Overview
- Amazon told owners that Kindles and early Fire tablets released in 2012 or earlier will lose the ability to connect to the Kindle Store starting May 20, 2026.
- Affected models include early Kindle e-readers such as the Keyboard, Touch, Kindle 4 and 5, the first Paperwhite, and Fire tablets like the 1st and 2nd Gen and the HD 7 and HD 8.9.
- Users will still read books already on the device, but they will not buy, borrow, or download new titles, and library apps like Libby and OverDrive will no longer work on these devices.
- Amazon warns that deregistering or doing a factory reset on these older Kindles will prevent re-registration, which effectively makes the device unusable beyond local files.
- Amazon is offering 20% off select new Kindles plus a $20 e-book credit through June 20, with trade-in and recycling options available, while experts estimate about two million devices are affected and warn of large e-waste from what they call software-driven obsolescence.