# TWO Users ONE Kindle



## kinodeeno (Aug 30, 2011)

I have attempted to read as much as possible before posting......
Husband and Wife have TWO separate Amazon Accounts - different interests, etc.
Wish to have BOTH their books on ONE Kindle 3rd generation - for economical $$$$ purposes.
Is it possible to have BOTH without DeRegistering One User; Register 2nd User; Sync; Read then Start ALL Over Again - DeRegister, etc.
Thank you sooooo much in advance.


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## SusanCassidy (Nov 9, 2008)

A Kindle can only be registered to one account at a time.  Books that have been downloaded to a Kindle stay there, even after you deregister. 

The 3rd Kindle could be registered to whichever account you want.

It is kind of a pain to have 2 people reading from the same Kindle.  You will have to set bookmarks every time you finish reading, so that the other person can start where they want, and you can go back to where you left off.

Not sure what you meant by "have BOTH".


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## R. M. Reed (Nov 11, 2009)

I think one of you will have to settle for Kindle for a phone or computer while saving for a second Kindle.


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

As already noted, a Kindle can only be registered to one account at a time.  That is, a Kindle cannot be simultaneously be registered to two different accounts simultaneously.

I suggest either picking one account as the book account, or open a third account dedicated to book purchases. 

I am assuming that it doesn't matter if each person sees the other's books.  If it does matter, you will need to register, deregister, delete books from device, load from other account, etc.


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## sebat (Nov 16, 2008)

No, you can't have one K tied to two accounts at the same time.  You have to register and deregister for this to work.  The books will stay on the Kindle when you deregister from the one account and register to the other account.  So you'll still have just as much clutter on the Kindle and more aggravation from registering and deregistering and reregistering again.  You can also share an account and keep all the books together.  It's really simpler that way.  

Two people and one K does not work.  Expect big fights over this one, unless neither one of you read very much.  That lasted a week in my family and that was when Kindles were $399 each.


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## cork_dork_mom (Mar 24, 2011)

How about creating collections on the one kindle - one for each of you.


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## kinodeeno (Aug 30, 2011)

cork_dork_mom said:


> How about creating collections on the one kindle - one for each of you.


Great Idea - but HOW do I download AND retain BOTH spouses "collections". Thanks


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

A downloaded book displays on the home page unless moved.  You can then move it to the collection of your choice.

The collections themselves are not changed/affected by a new download.

(As an aside, a book can be displayed in more than one collection at a time.)


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## dmetzcher (Aug 28, 2011)

You can create another Amazon account and use it only for buying Kindle books. Your other accounts would still be your individual accounts. Individual wish lists can be created in your shared account for tracking books that each of you want to buy at a later date. Then, you can create collections to store each person's books, like so:


John-Fiction
John-Nonfiction
Mary-Fiction
Mary-Nonfiction

Since you're married, you can share the account without worrying about security issues.

Some issues with this approach are:


You will have another Amazon account to manage. This is a minor issue, really, but you could accidentally purchase a book using the wrong account (your individual account) if you forget to check before ordering.
Two people cannot read the same book _at the same time_ (unless you each create your own bookmarks to keep track of where you left off). This is another minor issue, especially considering that this was probably always the case with paper books, anyway.
You will have to choose an email address for logging into your new Amazon account. I suggest creating a shared email address (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc). You can forward the mail received at the shared address to either your personal address or your spouse's address, so that one of you will always see any messages sent to it. This is especially easy with Gmail and you can keep all forwarded messages in the shared inbox as well.

I'm not sure if Amazon has a problem with two accounts using the same credit card number. If you already have a joint bank account or another card that isn't being used on your individual accounts, this isn't a concern. If not, that's something to check on. You can probably call them and just ask them over the phone.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

kinodeeno said:


> I have attempted to read as much as possible before posting......
> Husband and Wife have TWO separate Amazon Accounts - different interests, etc.
> Wish to have BOTH their books on ONE Kindle 3rd generation - for economical $$$$ purposes.
> Is it possible to have BOTH without DeRegistering One User; Register 2nd User; Sync; Read then Start ALL Over Again - DeRegister, etc.
> Thank you sooooo much in advance.


