In case you missed it, on 26 February, Amazon is removing the ability to download books you’ve purchased from its Kindle store. (Unsurprisingly, this is not something Amazon has widely shared, so you might have missed this news.)
After 26 February, books you’ve purchased via Amazon – books that you, entirely justifiably, considered you ‘owned’ – will be locked into Amazon’s Kindle ecosystem.
If, like me, you’ve periodically downloaded your purchases as a backup, or so you can transfer your books to another reader – for example, Apple’s Books reader – you’ll need to download your purchases before the upcoming deadline.
Sadly, this is yet another example of Amazon shifting the goalposts: books you once ‘owned’, you’ll now be effectively ‘licensing’.
The fact that Amazon is moving the goal posts after you’ve made the transaction to acquire a book or books is a disgrace.
(No doubt there’s a clause in Amazon’s Terms and Conditions that allows them to make these after-the-fact changes.)
Unfortunately, downloading previously purchased books – which are listed in your account’s Content Library – is a cumbersome process. With no batch downloading option, you’ll have to download each book, one-by-one. Lifehacker has a helpful guide.
If, like me, you’ve accumulated a sizeable library of Kindle books, I’d urge you to set aside some time post-haste to ensure you download copies of everything you purchased, after all you, paid for them.
