DRM workaround: Kindle for Android

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Allen20

No. How can I get the key? where? and how can I enter the key in the deDRM plugin settings? Can you guide me, please?

Read the first post of this thread. Unfortunately, we cannot give more detailed instructions here.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Allen20

No. How can I get the key? where? and how can I enter the key in the deDRM plugin settings? Can you guide me, please?

Read the entire thread starting with the first post.

[booklover2005]

Hello!

This method is definitely a bit over my head and I have gotten stumped at the installing the adb portion. I am using Bluestacks on Windows 10. The instructions tell me to enable developer mode on my Android device, so I did this in Bluestacks, which I assume is my android device?

When I get to pasting "adb backup com.amazon.kindle" in my cmd box, I receive this message:

WARNING: adb backup is deprecated and may be removed in a future release
adb: unable to connect for backup: no devices/emulators found

I can't seem to find my way from here, if anyone is able to help

[ownedbycats]

Have you a) enabled the option in the BlueStacks settings and b) used adb connect to the correct port? I ran into both those issues during my initial attempt.

[booklover2005]

I have yes! And in Bluestacks it does say the port is 5555. I did have trouble getting the port connected. I had to add a path for adb in the windows advanced settings. But I think it worked once I did that.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by booklover2005

I have yes! And in Bluestacks it does say the port is 5555. I did have trouble getting the port connected. I had to add a path for adb in the windows advanced settings. But I think it worked once I did that.

So, when you said you think it worked, does that mean your backup worked?

[booklover2005]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

So, when you said you think it worked, does that mean your backup worked?

No, the backup definitely did not work. I reached the part of the instructions where I am supposed to open the Windows PowerShell in the folder where I have the platform-tools extracted. I had trouble getting the "adb connect localhost:{5555}" working - it kept telling me: ADB : The term 'adb' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program.

I went into Advanced System Settings > Environment Variables and added the path in, and then when I went back to the PowerShell, it allowed me to but the "adb connect localhost" in, and gives me this message back: adb.exe: usage: adb connect HOST[:PORT].

But when I try to open cmd.exe and put in "adb backup com.amazon.kindle" I receive the message "WARNING: adb backup is deprecated and may be removed in a future release
* daemon not running; starting now at tcp:5037
* daemon started successfully
adb: unable to connect for backup: no devices/emulators found"

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by booklover2005

No, the backup definitely did not work. I reached the part of the instructions where I am supposed to open the Windows PowerShell in the folder where I have the platform-tools extracted. I had trouble getting the "adb connect localhost:{5555}" working - it kept telling me: ADB : The term 'adb' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program.

I went into Advanced System Settings > Environment Variables and added the path in, and then when I went back to the PowerShell, it allowed me to but the "adb connect localhost" in, and gives me this message back: adb.exe: usage: adb connect HOST[:PORT].

But when I try to open cmd.exe and put in "adb backup com.amazon.kindle" I receive the message "WARNING: adb backup is deprecated and may be removed in a future release
* daemon not running; starting now at tcp:5037
* daemon started successfully
adb: unable to connect for backup: no devices/emulators found"

Because you didn't connect. You have to follow the instructions. What you type is:

adb connect localhost:5555

It should answer with: connected to localhost.

Try again.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by booklover2005

No, the backup definitely did not work. I reached the part of the instructions where I am supposed to open the Windows PowerShell in the folder where I have the platform-tools extracted. I had trouble getting the "adb connect localhost:{5555}" working - it kept telling me: ADB : The term 'adb' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program.

PowerShell needs you to prefix the command with .\ to run a local command. When I try running adb from a admin PowerShell session, I get the following suggestion:

Suggestion [3,General]: The command adb.exe was not found, but does exist in the current location. Windows PowerShell does not load commands from the current location by default. If you trust this command, instead type: ".\adb.exe". See "get-help about_Command_Precedence" for more details.

This works with PowerShell 5.1.22621.963 or PowerShell 7.3.3.

Originally Posted by booklover2005

I went into Advanced System Settings > Environment Variables and added the path in, and then when I went back to the PowerShell, it allowed me to but the "adb connect localhost" in, and gives me this message back: adb.exe: usage: adb connect HOST[:PORT].

