Amazon will pull support for some older Kindles

satanboy

satanboy

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“Starting May 20, 2026 – 14 to 18 years after their initial launches – we are discontinuing support for Kindle devices released in 2012 or earlier,” reads the email sent out to some Kindle owners.

After 20 May, your Kindle (whichever pre-2012 model it may be) will continue to function, though not what we’d call ‘normally’. But it will function. Owners will be unable to “purchase, borrow, or download additional books on them.” You know, the reason we buy e-readers from Amazon in the first place.


Fear not, for setting sail on the high seas may still be the way to go here. Sideloading appears to have been left untouched, allowing users to hook up their e-reader (via micro-USB, the horror) and add books manually. How you attained those books shouldn’t be of any concern to Amazon since it doesn’t want your money.

So you can still read on your Kindle. Fine. But the email didn’t stop there. It also brought forth a warning not to factory reset your Kindle beyond that date. Doing so will brick the device for good. Amazon’s exact words: “If you deregister or factory reset these devices, you will not be able to re-register or use these devices in any way.”

That’s really great, Amazon. Brick the device that folks have spent their hard-earned money on. Even all these years later, the family’s first-gen Kindle Keyboard (it’s essentially an heirloom at this stage) is still going strong. Amazon’s latest update will change that, not only for our model, but for six others just like it as well.

Kindle models released before 2013:​

  • Kindle (1st Generation) – 2007​

  • Kindle (2nd Generation) – 2009​

  • Kindle DX (2nd Generation) – 2009​

  • Kindle Keyboard (3rd Generation) – 2010​

  • Kindle Touch (4th Generation) – 2011​

  • Kindle 4th Generation – 2011​

  • Kindle 5th Generation – 2012​

stuff.co.za

Amazon will pull support for some older Kindles in May, putting your e-reader at risk

Is your first-gen Paperwhite still going strong? That might just be the impetus behind Amazon's latest decision to sunset several...
stuff.co.za stuff.co.za
 
Well, no point in buying one of these if they plan to brick their perfectly working hardware. Corps will find every way to shake you down for more cash. There is no bar that is too low.
 
w1z4rd said:
Well, no point in buying one of these if they plan to brick their perfectly working hardware. Corps will find every way to shake you down for more cash. There is no bar that is too low.
Click to expand...
Well it is pretty ancient. I am suprised it can still connect to kindle because the HTML code and auth certificate or whatever it needs must be super outdated. and they must be keeping a seperate data base or something.
 
RedViking said:
Well it is pretty ancient. I am suprised it can still connect to kindle because the HTML code and auth certificate or whatever it needs must be super outdated. and they must be keeping a seperate data base or something.
Click to expand...
It would be great if someone could custom develop some FOSS firmware for the kindle. Kinda like we have OpenWRT for routers. It would be great if someone could develop a system to continue people to allow them use their older hardware.
 
saor said:
Create a device that lasts long enough that you need to find a way to make it obsolete so people are forced to buy a new one?

This will affect quite a few people as those old devices just keep on going.
Click to expand...

To be fair we are talking about devices that are almost two decades old. I don’t see the issue here. The least oldest is 14 years old.

Yeah this isn’t a big deal.
 
phoenix99 said:
Support Kobo instead
Click to expand...
help.kobo.com

Products no longer manufactured or supported by Kobo

Some Kobo eReaders, tablets, and Kobo apps are no longer manufactured or supported. This means that some Kobo products won't be able to download content or get updates. To improve our eReaders, app...
help.kobo.com help.kobo.com
The following eReaders, tablets, and apps are no longer supported:

Kobo eReaders​

  • Kobo mini - Model number: N705
  • Kobo WiFi - Model numbers: N647 and N47B
  • Kobo Original - Model number: N416
Click to expand...
 
w1z4rd said:
It would be great if someone could custom develop some FOSS firmware for the kindle. Kinda like we have OpenWRT for routers. It would be great if someone could develop a system to continue people to allow them use their older hardware.
Click to expand...

They have.

Can’t remember what it’s called but it exists.

Possibly even why they are doing this now.

***
 
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Far more annoying to me is that they recently nerfed all the Amazon Kids stuff for iOS and you can no longer use it or download it forcing you to use Amazon devices instead.

Problem? Well my kids have Amazon Fire tablets and can’t stand them for all the other issues they things so now we simply don’t use the Amazon product af all.

The real annoyance comes in that you can’t sign into a Kids account on the Kindle app so they have to use the Kindle directly which isn’t always great for kids books and comic style stuff.

Worse still is that Alexa is a useless piece of **** abomination, even though they each have one on their bedside and I end up needing to stream every audiobook for them because it simply doesn’t work if they do it themselves.

Audible is another ****up because again they don’t support Kids profiles properly and these aren’t the same profiles as Amazon Kids either so now you need to sign in with an Adult account and then switch it to Kids mode and manually share stuff…you already shared in the “other” Amazon Kids.

Trillion dollar company getting things so so wrong.
 
w1z4rd said:
Well, no point in buying one of these if they plan to brick their perfectly working hardware. Corps will find every way to shake you down for more cash. There is no bar that is too low.
Click to expand...
I think it's more because these devices can't support their newer drm, so they were a loophole.
 
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