Amazon to block 2012 and older Kindles from buying books

[IanH755]

Hi All,

As an avid reader with minimal storage space, I've been using various ebook readers since the mid 2000s until I got my first Kindle which hit the perfect combination of size, battery life and reliability, which is why I find it a shame that I woke-up to an email from Amazon today saying they've decided to block all 2012 and older Kindle devices (list below) from being able to "purchase, borrow, or download new content via the Kindle Store".

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-techn...

https://www.theverge.com/tech/908302/amazon-ending...

https://uk.pcmag.com/ebook-readers/164284/got-a-ki...

https://www.techradar.com/tablets/ereaders/own-a-k...

This is the list of effected devices -

Kindle 1st Generation (2007)
Kindle DX and DX Graphite (2009 and 2010)
Kindle Keyboard (2010)
Kindle 4 (2011)
Kindle Touch (2011)
Kindle 5 (2012)
Kindle Paperwhite 1st Generation (2012)
Kindle Fire 1st Gen (2011)
Kindle Fire 2nd Gen (2012)
Kindle Fire HD 7 (2012)
Kindle Fire HD 8.9 (2012)

If you want to find out if you're effected you can looking in your Amazon account under "Manage Your Content and Devices" and picking your Kindle from the list. I'm juuuuuust scraping by with an April 2013 5th Gen Paperwhite but the cards are clearly marked for our devices.

My biggest concern is that there's no realistic reason for this in the e-mail, with nothing said about security or incompatibility etc, and as these devices are perfectly working, it feels like (to me at least rightly or wrongly) Amazon have decided "Kindles last too long so we'll need to force people into buying new ones instead, because now we've got them hooked into our ecosphere they'll not buy a competitor and start again" which feels pretty scummy (if correct).

For me with my 5th Gen Paperwhite and over 550 books, I've never once even dreamed about "side loading" new books onto the device (using the USB to connect to a PC and dragging book over) as the Book Store was (and still is TBF) perfect for me, but now I feel on "notice" that their coming for my device next, and I don't want to be forced into spending more money to replace a perfectly working device with one that is littered with adverts or costs even more again to block them.

I guess the "enstification" of modern life continues!

[simon_harris]

My wife and I have been hit with the same, the additional annoyance for me is that I just upgraded her battery as it was finally starting to show signs of its age. I generally only used my paperwhite on holiday for reading in the sun as at home I use my ipad. This for me is a disincentive to buy another Amazon product or even to continue to buy kindle ebooks and will now actively seek "alternative" methods of getting the ebooks and buying paper copies from elsewhere to ensure the author gets revenue.

[Granadier]

This is one reason why I've never been particularly enthusiastic about e-readers. There's always the possibility (likelihood, even!) that the company will shut down access to your device at some point in the future, whereas I know that I will still be able to read a paperback on my bookshelf in 20 or 40 years' time.

[Skyedriver]

My FiL had a Kindle that we bought him. He recently died and my wife currently has it. Can't recall when we bought it or which version it is but at the time I loaded about 100 "Classics" onto it. Dickens, Trollope etc etc .

[Harpoon]

I've got a Kindle Keyboard dating back to June 2011. Battery life has degraded, so a week's holiday with the odd lazy / pool day will means packing a micro-USB cable for recharge but otherwise it's fine. I bought it for similar reasons to the OP. I was using most of my hand luggage allowance on books and whilst I'd like a library at home, there's only so many physical books you can find space for. Having just looked, I've got 301 on my Kindle.

The path of least resistance is just to suck it up and get a new Kindle but I'm annoyed enough to investigate options. I've seen a reference to Boox and using the Kindle app on that, though the Oynx Boox Go 6 is £250 on Amazon.

Mrs Harpoon's slightly newer Kindle is also inline to get bricked but the simplicity of buying ebooks from Amazon will probably win for her (especially as I'd have to do any conversion or side-loading stuff!).

[TomTheTyke]

Granadier said:

This is one reason why I've never been particularly enthusiastic about e-readers. There's always the possibility (likelihood, even!) that the company will shut down access to your device at some point in the future, whereas I know that I will still be able to read a paperback on my bookshelf in 20 or 40 years' time.

