This entire process probably only took 10-15 minutes, and now I have much more control over my Kindle experience. Give it a try!
https://kindlemodding.org/jailbreaking/post-jailbreak/koreader.html
I encourage you to follow the step-by-step guide from the Kindle Modding Wiki, which will have all the up-to-date information and files.b
Are you tired of renting digital books from tech giants who change the rules whenever they like? Building a personal library takes some effort, but owning your files feels right. Here are the best websites where you can buy modern DRM-free ebooks and keep them on your drive.
- https://www.smashwords.com/
- https://www.ebooks.com/
- https://www.humblebundle.com/books
- https://uk.bookshop.org/
- https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/books
- https://www.baen.com/
- https://leanpub.com/
- https://storybundle.com/
- https://nostarch.com/
- https://www.versobooks.com/
- https://www.sevenstories.com/
- https://weightlessbooks.com/
- https://belial.fr/
- https://www.7switch.com/
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Once jailbroken, I installed the Kindle Unified Application Launcher (KUAL) software that lets me launch custom applications, and installed the KOReader document viewer and eBook reader app. This app is far more capable than the standard Kindle app, especially when it comes to handling PDF files.
I wanted to see if I could get the Kindle to display a Home Assistant dashboard and discovered the hass-lovelace-kindle-screensaver add-on. It's a simple but effective tool that takes regular screenshots of your Home Assistant dashboard, converts the screenshots to a grayscale format for the Kindle, and serves the images over Wi-Fi for the Kindle to fetch.
https://www.howtogeek.com/your-kindle-isnt-just-for-booksheres-5-extra-features-you-can-try-today/
https://www.howtogeek.com/i-switched-to-home-assistants-new-dashboard-and-its-now-my-favorite-hub/
Turning a Kindle into a portable monitor isn't something you can do with the standard firmware. Amazon locks its software down so you can't just throw some code onto your Kindle and get it to display whatever you want.
The good news is that plenty of people far smarter than I am have figured out how to jailbreak many Kindle devices. I'd already done this to my Kindle and installed the KUAL app launcher that lets me install and run custom apps such as KOReader. Using the USBNetwork software, I was able to connect my Kindle to my computer over USB and SSH into it as if it were a network device.
https://www.howtogeek.com/how-to-jailbreak-a-kindle-ereader/
With my Kindle jailbroken, I was able to set up a method of getting the Kindle to display a mirror of my Mac desktop. This works by running a shell script on my Mac that takes a screenshot of my desktop every half a second. This is passed through ImageMagick, an open-source image processing tool that converts the image to grayscale and resizes it to the correct resolution for the Kindle's screen.
This image is then made available as a JPEG over my home network using Python's lightweight web server. Another shell script running on the Kindle fetches the JPEG over Wi-Fi using Wget, a common tool for downloading files. The JPEG is then displayed on the Kindle screen, and the process repeats, producing a near-live mirror of my Mac desktop running at around one frame per second.
The result was better than I was expecting.
“Affected devices include Kindle 1st and 2nd Generation, Kindle DX and DX Graphite, Kindle Keyboard, Kindle 4, Kindle Touch, Kindle 5, and Kindle Paperwhite 1st Generation,” reads the message from the Kindle team. Older 2011 and 2012-era Kindle Fire tablets will also lose access to the Kindle Store.
Amazon’s Kindle generational branding is occasionally confusing—that “Kindle Paperwhite 1st Generation” is also referred to as “Kindle Paperwhite (5th Generation)” on Amazon’s support pages because it’s part of the fifth generation of Kindle releases overall. But if you check your Kindle’s software version and see anything older than 5.12.2.2, it means your Kindle is losing access to Amazon’s store and your e-book library.
It’s been a while since any of these devices received active software support from Amazon; only 2024-and-later devices have received the latest 5.19.3.0.1 software update, though 2021 and 2022’s Kindles have been updated as recently as February. Historically, though, Amazon has been willing to allow older, un-updated Kindles to continue to buy and download more books, even if they’re no longer benefitting from new features.
Amazon has just changed the encryption used for Kindle books on older e-readers without a software update. Any Kindle with software 5.18.5 or higher is now downloading new e-books using the KFX-ZIP format, which is not compatible with the encryption broken by 3rd-party tools for popular software such as Calibre and the DeDRM plugin.
Prior e-books using old Kindle software were downloaded as KFX files, which were easily backed up to a user’s computer via USB cable, and then had their encryption broken to load the books on other devices or to create a local backup of prior purchases.
The new KFX-Zip files are available on Kindle e-readers from the 7th generation through the 11th generation. Prior Kindles from the 6th generation and below do not yet download e-books using the new book encryption, but it remains to be seen whether Amazon will issue a mandatory software update to plug the loophole that could break digital rights management.
I’ve found myself wanting a less intrusive channel for ambient data. Something I can glance at in passing, without giving my full attention or opening myself up to whatever other interruptions my phone might have in store. It should be easy to check, but just as easy to ignore.
This is the device I landed on: a wifi-connected Kindle 4, mounted on the wall in a simple laser-cut acrylic frame. Once a minute, it loads a screenshot of a web page I built that shows a few different kinds of data I want easy access to: calendar events, weather, the status of packages I’ve ordered, etc.
No matter whether you are a developer, admirer, or just a gadget-crazed passerby; if you love reading eBooks and tinkering with mobile technology, you came to the right place. This Wiki is a knowledge base created by users of the MobileRead community.
