# Trying to figure out how to share kindle books



## rinlow

I know that two Kindles have to be registered on the same account to share books.  But I have an idea and wanted to see if it is possible and if it would be easy.  My sister in law is beginning a battle with cancer.  She is a voracious reader, and I thought that a Kindle would be perfect for her recovery after upcoming surgery and upcoming treatments.  Money will be kind of tight for her and her family, and I have so many books on my account, it would keep her reading for a while.  But because we live in different towns, I think it would be easier for her to have her own account.  Here's my idea. Could we get her one and register it on my account so I can put my books on it, and then deregister it and put it on her own account?  Would my books still remain on hers?  We are not too tech savvy.  Could a novice do this?


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## Betsy the Quilter

Yes, this can be done.  We have some members do this so that their children can have access to some books but not the whole parent's library.     

However, if you trust your sister-in-law to not buy books on Amazon without your knowledge, there is no reason to deregister.  My brother lives in Maryland and I live in Virginia and we share an account; fellow moderator "Ann in Arlington" and her brother "Richard in W Orange" share an account.  If you already have a lot of books, this would be the easiest way as otherwise you would have to download, one by one, all the books to the new Kindle (they are registered to the Kindle during the download process and cannot simply be copied from one Kindle to another after downloading.)  If you have them both on the same account she can simply download them as they interest her.

The only real reason to deregister and let her register it as her own is if she wants to start buying her own books and you don't want to deal with reimbursement.  (Although some people who share accounts buy an occasional gift card and post it to the account to fund their buying, so that's another option.)

This is a great gift and one that other members have made for family members in the same straits--you're a very thoughtful brother-in-law.

Betsy


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## Figment

I second the above...Just have the Kindles on the same account.  My account (based in Ohio, where I am located) is shared with a sister in California, best friend in Florida, niece in North Carolina, and niece in Labrador.  It works fine, and we wind up with a HUGE variety of selections.  (The age range on the account is 70 to 26, so you can imagine how varied the tastes.)

What we all do is purchase what we want, and then just purchase and apply an Amazon gift card to cover the expenditure.  (I generally try to keep a smallish balance on the account for "impulse" buys, but generally everyone is really good about following up their purchases with a gift card purchase...just sometimes waiting until after pay day.)


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## Tracey

Just reading this thread gave me an idea and I don't know if it would work or not but.....

Why couldn't you just save the books you have onto computer and then email the files to your sister in law and then she can USB them to her Kindle. 

I have saved all my books onto 2 computers (work and home) just in case and have successfully emailed files to my home email to load onto my Kindle because I would forget to go into Amazon and download when I have saved them to my account.

Is this a typical newbie mistake?  Or is this a reasonable way of sharing books?


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## Krink

Tracey said:


> Just reading this thread gave me an idea and I don't know if it would work or not but.....
> 
> Why couldn't you just save the books you have onto computer and then email the files to your sister in law and then she can USB them to her Kindle.
> 
> I have saved all my books onto 2 computers (work and home) just in case and have successfully emailed files to my home email to load onto my Kindle because I would forget to go into Amazon and download when I have saved them to my account.
> 
> Is this a typical newbie mistake? Or is this a reasonable way of sharing books?


The books you buy and send from amazon for a specific kindle are registered to that kindle buy its unique serial number thus preventing another kindle from opening that book. Tho.. the exception to this is DRM free books that are out there from other book sellers. The only thing I'm not sure of at the moment is if Amazon still encrypts the files when send to a kindle if the book is DRM free.


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## Tracey

Thanks Krink for clearing that up.  I didn't realise that happened.  And here I thought I had a good idea lol.


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## Ann in Arlington

I would also note that it seems Amazon have now said that you can not give or sell a Kindle with content intact.  This according to Bufo Calvin's "I Love My Kindle" blog.  I'd look at the terms of service very carefully.

