Earlier this year, some Kindle owners got a message that support for their Kindle devices would end on May 20, 2026.
This means that, as of that date, you will no longer be able to download new books to your Kindle and the software will no longer be updated.
This change only applies to Kindles from 2012 and earlier (so if your Kindle is less than 14 years old, you’re safe!). This Kindle no longer has web support, so you won’t be able to use the “Send to Kindle feature”, borrow or download any books from the Kindle or get Libby eBooks from your library to your Kindle.
(Note that, according to Amazon’s email, if you unregister or factory reset your Kindle, you won’t be able to register it again).
Additionally, if you need to know how old your Kindle is, there are instructions here.
And WHOA, are people crazy about the Kindle support changes.
Here are some of the messages I got regarding this when I asked how people felt about this:
“Heartbroken. My G1 Paperwhite works fine.”
“ANNOYANCE!! My 2012 Kindle works great!!”
“My Kindle is 15 years old and still works. I use it a lot (some years I didn’t use it as much because my reading habits changed) especially for Libby’s Kindle books. I’m pretty angry that they decided to stop supporting it. However, should I be surprised that a for-profit company wants to make more money by forcing long-term customers to spend more money with the company? No. So, I’m sad/angry but not surprised. (I’m most sad to say goodbye to my physical page-turning button!)”
Others send messages like this
“I worked in tech for a decade on apps, and what people don’t understand is that the maintenance teams required to keep old versions up to date is crazy. And as technology gets better and the app/software changes, the code that supports the old version stops working. The fact that they support the old version is pretty impressive, honestly! And you know, the Kindle back end dev team is probably happy that they don’t have to try to make it work anymore.”
“I was a little annoyed, feeling like I was being driven by $. I asked Al if the product I was currently using was affected (it wasn’t) and then asked why they stopped supporting a product that was still working fine. That was interesting and after understanding the tech side (security/technological advances/more) I agreed. One of the interesting things is that phones usually get 5-7 years of support, so 14-15 years on this is great. And new phones cost $thousand versus $150.”
So if you’re upset about it, you’re in good company.
And if you understand why they stopped support after 14 years, you’re also on the right side.
If your Kindle goes out of support, they’ll email you with a discount (I think 20% off) to get a new one – if you’re trying to decide which Kindle to get, I have a post comparing different Kindle models here. (If you can stack a 20% discount on a sale, that’s even better!).
A reader sent me this message about upgrading:
“I asked you if upgrading my Kindle was really worth it. Mine is from 2020. I was curious because it doesn’t seem like it was designed to be the fastest technology. Happy to report back that my Kindle feels faster. 12 seconds for my old Kindle to wake up vs 6 seconds for the new one. And navigation feels faster. It feels like when you finally open a new tube of mascara or a new bottle of topcoat. Just do it.”
And you have the option to jailbreak your Kindle if you want to keep using it – this post provides instructions.
If you have any other questions about the support changes for older Kindles or have questions about how to get a new Kindle, I’d be happy to help!
And if you just want to vent a little about this, my comments are open!
If you found this post about Kindle support changes helpful, you might also like these other posts:
PakarPBN
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