To confirm which Kindle model you have, we'll use the serial number of your device. Note that in the following table, only the bolded segment matters!
- Connect the Kindle Paperwhite to a computer USB-cable.
- Create an empty file in the root directory DO_FACTORY_RESTORE (This need to be just a file without any extension). Follow steps below to show and remove an extension, if it is hidden
- In Windows Explorer, choose Tools > Folder Options.
- Click the View tab in the Folder Options dialog box.
- In Advanced Settings, select Show Hidden Files and Folders.
- Deselect Hide Extensions for Known File Types.
- Click OK.
- Safely disconnect the reader from your computer. Do this by selecting USB in your taskbar and clicking Kindle under "Safely remove the device". You can keep it connected physically if you want.
- Reboot your device by holding the power button (about 40 seconds).
It will take you thru setup steps and re-register as you would have done the first time.
In accordance with certain free and open source software licenses, Amazon is pleased to make available to you for download an archive file of machine readable source code ("Source Code").
Once you know your kindle Serial Number, you can check data in the table below to see what Kindle or kindle generation you have according to the prefix of Kindle Serial Number.
Review distinguishing features to help determine which device you have.
Haven't used or updated your Kindle device for a while? Depending on your device and current software update version, you may have to install a previous software update before installing the latest version.
Software updates automatically download and install on your Kindle when connected wirelessly. These free software updates include general improvements and performance enhancements.
Before You Start
Be sure to download software updates onto a desktop computer in order to install them onto your device. For more information, visit Manually Update Your Kindle E-Reader Software.
Note: Determine what Kindle E-Reader model you're using before downloading any software updates. Refer to Identify Your Kindle E-Reader.
Create account to get instant access
to all benefits of the Clipping Manager
- Upload "My Clippings.txt" file from your Kindle
- Edit your highlights
- Add personal notes
- Mark your favorite clippings
- Export your highlights into various formats
Originally Posted by Hollow Man
Does amazon also delete azw3 files? I only know of it happening with kfx/azw8 since I experienced it.
There have been reports of azw3/KF8, KFX and mobi files being deleted. All that seems to be required is for the book to contain an ASIN matching an Amazon book that you don't own/have a loan of an Amazon copy and to keep your Kindle from connecting to Amazon for a long period.
In my testing, since I use the ISBN and ASIN for downloading metadata, my calibre generated Amazon format books had an ASIN. Since most of the books were sourced from Kobo, StandardEbooks, etc. in ePub format, I did not own an Amazon copy. When I took my Paperwhite 4 out of airplane mode after 5 or 6 weeks, most of the ebooks I had sideloaded vanished (according to the log files, they were deleted). Not a big deal to me since I only use the PW4 for testing ebooks I am formatting but for others where their Kindle is their prime ereader, an extremely annoying action. //
Yes, Amazon keeps track of which Amazon-sourced books are supposed to be present on each of your Kindle devices and will in some circumstances remove any unexpected copies. //
I see there is some theory that not having an ASIN may help with stuff not being deleted? Not my experience. Some of my sideloaded stuff was fanfic from archiveofourown and so of course, no asin or isbn, etc. and it was still deleted.
I haven't tried the personal doc type vs ebook, but will give that a try. But I think I also saw that I need to send to device from calibre as kfx instead of azw3 for that? Is that right?
I had been keeping my kindle with wifi off but at the end of Nov. I took advantage of the $0.99 for 3 months offer of KU and so of course, wifi came on. Then my previously sideloaded books disappeared...
Is there anything else that came up over the 51 pages of posts that I should know about?
I may just keep my oasis in airplane mode and bring my k4bnt back out for KU only. //
You cannot change the type from EBOK to PDOC if you convert to AZW3. So yes, you'd need either to convert to KFX, use Send to Kindle, or keep your Oasis always offline.
This is CLI tool for day-to-day synchronization of kindle books between local directory and directory on device over the wire - using either MTP or old USBMS mount or by using Amazon e-mail delivery.
It was created to support day-to-day side loading usage scenario (based on my multi-year experience owning various Kindle devices):
I have one or more local directories containing books in Kindle-supported formats, possibly organized into subdirectories by authors or genres for easier navigation. I would like to run a single command (not a tool with a UI or additional complexity) from the terminal or console to send these books to my device, while preserving the original directory structure. If there are any additional format specific actions possible (like copying generated page indexes or extracting and copying thumbnails for books) they should be performed transparenly.
Later, I may add new books to the local directories. At the same time, as I finish reading books on the device, they may be removed there. When I run the tool again, I want these changes to be synchronized bidirectionally: new or updated books should be sent to the device, and completed (and deleted) books should be removed locally.
The tool should maintain a history of actions performed. If a book is added to the device outside this process, it should be ignored by the tool and left untouched. Similarly, any additional directories or files created by the device (e.g., Kindle-generated files) should not be affected.
To cut a long story short, the rumor says Amazon nukes all sideloaded books marked as EBOK because they weren't technically bought on the Kindle Store.
The proposed solution is to mark them as PDOC as Calibre still tags all sideloaded books as EBOK and it still doesn't offer an easy way to change the tag, we are going to hack an existing plugin.
If you're using KFX or MOBI, skip these steps.
But if you want to use AZW3, read the following instructions: