Back-up Kindle eBooks

Refer back to my post entitle "Kindle for iPad vs. Kobo for iPad", I gave a tip on how you could manipulate Kindle store by adding a US address into your account in order to purchase your eBook from their US store rather than their Australia store, as most of the eBooks are relatively cheaper in the US store, some are more expensive and others are equal.

At that time, I wasn't aware of the news that Amazon wipes customer's Kindle and closed her account without explanation. After reading it, I literally freaked out and have now backed up my Kindle library to my computer and external hard drive. I would be devastated if that ever happened to me. I've always thought eBooks function pretty much like a physical book. It's yours till death do you apart, and if it is still in good condition (which an eBook will be forever and ever), it can be handover to your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Unfortunately, that's not it with Kindle eBooks.

So today, I'm going to share with you a few steps on how you can back-up your Kindle eBooks to your computer and for it to be read not only on Kindle devices but other eReader devices.

Steps on how to back-up Kindle content or transfer it to other eReader devices:
*Note: Yellow highlight is a link that will direct you to where you can download the required application and plugin for this tutorial.

1. Install the Kindle application, if you don't already have it installed in your computer.

2. Install  Calibre eBook Management application to your computer.

3. Download de-drm plugin for the Calibre eBook Management application [credit to Apprentice Alf's Blog for the plugin], this is to strip your DRM content, in which most, if not all books purchased from Amazon have DRM attached to it. This is so you won't be able to transfer books that were purchased from Amazon to other eReader devices. Note: I downloaded the plugin from Apprentice Alf's blog but decided to upload it on my sendspace's account rather than direct you to Apprentice Alf's blog and have you download it from there because I did that initial and my computer was attacked by malware. I'd not blame him for it because it was my mistake that I did not read his instruction before I proceed with the download. The host that he used to upload the plugin has malware, so it is safer for you to download it from the one I upload on Sendspace, it's malware/ virus-free. However if you wish to download from his host, here's the link to his post. Please read his instruction before downloading.

4. After you have download the plugin, launch your Calibre application. 

STEP 1: Click on Preference

STEP 2: The preference page will pop-up, select Plugins

STEP 3: In the plugins page, select Load plugin from file

STEP 4: It'll then pop-up a page for you to select your plugins. So go where you have saved and extracted the plugins that you downloaded earlier from my Sendspace account/ Apprentice Alf's Blog. Then select open the DeDRM_calibre_plugin.

STEP 5: When you open the DeDRM_calibre_plugin folder, you'll see another zip folder called DeDRM_plugin. Don't unzip it. Just select it and click open.

STEP 6: Calibre will then notify you that "installing plugins is a security risk.... Are you sure you want to proceed?" Select Yes.

STEP 7: It will then tell you that plugin DeDRM successfully installed....You may have to restart calibre for the plugin to take effect. Click on OK.

STEP 8: After you click on OK, it'll then show you this page. Just exit and close your calibre application and re-open it again for the plugin to take effect.






After you have re-open your calibre, just add your books that you have purchased from Kindle, you can find it under Documents > My Kindle Content. After adding it, you can convert to the format of the device that you're going to read it on, for example, if you're using an iPad, select iPad. Calibre will do the rest for you.

If you have doubts on how to use Calibre, do watch the tutorial here.

Hope this helps you. If you have any questions, do leave a comment and I will reply to your queries as soon as possible.

P/s: If the Sendspace link is dead, please notify me and I'll re-upload it again. Thanks.