.
A docker container is preferred, but again, CW isn't Calibre. Same database but completely different management system + also lacking a lot of the sync opportunities.
The issue is that there's no open protocol for library syncing. It doesn't exist because all big players (Amazon, Kobo/Rakuten, B&N, etc.) have their own proprietary system, and need no open alternatives.
OPDS is a thing but it's meant to replicate a physical library (one you can walk into) in behaviour and approach, not a personal library (list all books I have and give me easy access to them). It's essentially just an RSS-style feed that has no defined structure, thus isn't software navigable - e.g. there's no guarantee you can list all book series, or all authors, and most implementations usually give you very roughly defined "recently added", or "hot now" book lists...
I've actually been working on a solution for this, something that provides an almost Kindle library experience (see all your books from a remote server, sync down the remote ebook file, sync back read progress, filter/search based on book properties, etc.), while being flexible enough for non-readers applications as well. But I haven't even gotten to the point where I can define the API contract properly, let alone the backing database and mapping to Calibre. Honestly at this stage I feel like the best approach is starting from scratch, establishing modern requirements, and going from there.
A docker container is not a whole separate Linux server, it uses the kernel running on the host
With default runtime, very true. There are other runtimes that can be used that provide better isolation like gVisor, kata, firecracker, etc.
Have you seen the apt sources list that CW generates on boot? It's semantics. 😊
I switched. Kavita is the new hotness.
I found it for comics, but realized it handled books as well as Caliber does, in a modern interface with OPDS support.
I tried Kavita and immediately recoiled at the fact that basic features like progress sync or metadata matching are behind a paywall - literally features that don't cost the developers anything, while having open, active bug reports going back a year on these "premium" features.
All while licensing the code under GPLv3...
Progress sync works fine for me in KOReader with OPDS. Progress Sync Scrobble (to third-parties) is the Kavita+ feature.
My understanding was the Kavita+ items are things to do with third-party services and meta data providers that are an API/cost-based service to the dev. That being said I don't use any of those features.
OPDS doesn't do progress sync, at all... you're running something else there if that works for you.
https://anansi-project.github.io/docs/opds-pse/specs/v1.2
They use the PS extension. I believe Komga and Kavita maintain the spec now. Reader support for Kavita specifically is in the Wiki.
PSE is page streaming, not progress sync...
PSE is a protocol, how information is used on each side of that protocol is at the developers discretion.
pse:lastRead="10"
pse:lastReadDate="2010-01-10T10:01:11Z"
which is fucking useless for actual progress sync of books because it doesn't handle concurrency (multiple readers reading the same content, potentially offline), and more importantly, modern ebook formats have no concept of "page" in transit. Oh, you read page 10? Awesome! Now do tell, is it page 10 on a 5" 800x480 eink display with 48px font size and giant margins/lineheights/word paddings, or is it page 10 on a 13" display of 2480x1860 resolution with 11px font size and barely any margins? Since you'll get wildly different results in both cases, and OPDS doesn't really allow for adapting this simple integer to a precise position.
No, for that you require a proper locator scheme, something OPDS doesn't provide and cannot enforce.
Page based progress is fine for fixed format publications - comics, PDF/DOCX files, etc., but that approach breaks irreparably the moment you switch to dynamically formatted content. In case of EPUV/MOBI/the various Kindle formats, you want to determine the reader's position based on the first and last paragraph/sentence visible on the reader and correlate that to a position within the actual files of the book, which is actually dynamic, as it can be resolved regardless if it's XML formatted EPUB or if you dumbed the book down to a simple TXT file.
So no, OPDS's PSE is at best a stopgap solution for syncing progress.
doesn't handle concurrency
Kavita is multiuser, each with their own progress sync. https://wiki.kavitareader.com/getting-started/
Now do tell, is it page 10 on a 5" 800x480 eink display with 48px font size and giant margins/lineheights/word paddings, or is it page 10 on a 13" display of 2480x1860 resolution with 11px font size and barely any margins
Again, it's a protocol and developer discression can be used. Page 10 could be word 10, or word 1000/avg 10 words = 10. PSE can be used to store progress, without needing to request the page because the eBook is local. It could be any API format.
by concurrency I meant multiple devices of the same user, not multiple users. I don't know why you'd even consider that I think other users' progress should be exposed on a single call?
and yet again, that progress doesn't mean anything when you base it on a number. locator patterns that find the SECTION you're in based on first-last word (or rather, sentence, for actual precision) are the way to go. you can try hacking this simplified protocol as much as you want, it will never work as well as a dedicated one.
