Amazon eBook library page with "Download Kindle Books - The Faster Way" over the top

Kindle Book Download - The Faster Way - Before the 26th Feb 2025

So I saw a post on Tumblr yesterday, which I am sorry I cannot find again. It was talking about how Kindle are removing the download ability on the 26th Feb and one response mentioned a Tampermonkey script to help with downloading all of our Kindle books. If someone can point me to the post, I will credit the person who mentioned it - thank you.

Well the script makes it about half as frustrating to download everything as the only way Kindle provide it and it took me a while to figure out how to use it, so I thought I would elaborate. I went from being able to do 8 pages of books in a day, to doing 37 - I have another 20 to go.

Tampermonkey is a plugin for the browser which allows a script to be run to alter the page - spent a good hour trying to work out how to run the script because I thought Tampermonkey was the name of the author or something😆 . It can be found here: https://www.tampermonkey.net/

There is an FAQ about how to install it here, along with how to install scripts: https://www.tampermonkey.net/faq.php

The script to alter the Amazon download page is here: https://github.com/chrishol/greasemonkey-scripts/blob/main/download-all-kindle-books.js

The script puts a button at the top of the page on the right that says "Trigger Download" (seen in green below)

This button when pressed will do all the button presses for the downloads for you so you don't have to click everything yourself. All you have to do is confirm the save to your computer.

On my PC I can set it going, wait for the first save to come up, then click away and leave it for about 3 mins while I'm doing other things and then click save 25 times once it's done. Others have to click the save after 8-10 saves have been queued up or it sits there just waiting - not sure why, but it happens.

If the script does not work and the button does not appear for you after you have told Tampermonkey to run on the page, check the line in the top of the code that starts with

// @ match (no space after the @ in the actual script)

The script is set up for Amazon.com, so if you are on Amazon.co.uk like me, or another of the Amazon sites, you will need to edit this, to have the right amazon in the URL.

E.g. mine looks like: https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/mycd/digital-console/contentlist/booksAll/*

The rest of the URL will be exactly the same.

The match line is basically telling the script what page the script should run on.

Also of note - in the code it allows you to change which Kindle device you are picking in the list if you have more than one. If your Kindle is first in the list, you're all set. If not, scroll down to line #77 until you find this part and follow the instructions in the comment:

clickElementWithin(dropdown, 'span[id^="download_and_transfer_list_"]'); // Choose the first Kindle in list // If you want the second Kindle in the list, change the above line to this instead (for the third, you'd change the [1] to [2] and so on): // dropdown.querySelectorAll('span[id^="download_and_transfer_list_"]')[1].click();

And those are the only things that tripped me up - so happy downloading. Hope it all works as well for you as it is working for me.

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How to Check for DRM in Calibre

If you, like me, are downloading all your Kindle books before Amazon take away the ability to do so on the 26th Feb 2025 and are using Calibre to keep them all catalogued, you may be wondering about DRM.

Unfortunately, it is a fact of life that some books with have DRM, which makes them unreadable on anything except the Kindle anyway. The only way you figure this out is when you go to view the books and it says it can't open them because of DRM.

There is a really quick and simple way to highlight multiple books and find out which ones have DRM without having to open all of them individually:

Attempt to convert them

If they have DRM the conversion with fail.

Steps to Check for DRM

Import the books into Calibre by highlighting the files in your Kindle download directory and dragging them onto the Calibre book listing.
If you don't already have it as a column, add the formats column to your Calibre layout - this will make those that have failed easy to see.

Click the Preferences button in the main menu
Choose "Add your own columns"
Check the box next to formats (#13 on mine) and hit save

Now select all the books that need checking in the main book listing.
Click "Convert books" from the main menu
Choose the book format you wish to convert into from the dropdown - I use ePub because it is the most universal - and hit go.
Error messages will pop up for those books that won't convert - just click the close button, we don't need to remember which ones have failed.
Now all those books which don't have the additional format in the format col are the ones with DRM. I then added a tag to all the DRM books so I can find them easily again later when I decide what to do with them.

If there is a simpler way of doing this, please LMK, but I couldn't see one inside Calibre. This was the quickest way to do it all in bulk that I could find.

Check Out My Fiction YouTube Channel

Tales with Tasha

Each week we have a theme and so there will be something for all tastes.

🎤Micro stories/ jokes as YouTube Shorts Monday - Sunday- for fun quick viewing
🕮A longer story every now and then for story time, over coffee or before going to bed