Amazon has discontinued the Download & Transfer via USB option today. The company let people know the platform would shut off a few weeks ago. This change affects all Kindles associated with a customer’s account, so this is not just new Kindles but every Kindle ever made. This is a severe blow to users who wanted local backups of their books; now everything is wholly housed on Amazon, and customers are at their mercy.
The Download & Transfer via USB was released when Wi-Fi and Whispersync were in their infancy. Before, the only way to read e-books locally was to download them from Amazon. Things have changed in a decade; everything is synced across all devices and apps, from reading progress to awards to books you bought. If a book is purchased on a Kindle e-reader, it is also available for Android, iOS, Fire tablets, and other devices to read on the Kindle app.
There is currently no way to make local backups from books purchased from Amazon. You cannot plug a book into a USB and transfer it to your PC or MAC, but you can import books from your computer. Sending books to Kindle is also a viable option for sending books to the cloud. However, these methods send books to Amazon, not grab the books you bought and store them locally.
Many people see this as a last straw with being invested in their Kindle ecosystem. It can be a real challenge sometimes. This is not allowed for those who like to travel and buy Kindle books in other countries. Buying one or two books is OK, but any more than that, a Kindle account can be locked out. This is primarily due to book rights issues from country to country. Things like this are why the Download & Transfer via USB was so beloved. It is an Amazon world, and we are just living in it.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.