Amazon No Longer Supporting Kindle Devices Released in 2012 or Earlier

drillvoice on 08/04/2026 - 15:55
Last edited 08/04/2026 - 16:21 by 1 other user

I got an email from Amazon saying they are no longer supporting some old Kindle varieties.

Starting May 20, 2026 — 14 to 18 years after their initial launches — we are discontinuing support for Kindle devices released in 2012 or earlier. Here's what this means for you:

  • You can continue to read books already downloaded on these devices, but you will not be able to purchase, borrow, or download additional books on them after that date.
  • If you deregister or factory reset these devices, you will not be able to re-register or use these devices in any way.

Affected devices include Kindle 1st and 2nd Generation, Kindle DX and DX Graphite, Kindle Keyboard, Kindle 4, Kindle Touch, Kindle 5, and Kindle Paperwhite 1st Generation.

To minimize any disruption, we're offering a promotional code for 20% off select new Kindle devices as well as a $30 AUD eBook credit that will be automatically added to your account after purchasing a new device (valid through June 20th, 2026, 11:59pm AEST - Terms and Conditions apply). Our newer Kindle devices bring meaningful improvements in screen quality, performance and accessibility — and you'll have access to your complete Kindle library and the Kindle Store. You can also continue to read all your books on our free Kindle apps (Android, iOS, Mac, and PC) and Kindle for Web."

It turns out my Kindle is from 2011, possibly why I got this email. This is annoying but with 20% off I could get a new $200 kindle for $160. That said, I don't think a new Kindle is that much better than what I already have. The other option would be to keep using my Kindle and use, say, Calibre to manage ebooks on it.

I also feel like maybe a 20% discount isn't that good and for example there will be similar discounts or cashback deals in the future - so there's no rush to get onto this.

Thoughts?

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  • Shadowsfury on 08/04/2026 - 16:16
    +18

    I think they're being pretty generous giving anything at all

    • bluemyself on 08/04/2026 - 16:18
      +9

      Bezos owns a half a billion USD super yacht. I can't imagine it being that difficult or expensive to keep the service running for older devices.

      • coffeeinmyveins on 08/04/2026 - 17:33
        +5

        It's crazier than that. I can't even fathom an individual having the money to spend the lifetime earnings of hundreds of people on a single object, let alone having so much more that it was feasible to do that.

      • cfuse on 09/04/2026 - 09:36
        +5

        I had an entire career exactly because it is difficult and expensive to keep legacy systems functioning.

      • BepisCola on 09/04/2026 - 14:45

        Wow, so Jeff’s yacht is worth about double the entire company I work for

    • keejoonc on 08/04/2026 - 16:40
      +8

      Same. What do people expect for what is now 14 year old electronic device? They are being extremely generous.

      • ssfps on 10/04/2026 - 02:05
        +2

        You think it's generous when a device you bought and works fine is bricked by the manufacturer?

        • meong on 11/04/2026 - 07:46
          +2

          Is Amazon bricking these devices? I believe this is not the same as the Sonos situation

          • ssfps on 11/04/2026 - 23:42
            +2

            @meong: Not immediately bricking every device, but sounds like they're leaving the DRM in place:

            If you deregister or factory reset these devices, you will not be able to re-register or use these devices in any way.

            • meong on 12/04/2026 - 21:23

              @ssfps: yes, but i think you can still use them with calibre… whereas Sonos was going to brick the speaker which means it wouldn't even work with Bluetooth instead of just taking away the Wifi play feature…

              • Droz on 23/04/2026 - 11:39
                +2

                @meong: I know I'm a little late to whatever type of party this is, but… I think there's a bit of confusion here.

                @meong Sonos speakers don't (or at least, didn't until very recently) have Bluetooth, they had Airplay, so if the app was outmoded then the speakers could still work on the network for Airplay, but not Sonos services.

                However, this never happened, Sonos kept the old app alive, and you can use every one of their speakers ever released still to this day.

                Sonos did have some controversy in about 2020 when they were offering rebates on new speakers if you traded in your old one, but had to put it into "recycling mode" which apparently deleted all your data and stopped the speaker working again. That's definitely bricking! Despite that being an incredibly stupid move for a lot of reasons, the important part is that this was voluntary and only if you wanted the rebate for an upgraded speaker, and in no way forced.

                More recently, Bose also said they'd remove the cloud services around their Soundtouch speakers, and people also flipped out. Bose open-sourced some of the APIs for their older products, so you wouldn't have a complete doorstop if you bought their expensive wifi speakers.

                @ssfps it appears you will be able to sideload to Kindles without registering a device even after factory reset - so, not a brick.

                This isn't a defence of these companies - I think making people rely on closed cloud services for a device is a heaps shitty move. But, at least you can still use them, like @mrkorrupt 's Core 2 Duos (Zorin OS motors along pretty well on many ooooold computers!)

