[reemixx]

No, it won't. When you download to the computer, you get another pop-up asking which Kindle to download for.

Seconded. When you download a book, it's only ever for a single Kindle. If you want to read that book on a DIFFERENT Kindle on the same account, you have to download it for that specific Kindle (Amazon lets you choose which Kindle you're downloading for).

I think this is a pretty important thing to note. It means multiple backups of books for different Kindles (one lot of books for your K1, one lot of books for your K2, etc). An application such as Calibre comes in handy to organise your books when you have multiple Kindles, as you can just tag each book with the name of the Kindle it belongs to. No more getting confused.

Also, just a word of caution. Think twice about relying on anyone other than yourself to backup your books. I would never rely on Amazon 100%. I sincerely recommend keeping a local copy of all your books. It's not like their file size is a big deal, either.

 

[DD]

Seconded. When you download a book, it's only ever for a single Kindle. If you want to read that book on a DIFFERENT Kindle on the same account, you have to download it for that specific Kindle (Amazon lets you choose which Kindle you're downloading for).

I think this is a pretty important thing to note. It means multiple backups of books for different Kindles (one lot of books for your K1, one lot of books for your K2, etc). An application such as Calibre comes in handy to organise your books when you have multiple Kindles, as you can just tag each book with the name of the Kindle it belongs to. No more getting confused.

Also, just a word of caution. Think twice about relying on anyone other than yourself to backup your books. I would never rely on Amazon 100%. I sincerely recommend keeping a local copy of all your books. It's not like their file size is a big deal, either.

reemixx, how do you 'tag' a book in Calibre? I went through individually and changed the metadata title for my K1 and K2 books to indicate which Kindle they were for. Is this what you mean or is there an actual tag feature? I can't seem to find how to do it.

 

[sherylb]

Also, just a word of caution. Think twice about relying on anyone other than yourself to backup your books. I would never rely on Amazon 100%. I sincerely recommend keeping a local copy of all your books. It's not like their file size is a big deal, either.

I bought my Kindle specifically so I could have a portable library, so I have all my books on my KK and backed up to my laptop and to a thumb drive. Call me paranoid, but I just don't like the thought of having to rely on Amazon to keep my books for me. Although the books I have bought from Amazon are only about a quarter of what I have on my KK, I still have many I have not read yet and since they are bought and paid for, I'm definitely not letting them out of my sight.
When I want to read a book I know I have in my library, I don't want to have to go to Amazon and download it or hook up to a computer to transfer it.
And as for backing up in two places...computer drives crash and thumb drives are so small they can be misplaced!

 

[L.Canton]

I back mine up to a thumb drive, as well as a secondary hard-drive that I use as an archive. The peace of mind is well worth it for me.

 

[DD]

I bought my Kindle specifically so I could have a portable library, so I have all my books on my KK and backed up to my laptop and to a thumb drive. Call me paranoid, but I just don't like the thought of having to rely on Amazon to keep my books for me. Although the books I have bought from Amazon are only about a quarter of what I have on my KK, I still have many I have not read yet and since they are bought and paid for, I'm definitely not letting them out of my sight.
When I want to read a book I know I have in my library, I don't want to have to go to Amazon and download it or hook up to a computer to transfer it.
And as for backing up in two places...computer drives crash and thumb drives are so small they can be misplaced!

I'm so glad I'm not the only 'paranoid' one.

 

[sherylb]

I'm so glad I'm not the only 'paranoid' one.

Let's just say I have trust issues!

 

[Steph H]

Ain't just you guys, I have mine backed up from KK to my hard drive...and those directories backed up to another hard drive on the same computer...and THOSE directories backed up to another external hard drive.

I'm cautious.

 

[sherylb]

Ain't just you guys, I have mine backed up from KK to my hard drive...and those directories backed up to another hard drive on the same computer...and THOSE directories backed up to another external hard drive.

I'm cautious.

I feel much better now!

 

[DD]

Yes, that's a good name for it - cautious.

Seriously, though, wouldn't Amazon be a prime target for someone hacking into their files and destroying the backup files.  I mean, if they can do it to banks, they can do it to Amazon - just for the sick thrills these people get from it.  Better safe than sorry, I say.

 

[MAGreen]

Amazon is cautious too...they have everything backed up several times.

 

[marianneg]

Amazon is cautious too...they have everything backed up several times.

Yeah, I'm almost positive that amazon has more backups than anyone here

 

[reemixx]

reemixx, how do you 'tag' a book in Calibre? I went through individually and changed the metadata title for my K1 and K2 books to indicate which Kindle they were for. Is this what you mean or is there an actual tag feature? I can't seem to find how to do it.

There's an actual tag feature.

