I found the easiest way to download Kindle books before Amazon's ban kicks in

Summary

Starting February 26, Amazon is removing the option to “Download & Transfer via USB” Kindle e-books. This means you’ll no longer be able to download your Kindle books onto your computer.
If you have hundreds of Kindle books you want to download before the deadline, you can install the Tampermonkey Chrome extension and and add in a script that helps you download all your books rather than having to manually do it yourself one by one.
One user on Reddit claims they used this method to download 5,000 of their Kindle e-books in just a few hours.

Amazon recently announced that starting on February 26, it will remove the ability to “Download & Transfer via USB” Kindle e-books. This means you won’t be able to download your purchased Kindle books onto your computer anymore. With that date fast approaching, if you have hundreds or thousands of Kindle books, downloading them all so you have a backup could take a lot of time.

Luckily, thanks to some crafty Kindle fans (via Reddit), downloading all your Kindle books onto your computer before the February 26 deadline just got a lot easier. Essentially, this method runs a script that clicks on all the buttons needed to download your Kindle e-books for you, rather than manually doing it hundreds or thousands of times yourself.

To get this to work, you’ll need to download a Chrome extension and copy and paste a script into it. If you’re unsure or worried about how to do either of those things, don’t worry. This guide will tell you everything you need to know. Since this guide revolves around using a Chrome extension, you’ll need to use the Chrome web browser to get this to work, which you can download on Google’s website if you don’t have it.

Google Chrome

Love it or hate it, Google Chrome is the biggest web browser in the world. The app features personalized news articles, quick links to your favourite sites, downloads, Google Search and more.

One of Kindle’s most useful features was just discontinued for no real reason

Kindle users on Reddit are reporting receiving a warning message from Amazon about a feature going away soon.

How to download all your Kindle books quickly

You’ll be downloading your expansive library in no time

Tampermonkey download Kindle library script code screenshot

Unfortunately, since Amazon doesn’t have a giant download all button for your Kindle e-books, there are a few steps you’ll have to follow to download all your Kindle books faster. First you will need to download the Chrome extension Tampermonkey, and then add in a script to the software to get the process started.

Step 1: Downloading the Tampermonkey Chrome extension

1. Go to the Tampermonkey page on the Chrome web store.

2. Click Add to Chrome to install the extension.

3. Click Extensions in the top-right (the puzzle icon) and pin Tampermonkey to Chrome, this will make it easier to find.

Step 2: Add the download script to Tampermonkey

1. Head to this GitHub page, and copy all the lines of the script for downloading Kindle books.

2. Next, open Tampermonkey and select Create a new Script.

3. Delete any lines of script already there and then paste all the lines of the code copied from GitHub earlier into the script.

4. If you’re outside the US, you will need to modify line 7, labeled “@match” in the script, to match your Amazon region. The default is set to Amazon.com. For example, if you’re in Canada, you’ll need to change it to Amazon.ca. In the UK, Amazon.co.uk.

5. Click File and then Save.

6. The script should be enabled automatically, but double-check Tampermonkey to make sure it is.

Step 3: Run the script on Amazon

1. Go to your Amazon account’s Digital Content page.

2. Select Books.

3. Since the script is enabled, a button labeled “Trigger Download” should appear in the top-right corner of Chrome.

4. Click Trigger Download.

5. The script will now automatically begin to download all your Kindle books to your computer’s downloads folder.

This guide uses an
updated version
of the script which automatically goes to the next page on Amazon for your Kindle books, since only 25 books can appear at a time on each page. After it downloads all the books on a page, it should automatically go to the next one. If you’d rather navigate to the next page yourself, you can use Chris Hollindale’s original script by copying it from
GitHub
.

The length of the process varies

If you only have a couple hundred e-books it shouldn’t take too long

A woman's hand holding a Kindle Paperwhite 2024.

How long this process will take depends on how many Kindle books you have. If you have less than a hundred, it shouldn’t take very long at all. However, if you have thousands of books, this might take quite a bit of time still, so you might have to let your computer run this script for a while to get them all downloaded.

Regardless, if you have a massive Kindle book library, using this method will save you from having to manually download hundreds of books. Just let the script run and do its thing while you go about your day. One Reddit user claims they used this method to download over 5000 e-books in just a few hours, so it does work even if you have a massive library. If you want to visit the original Reddit thread where the method in this guide was found, you can check it out below.