In terms of e-readers, Kindles are our favorite. They’re speedy, well-designed machines that put an entire library in your pocket. But starting on Feb. 26, 2025, Amazon is taking away its users’ ability to download Kindle books to computers. You’ll still be able to download books from your Kindle library, but only on WiFi-enabled devices. So what’s the big deal?
There are two big issues here. If you want to upload books to your Kindle, you’ll have to do that on a WiFi-enabled device, and many users prefer to leave their device on airplane mode. But maybe more importantly, you’ll no longer have the option to convert your e-books to PDFs.
Kindle books are all in Amazon’s proprietary e-book format of .AZW3 files. These files can only be read on Kindle devices, so if you want to read your e-books on another device — whether that be your laptop, tablet, or a different e-reader — you have to download and convert them.
If you want to download your Kindle books to your computer or other devices, you just have a limited time left to do so. Here’s how to do it.
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