Do you already have Kindle books purchased on both accounts? Or are you starting from scratch? If you're starting from scratch, you might want to start a third "joint" Amazon account that's just for Kindle books. That way you can both buy books, you can have your own collections, etc. Even if you've already started buying books on your separate accounts, you could register to one's account, load all the books, register to the other account, load those books, THEN from here on out register to that joint account. Too confusing to keep registering/deregistering all the time. But I'd do that as a one-time thing & read the books from the separate accounts first.

Or buy a couple of refurbed K3s for $99 - that way you can both read whenever you want.


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## Kristine Cayne (Aug 16, 2011)

Sorry, I can't help. I actually have the reverse problem. My son and I are both on the same account. Needless to say, I'm not thrilled that he can see (and read!) my books. I've thought of opening a separate Amazon account for him despite the negatives like giving him one-click access to MY credit card since Amazon doesn't allow one-click access with a Kindle Gift card. But the biggest drawback is that there is no way that I've found to now divide the books up between our accounts (i.e. let him take his YA books while I keep my books). For me, this is definitely the downside of digital books...

~Kristine


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## sebat (Nov 16, 2008)

Kristine Cayne said:


> Amazon doesn't allow one-click access with a Kindle Gift card.
> ~Kristine


Yes, they do. I never use a credit card on any book purchases because I hate tracking all those little purchases. I buy a gift card, apply it to my account and use that.


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## Linjeakel (Mar 17, 2010)

Sebat is correct. I make all my Kindle book purchases using a gift card - it's easy because if you have a gift card applied to your account, Amazon automatically uses that first for any 1-click purchases, which of course all Kindle books are.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

For the married couple:  setting up a third account you can share -- or share one of the existing ones -- can work.  You can still each buy your own books since you can buy them on your regular account and 'gift' them to yourselves at the account you're sharing.  But it sort of sounds like you don't want so much to share books as you need to share the device and you read very different types of books, so separate accounts may be the better option.

Also, as hinted by Kristine, you need to think carefully about whether you would ever want to STOP sharing an account. . . .because it's not really possible to shift books from one account to another.  My brother and I share an account and we're cool with that, but I never even thought about letting my son share.  He's 28 and doesn't need to know some of the things his mother reads. (My brother and I have a 'no judgments' agreement.  )

Honestly, I think your BEST solution is to start NOW to save and just buy another Kindle. . . .then you each have your own device on your own account and the problem is solved.


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## Kristine Cayne (Aug 16, 2011)

Linjeakel said:


> Sebat is correct. I make all my Kindle book purchases using a gift card - it's easy because if you have a gift card applied to your account, Amazon automatically uses that first for any 1-click purchases, which of course all Kindle books are.


I did try that and it didn't work. Did you still have to attach a credit card to it? I was hoping to just keep feeding gift cards to that account.


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## SusanCassidy (Nov 9, 2008)

Preorders cannot be ordered without a credit card.  Maybe that's what you ran into.  Many people only use gift cards applied to their account for Kindle books, so there must be some reason you had a problem.  Did you call Kindle Support and ask?


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## Kristine Cayne (Aug 16, 2011)

SusanCassidy said:


> Preorders cannot be ordered without a credit card. Maybe that's what you ran into. Many people only use gift cards applied to their account for Kindle books, so there must be some reason you had a problem. Did you call Kindle Support and ask?


That will be my next step now that I know it can be done. Thank you all!


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Susan's right about the pre-orders.  But my understanding is that, while you need to enter a CC when you set up the account, once you fund it with gift certificates, you can remove the CC.  Then if there's no GC balance on the account, or not enough, it just doesn't let you buy the book.  

But with pre-orders, while you might have a balance now, they have know way of knowing if you'll have a balance if it's actually released -- so they won't even let you reserve it unless they know you have a payment method on file.  

I use gift cards nearly exclusively to buy Kindle books -- it saves me from having a bunch of small charges on my CC, but I admit that I do still have a CC on the account.


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