But, basically, I second what Besty said. . . .if it's a person you trust, it is easy to share an account.  You don't even need to give the other person access to your account because they can access the library via the Kindle.  My brother sends me gift certificates periodically which I apply to my account and keep track when he buys books from his device.  He hasn't actually done that much because he's still working his way through my 400+ volume library.


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## GinnyB

Can one Kindle be registered on multiple accounts?


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## BruceS

GinnyB said:


> Can one Kindle be registered on multiple accounts?


You have to de-register the Kindle from one account, before you can register it on another one.


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## BruceS

As far as the original poster is concerned, just make you don't try to share your account with too many other friends or relatives as once.

The last I knew a given book can only be downloaded to 6 devices (other kindles, kindle for iPhone, kindle for PC, kindle for mac, etc. at one time) and some publishers make the limit smaller than 6.


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## GinnyB

BruceS said:


> You have to de-register the Kindle from one account, before you can register it on another one.


ok... there goes my brilliant idea! Thanks for the response.


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## drenee

I currently have five on my account.  Three Kindles, an iTouch and an iPhone.  I would venture to say that we have never all read the same book at the same time.  We all have different tastes, overlapping in a few areas.  
And we use the gift card scenerio as well.  My mom gives me coins to go to Coinstar, my son picks up a GC when he wants to buy something.  But mostly the others have enjoyed the almost 500 books I've put on the account.  
deb


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## GinnyB

So if I wanted to add two friends to my account, they would have to deregister their Kindles on their present account... what happens to their existing accounts? Do they stay dormant, but still available down the road? I presume there can be three credit cards on the account too, correct?


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## BruceS

You can have multiple credit cards on your account, but only one is the primary one.

I believe the primary one gets charged when you buy a book directly from the kindle.

However, as long as you don't use One Click you can buy the books from amazon.com and charge them to any credit card. Just put them in your Cart and then choose the credit card you want to use when you check out.


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## GinnyB

That's good to know. Thanks for the credit card info.


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## Steph H

BruceS said:


> However, as long as you don't use One Click you can buy the books from amazon.com and charge them to any credit card. Just put them in your Cart and then choose the credit card you want to use when you check out.


That part is incorrect; books for Kindle are automatically bought via one-click, one at a time, you don't use the 'cart' per se to add the books you are purchasing. What you would have to do is go in each time and change the credit card that is the primary card to be charged. So if your cousin Joe is on your account and he has a card on the account too and wants to buy a book, he'd have to first go into the account, change the primary card to his, buy the book, then go back in and change the card back to a different card as the primary. (Or else the next person buying something from that account would have to know/remember to change the card before buying anything via one-click, Kindle book or not; otherwise Joe's card would get charged.)

That's why it's really easier to just use the gift certificate method rather than having multiple users' credit cards on the account, to avoid not only unwanted charges against the wrong person's credit card, but also to avoid a lot of little charges on anyone's credit card.


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## MamaProfCrash

I share my account with my Mother. I told her she can buy whatever books that she wants. I figure she paid for college, I can buy her books. (grins)

There are plenty of ways to share an account, register, deregister, that type of thing. If you feel that you can trust your SIL, you can share an account with her and keep track of what she buys. Maybe those books are her birthday gift or Christmas gift or whatever holiday gift. Or she could send you a check once a month for what she spent.


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## BruceS

Sorry about that. I was sure that I used the cart in the past.


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## esper_d

she'll luv it


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## ReeseReed

Okay, so if I got a Kindle for my grandmother and set it up on my amazon account, would all the books I've downloaded automatically be transferred to her kindle and vice versa?  Or could I pick and choose which ones?


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## MamaProfCrash

You can pick the ones you want to download. Go to your Kindle account. Each book will now have a drop down menu that will let you choose where you want to read it. Choose your Grandma's account. When she turns on Whispernet, the books will download for her.


