Amazon removed books from my Kindle

[haertig]

Originally Posted by DNSB

If and only if they can prove that I did not legitimately obtain the ebook from another source, could such removal be possibly justified.

Only if one is OK with vigilantism. Amazon is not empowered to correct people's behavior, even if such behavior is indeed wrong. Plus, Amazon has no idea where any given book on your Kindle came from (except if you bought it from them of course).

[slm]

For what (very little) it may be worth as data: I have four active Kindles, wi-fi is on on all of them all the time, all of them have lots of side-loaded books. No books have ever been deleted by Amazon, that I know of.

Some get ignored (and quite drained for months at a time).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by slm

For what (very little) it may be worth as data: I have four active Kindles, wi-fi is on on all of them all the time, all of them have lots of side-loaded books. No books have ever been deleted by Amazon, that I know of.

Some get ignored (and quite drained for months at a time).

From what's been said and it may be correct, that you'll be OK as long as you keep WiFi on often enough.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

you'll be OK as long as you keep WiFi on often enough

Of if you keep it off permanently. Choose which way works best for you.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by haertig

Of if you keep it off permanently. Choose which way works best for you.

I do normally keep WiFI off on my PW3. But I'm interested in investigating this Amazon side-load removal.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I do normally keep WiFI off on my PW3. But I'm interested in investigating this Amazon side-load removal.

Agreed. I wasn't really intending to address that specifically to you, but it probably looked that way.

I am interested in the Amazon removals too. Not necessarily because they affect me currently. More for future knowledge. Like when I finally have to replace my Kindle, do I replace it with another Kindle or move on to a different brand? What this removal issue turns out to be could well affect that future decision. A vendors past performance is a significant consideration when deciding to use them in the future or not - at least for me. My usage patterns and precautions I have currently taken protect me from Amazon deletions from my existing Kindle, so "currently" I am good. I am just learning for the future now.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by haertig

I am interested in the Amazon removals too. Not necessarily because they affect me currently. More for future knowledge. Like when I finally have to replace my Kindle, do I replace it with another Kindle or move on to a different brand? What this removal issue turns out to be could well affect that future decision. A vendors past performance is a significant consideration when deciding to use them in the future or not - at least for me. My usage patterns and precautions I have currently taken protect me from Amazon deletions from my existing Kindle, so "currently" I am good. I am just learning for the future now.

Yeah. If Amazon gets any unfriendlier toward sideloaded content, I'll be pretty unlikely to ever buy a Kindle again. As things stand now, I might get one only if they release some spectacular hardware in the future; but not if Calibre transfers continue to be buggy. No, I don't want to use Send-to-Kindle.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

but not if Calibre transfers continue to be buggy. No, I don't want to use Send-to-Kindle.

Every Calibre transfer to my Kindle PW3 has been perfect. Never a problem. What is the issue here? I've not run into it and have not heard anything about it.

I don't use "Send-to-Kindle" either. I consider that to be "Send-personal-info-to-Amazon-for-marketing-and-tracking" and "allow-Amazon-access-to-your-Kindle-for-their-purposes" primarily, with the secondary side-effect of "getting-a-book-onto-your-Kindle". Currently this is just my unproven opinion/theory of what they may be doing. But as soon as Amazon disables side loading (if they ever do) they will have revealed their motive with no uncertainty. Since I don't know what they are doing for sure, I just preemptively avoid any unethical possibilities, by not using Send-to-Kindle. I don't need it. Calibre side loading is easier, faster, safer and more feature-rich.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by haertig

Every Calibre transfer to my Kindle PW3 has been perfect. Never a problem. What is the issue here? I've not run into it and have not heard anything about it.

Before it was vanishing covers; now it's the content itself that vanishes. Yes, both of them only disappear if you turn on wifi (which I did very seldom), but still, inability to ever use wifi on your ereader because something might disappear is certainly a bug IMO.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Before it was vanishing covers; now it's the content itself that vanishes.

Oh. You're talking about the current vanishing content thing. I don't think that's Calibre. I think that's Amazon.

