Extracting Kindle ebooks stored on mobile for desktop viewing

quicky008

Technomancer
i have bought a couple of ebooks from amazon.in,but unfortunately cant view them without using the kindle app on my phone.

It seems there was once a desktop version of the kindle app for windows ,but it has since been discontinued for reasons unknown by amazon.

I'd like to view these ebooks on my pc,so that i can take screenshots of some of their pages for my personal use,but as of now i can't figure out how to extract the ebooks from the kindle app on my phone.I tried searching on my phone using the default file manager,but couldnt find any files at all in the kindle folder.

Some of the tips and tricks suggested on youtube by various users didn't bear fruit either-it seems amazon has devised some new as yet unknown trickery to ensure that the ebooks remain hidden on android,probably so that users cant find them and use them on other platforms without the kindle app.

Has anyone here successfully managed to extract ebooks stored on their phones by the kindle app?If yes,some suggestions on how it can be done would be much appreciated indeed.
 

TheSloth

The Slowest One
Don't know how to extract but you could install Blue Stacks kind of android emulators on desktop, download kindle app from google play store and then you can read your ebooks locked to kindle on desktop.
 

khalil1210

In the zone
have you tired downloading the exe file from *www.amazon.in/kindle-dbs/fd/kcp . There is a download for PC & MAC option.

I just tried it, I was able to open the library from my pc.
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OP
quicky008

quicky008

Technomancer
@khalil1210 :Thanks a lot,i was able to access my library after downloading and installing the executable from your link!

@Desmond David : Is there any way to figure out where the pc version of Kindle stores the ebooks after they are downloaded?

It seems kindle itself doesn't install in the c:\program files folder(unlike most other programs for windows),instead it installs in appdata>local>amazon>kindle which is really weird.But i couldn't find my ebooks in that folder even after downloading them from amazon.Maybe they are using some unknown or secretive file format to make sure people can't find them as a sort of an annoying anti-piracy measure.

Being stuck to one app for reading documents defeats the whole point of getting their digitized versions in the first place-its like apple forcing users to use itunes to carry out even rudimentary operations like transferring files to their ipods and iphones.
 

Desmond

Destroy Erase Improve
Staff member
Admin
I'm not sure where the PC app stores the ebooks. But if you have a Kindle device you could try this:

Start Calibre and connect your Kindle device to the PC. Then detect your Kindle from within Calibre. Calibre will then list all ebooks on your device. I think it lists the Amazon ebooks as well but I am not sure. You could try and see in either case.
 

vidhubhushan

Alakh Niranjan
iirc, all the ebooks in kindle reader or app are encrypted so just copying them will not work unless you try some *ahem* trick
 

Cool Buddy

Wise Old Owl
The books on kindle library/app are DRM protected. They can't be opened using Calibre or any other app. They can only be opened using kindle or app logged into the same account using which it was bought.

There are, of course, tricks to get a book out, but they've been making it more difficult with each passing year. I have mixed feelings about this. I don't think I should be tied to particular device for reading books I've purchased. But from a publisher's perspective, I can understand why DRM is needed.

In general, I dislike closed ecosystems. But that's the direction everything has been moving in over the past few years.

Rants aside, you can read kindle ebooks on the web. Just go to your purchase history and there should be an option for it.
 

Desmond

Destroy Erase Improve
Staff member
Admin
You should prefer buying ebooks from sites like Humble. They provide books in many formats and DRM free so you can read it on any device.
 
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