Loading books to your new Kindle

Yes, unless you backed up your [kindle]:/system/collections.json file.

BJ Wright -- Sorry, but if you have de-registered the old Kindle there is no backup on Collections. You will have to start again. I assume you have since I'm late getting back to this.

Thank you so much fro posting this. I bought a K3 last week and I transfered all my books manually one at a time and did the same to put them on my collections (the ppl on Amazon told me to do that) and now it seems that my device has a problem with the battery so if I have to exchange it and have to do all this again yoyr explanation about how to put the books all at once is a big time saver.

Susana,
If Kindle Support sends you a replacement Kindle, be sure to keep your CURRENT Kindle registered and active, as it will be the source for getting your Collections onto your replacement Kindle.

Once you get your replacement Kindle, its own Archived Items folder will have the titles of all the books you have bought but which are not on your new Kindle yet.

So, go to the Archived Items folder of your replacement Kindle and click on each title, which will download each to your newer Kindle.

I tend to press 'Back' button after each click has started a download, as it leads me 'back' to the list of Archived Items and while it's downloading the last clicked-title, I can choose the next title and click on that one also, and then click 'back' to go on. It's just faster for me to use the Back button for getting a lot of Archived Items onto my current Kindle.

AFTER you have all your books on your replacement Kindle, then go into Archived Items folder once more.

There you'll see "Add Other Device Collections" ...

Click on that and it'll let you select which other device's Collection structure (folder-like-labels) you'd want to add to your replacement Kindle.

Choose what should be the only other Kindle on your list and it'll bring in the Collection structure used on your older Kindle,and then all your Kindle books on your replacement Kindle should automatically go into the imported Collection of your new Kindle.

You would then sort your Home screen by Collections to see if it's the way you want it all to be.

I should add that books not purchased from Amazon will not automatically go into the new Collections structure on your replacement Kindle, as they don't keep records of non-Amazon books in your Amazon library. You'd have to manually add those to your new Kindle's Collections.

Hope that all works for you! It'll save some time.

- Andrys
http://kindleworld.blogspot.com

Thanks Arts&History Fan, this will surely save me time. I have 600+ books on my Kindle and last time it took me 2 days to transfer all the content. With the collections arranging themselves automatically it should be half the time at least.

Susana, collections can also be transferred by copying [kindle]:/system/collections.json file.

Edit: Oops, I already said that...

Apologies in advance if this has already been discussed: I'm moving from a K3 to a KTouch. I understand that if I sideload all the books from my computer to the KT (having first copied them from k3 to a directory there) and then copy over the *\system\collections.json, Collections should work as they do on the K3. This makes me wonder if one could just copy all the index files from *\system\Search Indexes to spare the machine all of the indexing. (A reboot might be needed.)

Have any of you tried this?

Thanks in advance.

I don't have a Fire (and won't until I move back) but I do know that the DRM for Amazon purchased books will not allow the copying of a book from one device to another directly as each one is coded for a specific device (without some intermediary stripping of the DRM--I know that exists but I have no idea how it is done). Copying and side-loading would only work with non-DRM titles purchased or obtained off-Amazon. (I've heard rumors some Amazon titles are DRM free but I don't know which ones are). The DRM issue holds true across all other platforms so even though I don't have a Fire it is surely not exempt.

One thing about the eInk Kindles, you have to load the books first, then import the 'other device collections' for the books to go into the proper place. Have NO IDEA if this is true about Fire of course. Maybe you could sideload the collections???

JTG

Chateau,
In moving from your K3 to a KTouch you can't sideload for the reasons Jackie gave.

First, keep your older Kindle active, so your new one can request its Collection structure, which is saved at Amazon. (Some sell their older Kindle to someone before setting up their new one, and then there's no Collection structure to import later.)

The good part is that your KTouch will show all your Kindle books (they're always kept in your server library for you to re-download at any time) in the KTouch's folder "Archived Items" and. To get the Kindle books you want to be on your KTouch, you can just look at the list and tap on each book that you want transferred/downloaded to your KTouch. It'll keep up with you.

On a home screen or Archived Items list, you can swipe up to see what more is below and swipe down to see what's above. You can also swipe to the right to see what's below (what's next) or swipe left to see what's above (what is nearer the beginning of the list).

And just tapping all the book titles you want transferred, it does that while you're doing that tapping. It takes a while to download a lot of books, especially if there are some huge ones like encyclopedias or even the free CT series like Earth Sciences or their Biology one as the latter two take the space of 500 novels (500M).

Once you have downloaded the books you want, do what Jackie said and do a Menu/Import Collections and your Collection structure will be downloaded and your books will just go into them.

The collections.json file can help if you didn't keep your older Kindle.
But the regular way is the most reliable and easier.

