Exactly how to remove DRM

Preparing

DeDRM works on books for:

• E-ink Kindles,
• older versions of Kindle for PC or Mac,
• NetGalley in Adobe Digital Editions (ADE).

It does not work on books from:

• Kindle Fire,
• Kindle for Android or iOS.

1a: Books from Kindle for PC or Mac

TODO: The instructions here should possible be merged with those from this forum post: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=283371

1. You must use Kindle v1.26 or earlier:

   Version 1.26 Exe Archive: https://keybase.pub/koumaza/Archive/kindle-for-pc-1-26-55076.exe

2. However, with Kindle Unlimited, you must use v1.24 or earlier.

   (The 1.24 download link is dead. You can use 1.17 instead.)
   Version 1.17 Exe Archive: https://keybase.pub/koumaza/Archive/kindle-for-pc-1-17-44183.exe

3. Install, launch, and register this Kindle installation with your Amazon account credentials.

4. Go into Kindle's settings, and disable the auto-update. Otherwise, when you exit the program, it will update to the latest version, which does not work with DeDRM.

1b: Books from Adobe Digital Editions (ADE)

Authorize ADE with an Adobe ID.

2: Install Calibre

On Windows or Mac, install Calibre and the DeDRM plugin on the same machine (and user) as the book source (Kindle, or Adobe Digital Editions (ADE)), so that DeDRM can automatically retrieve the decryption key. (Alternatively, you can install Calibre/DeDRM elsewhere, for example on Linux, and copy the Kindle key to DeDRM manually, see below.)

• Calibre 4.x works with the current releases of DeDRM (up to 6.8.0)
• Calibre 5.x does not work with DeDRM, until DeDRM 7.0.0 is released in the future.

i.e. You must install Calibre v4.x to use DeDRM.

https://calibre-ebook.com/download

3: Install DeDRM Plugin

1. Download Latest Release From: apprenticeharper / DeDRM_tools / releases

   (E.g. DeDRM_tools_{version}.zip)

2. Extract the above zip to find DeDRM_Plugin.zip

3. Install

   1. Open Calibre

   2. Preferences > Plugins > Load plugin from file

   3. Select DeDRM_Plugin.zip (not DeDRM_tools_{version}.zip)

      If this produces an long error message:

      • Check you are using the correct versions, re-read "Install Calibre" above.
      • Check you are selecting the correct zipfile, re-read this section.

4. Configure (Linux only)

If you installed Calibre on Linux, or on a different machine/user than your Kindle for PC/Mac for other reasons, then get your Kindle for PC key, by running the kindlekey.py script. Add this key to the DeDRM plugin configuration (TODO, detail or link to exactly how to do this. Also, what to do for ADE?)

Remove DRM

1a. For Kindle

Launch Kindle for PC/Mac & login.
Download the book from which you want to remove DRM. (Use Right-Click)
It will be downloaded to C:\Users\username\Documents\My Kindle Content\***\***.azw

1b: For Adobe Digital Editions (ADE)

Open the ACSM file downloaded from NetGalley in ADE, to get the Adobe DRM PDF/EPUB.

2. Import the book into Calibre

Use any of the UI methods to import the book: Drag-and-drop, the import wizard, etc.
Important: DRM is removed when importing books to Calibre, not when converting to other formats.

3. This is the end of the process. Good job on your hard work & enjoy your book.

With reference to

1. From @ElleKayEm https://github.com/apprenticeharper/DeDRM_tools/issues/1328#issuecomment-712930550