I've looked into Kavita before and it looks good, just need to figure out a way I can wirelessly connect to it using KOreader on my Kindle to transfer books and sync reading progress
The OPDS service works for me, just like on Calibre. I can browse my books from within KOReader.
I see, that's good to hear, since KOreader has a direct integration with Calibre, when I connect it to my server it shows up as a external device in Calibre and I can select multiple books in Calibre and directly send to the Kindle in one click which I find more convenient than navigating a OPDS catalog from within my slow kindle and downloading books one by one, but maybe in the future when I get a better e-reader I will give Kavita a try.
My workflow is usually to add a book to my Want to Read list in Kavita, then on a reader I can go to that list through OPDS and browse just that list. Makes things much more managable assuming I don't spam the list.
Check out calibre@lemmy.world
That's exactly what I did, but I use Grimmory/BookLore.
optimal solution (lol)
So the product lineup is now called "Kindle Paperweight" instead?
Weird.
I didnt know my Calibre server stopped working.
Just another day in the life of an enshittificator.
Corporations like Amazon are a scourge. Switch to free and open formats, software and hardware. Ditch what you can. Hack and pirate what you must. Starve big tech.
I'm poor. I pirate stuff. When I can, I buy physical copies of the stuff I like.
Here's a reminder that Boox makes amazingly good e-readers in all form factors Amazon does (including a variety of tablets!), with stylus support (USI 2.0 for smaller devices, EMR for their Note series and above), fully open (recent Android versions, regular updates, unlockable bootloader, straightforward to root devices), support KOReader, with a solid built in reader (plus support for cloud sync, including syncing books to a free 10GB Boox server storage), support for OPDS (a better way to access your library than Calibre's sync, plus it can be utilised with most digital libraries too), and altogether quite well priced devices.
At the moment I have on my hands a Go Color 7 gen2, a Note Air5 C, and a Palma2 Pro. The experience is surprisingly good for a "random Chinese brand", the hardware, compared to similarly priced devices, is superior (seriously, 4/6/8GB RAM, 64/128GB internal storage, SD card support), not to mention their customised e-ink waveforms (which give you near LCD-like scrolling with minimal trailing effect and little to no ghosting, something I can't say about my Kindles...)
The only downside I found of these devices is the relatively bad battery life in locked/standby (due to Android, but you still easily get over a week per charge with average use, or about 20-22 hours of active use!), and the speakers... definitely not meant for audiobooks.
Being Norwegian it is my patriotic duty to shill for ReMarkable, it's pretty good at being what it is.
It's expensive, though.
Sorry but no. Abysmal hardware, shitty software that's locked down AND crap when opened up, and horrid QA. Talking from experience.
it is definitely too closed down, haven't had those other experiences though, I've had my ReMarkable 2 for quite a few years now. Then again, I haven't tried hacking at it
The hardware weakness is super obvious if you try to add any third party apps. Slow loading times, badly exposed pen API, among other things.
in their defense, it is marketed as a device that's limited on purpose, though
It's more for note taking, annotation and drawing than purely reading ebooks though, the form factor alone would make it uncomfortable for long reading sessions I think
It hasn't really been a problem for me, but I like having a big display, especially for pdfs or comics. It's also been great for character sheets for roleplaying games - especially since they get synced to the cloud, so I can always pull them out on my phone if I forget the tablet.
The interface, marketing and development all seem to be very focused on note taking and sketching, though. I've used it for drawing, but the exported files are kind of crap - IMO, the best way of exporting a drawing from ReMarkable is to lay the thing on a scanner. If you want high resolution, you zoom in on your drawing and scan it in pieces.
Say it with me kids, “This is why we pirate digital media from billion dollar corporations”
this is also why i started buying physical books and using my local public library again.
My local library allows borrowing ebooks. It's incredibly useful. I own two kindles and haven't spent a dime at Amazon for ebooks. I do buy physical books now and then from there, but only if I really need it and can't find elsewhere.
How do you return a borrowed ebook..?
It expires after two weeks. You can extend, just like borrowing a physical copy. Or return early, in which case it expires upon return.
I mean, yeah, sure, I guess that's a decent solutions in terms of modern IP shit.
But like, we all know you're not returning anything and if you wanted, you could also copy it for yourself.
