Thread: Amazon removed books from my Kindle
View Single Post
Old 06-25-2022, 08:00 PM   #34
haertig
Wizard
haertig ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.haertig ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.haertig ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.haertig ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.haertig ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.haertig ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.haertig ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.haertig ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.haertig ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.haertig ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.haertig ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 1,754
Karma: 26012554
Join Date: Sep 2017
Device: PW3, Fire HD8 Gen7, Moto G7, Sansa Clip v2, Ruizu X26
Quote:
Originally Posted by jhowell View Post
Amazon will delete books you have sideloaded via USB in some very specific cases. I just did this test that demonstrates one situation.
  • Put Kindle into airplane mode.
  • Borrow a book using Kindle Unlimited.
  • Use Download & Transfer via USB on amazon.com to obtain a copy of the book.
  • Return book to Kindle Unlimited using amazon.com.
  • Side load the book to Kindle via USB.
  • Open the book on the Kindle and verify it is readable.
  • Take Kindle out of airplane mode.
  • Wait a few seconds for Kindle to sync.
  • Book disappears from library view. Connecting via USB shows that the sideloaded file was deleted.
It would be interesting to expand on this test. Add a step in the middle where you RENAME the book before turning off airplane mode in the end. If it still gets deleted then it's something inside the file. Next, run the book through Calibre and strip the DRM before side loading it onto the Kindle. Does it still get deleted? Next up would be to strip the DRM and have Calibre convert it from AZW3 to a second copy of AZW3. If you side load the second copy, does it get deleted? Next, repeat this Calibre conversion, but convert from AZW3 to EPUB as an intermediary, then from EPUB to a second AZW3 copy.

If we find out that Amazon is triggering on the filename for deletion, it would be interesting to see if instead of putting the actual downloaded file on the Paperwhite as bait, you put a totally different eBook on there that has been renamed to match the original file. Will Amazon blindly delete any file with the same name as the one you downloaded? This might be a problem if you downloaded a book named, say, "Redemption". There must be a bazillion books with this same name. Would Amazon claim ownership of one of those and delete it simply because it has the same file name?

It would be interesting to find out just what Amazon is looking for to trigger on when they delete a book. This would be handy information to tuck away in the back of your brain in case Amazon starts going rogue (like they are doing in China - shutting down there). I won't be trying this myself because my Paperwhite is permanently in Airplane Mode. I don't plan on ever taking it out of this mode. Mostly because I don't want to have some software update forced upon it that I may not like, since you can't rollback firmware.
haertig is offline   Reply With Quote