Having hundreds or more legally obtained eBooks is one of the simple joys of life. The biggest source in the world for obtaining legally downloaded eBooks is, of course, Amazon. You can find all kinds of Kindle apps for every mobile device imaginable and even for computers.
There are specific eBook readers for Kindle books. From the Kindle Paperwhite and the Kindle 7th generation, using Amazon’s eBook readers is fantastic but there is a downside. Having to store all of your books on a single device or in the cloud makes a lot of people more than a little nervous.
Fear not, however, for there is a way to make a backup of your legally purchased books for your Kindle, and the process is really quite easy. This little trick could be the difference between happy ending and total disaster; for instance, if you manage to wipe out all your books while you’re on vacation in some remote nether region where you don’t have internet access.
If there’s a backup of your book collection sitting, safe and secure, on your laptop, then it is problem solved before the problem was ever identified.
Quick and Painless Steps
Did we mention that this whole process takes less than five little minutes? Here’s the steps to follow if you have a Kindle eBook reader. First, use your USB cable to connect your computer and your Kindle. The portable device should register as an external storage device to the computer. Find your way to My Computer and open the external drive.
Your eBooks should be listed in a folder labelled documents. Copy this folder over to your computer, and that’s it! If you have an accident that wipes your eBooks off your Kindle, just copy and paste the backed up folder right back to the Kindle.
If you don’t use the eBook reader, you’ll have to have internet access to see what books you have stored in your cloud account. It doesn’t matter what you’re using to read these books, all of your purchased books bought via Amazon should be available to you via the internet. Here’s the steps to follow when backing up eBooks.
First, download the Kindle app, Windows or Mac. Open the app to sign in to your Amazon account. The app should have a listing of all your books. Pick a book, right click on it, and then click download. This will download your book to your computer where you can access it anytime.
If you want a backup of this, simply copy the folder in which the book is saved. You’ll find that Windows 8 will store your books in C:UsersyourusernameAppDataLocalAmazonKindleapplicationcontent. Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 will store it in C:UsersyourusernameDocumentMy Kindle Content. If you’re using a Mac, look in ~/Documents/My Kindle Content.
Making a backup of your books this way lets you read them with the Kindle e-reader or one of the Kindle apps. What do you do, however, if you want to use your phone or tablet to read? If you don’t like using Amazon’s Windows app offline, Calibre is an alternative.
To use Calibre, you only have to follow these few steps: install Calibre then connect your device to the computer using your USB cable. Looking at the top of the screen, you’ll find an icon of stacked-up books. This links to your Calibre library. There will be an icon of your mobile device next to the library. Select the book(s) you want to transfer, then click send to move them from your computer to your other device.
To move books the other way, from your device back to your computer, click on the device icon, find the books you want in the listing, select the ones you want, and click save to disk in the top bar. That should do it!
Calibre can read almost all eBook formats and is great to have around if you buy eBooks from multiple sources. If you download a .pdf file, Calibre can convert it into an epub or mobi file that may be compatible with your e-reader. It can even come in handy by filling out incomplete metadata that older files may show you.