Last week, I had a post about whether or not to delete Kindle titles from your Kindles after you were finished reading them (you can click here or type in http://bit.ly/J4Tga1 into your computer’s web browser to see this post again or if you missed it).
After this post, I received several questions from folks asking “how do you permanently delete a Kindle title” so that you never see it again?
There may be times when you want to delete items from your Kindle permanently – in other words, never to be seen again as if you had thrown the book out in the trash. I’m not talking about just from your Kindle, but permanently from your Amazon records so that you can’t ever download it again. Forever.
Many of you may be wondering, “why would I want to do that?”
You can probably think of other reasons, but I can think of two reasons off the top of my head:
- Your children, significant other, or someone else can also access your account with their Kindle or Kindle for PC / iPhone application, and you do not want them to know what you have been reading – maybe it’s a lusty romance, “How to Spy on Your Lover,” or any other book you may not want them to read. For example, if you’re a parent you want to be able to monitor what your children are reading.
- You downloaded a book you thought was one thing, realized later it was something else, and you never want to see it again. For example, that would be a situation I would find myself in if I downloaded one of the Harlequin romances – they are just not my thing. Additionally, Amazon utilizes what is in your list of books to market to you: I have some experience with this one, as I received some really strange recommendations for a particular genre after I bought a Kindle book that I thought was one thing but turned out to be another (enough said on that one). Once I permanently deleted the title I thought was causing this particular point of targeted marketing, those recommendations disappeared for good.
To make a long story short, if you would like to permanently delete a title from your Kindle’s account, here are the steps you need to perform:
- First, remove the title from your Kindle.
- Second, go to the “Manage Your Kindle” section of the Amazon web page at http://www.amazon.com/myk
- In this section, locate the item in the search bar just below the “Your Kindle Library” header. If you have lots of books, for example, in your library it will take some time for all of them to load.
- Once you have located the title, click the “Actions” icon located to the right of the title..
- Choose the “Delete from library” option.
- A confirmation pop-up will appear next, asking if you are sure you want to delete this title. Assuming you really want to delete it, select the “Yes” option.
A word of caution – if you delete the title, and want to read it again, you will have to buy it again!
Hope that helps-
Michael
Want to have this blog sent wirelessly to your Kindle vs. reading it on your computer? Try out the free two-week subscription! Click here for the Amazon page for Free Kindle Books Plus a Few Other Tips or type in http://www.tinyurl.com/fkblog into your computer’s web browser.
Check out my Kindle Fire guide, Kindle Fire How-To Guide: Your Guide to Tips, Tricks, Free Books, and Startup. You can check it out if you click here or type in http://amzn.to/firebook into your computer’s web browser.
Posted in: Kindle Tips
April 30th, 2012 at 10:28 am
Your first step is to remove the title from your Kindle. Is this done by archiving it?
April 30th, 2012 at 11:50 am
Couldn’t handle my Kindle without all the information/suggestions you provide. Thanks!!! I have set up categories for filing my books,i.e. “Mysteries”;
“Cookbooks”; “Christian”; “Books Read”, etc., etc. Occassionally I put a book under the wrong heading. How do I move the book title to the correct heading and delete it from the wrong heading? Thanks for your help!
April 30th, 2012 at 9:02 pm
Wondered how to do this. Thanks for the info.
May 2nd, 2012 at 2:10 pm
Hi. Thanks for previous info on deleting books. I have a question about the cover pictures on some books. Some of the books I read have pictures I don’t want my child to see, but he often uses my kindle to read or play games himself. Is there any way to have no pictures on the books and just the title, or maybe a locked library of sorts to keep my books seperate/private from curious eyes?? I truly hope you have a solution to my dilemma. Thank you for all the info you so willing share and the time you take to help so many everyday. Christina
May 2nd, 2012 at 4:18 pm
Christina-
I’m not aware of any way to block the book covers or to keep a “parents” section of material, for example, on your Kindle. Many people have asked for that over the years, but who knows if we will ever see it.
Regards,
Michael
May 3rd, 2012 at 10:46 pm
Please note at this time the Kindle Fire cannot organize books into collections, but you can with e-Ink Kindles. Before I tell you how to do it, here are a couple of assumptions:
• You are at the home page of your Kindle, and have everything sorted “By Collections.”
• You have a booked called “Green Book” in the Mystery category and want to move it to the Study Guide category (work with me here, I’m typing this at night and my overly active imagination is almost out of gas after being out of town – but my 8th grade wood shop teacher, Mr. London, would chuckle and know what I am talking about).
To transfer the Green Book from the Mystery category to the Study Guide Category, while I am sure there are other ways to do it here is how I do it:
• From the home page, open up the Mystery category.
• Locate and highlight – but do not open – the Green Book.
• Right click with the 5-way controller.
• A new menu will open with several options. The first option should be “Add to Collection
• Select the “Add to Collection” option.
• All of the Collection categories you have defined should be visible – if you have more than nine categories, this should span over to another page. You will see a check mark on the right-hand side of the Mystery category. Using your five-way controller, highlight the Mystery category.
• Click the middle of the five-way controller while it is on the Mystery category: this will un-select / remove the check mark on the Mystery category.
• Scroll up or down until you highlight the Study Guide category.
• Click the middle of the five-way controller while it is on the Study Guide category: this will select / add the check mark to the Study Guide category.
• Press the back key twice to take you to a listing of all books in the Mystery category.
May 3rd, 2012 at 10:49 pm
No. This is done by deleting it. To delete the book, here is how I do it with an e-Ink Kindle (although I am sure there are other ways):
• Highlight, but do not open, the book with your five-way controller.
• Right click the five-way controller.
• A new menu will open with several options. The last option should be “Remove from Device.”
• Select the “Remove from Device” option with your five-way controller.
May 4th, 2012 at 12:01 pm
[...] week, I had a post about permanently deleting Kindle titles (click here or type in http://bit.ly/IKgt2S into your computer’s web browser to see it again or if you missed [...]
May 6th, 2012 at 12:32 am
Thank you very much for the information. Unfortunately my brain was not blessed with enough intelligence to duplicate or even understand your process. Maybe I can show a friend what you said. I do want to say though, that I really love your app, and I have learned quite a bit. Thanks again.
Christina
May 23rd, 2012 at 11:28 pm
[...] never to be seen again – please read my blog post on how to permanently delete a title by clicking here or typing in http://bit.ly/fulldelete into your computer’s web [...]
August 3rd, 2012 at 1:19 pm
[...] forever, so please make sure that is what you really want to do. To read about how to do it, just click here or type in http://bit.ly/fulldelete into your web [...]