Does the current version require Kindle for PC, meaning macOS users can no longer use this plugin with Calibre?

[Tamarissa]

I may be misunderstanding the recent discussions, so I want to confirm the current requirements.

This plugin previously worked with Calibre on its own. Based on recent threads, am I correct in understanding that it now requires Kindle for PC in order to work, and will no longer function with Calibre alone?

If that is the case, does this mean macOS users who manage Kindle books through Calibre no longer have a supported workflow?

[ElleKayEm]

It hasn't been possible to decrypt Kindle for Mac books for quite a while now. Satsuoni's tool works specifically with Kindle for PC 2.8.0. I believe some Mac users have been able to do this in a virtual machine.

Another alternative is an E-ink Kindle on firmware lower than 5.18.5. You don't need to update to DeDRM 10.0.15 for this, but it won't hurt if you do.

[Tamarissa]

I was hoping this was maybe the updated solution for macOS; I haven't looked into this for a while.

I have a vague memory of only being able to use up to a Kindle Paperwhite 5th Generation, but that version number takes it up to a Kindle Paperwhite 10th Generation according to their software update page. Those are good now?

Alternatively... if I could find someone with a PC to get those keys for me, would it work if I entered them to Calibre, or does it have to have K4PC installed to work?

[Tamarissa]

That was pretty much my thinking too. A 10th gen will hopefully last longer than a 5th gen, so it feels like the safer choice long term. Good to know about the possible update issues though. Maybe I’ll end up getting one of each just for insurance.

I rarely have images in my books beyond the occasional world-building map, so black and white is perfectly fine for me. I can of course also update covers in Calibre, so that part isn’t a concern either.

KFX didn’t really bother me until the big lockdown changes that happened (I believe) around this time last year. I try to avoid buying through Kindle when I can, but a few authors I love only release there, so sometimes there isn’t much choice if I want the newest book. C'est la vie!

Thanks again for the help and for sharing your experience and tips.

[Satsuoni]

Alternatively... if I could find someone with a PC to get those keys for me, would it work if I entered them to Calibre, or does it have to have K4PC installed to work?

It would in theory work? But you would need to be logged in as yourself on the PC, download the books, get the keys then copy the books and the keyfile to your mac, at which point, why not install Calibre on PC and dedrm/convert there?

[ElleKayEm]

It would in theory work? But you would need to be logged in as yourself on the PC, download the books, get the keys then copy the books and the keyfile to your mac, at which point, why not install Calibre on PC and dedrm/convert there?

That was my thinking as well. Just move the single file books once they have drm removed. Instead of needing to move key files and multi-file books before decryption.

[Tamarissa]

If I owned a PC, I would absolutely do that for sure; that would be way easier... but I don't.
Once I hunt someone down that owns one and will let me try it, I'll let you know if it works :)

[ElleKayEm]

I'm pretty sure I've seen someone mention using a Windows virtual machine on a Mac for this. But I don't have any experience with that myself.

[Satsuoni]

A quick clarification, for no reason but just to vent. The main different that prevents me from releasing a Mac version is the fact that in Windows, to access settings containing DSN and account secret(s), one needs to run app as the same user as K4PC, which is easily done. In order to get the same settings on Mac, one needs to run as the same company, which is to say, match Amazon or Apple signature or disable signature validation and sign executable with wildcard permissions. Doable, maybe (I never had mac where I could try), but not something I can recommend doing without knowing consequences. Note that I am also not aware of any way to dump memory of Mac process without disabling said protections. One annoying part is that as a user, one can delete said settings in keychain, but there is seemingly no way to look at them. And without those secrets, one has the same problem as with newer Kindle firmware.

[ElleKayEm]

Appreciate the info anyway.

[Tamarissa]

Hey again; I am trying to do this on a friend's PC, but the key file won't work. I saw somewhere else that the message (not recognized as an internal or external command, etc) means it's not in that location, but it is. I literally right-clicked and and selected copy address as text.

What am I missing here?

[Tamarissa]

I did that, these are the results:



As far as I can tell, it works.

Then I added the keyfile to Calibre,

but the DRM was still not removed.

Where do I go from here?

[ElleKayEm]

Let's see a debug log of adding the books to calibre.

[Tamarissa]

here it is...

calibre-debug-log.txt

Thanks :)

[Satsuoni]

You seem to be importing books from a device rather than k4pc? There is no guarantee that they have the same vouchers. Or the same key, really, since devices often get a different format from PC. You should try importing from the folder in your image above rather than device.

If you don't want to import from PC, and if you want to experiment, you can try adding the lines you see in the output of KeyExtractor (the amzn1.drm-key lines) into keyfile. If the key is the same, it would then decrypt, but there is no guarantee.

Another thing you can do is to use KFXArchiver from 10.0.17 release and get decrypted books (from PC) directly. (It will generate kfx-zip files)

[ElleKayEm]

If those books are from an E-ink Kindle on firmware lower than 5.18.5, then all you need is the serial number in DeDRM's customization. No need for the key extractor. Could also be done on a Mac.

[mallomar]

@Satsuoni @ElleKayEm Just a follow up on this, I installed Kindle for PC in a new Windows 11 VM, download a new book, installed Python off of its website, ran the script and it seemed to work. I installed the newest plugin (10.0.18) in my Calibre on my Mac and go to select the key file, which I assume is kindlekey.txt under the Keys folder. However, after clicking open nothing populates the box in Calibre.

Am I selecting something incorrectly? I would think decrypting the file should work in Calibre on Mac as long as I have the keyfile generated in Windows, right? I'd greatly prefer not to have to install Calibre and set up plugins in the virtual machine again, but if I have no choice I will.

[Satsuoni]

Not sure about this, since I never ran it on Mac. The field is standard QT textfield, so it should populate the same from file picker if you doubleclick? But if it does not, I am not sure how to fix it, since I am not too familiar with QT framework. If it does not work, you might have to modify dedrm.json settings manually.

[mallomar]

Hey @Satsuoni, I installed Calibre 9.6.0 on the Windows 11 VM in Parallels along with the latest version of the plugin (10.0.19) and the latest KFX Input plugin (2.3.0) and the box still does not populate after selecting the file. So, I went back to my Mac and edited the JSON to manually point to the same kindlekey.txt in the same folder (Downloads) on my Mac, saved, reopened Calibre and it now works (on my Mac). It seems like there's a bug then in the file picker in either the latest versions of the plugin or of Calibre.

[Satsuoni]

Hmm, I would need to install latest Calibre to take a look, and I don't particularly like the look of Calibre 9... Maybe at some point. Just in case, your keyfile does not have empty line in the beginning? If it it empty or has empty line, it would not set.