What is “Download and transfer via USB” for Kindle devices? It is the easiest way to download kindle content to your computer without installing kindle App desktop application. Here we’ll discuss how to download kindle books via “Download and transfer via usb” and fix the issue “download and transfer via usb” not working. Furthermore, how to strip drm from kindle books downloaded by this way.

Note:

To use this method, you need a registered Kindle e-Ink. If you are using a Kindle app, you cannot download books by “Download and transfer via USB” (this option is grayed out).

How to download kindle books via “download and transfer via usb”

Step 1. Login to your Amazon account, go to Manage Content and devices .

Step 2. Click on the “More actions” button next to the book title.

Step 3. Click “Download and transfer via usb” in the drop-down menu.

Step 4. In the prompted window, choose the kindle device you want to transfer this kindle books to, and then click on “Download“.

The downloading process will start. Once finished, a note will pop up with “Success“.

Meanwhile, the downloaded content will show on your computer as .azw or azw3 file.

Step 5. Connect your kindle device to your computer via USB cable. Then copy your downloaded kindle contents to the “Documents” folder or “Books” folder under the Kindle drive.

Now you can read your kindle books on your kindle devices.

Solutions when “download and transfer via usb” not working

Problem 1. Downloading never starts

I have been using this function for many years but now I couldn’t download ebooks from Amazon website directly. A popup showed up “Download your Kindle content to your computer via Your Media Library”, but no books downloaded.

Workaround: This is mainly caused by the web browser settings because the web browser has changed the way they handle JavaScript downloads. These type of downloads(download and transfer via usb) are considered insecure. That’s why there are a number of reports of people not beeing able to download kindle books from Amazon website. Below are three mainstream web browser we are using and let’s learn how to set them now to enable “kindle download and transfer via usb” work smoothly.

Chrome

Go to the “Settings” >> “Privacy & Security” >> “Site Settings” >> “Pop-ups and redirects” >> select “Sites can send pop-ups and use redirects”.

Firefox

Go to the “Options” >> “Privacy & Security”. And then uncheck “Block pop-up windows”, or click “Exceptions” and add www.amazon.com into the allowing pop-up list.

Safari

Click Safari in the upper-left corner >> “Preference” >> “Websites” >> “Pop-up Windows”. Change the status of amazon.com to “Allow”.

Problem 2. Download a FSDownloadContent file, not AZW3 eBook File

When I tried to download the book via “Download and transfer via usb” as usual, instead AZW3 file I got an illegible file called “FSDownloadContent”. I’ve deleted the “FS Download Content” file from my downloads folder and tried again to download the book several times, but it always shows up as “FS Download Content” and not the proper type of file.

Workaround: There is indeed a Safari bug that results in files downloading incorrectly (usually with the name “FSDownloadContent”). Adding the extension .azw or .azw3 will usually solve the problem, after which the Mac will recognize the file properly.

And, switching browsers usually solves the problem as well. It means that you can change from Safari to Google Chrome or firefox to get this issue fixed.

Problem 3. No download option

Clicking the “Download and transfer via usb”, it brings up the bebow prompt. The options are only kindle apps, but neither of which are selectable.

Workaround: “Download and transfer via usb” is only available to owners of e-ink Kindle devices and Fire tablets. To use “Download and transfer via usb” to download kindle books, you must have a kindle hardware, like kindle paperwhite or kindle fire. The hardware will show in the drop-down menu and enable the download option.

Can I remove drm from kindle books downloaded via “download and transfer via usb”?

The downloaded books are tied specifically to that e-ink Kindle’s serial number and cannot be used with any other device unless you remove the DRM. To read kindle books on other kindle device, or even kobo, Nook devices, you can follow the following guide to remove kindle drm.

NOTE:

Please ensure your registered kindle device is kindle eReader, not the kindle fire, otherwise you cannot strip drm from kindle books.

Step 1. Download and install iSummersoft Kindle Converter–the powerful, uncomplicated and easy to use kindle drm removal and kindle ebook format converter, where a person can strip kindle drm and convert ebook format to any other formats. It is all-in-one best kindle ebook converter software for all people’s needs.

Step 2. Input kindle serial number to kindle converter.

On Kindle device, tap “setting”>>”Device info” to find the kindle serial number.

On Amazon.com, you can find your kindle serial number on Amazon website by the following way:

1, Go to the Amazon “Manage Content & Devices” page again.

2, Click the “Devices” tab in the top bar. And then scroll down to find your Kindle device. Click the device, a small window will pop up. Now click “[Your name]’s Kindle”.

3, You will find the “Serial Number” under the “Device Summary”.

Then you can copy and paste the kindle serial number to Kindle converter

On Kindle Converter, find “Set KSN” at the top left corner.

Then input the kindle serial number to the pop up window, click “ok”.

Step 3. Add kindle books to kindle converter, select the format you want to convert kindle books to, then click on “Convert to …” to convert kindle books to drm free ebook.

Now you can transfer the kindle books to any kindle device, even the Nook, kobo or remarkable. If you want to read kindle books on non-kindle devices, please remember to choose epub or pdf as the target format.

Conclusion

That’s all the knowledge about “Download and transfer via usb” kindle books. Now you may find that downloading kindle books via “Download and transfer via usb” is not a hard work. In addition, it can help you download kindle books to kindle devices easily and offers the easiest way to remove drm from kindle books by avoiding the latest kindle kfx format. What’s more, since Amazon disallowed people to download new released books 2023 via an older version Kindle PC, downloading kindle books to an e-ink reader by transferring becomes the unique effective way.

Why not try it now?