It's a very smooth transfer this way.

- Andrys
http://kindleworld.blogspot.com

Oops, it was early (for me) and for some reason I read that the question was for a Fire, not the Touch. I don't have that one yet either, but at least the eInks are more alike! A&HF/KW/Andrys gave you a much more complete answer :)

JTG

Your post was VERY helpful, thank you!!

Annette,
Glad it helped :-)

Jackie,
Everything you said about what you thought was the Fire does work for the KTouch transfer and it was a good explanation. I just added some detail from having tried it the other day and being impressed it's much easier than before.

I do wish the KTouch did more of what the K3 has done but there are compensations.

- Andrys
http://kindleworld.blogpost.com

Arts&historyFan.....what do you think the K3 does that the Kindle Touch does NOT do?

Annette,
K3 has
. free 3g web browsing (that is very slow but works)
. does landscape mode so we can actually read PDFs
. lets us get get quickly to a title with "G" starting it from
start of home screen via the one-letter entry + 5-way navigator

But the 3G does pinch-zoom instead of those awful rectangle blocks with fixed increases only in limited areas.

I miss the always visible and accessible Home and Back buttons, but once you know how to find those options, it's okay.

Despite my regrets, It's the Kindle Touch I use now when reading at home (it's beautiful for reading and the background is closer to almost-white than my K3), and the K3 is taken with me when I go out because of the free 3G web on it.

I can't use the Touch keyboard w/o constant mistakes so I miss the clunky physical keyboard of the K3. Yet, I favor the KTouch now, for everyday reading. Go figure.

I have a blog article about the unexpected aspects of or changes seen in the KTouch from how things are done on the K3, at
http://kindleworld.blogspot.com/2011/11/kindle-touch-3g-unexpected-aspects-and.html

Shortcut: http://bit.ly/kwkt-1

- Andrys
http://kindleworld.blogspot.com

That's me all right, I continue to make mistakes when using the virtual keyboard plus I also miss the visible Home and back button, ESPECIALLY the back button, also have trouble when in Home screen, to go to next page, one of the titles comes up instead, so I have to swipe across. Also the bookmark is hard to touch at the top of the page, as there is usually a word which pops up with dictionary explanation! Definitely a learning curve on the TOUCH.
Like you though, I read on KTouch mostly at home, K3 on the road, but the KTOUCH screen is marvelous and better on my eyes than the K3, especially when I read for a long time.

Will check out your blog article! Thanks for all the info!

Thanks to everyone who answered. I suppose I'll find out tomorrow (if the predicted delivery date is accurate).

What I was really asking about was copying the index files from the old K3 to the new KT., to avoid hours of indexing on the new machine. After posting here, I realized that I could write Amazon Kindle Customer Service. I received a reply today, and am assured that books MUST be indexed on each new machine--no, I can't just copy them.

As to copy protection: Both machines are registered to the same account. I understand that one can choose to download from Amazon to a PC and then move the file to a Kindle device without problem. My guess is that the copy protection is in the file, and the properly registered device recognizes the titles purchased on that account, regardless of how they got there. Again, I guess I'll find out tomorrow. (Most of my books are public domain, and would have to be copied this way regardless. And I would hate to lose all the free samples, which Amazon doesn't archive.)

The year-old K3 is going to a family member and both will remain registered to the same account.

Thanks again for your responses.

Chateau,
There's a field that holds a key specific to a device for Amazon-purchased rights-protected books.

On one account you can use Amazon's ManageYourKindle page to 'send' a book to up to 6 other devices, depending on publisher restrictions, and the Amazon servers send these and insert a key for the subsequent device getting it. When sending to a computer, it is keyed specific to whatever device you name.

What we're saying is that you can't copy an Amazon-purchased book from one device straight to another via USB without the server processes adding a device-key to the book file.

Public domain books would be via USB, yes. EXCEPT that now we can send ourselves public domain books with our 5-gig Kindle Cloud and so we can also get them from there to other Kindle devices (though I thought there was a minor restriction on personal docs transferring) when we might want to use them on more than one for whatever reasons.

I have a pdf on manageyourkindle's personal docs area and was able to get it to the Kindle Fire that way via the web browser, but am not sure what steps I went through to do it.

- Andrys
http://kindleworld.blogspot.com

If you have notes and highlights in your books, you will not get them on the new device unless you download WIRELESSLY. You can trigger this from either the Archived Items list on the Kindle, or from the Manage Your Kindle page, DELIVER TO... under Actions.

The download to computer and copy over via usb will only get you the book files. It doesn't get your the notes, highlights, bookmarks and last place read. And no Synching and Checking later on will get them restored to you. You would have to remove the book from the Kindle, and download wirelessly.