Please can someone help me sharing books on Kindles?

[KindleSchmindle]

Firstly, if you can help please could you explain very simply as my brain doesn’t work that well atm? thank you.

I use the Kindle app on my iPad and DD has just been given a Kindle for her birthday. When I googled previously it said books could be shared under family sharing, like Prime video etc. Brilliant. I have a lot of books she’d like to share which is why we bought her the kindle.

However, how in the name of God do you actually DO this? I’ve gone to family sharing etc, she already has a profile there but obviously her new kindle has a brand new kindle email address and we cannot work out how to add that. she’s also set as a child with a cute profile pic (she’s 25 ) but it didn’t ask her for kindle email. So that’s not helped!

We are both at a loss. Please can anyone help? We would be very grateful! Thank you in advance.

If this is her first kindle (?) how does she already have a family sharing profile?

It's been a while since I set mine up but here's a help page which should get you going: https://www.aboutamazon.co.uk/news/devices/share-amazon-kindle-books

You can share content in two ways;

set up as a device on your account ie she is “you” for all intents and purposes just as if you were reading from an iPad one day and a kindle the next.

set up an Amazon family and push content book by book to your DD. This may be harder if she is registered with them as over 18
ETA from PP link it seems you can have one other adult, yay!

If you press and hold on the title/ cover of the book you want to share (on your kindle) and then click manage household sharing and then select who you want to share with it will send it to them

See this is the problem I think! She’s been on the family Amazon for ages so needs updating as her kindle isn’t on there, and I can’t work out how to do it. I’ve tried to add her as an adult but DH is already there as an adult and if I remove him it says I cannot add a new adult for 365 days.

I’ve tried the long press and it says “12 books shared” but they’re not in her kindle library, and how would Amazon know how to add them if it doesn’t have her kindle email address?

I think you can only have two adults in one Amazon family, so if you’ve already added DH you can’t also share with your DD. You’d need to remove DH, wait the waiting period then add DD. I presume that the 12 shared are theoretically shared with your DH, so he could see them on his kindle app if he wanted.

Amazon obviously don’t want every ebook being shared too widely because it would eat into their sales

But she never had a kindle as a kid?

ETA both my kids are still in my kindle family even though one has turned 18, wonder if it will boot one out when the other turns 18?

If she’s an adult so it won’t let you add her, I would just log into the kindle using my own account details so she can see the books that way. Presuming there’s nothing you want to hide, obvs. I’m sure there are reasons not to but if you trust her and for the moment are happy to share details, it would work.

Its easy enough to deregister a kindle and then start again.

Can she identity as 15, possibly with a different name?

Or do they know how many DC you have and ask for ID?

Or can you register her Kindle as your 'spare' one?

I have 3 Kindles registered on my account, my real one, my scribe and DPs. I don't remember setting up a family account and I can send books to any of them.

Yes, I would do what @Sleepysnoozytime says

Thanks for all replies btw!

Shes never had a kindle until now as she preferred paper/hardback books. (Until she’s realised when she moves all her books are going with her!)

we can’t really share a log in which would on paper (!) be the easiest option as I use whispersync so I can pick up where I’m reading whether on kindle app on phone or iPad etc, this is important to me. She also doesn’t want a massive library to start with I do use folders but still…

The whole thing is annoying me especially as I struggle with the reading instructions, retaining them long enough to open the kindle app and get to relevant page etc than carrying out the retained instruction IYSWIM. Hmmm.

we can’t really share a log in which would on paper (!) be the easiest option as I use whispersync so I can pick up where I’m reading whether on kindle app on phone or iPad etc, this is important to me. She also doesn’t want a massive library to start with I do use folders but still…

Do you reread? Could you make a folder of “DD books” that you have read already so you aren’t trying to read the same book at the same time?

She can set her kindle filters so she only sees downloaded books and not your massive library

Otherwise - would it work for her to be DH instead of being you? If her tastes and his don’t overlap, then he wouldn’t have the whispersync problem as they’d never be reading the same book.

The DH thing occurred to me but I know she’d like to be independent whilst sharing what she can. It’s also making less sense to me as Amazon say one adult and four children but I have more than 4 DC on the family household!

I think she’ll just have to be totally independent but it’s annoying as there are books of mine she’s like to share/borrow and that was a big reason for buying it.

Right they say you can lend/loan for two weeks but they are TALKING BOLLOCKS. I will withdraw that if anyone can find out how it actually fucking works

WikiNow says kindle lending is no longer available (and I think it might have been quite limited anyway)

What are you currently using the family household for - watching prime tv with different DC profiles?

ETA cos the four limitation might just be for book sharing

I suspected as much @SheilaFentiman!

So how on earth do people add books to their DC libraries if they read kindle books? This is scrambling my brain even more.

Get calibre, put all your books in there and then transfer them that way?

I share with the kids from the “manage your content and devices” but they are in my family library

I recently managed to do this, I’m still not sure how - I had to get ChatGPT to give me step by step instructions to link the kindles as I couldn’t figure it out! I recommend doing that!!

The book sharing is really easy when it’s set up. You just click on the book in your library and there’s a share option.

@Submarinarawhat is calibre please?

thanks to all, DD is away this weekend so will try again next week. It’s very frustrating as I have cognitive issues that affect very short term memory and processing speed, so reading an instruction about something I’m unfamiliar with, then trying to carry out that instruction, is really really hard! DD has endless patience but I think I’ll just give her my iPad and let her sort it herself, she’d probably prefer that too Hopefully we can sort it. I think we may have to “register” her kindle under DH as second adult, which seems more sensible than deleting him and waiting a year to add him!

We have Prime which is also shared across 2 Amazon accounts, not sure if this helps. I have my kindle, mum’s and DCs’ all on the account I use for kindle. I always push the kindle content from the amazon website via devices/content to the kindle devices.

Calibre is a program for laptop or Mac. It will convert book formats and it lets you keep a copy of a kindle book you’ve bought in your,own library (because despite you paying for the book Amazon only rent it to you and can remove it at any time).

I mostly use it for library books - I can put the library books on to my kindle and read them that way.

what you would have to do is attach the kindle to the computer and put the books in the library and then your dd could attach her kindle (I can’t think of the word thank you meno brain - with the wire) and drag and drop the books to her kindle.

Amazon obviously don’t want every ebook being shared too widely because it would eat into their sales

Not just Amazon sales - what about the author who wrote the book?

I mean in the calibre library. Sorry.