There are different ways to remove kindle drm when you “Google” on the internet. But are they really valid? Along with the Kindle forced to upgrade to the latest version 1.30 without permission, things just got a little harder for folks who want to remove kindle drm from their purchase kindle books.

Here are two 100% effective ways to removing Kindle DRM and converting Kindle to epub/pdf/azw3/docs.

Tools you’ll need:

New Method — “Download & Transfer via USB”

If you have any kindle eink devices register with your Amazon account, you can use this method. It helps to remove kindle drm from older kindle books and even the new published kindle books in 2023.

Download and Transfer via USB Kindle (Last Update 2023)

Method 1 — Use Older Version Kindle for PC/Mac(Version 1.17)

(This method works for: Windows 7, 8, 10, 11 &  Mac 10.12 to 10.14.)

If you are running Catalina or Big Sur, you must use K4Mac 1.25+. Older Kindle for Mac will not work on Catalina or later Mac OS because Kindle app older version is 32-bit, and Catalina and later Mac os require 64-bit. Please follow 100% effective method to remove kindle drm on Mac Catalina and Big Sur.

Make sure you’re not using any current version of the kindle application as the kfx format books can’t be unlocked yet.

If you are using the latest version (higher than version 1.17) of Kindle application, please revert to older kindle version. You can either choose to downgrade kindle app to older version manually or automatically. If I were you, I will choose the auto downgrade method cause it is much easier.

How to revert to older version of Kindle for PC/Mac manually?

1) De-register Kindle for PC/Mac. Run Kindle for PC, go to Tools>>Options>>Registration>>Deregister.

Then check “I understand that deregistering will cause all content I have downloaded from the Kindle store to be removed from this device” and then click on “Deregister”.

2) Uninstall Kindle for PC/Mac.

3) Delete the Kindle for PC/Mac preferences.

 PC: Delete the directory here:

C:\Users\UserName\Documents\My Kindle Content

Mac: Delete the directory  here: (If there are both, please delete all of them.)

/Users/UserName/Library/Application Support/Kindle/My Kindle Content

Or

/Users/UserName/Library/Containers/com.amazon.Kindle/Data/Library/Application Support/Kindle/My Kindle Content

4) Download and reinstall Kindle for PC 1.17 or Kindle for Mac 1.17.

5）Register Kindle for PC/Mac with your Amazon account.

Now download your kindle books via older version of Kindle for PC/MAC. Don’t use the files you have downloaded previously.

Run iSummersoft Kindle Converter. Drag & drop kindle for PC/Mac books from left to right panel.

Select the output format, and then click “Convert to XX” to start the conversion.

Once finished, a round yellow check mark will appear. Just click it to find your converted drm-free kindle books.

Method 2. What if I cannot revert to older Kindle app? –For those who running Mac Catalina 10.15 or Mac Big sur 11.1

(This method works for: Windows 7, 8, 10, 11 & Mac 10.12 and later version.)

Cases that you cannot revert to older version of Kindle for PC/Mac

This method will disable kindle kfx format so that you can download kindle books with easier kindle drm.

Update:

If you are running Kindle for PC 1.35 or later version, please use the auto-degrade menu in iSummersoft Converter to downgrade kindle for PC to version 1.32.

If you are using Kindle for Mac 1.32 or later version, please use the auto-downgrade button in iSummersoft Kindle Converter to degrade kindle for Mac to version 1.31.

Remove Kindle DRM from Kindle App 1.25+(including 1.31)

1) Exit Kindle for PC/MAC.

2) Disable Kindle kfx format on Kindle for PC/Mac, delete downloaded kindle books and re-download them again.

Open terminal, cut and paste the following command to it and press “Enter”.

chmod -x /Applications/Kindle.app/Contents/MacOS/renderer-test

Note: This prevents the renderer-test program from executing, blocking the use of KFX.

If you are failed with a permission error, try again with sudo:

sudo chmod -x /Applications/Kindle.app/Contents/MacOS/renderer-test

Then input passwords and press “Enter”.

Launch Kindle for mac, any books previously downloaded in KFX format will no longer open. Remove previous downloaded kindle books and right click the book cover, select “Download” or use menu bar “File > Download” to get your kindle books re-downloaded again.

Note:

Please don’t read/open this book until you have removed DRM from it successfully. If you open the book, you end up with .kcr, in which case remove it and re-download per above without opening it.

3) Run iSummersoft Kindle Converter. Add the Kindle books to the right column.

4) Then pick the output format and click “Convert to xxx” to convert kindle books to epub, pdf, docx, azw3 or Mobi format.

Once finished, click “Open” and you’ll find your converted kindle books.

Removing Kindle DRM FAQS

How to fix Kindle for Mac will quit unexpectedly after executing this command?

Does your K4Mac 1.30 crash with a “Kindle quit unexpectedly” error message every time you close it?

Answer: That’s because you have disabled renderer-test. If you’ve applied chmod -x to 1.30 (and possibly 1.29) Kindle for Mac will crash if you try to open and read a book (as opposed to just downloading it).

If you want to read on kindle for Mac, stick with 1.28 or earlier. Or after removing the DRM from your Kindle books, you can run the following command:

 chmod +x /Applications/Kindle.app/Contents/MacOS/renderer-test

Then delete downloaded books and re-download them again.

Does this method work on Mac Big Sur?

Sure, this method works on both Mac Catalina and Mac big Sur. It even works on almost all PC and Mac platform.

How to stop kindle for PC/Mac update?

Amazon has gotten aggressive with forced auto-updates, even if you have unchecked auto-updates in Preferences.

Workaround 1: Under Kindle->Preferences->Updates I unchecked “Automatically install updates when they are available without asking me”

Workaround 2:

On Mac:

To get around this, go to User > Library > Application Support > Kindle folder(~/Library/Application Support/Kindle folder) and replace the “updates” folder with an empty txt file named “updates” (no extension).

It always asks on startup if you want to download the new version, please always choose “Skip this version” and it will remain on 1.17. Then apply chmod -w to the “updates” folder. Now K4Mac will ask if you want to download a new version every single time you launch the app, and you can choose no.

There isn’t an “Updates” folder in my ~/Library/Application Support/Kindle folder.

That looks like the auto update hasn’t happened to you yet. You can still use the afore mentioned method to stop kindle auto-update.

On PC:

On PCs where it’s installed for a single user, the location is %LocalAppData%\Amazon\Kindle. Please create an empty txt file named updates with no extension and placed it there.

Why install older version of Kindle for PC/Mac?

From kindle app 1.25+, kindle ebooks are encrypted with a tougher DRM which is uncrackable for now. If your kindle books downloaded via Kindle app 1.25+, there is no way to remove kindle DRM. Therefore, we have to remove all books downloaded from kindle for pc/mac 1.25+ and re-download them again via older kindle for PC/Mac.

Conclusion

No matter you are on Windows or Mac, even Mac big sur, you can find a way to strip drm from your kindle books. But you need to follow the instructions step-by-step.