        • keejoonc on 10/04/2026 - 09:36

          Yes, I think people like you you are being unreasonable to expect an electronic device to be usable after 14 years.
          It's not even an expensive device, which makes it all the more ridiculous.

          • mrkorrupt on 10/04/2026 - 11:51
            -1

            @keejoonc: Why is it okay for them.to dictate to us how we use our devices. Would you accept someone coming into your house taking away your access to your ten year old mattress, couches and table because they decided not to support them anymore.

            Instead of requiring registration why not unlock the device to be standalone and able to upload books from local Internet / USB etc

            • keejoonc on 10/04/2026 - 12:19

              @mrkorrupt: LOL comparing an electrical device with furniture. Are you delusional?

              • ssfps on 10/04/2026 - 13:44
                -2

                @keejoonc: Why do you think electronic devices are special and we should have less ownership over them? Do you realize the only reason it's normalised to you is because companies can't easily revoke access to your mattress or car after x years?

                • keejoonc on 10/04/2026 - 17:53
                  -3

                  @ssfps: Duh, because technology moves so fast? Is that so hard to get around your head? Unbelievable.

                  • ssfps on 11/04/2026 - 00:25
                    -1

                    @keejoonc: What's unbelievable is your ridiculous notion that technology "moves fast" so the rules of how ownership work should be different.

                    By your logic, phillips should be allowed to come around to your house and remove any CFLs left and charge you to replace them with LEDs, because lighting technology moves fast. Or do only items with transistors count? What about old radios? Or is it only something with logic circuits. Perhaps old AM clock-radios should be bricked?

                    Your belief makes absolutely no sense yet you have this laughable confidence in it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

                    • keejoonc on 12/04/2026 - 19:20

                      @ssfps: Ok boomer, keep using your 14 year old device while the rest of the world moves on. There's no pleasing some people.

                      • mrkorrupt on 13/04/2026 - 12:11
                        +1

                        @keejoonc: I have a Pentium III 733 mhz, AMD Phenoms and Core 2 duo computers which works, should I not be able to use it as I please?

                        • keejoonc on 13/04/2026 - 12:49
                          -1

                          @mrkorrupt: LOL and who's going to provide the software that supports your machine?

                          • mrkorrupt on 13/04/2026 - 16:20

                            @keejoonc: That was not my question, I dont need any software support, This is about them taking a working kindle, and preventing you from resetting it. Which is equivalent to me reformatting my PIII HDD and installing Windows 98 but being prevented from doing so because INTEL doesn't allow. Are you okay with my rights to use the PIII being taken away just because it is 30 years old

  • Jolakot on 08/04/2026 - 16:24
    +18

    You get less support for a $2000 phone, pretty good I'd say.

    I'm surprised they'd do this, the kindle devices are loss-leaders, they make their money from ebook purchases. Getting customers to change a habit they've had for a decade is a stupid move unless it was absolutely necessary

  • freefall101 on 08/04/2026 - 16:40
    +9

    If you deregister or factory reset these devices, you will not be able to re-register or use these devices in any way

    That is really bad, completely bricking the device if it's factory reset. It could just be a simple re-registration (or help people jailbreak it so no registration) to keep it working. They already killed access to the store, why brick it?

    The timing is also suspect, it's the midpoint of this generation when sales are likely starting to drop off. They could have held off 18 months and given people a coupon on a brand new model instead.

  • Subere on 08/04/2026 - 20:25
    +6

    If they're still working then the tech is good but now they won't even let you download new books on it? Unsupported is one thing, but blocking the device from accessing your books and forcing an upgrade you dont need or want?
    And if you don't you can't buy or download new books.

    Go digital they said…

    • AustriaBargain on 08/04/2026 - 21:14
      +4

      I think they must have a good reason. Amazon makes a lot more money form ebook sales per device than they do from the device itself. Wouldn't surprise me if the basic Kindle Paperwhites were sold at cost. I bet the real reason they aren't supporting older Kindles is because older Kindles don't support modern security standards, the processors on them aren't even capable of running modern security standards, and the free 3G which was baked into them is being turned off around the world anyway. I bet if Amazon could they would keep selling ebooks on these old Kindles forever.

    • BepisCola on 09/04/2026 - 14:49

      You can simply use Calibre to put books on it anyway. I do this with my newer kindle to put library ebooks on it

  • bluemyself on 08/04/2026 - 16:19
    +5

    Thoughts?

    I hate it. Although I've recently replaced my kindle. So f amazon.

    • moo on 08/04/2026 - 16:22

      Curious, do you just hate Amazon or the whole FAANG?

      • bluemyself on 08/04/2026 - 16:30
        +1

        Huh, til FAANG. What do you mean though? I hate it because it is FAANG?

