Can Non-Amazon Bought Books Be Archived?

[jsaffer]

I'm new to the Kindle and loving it. Question: If I obtain books from other sources, other than downloading from Amazon, can I archive them as if I had bought them from Amazon?

Thanks,

Jason

[jmiked]

You can back them up on your computer. There's no way to get them into your Amazon archive.

Mike

[mooshie78]

Yep, the Amazon archive is only for books downloaded through the Kindle store.

As noted, you can back them up on the computer by hooking the Kindle up via USB.  You can simply drag and drop the non-Kindle books somewhere, or you can use a program like Calibre to back them up and organize your e-book library.

[kindlegrl81]

Non-amazon books cannot be added to your archives but you can download calibre and organize your books on it.  It is pretty much as easy as Amazon's archive system.  With the program you can either have the books emailed to your device or hook it up to your computer with the USB cord and press the "send to device button."

[Sporadic]

When you email it to the pay email, don't they keep a copy on their server or did I hear wrong?

What I did was set up a dropbox. I put all my non-Amazon books on it and download them via wifi (don't use the 3G for stuff like that)

[jmiked]

When you email it to the pay email, don't they keep a copy on their server or did I hear wrong?

Highly unlikely, it's probably purged the moment the successful transmission is acknowledged. In any event, there's no way for you to get to it.

Mike

[jsaffer]

Thanks for the responses so far. Very helpful. The feature I like about using the Amazon archive is that I can access a book I'm reading either through the Kindle or through the Kindle app on my Android smartphone - and they also sync so either device knows what page I'm currently on. But, since I read most books from non-Amazon sources, is there a way to use Calibre or any other app to accomplish the same thing -- so that I can read the book either on my Kindle or on a smartphone app and  have them sync so I'm always on the same page, whichever device I'm reading from?

Thanks!

Jason

[mooshie78]

As far as I know the answers to those are no.  I think you can only get books from the Kindle store into the Kindle apps, and whispersync only works on Kindle store books.

[ProfCrash]

You can get non-Amazon purchased books to sync pages using Calibre and Mob2Mobi. I think all you have to do is add the ISBN number in Calibre and you will be able to sync the pages. This does nothing for notes and the archive.

[jmiked]

I think all you have to do is add the ISBN number in Calibre and you will be able to sync the pages.

Calibre adds a fake ASIN number in the metadata to rick the Amazon software into thinking it's a book purchased from their store, and thus keeping track of furthest page read. Calibre will add this automatically when a .mobi file is generated. If you already have a DRM-free mobi file in Calibre, then you have to perform a mobi to mobi conversion to get this to work. Calibre also adds its own page numbers at the same time.

Mike

[mooshie78]

So does that mean if you do that the book will then show up in your Archive so you can download it into the Kindle app on other platforms like PC and iPad?

[jsaffer]

Mike,

Can you review the specific procedure to get this to work. What I did was as follows, but I don't think it's working.

1. I added a .mobi book to Calibre
2. Did a mobi to mobi conversion in Calibre
3. Copied the new mobi file to the Kindle's documents folder
4. The book shows up on my Kindle screen
5. I delete the book from Kindle and then look in the Archive folder on the Kindle
6. The book is not there

Thanks for help on this.

Jason

[jmiked]

The book will not be transferred to the Kindle Archive at Amazon. There will be an entry on the Amazon server that contains furthest page read, but you won’t see it in the Archives. You have to manually put the book on device on which you wish to read it, and perform a sync.

Mike

[mooshie78]

The book will not be transferred to the Kindle Archive at Amazon. There will be an entry on the Amazon server that contains furthest page read, but you won’t see it in the Archives. You have to manually put the book on device on which you wish to read it, and perform a sync.

Hmm.  I didn't know could sideload books into the Kindle apps.  I'll have to look into that.

[jsaffer]

OK, I'm still trying to work this out. I put the mobi onto the Kindle. Then I did a sync, both from the Kindle and from my Android's Kindle app. But the new mobi book is not showing up on my Android app.

First, I loaded the mobi into Calibre and then I did a mobi to mobi conversion. But maybe I'm not putting the right version onto the Kindle? Where would be the new mobi show up on my hard drive?

Thanks for the help on this!

Jason

[jmiked]

Where would be the new mobi show up on my hard drive?

Calibre replaces the old mobi book with the new one.

Mike

[jmiked]

Hmm.  I didn't know could sideload books into the Kindle apps.  I'll have to look into that.

The only way I know of to do that with iThings is to jailbreak the device. It easy to sideload to the Kindle app on the PC or Mac. Or it used to be.

I was mainly interested in syncing between Kindles.

Mike

[mooshie78]

The only way I know of to do that with iThings is to jailbreak the device. It easy to sideload to the Kindle app on the PC or Mac. Or it used to be.

I was mainly interested in syncing between Kindles.

Mike

Ah.  Useless for me then.  I only have one Kindle and I don't want to Jailbreak my iPad2 which I read on sometimes as I carry it around more than I do my Kindle.

[jmiked]

Don't take my word on the necessity of jailbreaking as definitive. I haven’t had an occasion to read anything on my iPod Touch and sync with Kindle. It may be quite possible to do now.

Mike

[SusanCassidy]

You can sideload books onto the iPad via the file sharing part of the Kindle app.  Just connect the iPad, click on Apps, click on the Kindle app, then copy the books you want to side-load into the box for files for the Kindle app.  I also do this on my iPod Touch.

Edited to add:  I don't think this ability was in the app originally, but it has been for the last few months, at least.

[jsaffer]

I'm still struggling to get this to work. Any help would be greatly appreciated. From what I understand from these messages, I should be able to add a mobi book that I get from a non-Amazon source, convert it to mobi in Calibre, and then I should be able to copy to my Kindle and also to my Android smartphone -- and then the books should sync between the two devices (so that I can return to the same page I'm reading, whichever device I'm reading from).

I have done the mobi to mobi conversation. Then, I plug my Kindle into my PC and, using Windows 7 file manager, I copy the mobi book from my PC to the documents folder on the Kindle. The book then shows up on the Kindle. I also copy the mobi book, using Windows 7 file manager, onto my Android phone. The book then shows up in the Kindle app.

I then read some pages on either device. Then, I click on sync (either in the Kindle or on the phone, depending which device I've been reading on). However, when I read the book on either device and then go to the other device, there is no syncing going on in terms of the page I've read to. This is where I'm stuck. No update on the other device so I can pick up reading where I left off on the other device.

Am I doing something wrong here? Thanks for the help!

Jason

[SusanCassidy]

Non-Amazon books only sync if you use a trick with Calibre.  It may be a special plug-in.  It has to set the ASIN of the book to a real book from Amazon. Search the Calibre forums on mobileread.com for more info.

[ProfCrash]

It is not a special plug in you have to make sure that you have the correct ISBN number in the book for the sync to work. You can do this with Calibre or Mob2Mobi.

[jsaffer]

Can you tell me exactly how to get the correct ISBN number from both Calibre and from mobi2mob? I've got both programs but don't know where to find the numbers exactly. Thanks!

Jason

[jmiked]

It is not a special plug in you have to make sure that you have the correct ISBN number in the book for the sync to work. You can do this with Calibre or Mob2Mobi.

As far as I know, the Kindle syncs on ASIN, not ISBN. But I could be wrong.

Mike