How do I transfer my Kindle collection to new Kindle?

[DanaG]

I have a Kindle that I bought last January. It died...Amazon sent me a new one...and I'm trying to figure out a way to transfer my books without having to individually download each one. Is there a way to bulk transfer them?

[Betsy the Quilter]

Are they all from Amazon?  Unfortunately not, as Kindle books are coded for individual devices when downloaded. 

If they are from sources other than Amazon, you can drag them to the "documents" folder on the Kindle when attached via USB cable.

That being said, it's not desirable to move them all at once onto the Kindle, as the Kindle indexes the words in each book to facilitate searches, and having a lot of books to index at once will drain the battery and slow system performance.

You really don't need to have them all on there, you know, if they are in your Amazon archive.  Or you can download a few each day until you have them.

I have almost 1000 books on Amazon....most of them are on my K1, but I won't be downloading them to my new Kindles.

[DanaG]

They are all Amazon. I only have about 120 books, but I'd like them all on my kindle.

Do you have one place that you keep your entire collection?

[Betsy the Quilter]

Nah. No real point, I can access any of them via any of my four Kindles and three "Kindle for" apps.  As I say, most of them are still on my K1.  But as such, only readable on my K1.  I used to periodically drag the "documents" folder off my K1 to back it up to my computer, but I don't do that any more, as I don't use the K1 very much.

Some members use Calibre to manage their collections. 

Betsy

[DanaG]

My first Kindle is frozen so I can't use it. So, to access my Kindle books, I need to either read them on my laptop...or my new Kindle.  I'd like to have them all on my Kindle; I just wish there was a way to move all my books onto the new Kindle without having to go turn several pages to get to Archived Items, then scroll through to find the ones that I want (not bothering with ones I already read), then download them...it's tedious.

[ElaineOK]

Go to your Amazon account, to the manage your Kindle page.  You can send them from that page to your new device.  Plug in your new Kindle, because transferring books and indexing takes time and battery.  Then, tell Amazon to send the first 20 or 30 of your books to your new Kindle.  Come back in a few hours, and send the next chunk -- or do a chunk every night before bed. 

If you have collections set up, transfer your books first. Then, from your new Kindle go to the archive.  There you will find an Import Collections from another device option.  Use it.  It will import the collections and automatically sort all of your books into them.  Then, when done, do a search on a nonsense string (like:  alkjiojfweaelkfw).  If any books aren't properly indexed, it will tell you it couldn't search them.  Delete and re-download those books. 

Done!

Elaine
Norman, OK

[Ann in Arlington]

Check out this Q from our 2011 FAQ.  To the best of my knowledge, it applies to any eInk Kindle, though the steps to get to the various menu items would possibly be different.

http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,86014.msg1355367.html#msg1355367

I will also note that the Kindle for PC app will allow you to collect everything. . whether downloaded or still in the archive.  So you could use it to get things all organized and then, when the new kindle comes, load up your books and, as the final step, import the collections from the Kindle for PC.

But, for the record, I'm like Betsy. . .initially I kept all my books on my K1.  When I first got my K3, I moved them all.  By the time I got my K4 that had gotten old.   So I just moved the ones that I knew I'd be reading soon or wanted to have on the device for ready reference -- I have access to the others pretty much any time any where.  And moving them all to the K3 was a real pain. . .I had over 1000 at the time and probably have 1300 by now.

[DanaG]

Thanks, guys! Yeah, there are some books that I've already read that I wouldn't transfer because I won't be rereading them, so that's a good point that transferring them ALL may not be desirable.  I just wish it were a little easier to bulk transfer the ones that I want - and I appreciate your tips, everybody!