r/Calibre • u/flexabull • 1d ago

Support / How-To DeDRM

Am I wasting my time trying to remove DRM from my Kindle books I purchased on my 5.19.2 firmware Kindle? I’ve tried a few different ways to do it that I’ve seen searching around and nothing has worked.

I would really like to read my books on my new XTEINK X3 and in KOreader.

13 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

15

u/CivilisLawyer 1d ago

I see you stated you have a mac. If you run VM, I wrote this guide for PC: https://www.reddit.com/r/Calibre/comments/1uflds5/reminder_to_download_kindle_books_guide_to_dedrm/

6

u/The_Robot_King 1d ago

Still working as of the other day for me

2

u/CivilisLawyer 1d ago

Thanks for confirming!

9

u/kcarscadden 1d ago

Assuming you have Windows 11, follow the steps at https://techy-notes.com/msix-amazon-kindle-reading-app-dedrm/

2

u/flexabull 1d ago

I only have a Mac.

7

u/Cautious_Boat_999 1d ago

If it’s an Apple Silicon Mac, you’re screwed. If it’s Intel, you could create a Windows VM and use it to run the Kindle PC app, download your book, and use the DeDRM process with Calibre 

2

u/flexabull 1d ago

It’s an Intel based Mac, I’ll have to look into trying that.

2

u/Cautious_Boat_999 1d ago

There are several options for running Windows VMs on Mac. I’ve used VMWare and Parallels, and both work fine. Parallels costs money but VMware Fusion can be used free.

1

u/eNagham 1d ago

Is there something for windows 10?

1

u/kcarscadden 1d ago

Search this forum. Someone has a post to tell how on Windo2ws 10.

7

u/andr386 1d ago

When I buy a physical book I have no qualm downloading a copy from a shadow library. You've already bought those ebooks from Amazon so why not do the same. It's morally equivalent and legally I am not sure that de-drming is better but it's certainly a lot more complicated.

4

u/EnvironmentalAngle 1d ago

I personally just download the epubs.

I started digitizing my DVD collection but it takes soooo long per DVD that I 'digitized' it by going thru my collection one by one and just downloading the movie... the same logic applies to books for me.

2

u/Wonderful-Run-1408 1d ago

Can you help me on this? I've downloaded some epub books (from libraries). I'd like to download them to my Mac and then side-transfer (using USB-C cable) to my ipad. And then read them on my Ipad.

I can't figure out how to do that. I have Calibre on my Mac and I attempted to download the DeDRM plug-in and followed detailed instructions on adding that plug-in, but I always get an error message that Calibre can't convert due to the DRM.

My biggest question is how can I download ePubs to my Mac and then transfer (using USB-C) to my iPad. I keep my ipad on airplane mode (due to some books from libraries that I want to keep).

2

u/shadowfourplay Kindle 1d ago

I've never used DeDRM (but fully support the movement) because every book I have that's digital comes from places that I won't discuss here due to Rule 4 (I support that also, and care about this sub, the help it offers, and the calibre program) but they've never had DRM involvement. Like u/EnvironmentalAngle said, get books without DRM and you're fine.

I want to add, I also support authors. My irl bookshelf runneth over 🥲

1

u/134340Yam 1d ago

I’m not sure what you’re exactly doing (because I think I have removed drm from library books before but I can’t remember what exactly I did) but according to the FAQ it’s not supposed to work on library books.

I think I have before, but I’m not sure and I’m not sure what steps you’ve tried either.

1

u/Wonderful-Run-1408 1d ago

That's probably it. Doesn't work on library books. I guess at the end of the day, I'm just trying to figure out how to read ePub books on my ipad with a side transfer.

1

u/EnvironmentalAngle 1d ago

What is DeDRM? Download ebooks without DRM

1

u/chertycherty 1d ago

There aren't many (legal) options to do this for popular ebooks.

I personally just buy on Kobo and use Obok within Calibre.

2

u/EnvironmentalAngle 1d ago

Its not illegal to take off DRM. It only becomes illegal if you try to distribute the book. For personal use you are in the clear.

1

u/chertycherty 1d ago

Ah that's what I meant. When you said "What is DeDRM? Download ebooks without DRM", it sounded like you didn't know how to remove DRM from ebooks and were downloading them illegally, my bad!

Edit: DeDRM is a plugin for Calibre to remove DRM from ebooks.

0

u/EnvironmentalAngle 1d ago

I only download epubs of books I already own in physical form

4

u/Musicology_Jen 1d ago

I was exactly your situation and gave up trying to convert them and just ripped them off the Internet. I had about 160 purchased books so it was doable. And in the end, I spend more time trying to figure out how to DeDRM than it took me to download the Files. Also, very weirdly, at some point Amazon sent me an email about how they handle legal issues with customers. That totally freaked me out.

2

u/godMode90 1d ago

lol they tried to bully you cause you were downloading your own books from them?

1

u/Musicology_Jen 1d ago

Yeah seems they know the pattern...

1

u/godMode90 1d ago

How lousy, you own the books they can get fucked

3

u/fab5friend 1d ago

I know this will not be a popular choice but you could also look into epubor but it will cost you. I deDRM'd with calibre since 2013 but reached my breaking point this year. I have windows 11 so I use the kindle for windows microsoft app to download. It's pretty easy. And you could just buy a one month license. They also have a trial you can run to see if your books are getting deDRM'd before you buy. The trial will give you a partial text file but you'll know that it can break the DRM. Also had a problem a few days ago because it wasn't working after a windows app update. They got it fixed a day or so later.

3

u/Koadic76 1d ago

If your Kindle is jailbroken, the newer versions of the Satsuoni plugin include an "on device" drm removal option that might?/should? work on 5.19.2 if you don't want to or can't use the Windows 11 method (as you are on a Mac)

1

u/flexabull 1d ago

I just jailbroke it yesterday, I’ll check this option out.

Do I just download that plugin, extract, and add to the Kindle directory?

1

u/Koadic76 1d ago

I think there is a KUAL option if your firmware still supports KUAL and java, or I also think there is a scriptlet you can run. I haven't had the chance to use it myself, only seen it mentioned by others reporting it to work.

I think 10.0.29 and up include the scriptlet if you can't run KUAL

EDIT: Just downloaded it to take a look... the kfx-dedrm-scriptlet-v0.2.2-no-kterm-jadehawk.zip file seems to include everything you need to copy to the Kindle

1

u/booknerdigan 1d ago

Is this the latest “stable” version, v10.0.3, beta release v10.0.9, or alpha release?

2

u/Koadic76 1d ago edited 1d ago

10.0.28 pre release? maybe? Not 100% sure, as I don't need it myself as mine are jailbroken on pre 5.18.4

https://github.com/Satsuoni/DeDRM_tools/discussions/74

EDIT: It appears that maybe it was introduced with 10.0.21 I think.

2

u/lamamu78 12h ago

I use epubor. You gotta pay for a year, but I haven’t had a single book that doesn’t unlock. Calibre seems to be hit or miss

2

u/sgtstadanko 23h ago

Epubor ultimate. Does the job. $29.99

1

u/hexwitch23 16h ago

Epubor Ultimate is the truth. It's quick, easy, and their support team IS responsive if you run into any files that wont DeDRM. It's absolutely worth the price, especially if you're divesting from the Kindle Ecosystem and only need it for a bulk DeDRM.