        • ssfps on 10/04/2026 - 02:04
          +2

          FAANG doesn't include Microsoft, the more correct acronym is FAGMAN, but for some reason FAANG has been stickier.

  • DingoBilly on 08/04/2026 - 16:25
    +5

    Seems reasonable.

    You can always sideload books onto them for free so if anything this promotes the whole process being cheaper.

  • GUYANDSON on 08/04/2026 - 17:22
    +5

    If you're using a kindle from 2012 or earlier the new ones are worth it on the upgraded displays alone imo. 300ppi and warm backlights (for reading in the dark) are huge improvements imo. Less important is the processing speed but that upgrade is nice too.

    Jailbreak, install koreader and manage your books any number of ways regardless of what you do though x)

    • AustriaBargain on 08/04/2026 - 20:55
      +1

      They use front lights actually, not backlights.

  • Lurk Hartog on 09/04/2026 - 10:54
    +5

    Buy a Kobo instead. Can borrow Library books for free on it using Libhy/Overdrive.

  • AustriaBargain on 08/04/2026 - 20:53
    +2

    Newer ones are waterproof, you can read it in the bath without being scared of dropping it.

  • Clear on 08/04/2026 - 21:52
    +2

    Jailbreak them and you'll be good to go. I regularly get Amazon EU returns/liquidation pallets and there's always both new and old Kindles amongst them. I'd expect it to be even more flooded after this announcement.

    The robot vacuum market is already saturated with dirt cheap Roborock/Dreame/Ecovacs on marketplace from these ;)

  • Davo1111 on 08/04/2026 - 22:38
    +2

    yeah, just jailbreak

  • lina23 on 09/04/2026 - 10:57
    +2

    When did you get this email? I've got 2 pre-2012 Kindles, and I haven't received this email.

    • snivy on 10/04/2026 - 21:00

      Same. I wonder if it's because I had bought another kindle a few years back.

  • koplik88 on 09/04/2026 - 11:57
    +2

    I wonder if you could still use this website to send your downloaded books:

    https://www.amazon.com/sendtokindle

    I use this site to get books then send them across:

    https://oceanofpdf.com/

  • chiuy on 10/04/2026 - 16:26
    +2

    we are discontinuing support for Kindle devices released in 2012 or earlier

    This is fine.

    To minimize any disruption…

    This is nonsense. Discount is nice enough… but really, they should just provide a manufacturer "jail break".

    If you deregister or factory reset these devices, you will not be able to re-register or use these devices in any way.

    This is actually malicious.

    • ssfps on 11/04/2026 - 00:28

      A very reasonable take.

  • RedPanda on 10/04/2026 - 17:13
    +2

    Fair

  • Parentheses on 09/04/2026 - 17:44
    +1

    Oh boy, I hope nobody works out that irc still exists, and that you can get epub versions of all your books on there, use an open source e-ink reader or any android device running Moon+ Reader to read them, and use Patreon or equivalent to send money to authors directly and cut out that greedy industry-killing bald little [removed] of a {removed} <removed> from the process. That would just be devastating. Bad consumers, definitely don't do that.

    • zfind on 10/04/2026 - 09:49

      No need for IRC when Anna’s Archive + LIBGEN exists.

      • Parentheses on 10/04/2026 - 10:08

        Where do you think they get their books? I don't want to wait a month after launch.

  • SpicyPeanut on 09/04/2026 - 00:05

    Has anyone looked into other Chinese eReaders like BigMe or onyx?

    • zfind on 10/04/2026 - 09:48

      xteink also looks pretty nifty.

  • SlickMick on 09/04/2026 - 08:12

    Why would they need to do this? I only use the free reader app - that's older than 2012. Am I going to get the same email?

    • GUYANDSON on 09/04/2026 - 09:04
      +3

      DRM. There's a new format that is a bit of a pain to get around, older kindles are one of the easier ways to avoid it altogether.

      • SlickMick on 09/04/2026 - 10:14

        So the app would obviously be up to date so should be fine?

        I never even considered that people would steal books.

        • GUYANDSON on 09/04/2026 - 10:33
          +2

          yeah app will be fine.

          Part of it is piracy the other part is having freedom on where you want to read - buy from the kindle store and read on a kobo for example.

        • tenpercent on 09/04/2026 - 10:27
          -1

          I never even considered that people would steal books.

  • TheRealCher on 09/04/2026 - 13:53

    the keyboard version was great because it came with unlimited free wifi, as long as you could put up with the janky browser attached to it. Helped me when travelling in the US without a US phone/sim card

  • tomsco on 09/04/2026 - 20:33

    If you don’t mind me asking, OP, does the code look generic or targeted.

    I have a pre 2012 kindle, but haven’t gotten an email. Funnily enough I’ve been considering buying a new kindle, so this would be great.