As far as vanishing covers, I have my Kindle set for "list view" or whatever they call it. No covers displayed. I don't need them. Especially since I typically have only half a dozen books loaded onto my Kindle at a time. All's I care to see is the title. And even then, I rarely see that except when I'm picking the next book to read. Once I have started a book, my Kindle just goes back to the last page I was reading when I turn the screen on. When I'm reading, the only parts of the Kindle interface I use often are "next page", "bookmark set", and "illumination on or off". Occasionally I'll highlight a word I don't know and look it up in the built-in dictionary. Rarely, I will do a backwards search for a description of the character who's name that I have forgotten. I don't ask much of my Kindle. Just basic reading is all I really care about.

[arturg]

I use Calibre to archive and keep my database as a master but then use send-to-kindle to actually transfer my books to my Kindle. I'm done with side loading and cables and the need for a computer in order to do so.

As to sending personal documents to Amazon, I don't know what kind of documents you people are reading but mine are strictly fiction best-seller books and I could care less if Amazon knows what I'm reading or not so that is why I am OK with send-to-kindle service.

Like a year ago or something like that, send-to-kindle had awful epub to Kindle conversion with send-to-kindle but it seems they have done some work now and my books look really good, just as good as with Calibre conversion. Earlier I was stuck with side loading but now I just can't imagine going back to playing around with cables and laptops in order to transfer book to my Kindle or any e-reader for that matter.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by haertig

Oh. You're talking about the current vanishing content thing. I don't think that's Calibre. I think that's Amazon.

Of course. I never said it was a Calibre bug; I said that Calibre transfer was buggy (which it is, although bugs were introduced by Amazon, not Calibre).

Originally Posted by arturg

I use Calibre to archive and keep my database as a master but then use send-to-kindle to actually transfer my books to my Kindle. I'm done with side loading and cables and the need for a computer in order to do so.

As to sending personal documents to Amazon, I don't know what kind of documents you people are reading but mine are strictly fiction best-seller books and I could care less if Amazon knows what I'm reading or not so that is why I am OK with send-to-kindle service.

Like a year ago or something like that, send-to-kindle had awful epub to Kindle conversion with send-to-kindle but it seems they have done some work now and my books look really good, just as good as with Calibre conversion. Earlier I was stuck with side loading but now I just can't imagine going back to playing around with cables and laptops in order to transfer book to my Kindle or any e-reader for that matter.

Send to Kindle is ok if you usually sideload only a few books at once. In my case, I usually sideload 50-100 in one batch (yes, I buy a lot) and that's when send-to-kindle gets buggy. Some books will be rejected, some will refuse to download, it all takes a lot of time, collections are a mess and so on. With USB transferring 50-100 or more books is a lot faster. Plus, Calibre sorts my books into series and collections automatically on my Kobo, no manual work involved. I usually have several thousand books on my ereaders, so collections and correct metadata (including series) are nice to have.

Kindles are fine if you sideload relatively few books and don't keep that many on your device overall. I used Kindles for years; but I always found Send to Kindle a PITA with the amount of sideloading I did, and much prefer Calibre integration Kobos have.

[Kindleing]

I have an old Paperwhite 2 that has had the wifi off for years. Some of the books on it were transferred from Calibre and some were put on before I started using Calibre. Since I don't use it much any more I thought I would turn on wifi, sync and see what happens. Currently the time is only 3 minutes slow, but that has to be because of the difference in Daylight Savings Time; it has been several years since wifi was on. I did notice the PW2 can have the time set manually.

The firmware on the device is 5.12.2 and I see the latest for this device is 5.12.2.2. I guess turning on wifi will update to this version. Before I do that, is their a downside to updating to that version? I wouldn't think there would be much difference, but I thought I would ask first.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by haertig

As far as vanishing covers, I have my Kindle set for "list view" or whatever they call it. No covers displayed. I don't need them.

You've got a surprise coming if you ever update your firmware or get a new kindle. Mini-thumbnails have made their way into list view resulting in yet another reduction of number of books per screen. (Your half dozen will still fit on a single screen. For now.)

[jlinear]

FYI - I just realized my ASUS WiFi router has a Wireless MAC filter that allows you to reject a connection based on your device's MAC address (found in Setting, Device Info). I rejected at both 2.4GHz and 5GHz and my Paperwhite cannot connect to WiFi. With Airplane mode turned off I get just a "_" instead of the usual WiFi connect symbol. Seems to work.