I just dislike how it feels like when it was actually books, they had actual reasons to everything. There's a queue because there's limited copies. You need to return it and if you're late there's a fee, because it's from other people's time, etc. Nowadays that all feels like larping just to protect large companies IP's essentially. Because digital copies don't actually get returned.
Like when I was a kid I would've never thought a librarian would say "you're not allowed to read that anymore". Or that I couldn't copy a thing down at home from one of their books. But now as your tokens to ebooks expire, it kinda does feel like that.
My best friend is a librarian, and they've stopped buying ebook licenses because the terms were awful.
The publishers only allowed an ebook to be checked out a few times before the library had to purchase a license extension. The argument was that pylhysical books face wear and tear and eventually have to be replaced, so ebooks should have to be replaced too.
It's true that normal books do experience wear and tear, but looking at what my local library has I'd say that many or most can still least many years before needing to be retired or replaced.
As we're seeing with Amazon, with ebooks it's really the readers that expire over time
I find ebooks from the library to be very useful.
I'm not saying they're not, or that the librarians are any more capitalist than they were in the 90's. I'm just saying it feels like they are.
Big Library is not out to get you. They need to not piss off Big Publisher.
No no, Big Library just isn't Big enough to stick it to Big IP, so that's why it seems like it even though I know librarians are still much the same.
I know librarians are still much the same.
She may dress conservatively and act prim and proper, but behind closed doors librarians can get freaky!
Hell Yeah.
Jailbreaking and never turning airplane mode off has been the best decision I made with my kindle. Download from zlibrary, transfer to folder on kindle, done
All hail the high seas
Also… https://annas-archive.gl/
Support them with donations if possible. An outstanding resource.
second that, much more control of it
I've been using raw text files for my books, sent locally over USB, and that's the way it's gonna stay until my reader craps out
There's not really any advantage of using txt files over open standard drm-free epubs. You can still generate them yourself using txt editors or publishing software, you can still load them over USB. But epubs give you quality of life features on eReaders like title pages, table of contents, chapter headers, formatting markers like bold and italics.
My reader formats epubs really terribly, the text is almost always way too small, and requires some grotesque horizontal scrolling for most books.
On the other hand .txt just works, and handles resizing just fine
you are almost certainly doing something wrong
I really don't care. I've tried several different ways to get it to cooperate with epubs, and at a certain point it isn't worth it when I already have a viable solution.
What reader are you using?
It's a kindle D01100
An eReader's literally only job is to format, reflow, render and display ePubs. If you have one that can't do that, then it is a fancy coaster at best.
Ok? I'm still going to read books as .txt files anyways, because it does so.
can't you just load epub with calibre or another sync to? I'm pretty sure that's what I do because that's what I'm doing
IMO for personal use "drag and drop into the correct directory" is an infinitely better organisational system than tag based libraries, especially for pirated books. I'm not going to sync my books across 10 different devices since I don't need more than 1 reader, so it doesn't make any sense for me to waste time using tags, let alone fix them for every book I download.
Or just drag and drop the epub.
Yeah I strongly prefer epub for chapters and text formatting.
I've tried that in the past, but it doesn't seem to care how the epub is put on it, it always displays epubs horribly
are you doing something to convert to epub from another format? i don't have the issue you're describing when loading epub directly or when converting from mobi with calibre. the format is dynamic unlike PDF, so the font size and page width shouldn't be fixed like that. it should look and behave pretty much like kindle mobi or your text files
Nope. Raw epub to reader and it doesn't handle it.
As far as I know, it might still work with Calibre
My kindle has never been connected to the interwebs. Always used Calibre, wonderful software. About two weeks ago I used it to transfer books, worked with no problems.
This is about the Kindle Store. Calibre will continue to work, it just copies files via USB, you don't even need Calibre for that.
Can books be transfered via USB even on the 2013-era Paperwhite? I've always used the email feature in Calibre-web to send books to my Kindle (even for books I've paid for) - I didn't realise it was doable over USB!
Have a Kindle Paperwhite (1st gen). Have send over USB, through Calibre - software, never used the web one -, books and documents in various formats. Never had an issue.
Yes, it's basically just a USB drive, no special software required.
You can even plug em into your phone and transfer from there, super handy on the go.
That's the joke
The magic word is Calibre
Funny, my old kindle seems to be downloading e-books just fine from my self-hosted server.
