Help me help my kindle

June 15, 2024 5:11 PM

I need to delete about 2000 expired libby loans from my new kindle.

The bad news may be that I have to bulk delete them? I can only do 9 at a time though and I have over 2,000! Does anyone know of a way I can do it in a sweeping gesture, keeping current loans and all purchases, and deleting the rest in a way where doing it to 2,000 won't be as onerous as I fear it will be?

posted by bookworm4125 to Technology (10 answers total)

Are you trying to delete them through your Kindle or through your Amazon account?

"To delete expired library books from your Kindle/Kindle app, use the following steps:

Delete the library book from Amazon's Manage my content and devices, available from your Amazon account page. Use the actions button actions buttonand choose Delete from the menu that pops up. When your device syncs, the library book should be removed."
posted by Silvery Fish at 5:16 PM on June 15

Response by poster: Silvery fish thanks and I know most of that but my issue is I have like 2,000!
posted by bookworm4125 at 5:24 PM on June 15 [1 favorite]

If you logged out of the library account and then logged back in does that do it?
posted by slightlybewildered at 5:45 PM on June 15 [1 favorite]

My apologies if I told you something you already know. :) I've never faced 2,000 books, tho I've faced thousands of photos on my phone that I need to review with an eye to delete to address storage limits. I usually go with a beloved old movie on the TV, a glass of wine, and just commit an evening to the tedium.

I hope for your sake there's a more elegant solution!
posted by Silvery Fish at 5:49 PM on June 15 [2 favorites]

Just echoing the question above - if you log into your library account won’t Libby delete them all?
posted by warriorqueen at 5:53 PM on June 15

I think Silvery Fish is saying you should be able delete more than 9 at a time if you try to do it in a computer browser and not on your device. I can go into my Amazon account, go to Devices, pick one, and then View Device Content. Now I can see 25 books at a time and there is a check box to select them all. I can change the view to only show loans, so you could at least find them that way.
posted by soelo at 7:17 PM on June 15 [7 favorites]

What kind of Kindle are we talking about? If it's an e-ink reader, try connecting it to your computer with a usb cable. It should show up like any usb drive, and you should be able to open it and access all the files there like with any folder.

Note: I don't use Libby so I don't know if it's okay to just delete the files or if you have to do it in some particular way so the Libby registers the deletion. But if it's okay to just delete, then the usb way should let you just do it all in one stroke.
posted by trig at 10:11 PM on June 15 [1 favorite]

Connecting with a USB drive should work. I'd open the folder with the documents, select all, and then remove anything that I didn't want to delete.

Alternatively, Calibre might make the operation a bit more user-friendly. If you connect your Kindle to your computer with a USB cable it will also show you what's on it and allow you to delete things.
posted by synecdoche at 4:01 AM on June 16 [3 favorites]

The Digital Content (formerly Manage my Devices, I think) browser page on Amazon.com can be filtered to "Borrows" (which includes Kindle Unlimited and Libby) and it lets you delete 25 at a time with two clicks (Select All and Delete or Remove From Library) - still not great but faster than 9 at a time!
posted by mskyle at 6:06 AM on June 16 [6 favorites]

I have 1731 and thought there was no hope! mskyle's method is working well for me to clear old borrows from my account (hello, 2014 library books).

If you're trying for the actual Kindle (not your Amazon account), my solution was to totally wipe it and then redownload active loans and my owned books. This was annoying and I lost my collections, but it was still preferable.
posted by quadrilaterals at 6:20 AM on June 17