From February 26, 2025, Amazon will discontinue the option of downloading purchased e-books to your home computer in the USA and Germany. In future, users will only be able to transfer their digital books directly to their Amazon Kindle devices via Wi-Fi. This change will affect customers in both the USA and Germany.
The most important facts in brief
- Date of change: February 26, 2025
- Affected regions: USA and Germany
- New transfer method: Only via WLAN directly to Kindle devices
- Previous function: Download e-books to PC for backup or transfer
Amazon Kindle e-reader becomes mandatory
Amazon has been the undisputed industry leader with its e-readers for years. The US company only presented the Kindle Paperwhite (€ 179.99 *) in the fall of 2024, Kindle Scribe (€ 419.99 *) and Kindle Colorsoft (€ 289.99 *) are the latest additions to the company’s range of e-readers. And clearly the success of the e-readers seems to be close to the company’s heart.
From February 26, 2025, it will only be possible to read e-books purchased from Amazon on these devices. Anyone who has previously bought digital books from the tech giant to read them on their computer, for example, will no longer be able to do so in a few days’ time. With this change, users will lose the option of saving their purchased e-books on their computer. This makes it more difficult to create backup copies and use the books on non-Kindle devices.
Users are therefore more closely tied to Amazon’s infrastructure and can only transfer their content to their Kindle readers via WLAN. For users who previously transferred their e-books to their devices via USB cable or wanted to convert the books into other formats, this means a significant restriction. The use of third-party software such as Calibre for managing and converting e-books will become much more difficult as a result.
Reactions and recommendations
In online forums and social media, many users are expressing incomprehension and criticism of Amazon’s decision. Some recommend downloading all purchased e-books by the deadline of February 26, 2025 and backing them up locally in order to continue to have access to the files. It remains to be seen whether Amazon will respond to customer feedback and offer alternative solutions.
For users who want to read their e-books on different devices, the use of e-book providers that offer more flexible download and usage options could be considered. Popular alternatives include, for example, the Tolino Shine (€ 139.00 *), Kobo Clara BW (€ 149.99 *), Kobo Clara Color (€ 169.56 *) or Kobo Sage (€ 299.90 *). It is advisable to evaluate your own needs and, if necessary, switch to alternative platforms that better meet your personal requirements.
