"This book can be used on six devices": How do you free up Kindle book licenses?

[CS]

This may not even apply anymore, but in the early days of the Kindle, most books carried a warning along the lines of, "This book can be used on up to six devices." I heard horror stories of people having to call Kindle customer service to get those licenses freed up, which was done book by book and took days.

Assuming those licenses are still in effect, is there any way for a user to free up those slots? Is it just a matter of erasing everything on an older Kindle and de-registering it, or is there more to the process?

[KBoards.com]

[luvmy4brats]

Usually you just need to delete it off of one of your Kindles now. I usually do a sync and check for new items after I delete so that the system knows it has been deleted. That usually works just fine.

[sebat]

I'm with Luv, I think if you delete it, you now get that license back.

Something similar came up in a different thread the other day...
If you are in the process of prepping the old Kindle for sale or give away, it's important to do things in the proper order so your licenses are released. 

First, "restore to factory defaults". That will wipe everything off the Kindle and restore the licenses to you.
Then, deregister.

If you did it the reverse, I believe you would lose the licensees since Amazon wouldn't know who they belonged to.

[SusanCassidy]

I think reset to factory default unregisters the Kindle.  It should, after all, since there is no registration at the factory.  Personally, I would delete all the books, sync, then reset to factory defaults.

[Ann in Arlington]

I think reset to factory default unregisters the Kindle.  It should, after all, since there is no registration at the factory.  Personally, I would delete all the books, sync, then reset to factory defaults.

Except that if I order a Kindle through my account it arrives from the factory already registered but with no books.

That said, I remember when I reset my DX to factory to give it to my aunt, and then went to de-register it, I found it already was.  I remember because I was surprised by that.  So I am still not sure.

But I do think sebat is correct in that if you de-register and THEN reset to factory, the licenses might not be freed.

Note that, to be sure the licenses are freed up, you should delete them using the Kindle. And, as Heather suggests, then connect wirelessly and do a sync.  If you just delete the files while the Kindle is in 'drive' mode connected to your PC, I'm not sure the licenses will actually get freed up.  So you either have to do them one by one, or do ALL at once with the 'reset to factory' option.

In other related information:  if there's no device limit specified on the book's page, it's 6.  If it's something else it will specify how many licenses or say 'unlimited'.

[sebat]

I think reset to factory default unregisters the Kindle.  It should, after all, since there is no registration at the factory.  Personally, I would delete all the books, sync, then reset to factory defaults.

You're right it deregisters.  I think Amazon has it set up correctly to restore the licenses before it deregisters when you use the "restore to factory defaults".  I've had 6 kindles plus keep a back up copy on my HD and a copy in Kindle for PC...I haven't had any license issues yet.  

Sorry I didn't make that clear...I was thinking back to the other conversation...they wanted to deregister and then restore to factory defaults. Just wanted to make it clear that wasn't the way to do it and made it more confusing instead.

Your way sure works too.  

[CS]

Thank you so much for all your help. One more question: I have several preorders tied to the older Kindle, with no way to change them. What will happen when I de-register the K1? Will those preorders transfer over to my new Kindle?

[Ann in Arlington]

Preorders won't switch.  If the Kindle identified is no longer registered, they still get purchased and will be in MYK.  So the thing to do is pay attention to when they're supposed to come out and pull them via Archived items onto the Kindle where you want them.

It would be nice if we could switch where a pre-order is delivered -- but it doesn't happen all that often as to be too much of a problem, I guess.

[CS]

Preorders won't switch.  If the Kindle identified is no longer registered, they still get purchased and will be in MYK.  So the thing to do is pay attention to when they're supposed to come out and pull them via Archived items onto the Kindle where you want them.

It would be nice if we could switch where a pre-order is delivered -- but it doesn't happen all that often as to be too much of a problem, I guess.

Thanks, Ann. Do you know if those licenses will still be connected to my K1? I want to avoid that too.

[Ann in Arlington]

Thanks, Ann. Do you know if those licenses will still be connected to my K1? I want to avoid that too.

I'm not sure what you're asking. 

When you buy a book, it belongs to your account.  When you download a copy to a specific Kindle, it's coded to that device.

You can download it to up to (usually) six devices on the account.  ("Devices" means kindles and 'kindle for' apps.)

If you load it onto A, you can't copy it from A to B.  But you can re-download it from Amazon to B.  (And C, and D, and E, and F.) Whether you leave it on A or delete it is immaterial.

If you load it onto A, B, C, D, E, and F you can not load it onto G until you delete it from one of the others.  You can't copy it from one of the others to G either.

[sebat]

If that Kindle is no longer on your account and the book never downloads, I can't see why it would use up one of your licenses. 

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