But when I try to open cmd.exe and put in "adb backup com.amazon.kindle" I receive the message "WARNING: adb backup is deprecated and may be removed in a future release
* daemon not running; starting now at tcp:5037
* daemon started successfully
adb: unable to connect for backup: no devices/emulators found"

Double check the port shown in Bluestacks when you enabled adb. On mine, it showed 62047 as the port. So my command line was "adb.exe connect 127.0.0.1:62047" or using PowerShell syntax, ".\adb.exe connect 127.0.0.1:62047"

[booklover2005]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Because you didn't connect. You have to follow the instructions. What you type is:

adb connect localhost:5555

It should answer with: connected to localhost.

Try again.

I am following the instructions to the best of my ability. This is not something I am super experienced with. Thank you for your help. It's still not working and is telling me "cannot connect to 127.0.0.1:5555: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it. (10061)"
I think I'm out of luck based on my knowledge level but I will try tinkering some more

[booklover2005]

Originally Posted by DNSB

PowerShell needs you to prefix the command with .\ to run a local command. When I try running adb from a admin PowerShell session, I get the following suggestion:



This works with PowerShell 5.1.22621.963 or PowerShell 7.3.3.



Double check the port shown in Bluestacks when you enabled adb. On mine, it showed 62047 as the port. So my command line was "adb.exe connect 127.0.0.1:62047" or using PowerShell syntax, ".\adb.exe connect 127.0.0.1:62047"

Hi there, thank you SO much! I got it to work with ".\adb.exe connect 127.0.0.1:5555"

I really appreciate the help.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by booklover2005

I am following the instructions to the best of my ability. This is not something I am super experienced with. Thank you for your help. It's still not working and is telling me "cannot connect to 127.0.0.1:5555: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it. (10061)"
I think I'm out of luck based on my knowledge level but I will try tinkering some more

I didn't mean the instruction in post#1, or a readme file, but the output of the failure of adb. If it tells you to use a certain syntax, it means you mistyped something. Looks like your issue was with powershell, though. While it may have advantages, sometimes regular command prompt works a little easier.

Good that you figured it out, even if it wasn't through my help, but DNSB's.

[booklover2005]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

I didn't mean the instruction in post#1, or a readme file, but the output of the failure of adb. If it tells you to use a certain syntax, it means you mistyped something. Looks like your issue was with powershell, though. While it may have advantages, sometimes regular command prompt works a little easier.

Good that you figured it out, even if it wasn't through my help, but DNSB's.

Ah thank you, my misunderstanding. Even when I did try the /.adb connect localhost:5555 it still wouldn't work. Powershell definitely wanted something specific that I couldn't find even with googling!

[Birdland]

Thank you so much for providing this workaround! Took a fair bit of trial and error, but in the end I was successfully able to get books that were no longer available in my Kindle for PC installation out of Bluestacks, and I also got the high-resolution images working. When I first saw that error in 1.17 I feared it might be the end of the line, but I'm thankful we have this method, at least for the time being!

For those who run into trouble with getting an empty 47 byte backup, what seemed to do the trick for me was just opening the Kindle app before attempting the backup. If I did it from a cold boot of BlueStacks with the app closed, the backup would be empty, but after opening the app the backup went fine. Go figure!

Oh, and this isn't related to this particular workaround, but one of the first roadblocks I hit was being stuck with the regular Amazon.com login when I needed to use an account from a different region. I was used to Kindle for PC where there's a drop-down menu that allows you to select the desired Amazon store, but the Android app (or this old version, at least) doesn't give you that choice. In this case, changing your BlueStacks language seems to do the trick: click the 'Settings' cog towards the bottom of the right panel, then Preferences -> Language (you may need to force quit the app after changing). By contrast, using a VPN (which was my first instinct) did NOT seem to have an effect. Not sure what you would do if you needed (for instance) an Amazon UK account, since the only English option is for the US.

[Shykat]

My poor feeble brain is extremely confused. I have Kindle 1.17 on my PC as well as Calibre and have been able to de-drm books from my Kindle but now have read that, as of 1/3/23, I won't be able to de-drm them but found this thread.

I prefer to read my ebooks in a different program on my phone instead of using the Kindle app which is why I have been very happy with the old set up until it now looks like Amazon has changed things yet again.

What I'm wondering is it would be possible to download and install the old version of Kindle for Android onto my Android Tablet and use it to download the ebooks I want. Email the book file, which I'm assuming is a .prc file (if not, please correct me) from my table to my desktop. Then run that file through Calibre and get my preferred .epub file that I can then read on my phone.

Is it easy to find the needed Kindle for Android key while on my tablet or do I need to do all the steps I read where you have to make a backup file to find the key??

If that is all possible, #1, where do I find the key in the Android version and #2, what directory does the Android version download files into.

And Thank you!