Kindle Sideloading Explained in 2024: Changes Happened

While Amazon’s Kindles are some of the best e-book readers you can buy, they aren’t as good as you’d expect out of the box. For example, keeping your non-Amazon e-readers organized is a real chore using Amazon’s official tools. That’s why many Kindle users turn to third-party solutions like the incredibly popular Caliber software. However, to use Caliber to its full potential, you’ll likely have to connect your Kindle to your computer using a USB cable to transfer content, a process known as sideloading.

That’s why Kindle fans were up in arms when a rumor spread that the new 2024 Kindle lineup would no longer support USB connections to PCs. This will prevent users from downloading content to any of the four new Kindles. Unfortunately this Good reader this post started this rumor. We dug deeper and found out why this false rumor spread. Thanks to a statement from Amazon itself, we can explain what’s really going on.

First, here is the official statement from the company. After you read this, we will explain it in more detail:

Customers can connect their new Kindle devices to their computer to transfer files. On Windows it will show up as a Kindle in File Explorer. On Mac, customers with new 2024 devices will need to install additional software (such as Android File Transfer or OpenMTP). Customers can still transfer books and documents from their computer via USB or use the Send to Kindle service. They will no longer be able to use My Content & Devices to download and transfer books to new 2024 devices via USB. Content available in My Content & Devices appears on your device in its Kindle library.

The crux of this false rumor seems to center on two things: Amazon ending support for USB My Content & Devices transfer and simultaneously switching to using the MTP protocol. The combination of these two events has likely led some to believe that USB support won’t work at all on the 2024 Kindle. However, this is not true.

Let’s start with the changes in the “My Content and Devices” section. You can access this through Amazon.com by logging in and going to Account > Content Library > Books. Here you will find a list of books you have purchased on Amazon. If you have a Kindle released before 2024, you should see an option in the drop-down menu next to the book that says Download and transfer via USB. As you’d expect, this downloads the book and you can then transfer it to your Kindle by connecting it to your computer using a USB cable. However, if you have a 2024 Kindle registered on your account, this process will not be available. Instead, you will need to connect your Kindle to the Internet wirelessly. This will automatically transfer all the content you see here to your Kindle—no USB cable required.

The second change for the 2024 Kindles is MTP support. I won’t go into the details of the protocol here, but on Windows, MTP devices appear in File Explorer as separate devices with a unique smartphone-like icon. This means that your 2024 Kindle will appear as a Kindle and not as a regular USB device. This is the only change for Windows users – you can still drag and drop files onto your USB-connected 2024 Kindle using File Explorer. The only difference is how the Kindle looks on Windows.

Mac users, on the other hand, face a new hurdle. They need to download MTP software because macOS does not have MTP drivers pre-installed. Amazon mentions two free options for this: Android File Transfer and OpenMTP. Both options are free and take up very little space on your Mac. Once installed, any of these programs will make it easy to transfer content to and from the 2024 Kindle by connecting it with a USB cable.

Apart from these two changes, the 2024 Kindle’s USB connections are no different from previous ones. Also note that these changes only apply to the 2024 Kindle. If your Kindle was released before 2024, nothing will change for you.

The bottom line is that sideloading still works on all Kindles, and Caliber support hasn’t changed at all for the 2024 lineup. To get one of these new Kindles, click one of the buttons below.