Tell me more! My partner has an older Kindle, but it's been a while since I've added a book for her.
Nothing special. I just run a instance of jellyfin and have a my book collection shared that way.
I'm sure not the most efficient but it works.
My second-hand, old as hell, button-only kindle has never downloaded any book from Amazon since I got it. Only Calibre.
They can still be jailbroken and Calibre still exists
Got my wife a Kobo for her birthday to replace her aging Kindle. She’s bought 1 book so far and gonna look at the Library integration.
Anyone got any tips for ways to use the Kobo? For example I have Calibre on my Mac and have used that to copy books I’ve “acquired” for her, is there any benefit in self hosting Calibre? Is it possible to get her Kindle books on the Kobo or is the DRM a nightmare nowadays?
If she still has access to her Kindle account, you might be able to get the Account Key and enter that into Calibre to remove the DRM.
Is it possible to get her Kindle books on the Kobo or is the DRM a nightmare nowadays?
Calibre has a plugin for that: DeDRM
does it still work? even when I used it last you had to do some janky shit like download a specific version of kindle pc app and use that to download the book for the first time or the book would be downloaded with newer drm and stuck that way forever, and get the file from the old kindle pc app into dedrm
I haven't used it in a few years, I use a certain anonymous rodent to get my books now.
If it doesn't just download copies from libgen you've already paid once.
you can interface with calibre web via opds from eBook readers. basically you can browse and download books in your calibre server. I use koreader to do it. as for previous books she's interested in I'd just look for them in the electronic library
You got any more specific info on how to do this? I spun up my caliber web container on my home server, but once I realized you can’t download books over the wifi, you still had to connect to a PC, I stopped hosting it.
What ebook readers are capable of this magic?
koreader is an android app, for e-book readers based on android.
from what I've read it can be installed on the kobo (may need root)
here's a picture of how to set up koreader
https://wotaku.wiki/guides/manga/opds
the only thing to mind is that the opds address is not the calibre web one but <calibre address>/opds if I'm not wrong.
Also my calibre web does have a download button for the ebooks so if there is a browser on the kobo you should be able to download them. Are you using "calibre web" or "calibre" web?
Any Kobo can install KOReader with a minor firmware update (that only needs to be done once). There’s instructions here: https://github.com/koreader/koreader/wiki/Installation-on-Kobo-devicesIt supports OPDS out of the box (though IMO is a little unintuitive to use)
Thanks! I’ll check it out
Ive been converting some pdfs to epub for the kobo and that has worked great. Its not perfect but gives a better experience than pdf. Ive also put some solo card game rules on there so a deck of cards and the kobo gives another fun on the go activity.
Good job me never ever having bought any books on amazon. I go out of my way to buy them DRM free. Good old Paperwhite Gen 1 still going strong here.
Battery completely shot in it for me. I wonder if it's replaceable.
So, I cannot buy new books or download my current ones. But, I can download them without paying and then install them still over USB? OK Amazon, that clears things up fine for me.
Mine couldn't for some time now. You can't download them as files and transfer them. Amazon has become unusable for books at this point.
It's crazy to think that Amazon literally started as a book store.
Google was a search engine. Shit is crazy.
R.I.P. Irony (100,00 BCE - 2025)
Yay, enshittification
Not to mention the super abusive stance of Amazon to writers and publishers, the sooner people stop buying Kindles and giving Amazon their money, the better.
My older Kindle is jailbroken and does just fine. Jailbreak if you can, if you can't don't Kindle.
i bought one and almost didn't use it for 2 years until i was able to jailbreak it while sill being on its factory firmware. luckily the battery is fine
Yet another reason to not buy Kindle.
I've started to realize that early gen products are often less enshittified, even if they are frequently rough around the edges, and can often be hacked into a useful state unlike the newest hardware. By a few gens in, nearly everything is a giant plastic paperweight that only wants to phone home, download "updates" all the time, and probably needs multiple SSO sign ins and a subscription just to work. I'll keep my old Kindle 4th gen with KOreader until it breaks.
Kobo gang where you at?
8 year old libre still kicks kindles ass
I have an older Aura that isn't allowed library books. :/
Correction: Older kindles can no longer download e-books with the stock rom
... from Amazon. Sideloading is still fine.
I have a kindle that I've had for ages. It has been jailbroken for a while and I've been loading my own epubs onto it. They make it easy with the 1 click send to kindle stuff but that locks you in to their ecosystem.