    • theMoebius on 10/04/2026 - 07:26
      +1

      My email doesn’t list a code but suggests it automatically applies at checkout, so appears targeted

      • tomsco on 10/04/2026 - 19:52

        Cheers.

  • Cheap Cheep on 10/04/2026 - 09:57

    I moved to an Android based e-ink reader years ago. Best decision ever. You can still run Kindle via the Android app and all the locally supported library apps. Plus it doubles as my notebook and diary. Kindles are way too limited.

    • pat3wagon on 10/04/2026 - 10:51

      curious to know which one you're using. have been considering a similar move to have access to books, manage, notebook and diary in one place. does yours have a pen too?

      • Cheap Cheep on 13/04/2026 - 14:19
        +1

        I'm still using the first generation Boox Note Air (2021) and it's running fine. Might upgrade in a year or two but aside from being a tiny bit slow, it doesn't affect my workflow.

        The original pen that comes with it works well, but I upgraded to a Staedtler Norris Digital Jumbo and a magnetic sheaf so the pen can stick on the device. The Norris jumbo is a bit thicker and I prefer it. I have a matt 'paper feel' protective cover on it. It makes the screen a little more grippy for the pen, so it doesn't feel like I'm writing on glass.

        For diary / planner I use the free ForevertIp planner: https://forevertip.com/products/foreverplanner-2026?variant=…. the planner itself is hyperlinked which makes it easier to navigate.

        For general notes I use Joplin (like an opensource Evernote).

        For reading I use a mix of library apps, Kindle and KO Reader.

        • pat3wagon on 17/04/2026 - 10:46

          Thanks for the detailed reply! Really cool integrations there.

  • belongsinforums on 10/04/2026 - 15:57

    Xteink e4 is $70 on AliExpress

  • sintro on 11/04/2026 - 08:36

    Does it list the specific models that won't be supported?

    • theMoebius on 12/04/2026 - 09:53

      Affected devices include Kindle 1st and 2nd Generation, Kindle DX and DX Graphite, Kindle Keyboard, Kindle 4, Kindle Touch, Kindle 5, and Kindle Paperwhite 1st Generation.

  • theMoebius on 29/04/2026 - 09:42

    Noticed last night that the 20% discount offer for affected devices isn’t quite as generous as it first appears:

    The basic Kindle is current on promo from $199 to $169, however at checkout the 20% is only applied on the $199 full price, ie taking it down a further $10 to $159.

    • eDust on 12/05/2026 - 17:02

      That feels like an unfair offer. I'm looking at the Kindle Colorsoft and it's already 25% off so i don't seem to get a promo, I get to pay the same price as everyone else.

      • theMoebius on 12/05/2026 - 18:49

        Yep, I mean I know Amazon isn’t exactly known for its ethics but it’s pretty crap on top of the enforced obsolescence move

        • eDust on 14/05/2026 - 13:52
          +1

          I contacted their support, more to vent and see if they offer me a better deal, they said to wait 2 days for a response. And now in that time they've ended their sale and bumped the price up. I just checked and yes the 20% discount is auto applied. So this will cost me more than what it was 2 days ago without the promo code. It would've been even better if I could keep using the Kindle I already own. Frustrating.

  • Morphio25 on 09/04/2026 - 20:05
    -1

    You're lucky to be getting anything at all. A quick Google search says the most expensive Kindle was $149 in 2011, so you've paid the equivalent of $10 a year for your device. Still think you're entitled to anything?

    • keejoonc on 12/04/2026 - 19:22
      +1

      These people might be the tightest scrouges in the nation LOL

  • try2bhelpful on 08/04/2026 - 16:53
    -8

    My iPad comes with a Kindle app and I download Kindle books onto it from Amazon. Maybe look into that option rather than a new Kindle.

    • FireRunner on 08/04/2026 - 17:22
      +13

      iPad’s display wouldn’t be as easy on the eye as a kindle’s e-ink display.

      • try2bhelpful on 08/04/2026 - 18:08

        There are adjustments you can make to the screen to make it more like a Kindle screen. Personally I don’t have problems using the iPad as a reader but it might depend on what you are used to. Just putting it out there.

        • mapax on 09/04/2026 - 14:07

          Have you tried it with a matte/anti-glare screen protector?
          Video and regular images don’t look as good, however IMO text and sketched technical images look much nicer.

          • try2bhelpful on 09/04/2026 - 14:12

            @mapax: Accidentally bought a matte screen protector at one point and I didn’t like it. However, I have no trouble reading with the current screen. It would probably be better if I turned down the brightness on the screen.

    • ssfps on 10/04/2026 - 02:06

      Why not recommend OP just reads paper books! Or sits at a computer and uses that to read! All three are examples of ridiculous unhelpful advice.

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