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Regardless of whether you own a kindle device or buy kindle books to read on your phone, one thing we all want to do at some point (when we have a big enough library of books), is figure out how to carry your books! kindle to a computer!
You are reading: How to download kindle books to pc
To download kindle books to your computer, sign in to your amazon account on your computer. Hover over your account name. in the dropdown menu, click on “content & devices”. Now, click on “more actions” for the book you want to download and select the “download & usb transfer option”.
but, that’s just a short answer on what to do. In this article, I will show you the easiest way to download books to your computer and explain the process step by step with pictures.
plus, i’ll also show you two ways to read your kindle books on your computer (because what’s the point of having books on your computer if you can’t even read them, right?)
then, let’s get started!
how to download kindle books to your computer?
Actually, there are several ways you can get your kindle books on your computer.
The most obvious method people often use to get their kindle books on their computer is to connect the kindle to the computer via usb and transfer the books.
however, what people often don’t realize is that you can simply download the books to your computer from your amazon content library.
In this article, we will focus on using our content library to download the books. if you want to know the other method, feel free to click the link above the article.
this is what you need to do to download kindle books from your amazon account:
step 1: open the “content and devices” section
The first step is to make sure you’re signed in to your Amazon account.
Once you’ve done that, hover over your account name (don’t click on it). a dropdown menu will appear. in the dropdown menu, click “content & devices”.
step 2: click the “more actions” button
When you click the content and devices link, you will see the content library page by default. if not, be sure to click the “content” tab at the top of the page (as shown in the image above).
then, choose the book you want to download to your pc or mac, and click on “more actions“.
For some people, this section may look a bit different, and instead of the button that says “more actions”, you may just see a button with 3 horizontal dots (“…”). click it.
step 3: click on the button “download & transfer option via usb”
Once you click the “more actions” button, a dropdown menu will appear.
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from the dropdown menu, click the “download & transfer via usb” option. this will allow you to download the kindle book to your computer.
step 4: select your kindle device
In the next step, select your kindle device. If you don’t have a kindle device associated with your account (if you read kindle books on your phone), you may not see this popup.
once you have selected your kindle device, click “download“.
then the kindle book will be downloaded to your computer and you will see a success message. check all your kindle books and repeat this step.
While this method is quite easy to follow, the biggest drawback is that you cannot download multiple books at the same time. therefore, you have to manually download all the books to your computer, which can take forever if you have several hundred kindle books!
One thing to note is that the kindle books you just downloaded can only be opened on a kindle device that is registered to your account. that is, you can’t just download and transfer the books to your friend’s kindle device. even if you do that, the book just won’t open!
how to read kindle books on your computer?
There are mainly two reasons why you would want to download kindle books on your computer:
- to create a backup and transfer the books to your kindle using your computer (we will talk about this in the next section of this article)
- to read kindle books on your computer!
interestingly, you don’t need to download books to your computer to read your kindle books using a computer!
Let me share with you two ways you can access your kindle library using a computer and read books!
method 1: kindle cloud reader
The first method to read kindle books on your computer is to use kindle cloud reader!
kindle cloud reader is basically an online version of your kindle. allows you to access the books in your library and read the books. Kindle Cloud Reader works just like Kindle in that it syncs your last reading position in a book across all your devices.
To access the kindle cloud reader, open a web browser on your computer. type read.amazon.com in the address bar. You may be prompted to sign in to your kindle account. You can do this by entering the login credentials for the amazon account associated with your kindle device.
one thing to note is that kindle cloud reader requires internet to work. Since it is a web-based application, your computer must be connected to the internet at all times.
then in case you want to access your kindle books on a computer that doesn’t have regular internet access, you might want to choose the following method!
method 2: kindle app for pc
Another way to read kindle books on your computer is by using the “kindle for pc” and “kindle for mac” applications.
The biggest advantage of using the kindle app for pc/mac is that it works exactly like a kindle but for a computer. you can download books just like you would on a kindle device and access or read the books even when your computer is not connected to the internet.
Books downloaded with this app can no longer be checked out outside of the app (it used to be possible, but Amazon has since restricted this process).
here is how to read books using “kindle for pc/mac” app –
step 1: add the kindle app for pc/mac to your cart
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The first step is to download the Kindle app on your computer. To do that, open the app’s page on amazon. choose the pc or mac version to download.
then add the app to cart. Proceed with the following steps as you would buy any other product on amazon. don’t worry, you don’t have to pay anything.
Step 2: Check your email for the product download link
Once you have completed the steps to purchase the cart app (for $0), you will receive an email for your order confirmation.
Simply click on “your games and software library” to view and download the app. alternatively, you can also visit the same section from the “my account” section, by clicking on the “digital games and software” link.
step 3: download and install the application
When you click on the link, you will be redirected to the digital article library. here you will see the kindle app for pc/mac you just ordered.
Just click the “download” button to download the app. the size of the app is quite small and should download in a few seconds depending on your internet speed.
Once the application is downloaded, install the software as you normally would any other software. run the installation wizard. Once the installation is complete, go to the next step.
Step 4: Sign in to your kindle account and start reading
Once the installation is complete, open the application. You will first be prompted to register your Kindle account by signing in to the Amazon account associated with your Kindle books.
Sign in with your amazon account username and password.
Once you’re signed in, wait for the app to sync. After that, you will see all the books in your kindle library appear. just click on any book to download it to your computer and start reading!
how to transfer books to kindle from your computer?
as I mentioned earlier, one of the purposes of downloading kindle books to your computer is to transfer books to your new kindle.
you can easily transfer the books to your kindle from your computer. in fact, I have written a detailed article on this topic. be sure to check out my other article on how to transfer books from computer to kindle (and vice versa!) for all the details. I have provided the step by step process along with images in my other article.
related article: how to transfer kindle books? [a complete guide for every situation!]
However, this is what you need to do briefly:
- connect your kindle to your computer using a compatible usb cable.
- open the “kindle drive” on your computer
- then open the “documents” folder in your kindle drive. if you are connecting a kindle fire, open the “internal storage” first, then the “books” folder.
- copy the books from the folder on your computer to the “documents” folder on your kindle (or the books folder in kindle fire).
- once the transfer is complete, right click on the “kindle drive” and click “eject” to safely eject the kindle drive
after that, just open “library” on your kindle device and you should be able to access all the books you just transferred.
One thing to remember (as I mentioned earlier in the article), you will only be able to access the books you just transferred as long as you are logged in to the account you used to purchase the books.
credit to alexandru molnar from pexels for the featured image in this article.
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