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## ReeseReed

ProfCrash said:


> You can pick the ones you want to download. Go to your Kindle account. Each book will now have a drop down menu that will let you choose where you want to read it. Choose your Grandma's account. When she turns on Whispernet, the books will download for her.


Awesome! Thank you so much for your response. Just not sure I want my sweet Granny accidentally reading some of the things I read


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## drenee

Or, once she gets the Kindle, you or she can go to the archives and pick which ones to download from there.
deb


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## MamaProfCrash

drenee is right: if Granny is on your account she is going to have access to those books. She will be able to access the archives and download what she wants. 

I was commenting on how you could books on it so that when she gets it she has a ton of reading material on it.


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## drenee

I did that for my mom, downloaded what I thought she'd like ahead of time, so that when she turned it on there 
would be books available.  Once she was comfortable with the device I was able to show her how to get books
via the archives.
deb


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## angelad

drenee said:


> I did that for my mom, downloaded what I thought she'd like ahead of time, so that when she turned it on there
> would be books available. Once she was comfortable with the device I was able to show her how to get books
> via the archives.
> deb


Yea, my folks were the same way, they saw some of my books, liked a few titles,and once they got interested in reading the books they wanted, I showed them how to get them, and off they go.


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## mtbizzle

OK... I've been searching around a while for answers about Kindle book sharing. I just want to make sure my understanding is correct. 

So, say I have a book that I want to give to some relatives. They deregister from their account. Q1) Do they lose any books that they had from this account? 
Next, they register onto my account. From here, I give them the book(s). Q2) At this point, say they deregister from my account and go back to theirs. Will the book(s) I gave them stay on their Kindle?? 

Q3) Also, from what I've read, it seems that the limit for how many kindles one book can be 'shared' with is about 5 or 6. Is this correct?

Also.... Is this all still true with the new Kindle (that came out in August(?))??

And lastly... I've read about 'whispersync,' where your location and highlighting of a book will be transfered across devices. This wouldn't happen in the scenario I'm describing, would it? Of course, if I give a book to two family members, I don't want them to have all of my highlighting and be placed where I am in the book.

Thanks so much!!


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## Ann in Arlington

De-registering does not delete books from your Kindle.  

Now, whether your scenario is allowed under the Amazon terms of service is questioned by some.  That said, some folks have two accounts in their immediate family. One is shared with their kids.  They use the second account to purchase books they want to read but would rather not let their young kids have access to just yet.  They'll do the register/de-register/re-register thing periodically to buy books from one account or the other.  

Any number of devices can be registered to an account, but a given book can only be on a certain number of devices.  The limit is usually 6 but if it's something else it'll say so on the Kindle book page.  When your relatives d/l a book from your account and then go back to their own account, that does use one license.

If sync is on. . . .the book will be able to sync to furthest page read -- some have reported that it does it whether you want it to or not.  So if two devices are registered to the same account but different folks are using them and you do NOT want to sync, you should probably turn sync off.  The toggle is all the way at the bottom of the "Manage Your Kindle" page.  This means you won't be able to sync between any of your devices.  Alternatively, if you just keep wireless off, it can't sync. 

If your relative has de-registered from your account after getting the book, it doesn't matter.  The device isn't on the same account and syncing can't happen.

Highlighting can be turned on or off on each device. . .


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## amalberti

I just got a Kindle for Christmas.  I registered on my account, bought 1 book, then deregistered.  I registered on my friend's account and still had my book. I downloaded some of her books.  then because of the sync feature I decided maybe I should return to my own account unless we are buying/trading books.  When I deregistered from my friend's account and registered on mine again, I had nothing - not even the original book I had purchased on my account.  When I registered on her's again, everything was back.  What happened?


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## Elk

amalberti said:


> What happened?


Your Kindle's way of reminding of you of right and wrong perhaps?

Leaving aside the legal/ethical/terms of service contract issues, downloaded books should remain regardless of whether the Kindle is registered or to what account.


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