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Amazon is ending the ability to download e-books
Amazon will end the ability to download purchased e-books from their website to your computer on February 26th.
This is a feature that many Kindle users probably don't even know exists, as downloading over Wi-Fi is much more popular, but it's especially useful for backing up purchased books or converting them to other formats for other readers that don't support Amazon's e-book format by default.
The feature is undoubtedly useful, so Amazon can't use the excuse that no one uses it. It's useful if you don't have access to Wi-Fi, for example. And while the process is time-consuming, as you can only download purchased books one at a time, you can rest easy knowing that you have copies of all your books saved and don't have to rely on an internet connection that isn't always available (like on a plane).
Keeping local copies is also important because Amazon has removed e-books from its stores and has also remotely deleted them from Kindle readers on several occasions in the past. In 2009, Amazon removed copies of George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm.
The reason given was that the books were published in error. Recently, a number of Roald Dahl books, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, were replaced with updated copies with altered language on various e-book platforms. This is a reminder that most of the digital content you use is not yours, and without the ability to back up your e-books, you could lose them completely if they are banned and removed.
Older Kindle models store books in the AZW3 format. Newer Kindles use the KFX format (first introduced in 2015), which allows for improved font rendering, better layout options, and DRM protection that is much harder to circumvent.
You'll be notified of the changed policy the next time you try to download an e-book from Amazon's library. As of the end of February, you'll no longer be able to copy books to your computer, but you'll still be able to manually copy e-books and other documents to your Kindle, but only through the Amazon app or with a dedicated program like Calibre.
