Here’s something that’s going to set off some conspiracy theories. As people are getting the new Kindles that were released last week, they are finding out that the new models are mysteriously missing the download and transfer via USB option for purchased ebooks from the content page at Amazon.
So now people are jumping to the conclusion that Amazon is in the process of phasing out the download and transfer option entirely moving forward, and that might very well be the case.
Considering the new Kindles were just released four days ago, it could also just be a glitch or a bug that needs to be fixed. But there are some signs that they were intentionally omitted from the download and transfer list.
First off, the new Kindles do show up on the “deliver to” list, which is essentially the same generated list on the same page as the transfer via USB option.
There’s also the fact that the “new” basic Kindle isn’t really new, not in the usual sense. Amazon still lists it as an 11th gen model, the same as the 2022 Kindle, and it still uses the same ID number, so as far as Amazon’s system is concerned it’s the same Kindle. It just has some minor hardware revisions, including a new screen, and it does look better so at least there’s that. But the fact is the 2022 11th gen Kindle shows up on the list and the 2024 11th gen Kindle does not.
I have both the new Kindle for 2024 and a new Kindle Paperwhite 6, and I can confirm that neither are showing up on the list of devices to download and transfer ebooks via USB.
Granted, this isn’t going to affect that vast majority of Kindle users, but there’s a subset of people that like to download their purchased ebooks to make backups and to remove the DRM to read the ebooks on other non-Kindle devices.
If Amazon phases out the download and transfer option, it’s going to create problems for those that like to do that. Amazon already made it more difficult to download books using the Kindle for PC app last year to dissuade people from backing up their purchased ebooks, and they also removed the download option for Kindle Unlimited books last year.
From Amazon’s perspective, I can see why they’d want to eliminate the download and transfer option altogether, but it’s going to tick off a lot of people if they do it.
The download and transfer option goes way back to the early days of Kindles when internet access wasn’t as widespread and WiFi wasn’t available just about everywhere. People without WiFi or a reliable internet connection needed a way to download and transfer purchased ebooks to Kindles using a USB cable.
Now most people just download their purchased ebooks over WiFi and don’t ever use the download and transfer option, but for those that do it’s going to cause some problems if Amazon is indeed removing that option on newer Kindles, and it also creates more of a walled garden where people can’t take their purchased ebooks and leave for another platform.
So far older Kindles still have the download and transfer option so it’s only an issue with the new Kindles. Hopefully it’s just a glitch that will get fixed soon, but at this point it looks like an intended change for the future of Kindles.
