# "Protected with DRM"



## jkingrph (Jun 10, 2012)

All of. A sudden if I purchase a book  and download to my Fire 8"HD, when I try to open it I get the message "The item is protected with DRM and cannot be read on your Fire.  Please remove the item from your device and download it again or purchase a copy from the Kindle Store."

Any ideas why this is happening and what do I do to correct the problem?


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## BEAUTeBOOK (Oct 8, 2013)

Maybe you have an old or a different device registered in your Amazon account, and you are downloading the file to your pc and then manually moving it to the Fire device.
If so, register your second device and try again.
If that doesn't work, there is an open source (free) software called Calibre, that I think can take out the DRM from the book.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

jkingrph said:


> All of. A sudden if I purchase a book and download to my Fire 8"HD, when I try to open it I get the message "The item is protected with DRM and cannot be read on your Fire. Please remove the item from your device and download it again or purchase a copy from the Kindle Store."
> 
> Any ideas why this is happening and what do I do to correct the problem?


Did you purchase it from Amazon? If so, then definitely contact them. It could just be a glitch.

Did you download directly, or download to your computer and then transfer to your device? Keep in mind that many, probably most, books on Amazon have DRM. That means that if you download to computer to transfer via USB, the copy you get comes coded for whatever device you intended to put it on. If you then try to put it on a different device, it won't work. You have to download again for that other device.

If you download it and then try to 'send to kindle' -- maybe because you want to have a backup copy on your system -- I think that won't work either because 'send to kindle' is designed for _personal documents_. So files that have no DRM of any sort from wherever. Even though it might be Amazon's DRM, it's going to detect it. Amazon is simply doing what is required to inhibit the spread of non-legitimate book files -- so if it's got DRM, the assumption is it might not be a 'legal' copy, and the software won't send it.

If you got it from another Vendor, even if a compatible file type, it may also have DRM which may be stopping it from working on the Kindle. If, for example, you got the copy marked 'mobi' it might not work if there's also an option to get a copy marked 'kindle'.

I guess the first thing I'd try is restarting the device -- sometimes that clears out stray bits that cause glitches -- but then, if it's still happening with Amazon purchases where it didn't used to, contact Amazon.

Oh, and, for the record . . . . though I recognize that this isn't your question . . . . we don't allow discussions of how to disable DRM nor links to such tools.


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## jkingrph (Jun 10, 2012)

Having several devices, I have been  sending all new purchases to the Amazon cloud reader, then loading to my device.  Yes the books in question are purchased from Amazon.    I went ahead and tried a reset to factory defaults last night and will see if that helps any.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

jkingrph said:


> Having several devices, I have been sending all new purchases to the Amazon cloud reader, then loading to my device. Yes the books in question are purchased from Amazon.


Yeah . . . see . . . I don't think that's going to work. The 'cloud reader' is like a device, and a book with DRM that you send there is coded to be read there. It can't just then be moved to some other device. Maybe it's just never been a problem before because you've been only buying books without DRM -- a lot of independent and small publishers elect NOT to include it.



> I went ahead and tried a reset to factory defaults last night and will see if that helps any.


I would have said try a restart first because the reset to factory removes everything already on the device -- including games, wifi settings, etc. And may require the device be re-registered to your account.

For me, best practice when I buy a book from Amazon, is to send it to the device I intend to read it on. If I then decide I want it on another device as well -- say, because it's something I think my brother will like (he shares my account) -- I then go to MYC&D -- and have it sent to the relevant device. I don't bother with backups on my personal system because I am not afraid that Amazon is going to go belly up any time soon. I'm confident I'll have access to my books for years. If that changes, I expect to have time to download anything I really want to keep before things go 'poof'.

Some people like to download to their own computers and they like to remove the DRM. They feel like that makes the book more 'their own' and can then be used on ANY eReader. They feel protected in case something catastrophic happens to Amazon/their account. I completely understand that, even if I don't feel like doing that much work. I'm really really lazy and Amazon is my enabler-in-chief.


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