One of the fields in Calibre is called 'tags', right there with 'title', 'author', 'publisher', etc. (if it's not there for you, check to see if you have the latest version... I have no idea what the older versions did/didn't have). You separate tags with commas. Just to confuse you, everything within each of these fields for each book is referred to as 'tags' within Calibre, even though one of the fields itself is titled 'tags'.

If you have multiple Kindles, go ahead and tag each book K1 or K2 (or something else of your choice to differentiate them) within the 'tags' field.

Calibre has some very powerful sorting options, which makes it extremely easy to view certain books only for your K1, or your K2, or any other methods of sorting that appeal to you. You can click on the tag icon on the lower right hand corner, which will bring up the sidebar. You can use any of those tags in the sidebar (and multiple tags!) to sort your books. You can sort by Authors, Series, Formats, Publishers, News and Tags.

For example, you could look for ONLY books published by Project Gutenburg that have the tag K1 and does not include the author Charlotte Brontë.

Calibre is great for massive libraries. Great piece of software. Love it.

 

[DD]

Yes, I enjoy the sorting features like being able to enter azw and it only lists the Amazon books.

I do have the latest version and I see the tag sorting option.  I just can't see where to add a tag to a book.  I must be missing something but I searched all over and went to the help site.  Just don't see it.

Thanks.

EDIT:  O-o-p's, sorry.  Just found the tag editor in the metadata screen!  Thanks.  I am really liking Calibre the more I use it.  I wish I could set the author sort to "Last, First".  It always wanst to do it with First Name then a comma, Last Name and then end with a comma.  Can't find a setting to keep it from doing that and I've been going in to change them by hand.

 

[reemixx]

DD: You can double click in the tags field to add/edit tags (you can do this with any field). No need to edit the metadata just to add tags. Actually, I rarely use the metadata screen at all.

Yes, the 'author sort' metadata is a bit of a pain, as it doesn't do last,first automatically. I may start editing it manually, and continue to change it each time from now on. I might take this up with the developer at some point, or at least find out what he has to say about it. An option to toggle between first,last and last,first would be perfect, and should be dead simple.

 

[DD]

DD: You can double click in the tags field to add/edit tags (you can do this with any field). No need to edit the metadata just to add tags. Actually, I rarely use the metadata screen at all.

Yes, the 'author sort' metadata is a bit of a pain, as it doesn't do last,first automatically. I may start editing it manually, and continue to change it each time from now on. I might take this up with the developer at some point, or at least find out what he has to say about it. An option to toggle between first,last and last,first would be perfect, and should be dead simple.

Oh, yes, now I see the double-click on the "tags" column works nicely. Part of the problem was that the "tags" column was not visible by default. I had to discover the little 'configure' button all the way to the right above the book list to add the column.

I got all my author sorts done by hand (a few each day) and now change each book as I add it. When you have a lot of books by one author, the 'change metadata in bulk' option works nicely for this.

 

[legalbs2]

Just an odd observation about backing up Amazon books.  I bought a book for me and another for my hubby.  It is on the KDX.  When we finish reading them, I will archive them onto my computer.  I put all the books we might enjoy reading on the Save For Later area of the Kindle.  Then download a sample and only buy if I really want to read the book.  I see no reason to keep books we have already read on the Kindle.  But backing up to another device the books you have purchased makes a lot of sense.

Anyone know how to read a Kindle book on the computer?  I downloaded Adobe Digital Editions that allows me to download and read eBooks from ebook.com, but is there a way to open the Kindle only books?  Can I download directly from Amazon to my computer a Kindle book and read it in .pdf format?  I am a newbie to this Kindle stuff.

 

[Ann in Arlington]

At this time you can't read Kindle books (format .azw, bought from Amazon) on your computer.  You can only read books backed up this way by re-transfering it back to the Kindle it was originally downloaded to.

 

[legalbs2]

Thanks, Ann.  Just a note re .pdf files:  When transferred to my KDX, they appear as they originally were, i.e., small text size.  You cannot increase the font size on your KDX to read them comfortably except for reading in landscape mode.  If I copy my .pdf files into a .txt or a .doc format will Kindle allow the use of resizing the fonts?

 

[legalbs2]

Also, does anyone know anything about the MP3 files onto a Kindle?  I have iTunes and cannot play .m4a files on the Kindle.  Is there a way to make the .m4a files into MP3 files?  And, when I go to the Experimental area of my KDX, I cannot toggle down to the MP3 area.

 

[Ann in Arlington]

If I copy my .pdf files into a .txt or a .doc format will Kindle allow the use of resizing the fonts?

I would guess so, but they'd no longer be PDF's. The point of the DX was to be able to display PDF's natively, without converting to another file type. If they're mostly text it's not big deal, but if there are images -- drawings, charts, etc -- they won't convert well.

Or such is my understanding. . . .not having a DX in hand as yet, I can't be sure.