I have a kindle keyboard (2012) and I gave up on amazon a long time ago, now I just convert-upload epubs to it using calibre and read.
More than a decade on, and it's still one of the best kindles ever made, in my opinion.
You had physical buttons instead of a fiddly touch-screen, you could have music, have it read to you, and also go on the internet.
Plus it's old enough it supports a bunch of formats, and registers as a mass storage device to a computer, so anything can use it.
I mean it is very slow, and there are much newer readers supporting open formats. Pocketbook. Even Kobo is alright.
But "Best Kindle", is any jailbroken one I guess
I don't download them on kindle anyway, it's not even connected to the Internet. Just put the files on it manually, works fine.
At least for the kindle platform, they've stopped offering a USB option a while ago, precisely to keep people from circumventing their planned obsolescence.
What a bunch of cunts jesus fucking christ
Did the firmware expire or something? How would it know to prevent USB transfers if it's the same OS as before? If you have to have it online when you're uploading or something I guess that would be the way. I've never owned a kindle so I'm not really sure. My old af nook still takes books through the micro USB slot fine.
They’ve misunderstood. They’re referring to the function where customers could download the book files directly instead of in the app, and then transfer the files to their kindle.
No misunderstanding, that's precisely what I meant and linked to.
At least with kindle books bought from amazon you have to use their own software to transfer. They stopped the old app working which could download books to your computer so now they just have to check if the kindle it is connecting to is attached to your account and on a software version they support.
Absolute cunt behavior. Glad I have an old one then.
Old or new, doesn't matter. They stopped allowing you to download books licensed ("sold") through the kindle shop in order to prevent you from putting them onto your device via cable.
...which makes "cunt behaviour" even more accurate. ;)
Sailing the seas it is then
And yet, my ancient Kobo just keeps on ticking along.
Good thing I put mine in airplane mode when I first got it and never updated firmware. I load books like its a flash drive.
If I got an old kindle; how easy is it to jailbrake it and install a better system?
I just did it for the first time yesterday with an old Kindle I had lying around. It was super easy with this website: https://kindlemodding.org/
The hands of fate are kind today.
Jokes on Amazon I already jail broke mine and can directly download books from my Calibre server to it, KOreader ftw
Joke's on them I already pirate or buy and wire all my ebooks onto my Kindle.
Any suggestions for which Kindle to get off of ebay for jailbreaking purposes, when they start showing up en masse?
why not get a kobo clara bw instead
As someone who owns a Clara bw, I can vouch. They’re good little devices.
Clara colour is also awesome if you're not reading exclusively bw. It does have slightly worse low light visibility because of the filter layers though.
Whatever e-reader you get make sure it's one that you can jailbreak to install koreader, beyond that it's just personal preferences. Do you want hardware buttons or a touchscreen? Are you happy with a lower resolution? Do you need integrated light for the display?
Why get something just to jail break it when open alternatives exist?
Pocket Book is the most "open" I believe
Kobo is good and has a store
Onyx, exists, though I couldn't tell you much - they are expensive.
Because old kindles are about to show up on ebay for like $10-20 - how much do those open alternatives cost? They'll be useless bricks to a lot of people - some will figure out how to use them in different ways, some will throw them away, and some will try to sell them for dirt cheap.
Older kindles can still have ebooks transfered directly to them via usb cable
YSK, there's a large number of older Kindles that can be jail broken.
I just ssh pirated .mobi files into mine
I got 3 kindles off eBay for the price of 1 new. 2 successfully jail broken (and 1 ready to be jail broken. Just on the fence of making another account, or gamble my main one again)
Meanwhile my eco reader i bought in 2009 is still trucking
If only my 2 Kindles had lasted more than a year...
What happens to them? I don't read enough to do much damage but mine has been fine for 4 years.
The first one stopped booting. The second one decides to reboot after 1/2 minutes and doesn't stop.
And this is why I use an android based ereader. Something as simple as displaying words on a screen shouldn't be held back by the will of any company.
Jailbreak then⚡
I bet Louiss Rossman da goat is already on the case.
There's always Google Books. You can still upload pdfs. Granted this makes Kindles useless and only works on Apple and Google, but fuck Amazom, amirite?
Does anyone else just read on their phone? I use Librera ebook reader in dark mode. The app even reads to me with tts while I'm driving.
Haven't picked up a paper book in over 10 years!