Amazon removes “Download/transfer via USB” option.

Greta99

As of February 26, the “Download/transfer via USB” option will no longer be available for Kindle books.
I know that at least some PW members have purchased sheet music from Amazon in digital format.
If you have books that you would like to save on your hard disk, you only have a few days to do so.

navindra

Greta99 thank you so much for this. I have bought sheet music on Amazon and I do wish I hadn't. I really need PDF or MusicXML for my money, not something all locked up. Regardless, I will make sure to download my books before it's too late.

This video was a good run down for me on what's changing:

Edit: Well it seems I no longer have the option to download my books. What a waste.

Greta99

navindra
I'm sorry. I've downloaded thousands of books and only had this message once, so I don't think that it is a time issue. I would install the Kindle app. This alone may help. Otherwise you could send the book to the app. It will be then stored on your device where you should be able to access it. The book will have DRM protection. You can remove it by importing the book into Calibre and using DeDRM Calibre plugin. There are plenty of youtube videos how to do it. I hope this helps.

ShiroKuro

I have always avoided buying Kindle sheet music because I want to have my scores in forScore, so this doesn't impact my music collection. And I assume that in practical terms, it doesn't impact the kindle books I have, since I'll continue using the app to read them.

But it does sort of underscore the vulnerability of these new digital products.

And anyone who does have Kindle scores definitely has my sympathy!

Jane

ShiroKuro That's a nice feature of buying digital scores using the Henle app - one can print them and/or export as PDF into forScore or to another computer or backup drive. (And downloads from imslp.org are, of course, completely unrestricted.)

Greta99

ShiroKuro

When you buy a Kindle book, you don't really own it. You pay for some rights. Which rights these are can be changed by Amazon at any time. Digital content can be updated or removed without your consent. Until 2022 it was possible to lend a Kindle book to someone, but not anymore. Now you are no longer allowed to store your books on your drive. The mere fact that I had to find out about this major change from a random Youtube video speaks volumes. We can't know what's coming next, but one can clearly see the direction. That's why I'm downloading all my books before it's too late, even though I'll continue to use my Kindle for now.

Animisha

I don't have any Kindle files, but could this video be of any help?

ShiroKuro

Greta99 When you buy a Kindle book, you don't really own it. You pay for some rights. Which rights these are can be changed by Amazon at any time. Digital content can be updated or removed without your consent.

Yep. this is a huge problem!

The only things I buy on Kindle are things I don't care too much about (and again, that's why I never buy Kindle scores). So I probably should care more, but it's not that important to me.

But on principle, it's highly problematic. Esp this:

Digital content can be updated or removed without your consent.

Animisha

Greta99 When you buy a Kindle book, you don't really own it. You pay for some rights.

Greta99

If someone wants to download several books at once, here is a guide:

I have tested it and it works like a charm.

WieWaldi

I have bought a few kindle books, but don't have a kindle. My goal was to have any electronic format I can print by my own and ring bind it. I love ring bindings, it allows for better page turning.
So far, I converted every book by reading it online in a browser and took a screen copy of every page. Then I took a screen copy of every page and joined them into a pdf.

I think this method works well for sheet music, but I would not do it for regular books. All the convenience of digital reading, like text-search is lost then. Or changing the font-size.

WieWaldi

One general question: What is the benefit if you can download the kindle onto your computer? It is a proprietary format, anyway. And you need some software from amazon to read it.
In the worst case, amazon could provide a software update that prohibits opening locally stored books.

Greta99

WieWaldi

Books can be changed or completely deleted by Amazon, so you will lose your content unless you have a local copy. You can be locked out of your Amazon account. Some people may want to use devices other than Kindle. In your case, one of the biggest advantages is an easy conversion to PDF. I tried it today, it took less than 2 minutes from buying the score (the printed version is five times as expensive) to opening the PDF file.