It’s this for me too, but I suspect on a thread of e-reader users we’ll be struggling for company.

[simon_harris]

TomTheTyke said:

Granadier said:

This is one reason why I've never been particularly enthusiastic about e-readers. There's always the possibility (likelihood, even!) that the company will shut down access to your device at some point in the future, whereas I know that I will still be able to read a paperback on my bookshelf in 20 or 40 years' time.

It s this for me too, but I suspect on a thread of e-reader users we ll be struggling for company.

I greatly prefer reading a real book, but as someone said earlier in the thread the convenience of an e-reader is just too much to ignore, I used to have to take a separate mini suitcase on holidays just for my books, and then while traveling around the country by train for work it was always easier to have an e-reader.

my ideal ( and wholly unrealistic) ideal is that I buy a paper book and get a digital version for free (or a small surcharge) to download to the e-reader of my choice.

[Plymo]

Luckily it's actually very easy to deal with:
(I have an early kindle that's been "blocked" from the Amazon stuff for years because of an account issue)

- If you plug it into a laptop with a USB cable you can just copy book files in various formats straight onto it - think USB stick (if they are DRM free, more on this later)


The simplest way to get your purchased kindle books onto a blocked kindle is:
- Have the kindle program on your laptop
- Download all your books onto it
- The files will be saved on your hard drive then, but you can only read them with the kindle program, when signed into your account, because of the DRM
- Use Calibre (or deDRM, there's others too) to remove the DRM restrictions
- Drag and drop into your Kindle via USB.

No idea if it's officially "legal" but after all you have paid for the books. And they chose to remove the option for you to use the device they sold you as it was intended...

[jimmyjimjim]

There's a new kindle app due out shortly. Primarily to prevent this.

[Sheepshanks]

simon_harris said:

My wife and I have been hit with the same, the additional annoyance for me is that I just upgraded her battery as it was finally starting to show signs of its age. I generally only used my paperwhite on holiday for reading in the sun as at home I use my ipad. This for me is a disincentive to buy another Amazon product or even to continue to buy kindle ebooks and will now actively seek "alternative" methods of getting the ebooks and buying paper copies from elsewhere to ensure the author gets revenue.

I suppose same thing happens to iPads, but at a much younger age, when they cease to be able to get the latest iOS.

[Flip Martian]

Granadier said:

This is one reason why I've never been particularly enthusiastic about e-readers. There's always the possibility (likelihood, even!) that the company will shut down access to your device at some point in the future, whereas I know that I will still be able to read a paperback on my bookshelf in 20 or 40 years' time.

There are plenty of e-ink notepads and such that will load e-books. Some have access to e-book stores via Android apps, or you just access e-book stores via another device (not always, just in some cases) and then transfer them to the e-ink device. An extra step that some people don't want, granted, but it does mean your books are yours, free to read on any device you choose, not subject to Amazon's whims (and it is mainly Amazon).

Then again, I had Sony readers before Kindle came along so I prefer the freedom of putting on what I want and reorganising them how I want - what Amazon got right was that most people want the whole book browsing/buying/reading process as simple as possible. But allowing you to "buy" a book for your device and then remove it without refund really shouldn't be allowed. People think they buy to own, when they do not.

Plenty of YT videos for "Kindle alternatives" that are worth checking out.

I also prefer paper books to e-books btw but for holidays e-books make more sense for me now. I also put the manuals for my camera and other things on my e-ink device, so no more hunting in drawers looking for the manual for anything.

[cb31]

I switched away from kindles to Kobo e-readers. Massive advantage for me is they support overdrive so you can connect it to your local or county library and borrow books for free which was a game changer, I can't remember the last e-book I bought.

The only issue with Kobo is they don't have much range. I had a Kobo Forma which was perfect, absolutely loved everything about it apart from the micro-usb port due to its age. Unfortunately the charging port got damaged and their current options just don't seem as good to me. I ended up buying a colour Clara which is fine but in hindsight I think I prefer the black and white ones as they are more clear. I don't want to draw on it or read comics, just a basic reader like the old Forma.