Amazon has been on a mission to close off all the different ways to get purchased Kindle ebooks away from their platform of apps and hardware so they can keep people locked in to using their store and products exclusively.
It’s still possible to get purchased ebooks off of Kindle ereaders to remove the DRM and create backups, but Amazon is now actively attempting to close off that avenue as well. A recent software update has broken DRM removal on newer Kindles so that method no longer works on all Kindles.
Some people are buying older used Kindles in order to have an easy way to remove DRM from their purchased ebooks moving forward. Some are unsure which Kindle to get, so here’s a list of all the Kindle models and their various states of DRM removal.
It didn’t really matter which Kindle you owned until recently. But now Amazon is rolling out a new hardened DRM to Kindles that hasn’t been cracked yet.
If you’re unsure which Kindle model is being referred to below, see this Kindle identification page on Amazon’s website for a description of each generation.
Kindles That Still Support DRM Removal
The following models still download Kindle ebooks in Amazon’s older AZW3 format, which is easier to deal with than the newer KFX format:
Kindle 3rd gen (aka Kindle Keyboard)
Kindle 4th gen
Kindle 5th gen
Kindle Touch
Kindle Paperwhite 1 (5th gen)
Kindles with Support for DRM Removal in KFX Format
Kindle Paperwhite 4 (10th gen)
Kindle Paperwhite 3 (7th gen)
Kindle Paperwhite 2 (6th gen)
Kindle 10th gen
Kindle 8th gen
Kindle Oasis (all versions)
Kindle Voyage
There’s no guarantee these Kindles will continue to support DRM removal in the future, but they still do as of October 2025. The 10th gen Kindle and 10th gen Kindle Oasis are still eligible to receive software updates, so they are the models that are most likely to get the new hardened DRM at some point, but Amazon might add it to all Kindles eventually.
Kindle Models with New Hardened DRM
These models with software 5.18.5 and up no longer support DRM removal.
Kindle Colorsoft
Kindle Paperwhite 11th gen
Kindle Paperwhite 12th gen
Kindle 11th gen
Kindle Scribe (all versions)
These models support DRM removal when running pre-5.18.5 software, but unless your Kindle is jailbroken it’s not possible to block software updates or to roll back to earlier versions.
Older Kindle Models to Avoid
Kindle 1
Kindle 2
Kindle DX
These Kindle models are too old at this point to be useful for DRM removal and backing up Kindle ebooks.
Why is Amazon Locking Down Kindles?
Amazon wants everyone that purchases Kindle ebooks to use a Kindle app or a Kindle ereader to read ebooks, and they don’t want people backing up purchased ebooks or reading them on other brands of reading devices or using non-Kindle apps that they can’t control and track.
It wouldn’t be such a big deal if Amazon didn’t have a bunch of ebooks that aren’t available at all on other platforms, but they want to lock in authors and readers to use the Kindle platform exclusively.
My theory is they’re locking down DRM removal so they can try to convince authors and publishers that Kindle ebooks are more secure than other platforms that use Adobe DRM that is easily broken. They’ll use it as a negotiating tactic to make authors and publishers think their ebooks are less likely to be pirated if they only make their ebooks available as Kindle ebooks. It’s a sham because there are always going to be ways to pirate ebooks; they’ll never be able to stop text from being scanned and copied no matter how hard they try. All DRM does is create restrictions and limitations for legitimate paying customers.
