Amazon Is Killing Your Ability to Download Kindle Books Next Week

The further we head into the future, the more tenuous existence itself becomes. We’ve seen it happen to music as we ditched records, tapes, and CDs for streaming services, and we’ve seen it happen to movies as we ditched VHSes, DVDs, and Blu-rays for, well, more streaming services.

Since Amazon’s Kindle e-reader debuted in 2007, we’ve at least been able to download the books we purchase through Kindle to our computers for a semblance of the old rules of ownership, back when you’d buy a paper book and no invisible hand could reach into your home post-purchase to snatch it away.

Well, it was good while it lasted. Amazon has been remarkably tight-lipped about the looming change. Only by attempting to download a Kindle book to your computer will you see Amazon spell out its plans for removing this key feature.

“Starting February 26, 2025, the “Download & Transfer via USB” option will no longer be available,” the warning says. “You can still send Kindle books to your Wi-Fi enabled devices by selecting the “Deliver or Remove from Device” option.”

The good folks at PCMag and ZDNet noticed the change in the past day, meaning that due to Amazon’s lack of fanfare about the change, we can’t be precisely sure when it went live, but it must’ve been very recently, as users only just began seeing the notice pop up.

why it matters

Well, for starters, once you had the downloaded files on your computer, Amazon couldn’t go back into your Kindle account and edit or remove the Kindle books you’ve purchased. Say, they wouldn’t do that?

Oh, but they have. They did it back in 2009 when George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm were deleted from peoples’ devices. How fitting that it was two Orwell books about censorship and power run amok, too.

And then last year, Penguin Books’ long, red editing pen struck again by reaching into Kindle users’ accounts to edit their copies of books by Roald Dahl, R.L. Stine, and Agatha Christie.

See, when you don’t have a paper copy—or at least a downloaded copy that you control—you’re just licensing the content from the company that took your money. You don’t own it. You just get to use it at the discretion of their whims.

Downloading your Kindle books was one way to make sure that, should Amazon or a publisher try to reach into your Kindle accounts to revoke or mess with your books, you’d at least have an unmolested copy for yourself. With that option removed, you’re once again completely at their mercy.

That is, unless you download your e-books from indie bookstores. Or pick up a paper book.