With the announcement that Amazon will be dropping support for older Kindles, they have generated a lot of animosity.
Leaving the verbal thermal runaway aside, there are options if you have an affected Kindle and would prefer not to throw it away.
The dropping of support is reported as having the following effects:
No new book purchases.
You will be able to continue to read books already downloaded. It is unclear if you can download books already purchased that are not present on the reader before May 20, 2026.
If you log out or factory-reset the device, it is bricked, you cannot log in again. This applies even if you jailbreak the device.
The above applies to Kindles from 2012 and older.
Through the process of Jailbreaking, you can turn your old Kindle into a general-purpose e-reader, among other options.
You can find jailbreaking instructions at https://kindlemodding.org. There are also other places to get this information. Read carefully, the applicable instructions will vary based on your model, and some units may not be jailbreakable, and there is always the risk of bricking the device.
Most jailbreaking instructions will include installing KOReader.
KOReader is an open-source e-book reader available for a lot of platforms. Some of the main versions are available at https://koreader.rocks
x86 Linux users can search for an AppImage.
To quote the web site: “KOReader is a document viewer for E Ink devices. Supported fileformats include EPUB, PDF, DjVu, XPS, CBT, CBZ, FB2, PDB, TXT, HTML, RTF, CHM, DOC, MOBI and ZIP files. It’s available for Kindle, Kobo, PocketBook, Android and desktop Linux.”
Non e-ink devices will work with a supported operating system.
Calibre can be used to sideload books for KOReader onto the jailbroken Kindle.
KOReader cannot read Amazon book formats, apart from MOBI.
I have not had time to test this idea yet, but you may be able to use Calibre to sideload books in MOBI, AZW or AZW3 formats if you don’t want to risk bricking your kindle trying to jailbreak it.
You can always buy a new Kindle if you like. These options are suggested for people who dislike tossing still-functional devices.
If you are planning to keep the old Kindle, consider downloading as much of your library as will fit to the device before the deadline. There are some Calibre plug-ins that may give you some interesting options.