Amazon’s Kindle devices, for better or worse, have a stranglehold on the e-reader market globally and the UK. Their popularity is down to their relative affordability and ease of use as well as Amazon’s wide range of eBook titles in the Amazon store, but the online retailer is about to cut a feature from all its Kindle devices that could curtail how you use yours.
As spotted by Good E-Reader, as of February 26, 2025, Amazon is set to kill off its Download & Transfer via USB option for all Kindles, meaning the only way you’ll be able to buy and download eBooks and other purchases is over Wi-Fi.
All Kindles can connect to Wi-Fi to buy eBooks from the Kindle store but the downloading via USB option has been there as another way for buyers to download titles onto their devices via a USB cable. It’s useful if you want to back up your purchases on a computer and download them again later from your Amazon account without the need to connect the Kindle to a Wi-Fi network.
Occasionally Amazon removes titles from Kindles without warning which can delete them from people’s e-readers. If this happens and the title is no longer available in the Kindle store, transferring titles via USB is the only way to get them back onto your Kindle. Without the transfer option, it’s technically possible that Amazon could remove your access to a Kindle book permanently even if you’ve purchased it previously.
As noted by The Verge, this download option has existed for years, as far back as when some Kindles did not have Wi-Fi and could only download remotely using built-in 3G connections, a feature that newer Kindles don’t have. It allowed readers to download titles onto their computers for backup purposes.
The move is likely also being made to prevent Kindle owners from converting Amazon eBooks into other formats for reading on rival e-reader hardware. Kindle eBooks are DRM protected, which prevents them from being compatible with Kobo e-readers and other similar devices.
But downloading via USB works by sorting books in an older AZW3 format, which people can use with third party software to convert Kindle books for use on other devices. When downloaded over Wi-Fi, Kindle books are sent in a more locked-down format that likely prevents people from doing this.
“Customers can continue reading books previously downloaded on their Kindle device, and access new content through the Kindle app, Kindle for web, as well as directly through Kindle devices with WiFi capability,” an Amazon spokesperson told The Verge.
After February 26, You’ll still be able to move downloaded eBooks onto your Kindle from your Amazon account but you won’t be able to download them onto your computer.
