On February 26th, Kindle customers will lose the ability to download eBook purchases directly to their PC. If you want to switch to a rival eReader brand in the future, I suggest that you use the soon-to-be discontinued “Download and Transfer via USB” feature to archive your Kindle library.
The “Download & Transfer via USB” feature predates Wi-Fi Kindles. It initially served as an alternative to Kindle’s cellular downloads feature—if you didn’t have cellular service, you could just download the books to your PC from a web browser, plug a USB cable into your Kindle, and drag-and-drop the eBooks into your Kindle’s file system.
Amazon hasn’t explained why it’s getting rid of this functionality. However, I suspect that the company is trying to keep longtime customers locked into the Kindle platform. Competing eReader brands likeKoboandBOOXhave exploded in popularity over the last few years, and althoughsomeof these rival platforms support the Kindle app, there are a lot of peoplewho hate the Kindle app. Longtime Kindle customers who make the switch to a rival brand often use Amazon’s legacy “Download & Transfer via USB” feature to grab their old Kindle purchases,strip away the DRM, and convert the files to an open format like EPUB. That way, they can open the books in whatever reader app they like.
This move may also force some old-school Kindle users to upgrade their hardware, as book downloads will now require a Kindle with Wi-Fi connectivity. Though, admittedly, every Kindle model introduced after 2011 supports Wi-Fi, and I don’t think we have too many Kindle DX users in the audience.
Of course, I’m obliged to mention piracy. The “Download & Transfer via USB” feature makes it easy to remove DRM from Kindle eBooks, and if you want to illegally distribute copyrighted content, you gotta remove the DRM first. Realistically, 99% of people who remove the DRM from their Kindle purchases are doing it for personal use,which is legal in most jurisdictions. But as book publishers and authors grow more vocal about piracy (and as billion-dollar companies like Meta inflame the problem bypirating books to train AI) Amazon may feel pressured to lock things down.
I honestly doubt that the death of “Download & Transfer via USB” will have any real impact on piracy. It will primarily affect people who are trying to switch from Kindle to a rival platform. The irony is that affected customers may use piracy to rebuild their digital library after switching to a different brand of eReader, as Amazon is making it much harder to download and modify old eBook purchases in a legal manner.
We reached out to Amazon for additional information, but the company didn’t have much to say. The new policy is pretty cut and dry. “Starting February 26, customers will no longer be able to download books onto their Kindle using the Download & Transfer via USB feature. Customers can continue reading books previously downloaded on their Kindle device, and access new content through the Kindle app, Kindle for web, as well as directly through Kindle devices with WiFi capability.”
If you want to download old Kindle eBook purchases to your PC or Mac, simply visit theManage Your Content and Devicespage on Amazon, press the “More Actions” button next to an eBook, and select “Download & Transfer via USB.” This feature will stop working on February 26th, so do it while you still can.
